First things first: I found Jodhaa Akbar dull, boring, slack-paced, unevenly emotional and of course, looong! I know period movies (and other genre movies also!) are more often than not but in most cases, there is content to backup the length. Mera Naam Joker was so lengthy because it traced a man’s journey from childhood to middle-age and his tryst with various women. Sholay was as long as it was coz there was a leisurely buildup of characters and a grandiloquent finale. Lagaan was lengthy since it showed the plight of the farmers and proceeded to portray their exploitation and then their ability to beat the Englishmen at their own game. Of course trash like HAHK & H77H & KANK had bucketfuls of songs. Jodhaa Akbar has neither that great a content nor that many songs.
Suffice it to say as a Love Story of an Emperor and a Princess with the backdrop of War & Politics. There’s the whole rigmarole of Inkaar – Iqrar – Takraar – Izhaar – aur – Pyaar as the sponge base, with a delectable spread of war scenes and conflicts as the cream layer, sprinkled with the nutty shenanigans of a jealous step-mom and the saucy betrayal of a power-hungry subordinate, topped with rosy locales of the forts and sandtracts of Rajasthan and the two cherries at the top – Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai. Voila! You have a cake that is too big for your own mouth!!!
