Jodhaa Akbar zindabad!

Thanks to the package which I received in the post from a very kind friend, I finally got to see Jodhaa Akbar. And, like I said to said friend, I surprised myself by watching the movie from start to finish without wishing I could fast-forward through large chunks. Yeah, I actually liked the movie. Sure, there were a few scenes that were mildly embarrassing to watch for their ineptness, and some slightly overdone sword-fight scenes with Ash and Hrithik… but on the whole, the movie was very watchable.

I cant pinpoint any particular reason why I liked the movie, despite it being a looooooong one. But I’d say that the lack of crappy dream duet songs went a long way in making me feel very kindly towards Ashutosh Gowariker (incidentally, isnt that a glorious name? It’s got such an impressive mouthfeel. Ashutosh Gowariker. Ashutosh Gowariker. Ashutosh Gowariker.) and his historically inaccurate - or artistically rewritten, to put it kindly - extravaganza of a movie. The very few songs the movie had were really rather lovely – no unpleasant surprises there from A R Rahman – and very listenable. That was a plus too.

Also, Aishwarya Rai kindly desisted from acting coy and chirpy and was, instead, quite dignified and sad and restrained and stunningly beautiful in her role. If I was religious, I would have done an elaborate puja for that small major mercy. I much prefer her plastic sadness to her plastic contrived chirpiness. I will NEVER forget the two nauseatingly awful minutes that I managed to watch of her in "Bride and Prejudice"...

Back to Jodhaa Akbar - it didn’t hurt, of course, that Hrithik Roshan played Akbar. Having seen him in the movie, I cant conceive of any other actor – now or in the past – who could have carried off that role looking quite as gorgeous or impressive or aristocratic. Is that man eye-candy or what! I’ve not seen any of his other movies, but I’ve always thought he looked really good. And now I’m a firm Hrithik-as-Akbar convert. To think that I usually don’t like my men with any variety of moustache or beard whatsoever… and to think that Rakesh Roshan, with his fat baby face and bushy moustache, managed to part-produce such a stunningly goodlooking son!

Yep, I liked Jodhaa Akbar, even if it didn’t have rave reviews anywhere. It joins the (very short) list of movies of which I was (maybe still am, but I haven’t put my fervour to the test by watching them since!) unreasonably and inexplicably fond – Hum, Raja Hindustani, Khalnayak, Mr Natwarlal…

Well, I did say 'twas inexplicable.