Jodha-Akbar

This overly-hyped-heavy-budget movie finally released yesterday and I got a chance to watch it today itself. Well, I definitely did not love it but didnt hate it either... it is somewhere in between that i cant decide!. The movie is about 3hrs 45mins including interval and that was quite a lot to take!! I wonder what makes Ashutosh Gowarikar to direct such lengthy movies, even though this script didnt need so much detail. The movie is a 16th century love story, about the marriage of Mughal emperor Akbar (Hrithik) with the Rajput princess Jodha (Aishwarya). There's obviously a lot of history to tell but if the director was focussing on the untold lovestory of Akbar-Jodha then I think he should have concentrated more on that rather than mix it with lengthy historic details (which were also not very complete and hard to follow) and not do justice to both parts...

That apart, there are some really good parts in the movie which you will remember even after walking out. The cinematography is brilliant and the costumes by Neetal Lulla and jewellery by Tanishq are awesome and add to the 16th century look and feel of the movie. Hrithik's acting is commendable. After Lakshya, I think he has done some really classy acting in this movie. I felt he didnt suit the role of Akbar and that weird moustache on his face made it look worse.. Nevertheless, he portrayed the character with its nuances really well. Ash - as usual looks gorgeous but lacks acting... Ila Arun is also worth a mention - she is very powerful in her dialogue delivery.....

Most of the dialogues in the movie had urdu diction.. so i found it pretty hard to understand and follow the chronology of events and characters involved.. There are too many details shown in the movie.. so i think only if u watch it the second time u can grasp it completely :)

Coming to the best part of the movie - its music! Rehman has proved again that he is one of the best... u just have to listen to the songs to fall in love with them.. Especially the sufi song - "Khwaja mere khwaja...." is one of the best I've heard so far... Rehman himself is the singer and am sure no one could have done it better.. The picturisation of the song is out of this world...by the end of the song even I felt like getting up and swaying to that music along with the singers, just like Akbar does :) If you haven't heard this yet, then u are missing something!

Here's the link for this song on youtube... it doesnt show the exact picturization though, but still the entire song is here... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezQ3katpLwE