Jodhaa Akbar

''Jodhaa Akbar'' is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language epic historical romantic drama film directed by Ashutosh Gowariker. It stars Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan in the titular roles. Set in the 16th century, the film shows the life and romance between the Muslim Emperor Akbar of Mughal Empire and a Hindu Princess Jodhaa Bai of Amber, who married him on a political marriage. A. R. Rahman composed the musical score which proved to be critically and commercially successful.

''Jodhaa Akbar'' was released theatrically worldwide on 15 February 2008. Upon release, it was a critical and commercial success and became the third highest grossing Hindi film of 2008.

''Jodhaa Akbar'' won the Audience Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the São Paulo International Film Festival and 2 awards at the Golden Minbar International Film Festival. At the 56th National Film Awards, it won 2 awards Best Choreography (Chinni Prakash & Rekha Prakash for "Azeem-o-Shaan Shahenshah") and Best Costume Design ( Neeta Lulla). At the 54th Filmfare Awards, it received 11 nominations, including Best Actress (Rai Bachchan), Best Supporting Actor (Sood) and Best Music Director (Rahman), and won 5 awards, including Best Film, Best Director (Gowariker) and Best Actor (Roshan). It also won 10 International Indian Film Academy Awards, 7 Star Screen Awards, in addition to two nominations at the 3rd Asian Film Awards.

Plot

An underage future ruler of the Mughal Empire is taught by Bairam Khan to rule mercilessly, killing defeated opponents after a battle. Years later, after another battle, the now adult Jalaluddin Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) defies Bairam Khan for the first time, deciding that mercy, respect and diplomacy will be his way of gaining influence.

Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan), daughter of Raja Bharmal (Kulbhushan Kharbanda) of the Amber State, is betrothed to Rajkumar Ratan Singh of Ajabgarh. Raja Bharmal announces that his son Bhagwant Das would be his heir and Sujamal (Sonu Sood), Jodhaa's cousin, whom she wants to be the king's heir instead of Bhagwant Das, will have to work under him. Sujamal, who is deprived of his rightful throne, angrily leaves the kingdom to join Sharifuddin Hussain, Akbar's brother-in-law, who has his own ambition of becoming emperor. Raja Bharmal makes a peace offering to Akbar, proposing to strengthen relations by his daughter's marriage to the emperor himself. Akbar agrees, but this breaks his alliance with the other kings of Rajputana, including Rana Uday Singh. Jodhaa resents being reduced to a political pawn as she wants to marry Ratan Singh. She writes a letter to Sujamal, entreating him to come rescue her from the marriage, but doesn't send it.

Jodhaa demands a meeting with Akbar and demands to keep her Hindu religion after marriage, and that a temple be built for her to continue her faith, with the intention of having the emperor call off the wedding. To her surprise, Akbar agrees, having received spiritual illumination. After their marriage, Jodhaa acts reluctant with Akbar and they do not consummate their marriage. He assures Jodhaa that they will let things fall into place.

The initial progress Akbar is making to win his wife's heart is thwarted by a tragedy. The emperor's foster brother Adham Khan, the son of Akbar's nurse and nanny, Maham- Anga, murders Akbar's prime minister Atgah Khan to prevent his own war crimes from being exposed. In a fit of rage, Akbar has Adham executed by throwing him down from the palace roof, unaware of Jodhaa watching. The scene has her torn between fearing Akbar's violence and respecting his passionate love for justice.

Maham Anga despises Jodhaa. As a revenge for executing her son, she conspires to destroy Akbar's marriage, humiliating Jodhaa in front of him. She finds the letter Jodhaa had written and has it sent, and when Sujamal comes to meet Jodhaa in private, she insinuates to Akbar that Jodhaa went to meet her lover. Akbar sends his men to arrest Sujamal, who thinks Jodhaa has framed him, and flees. Akbar sends Jodhaa back to Amer. Jodhaa doesn't give an explanation, indignant at her character being questioned. Later Akbar finds out the truth and goes to her maternal home, apologises to her, and asks her to come back, but she refuses. Instead, Jodhaa tells him to investigate the working of his relations and empire.

Akbar returns and travels through the common folk in disguise to understand the problems of his people better. That is when he realizes that the citizens are not happy with the Mughal rule because of discriminatory pilgrimage tax. Akbar abolishes it and announces that every religion has its rights in his empire. This impresses Jodhaa, who comes back to him. During a celebration, an assassin sent by Sharifuddin Hussain shoots a poisoned arrow at Akbar. Jodhaa helps nurse Akbar back to health and the pair genuinely fall deeply in love.

Sujamal, Sharifuddin Hussain, and his allies march to attack Amer. After Sujamal overhears Sharifuddin plotting a silent attack on the emperor, he quickly leaves to warn Akbar of this conspiracy. Sharifuddin's army chase Sujamal off, who is received by Bhagwant Das in Akbar's camp. Before dying, he manages to warn the emperor of the attack, who then recognises Sujamal and realises what the past misunderstanding concerning the letter was. Akbar defeats Sharifuddin in hand-to-hand combat, and then spares his life for the sake of his half-sister Bakshi Banu Begum, but not before stripping him of his title of Viceroy of Ajmer and Nagaur. Eventually, Akbar proclaims that Hindustan will be a peaceful and prosperous land if people respect and honour each other's religions.

Cast

Production

Origin and scripting

Following the success of ''Lagaan'' (2001), its director Ashutosh Gowariker was approached by actor and screenwriter Haidar Ali with the idea of making a film along the lines of K. Asif's historical epic, ''Mughal-e-Azam'' (1960). When Gowariker contemplated on whether he should make a sequel to ''Mughal-e-Azam'' or remake it, Ali suggested that he can do a prequel to it; Gowariker agreed and decided to create a screenplay that would cover the early years of Akbar's life from 13 to 21 years of age. In an interview with Syed Firdaus Ashraf of '' Rediff.com'', Ali said on his decision to work with Gowariker:

Ashutosh is the only director who could do justice to a film of such a level. In ''Lagaan'', he touched on the issue of casteism, the oppressed class, Hindu-Muslim unity, communal harmony, team spirit, management and nationalism. He weaved all this beautifully to make a hit film without preaching or lecturing. In the same way, I told him he could make a beautiful film by touching on such issues without preaching.

Gowariker had already finished his script for ''Swades'' (2004) when Ali pitched the idea. As a result, he decided to start his work with Ali after completing it. In December 2001, Ali began research on the marriage of princess Jodhabai, daughter of the Rajput ruler of Amer, Bharmal with the Mughal emperor Akbar, and prepared a basic story on the couple. One month after ''Swades'' was released, Ali met Gowariker and handed to him the story. Gowariker subsequently announced his next project, terming it "a romantic musical", titled ''Jodhaa Akbar''.

In March 2005, Gowariker started work on the screenplay with Ali while denying speculations that Firoz A. Nadiadwala and Subhash Ghai were producing the film. It was confirmed later in August 2006 that Gowariker would co-produce the film himself under his banner AGPPL productions with Ronnie Screwvala of UTV Motion Pictures, in addition to the latter distributing it. Ali and Gowariker completed the script in November 2005 and sought the help of Bhawani Singh, the Maharaja of Jaipur and his spouse, Maharani Padmini Devi to provide them with "creative inputs to make ''Jodhaa Akbar'' as realistic as possible." K. P. Saxena was hired to write the film's dialogues.

Cast and crew

Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai were the first choice of both Ali and Gowariker for portraying Akbar and Jodhabai respectively. Gowariker believed Roshan possessed the regal bearing and physique required to play the role of a king. According to Gowariker, Roshan immediately agreed after the former merely mentioned that he was doing a film on Akbar. Roshan learned Urdu gave the film four out of five stars, noting that, "although the 16th-century love story upon which it's based might be long forgotten, this endearing treatment sears into the memory through sheer size and scale alone ..Don't let the running time put you off watching this unashamedly epic tale." Nikhat Kazmi of ''The Times of India'' gave the film three stars, stating that, "''Jodhaa Akbar'' works only because its heart is in the right place. The film talks about a love that transcends all barriers – gender, religion, culture – and dreams of an India where secularism and tolerance are the twin towers that should never ever crumble. And Akbar and Jodhaa are the alluring exponents of this dream." Kazmi also suggests that "if you are willing to shed off all the trappings of history, only then will ''Jodhaa Akbar'' work for you." While suggesting that the film is "too long" and that it is "not a history lesson," Rachel Saltz of ''The New York Times'' also notes, "in choosing to tell the tale of this emperor and a Muslim-Hindu love story, Mr. Gowariker makes a clear point. As Akbar says, 'Respect for each other's religion will enrich Hindustan.'"

The Tamil dubbed version also received mixed reviews. Reviewing the Tamil version, ''Behindwoods'' gave 4 out of 5 stars stating that "A visual feast and an intoxicating love story."

Box office

''Jodhaa Akbar'' collected a gross revenue of 77.85 crore ( US$20.82 million) in India. Box Office India declared it a hit at the domestic box office. Its domestic net income was 56.04 crore, equivalent to adjusted for inflation.

Overseas, it grossed US$7.55 million ( 49.92 crore), and was declared a blockbuster at the overseas box office. Its overseas gross included US$2.1 million in the United Kingdom, US$3.45 million in North America, US$450,000 in Australia,
and US$1.1 million in the Arab States of the Persian Gulf region.

The film ended its box office run with a worldwide lifetime gross of , equivalent to US$28.37 million at the time.

Accolades

See also

* ''Jodha Akbar (TV series)''

Notes

References

External links

Official trailer
– UTV Motion Pictures
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{{Authority control

2008 biographical drama films
2000s musical films
2008 romantic drama films
2000s war drama films
2008 films
Cultural depictions of Akbar
Films about royalty
Films directed by Ashutosh Gowariker
Films scored by A. R. Rahman
Films set in the Mughal Empire
Films set in India
Films shot in Rajasthan
Hindu and Islamic interfaith dialogue
2000s Hindi-language films
History of India on film
Indian biographical drama films
Indian epic films
Indian historical romance films
Indian romantic drama films
Indian war drama films
Indian interfaith romance films
Love stories
Urdu-language Indian films
2000s Urdu-language films
UTV Motion Pictures films
Films that won the Best Costume Design National Film Award
Films featuring a Best Choreography National Film Award-winning choreography
Films set in the Rajput Empire