What carries the film through is the performances and bits of the music (AR Rahman). The battle sequences are unimaginative, often tacky, the length inordinate, the political intrigue comic, the editing extremely loose and the narrative does test your patience. Beyond that, the film has nothing much to boast of, except a few interesting song and dance set pieces where dervishes whirl, drums roll and doves fly. And Akbar and Jodhaa are the alluring exponents of this dream. 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. Yes, Jodhaa Akbar works only because its heart is in the right place. Then again, when Jodhaa stares out lustily - from behind the curtains - at her bare-bodied, abs-o-lutely oomphy husband practising the sword on the terrace, or does some more nakhre-baazi when Akbar dozes off unspent on her bed, that sparks fly and chemistry crackles. It is only when an iridescent Jodhaa shows nakhra on her wedding night, declaring 'no sex please, until I know you', or Akbar stares at her longingly, passionately, on the distant parapet, while his governess instils state craft into his inattentive head, that the film really works. Because, despite the millions spent to create period and pomp, the film only works when Hrithik and Aishwarya try to find romance in an archetypal arranged marriage that was solemnised for everything but love.
If you are willing to shed off all the trappings of history, only then will Jodhaa Akbar work for you. And instead of the car chases and the roller-blade rides that pepper modern-day romances, you have mad elephant tamings and sword-and-sandal battle sequences to rev up the dramaaaa.
No, we aren't going to quibble with history here because Jodhaa-Akbar is a plain and simple love story between a man named Akbar and a girl named Jodhaa who tried to come close together despite the sundry barriers of religion and culture.
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