Feline Musings

Literally and metaphorically … 

Literally, because the movie rambled on and on for three hours and eternity.

Metaphorically, because the movie-makers asserted that the love-influence of the Jodha impacted Muhgal politics for posterity. 

Fact, or fiction, true love or political game, the first concern that the movie invoked in me was not regarding the historical sources or creative inspiration, but the high-end melodramatic, Ekta Kapoor serial-like intent and content. When I had walked into the movie hall, I was expecting a great period drama … and for me period drama doesn’t mean flashy clothes, loads of jewelry and flamboyant colors (as Indian movie-makers and movie-goers choose to believe!). For instance, Lagaan was a period drama sans the finery but with a lot of substance.

By period drama I mean an insight into the intrigue, culture, way of life, politics and complexities of living in an age different from ours.  Jodha Akbar had its share of intrigue, but then none of the conspiracies where given a nail-biting, “heart-beat-stopping” texture. They were predictable and almost always the outcome of the stratagem was revealed before the actual incident took place.

For instance, we knew that Bairam Khan’s ruse in the second battle of Panipat, was to cover an agile archer to shoot Hemu in the eye; or for that matter when Akbar is forewarned by his foster mother that Jodha would soon receive a visitor, clandestinely. In his innocence, the scriptwriter revealed more than what was required! 

The innocence of the script writer is still pardonable but not his melodrama. Don’t we get enough of those in our daily soaps, almost free of cost! Why do we need to buy an expensive ticket, hotdog and popcorn (and nachos and Pepsi) to see Jodha reach the base camp at the exact moment when her cousin is breathing his last, and then allow the brother ample footage to communicate and clarify all the woes, conspiracies and “forget-and-forgive” type of dialogues, as he is breathing his last.  

And this is just one of the many melodramatic moments that pilferage the script. Wasn’t the “man-will-not-consummate-marriage-till-the-woman-desires” stuff enough to please a certain category of the mass audience? Preposterous! That’s the only word in my vocabulary to describe the patience exhibited by a warrior-man, illiterate and ambitious, to allow time and scope to his newly-acquired queen to fall in love before actually making love! Another concept that was equally absurd was the new queen taking over the royal kitchen to cook with her mehendi-adorned hands. Please, somebody give me the Intermission! 

Intermission came after we had totally given up on it. We thought maybe the late night show would continue without any intermission. But there was some welcome relief, only to be taken into the second half which had extreme strong and dance extravaganza. And for once the “mis-representation” of facts was blatant. In the “Praise-to-the-king” kind of cultural show song sequence, we have representation of Kashmir and Nagaland tribal folk dances. Akbar’s empire did not extend to these far-fetched areas, not even at the time of his death in 1605. A graphical representation of his empire span is attached.

Thanks to my friend Amit Gupta’s comment I have changed the  map of Akbar’s empire. Akbar subued Kashmir in 1586 and did recieve deputations from Kashmir from time to time. Tribal folk dances could ofcourse be representations of any of the hilly regions under Mughal control. However, even after getting the historical facts straight, I am still adamant about my viewpoint that most of the strong and dance extravaganze added to the length of an already long movie.

Talking in terms of cultural misrepresentation, the dialogues were also inconsistent with the language of the times. There was a lot of hotchpotch of Urdu and Hindi in the dialogue delivery of the characters. To get the fact straights, the official language of the Mughal courts was Persian and with time the Khariboli or Hindi spoken in Delhi and nearby cities was amalgamated into the royal language and Urdu was born. Urdu was the main language of the Mughals. The songs were mostly in pure Hindi. For a period drama of the Mughals, we needed some good Urdu couplet based songs. 

I also personally believe that the “prelude-to-making-love-song sequence” was just not required. But then all was not wrong with the movie. I was glad to see that the movie correctly represented that the pardah system was not prevalent amongst the Mughals but amongst the Rajputs. It was good to see that women were projected in a good light and shown to enjoy independence and decision-making power. Rajput women were shown as educated and skilled, along with religious and cultural principles strongly engraved in their social lives.

… And then one last and best reason to watch Jodha Akbar was ofcourse Hrithik Roshan … need I say more … the rest as we know is History!

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