toddly6666

If you haven't seen a Bollywood film since LAGAAN (released 8 years ago), then here's the next one you should watch - JODHAA AKBAR. This movie is a huge, expensive, epic-type film with awesome battles, intense drama among the Islamic and Hindu kingdoms, and a touching romance between the lead stars. JODHAA AKBAR is basically a prequel to Bollywood's other most-famous, epic-type film from 1960 - MUGHAL-E-AZAM. The film is a Bollywood-talent all-star film. If there is one Bollywood movie to showcase to the rest of the world, this one is it, because the best of India's showbiz actors and crew are in this film. Any criticisms that you may have with Bollywood films, you can leave that behind, because JODHAA AKBAR was created by the few real professionals in Bollywood. Ashutosh Gowariker, the same director as LAGAAN, is the director and writer of this film. A.R. Rahman did the music. Perfect cinematography. And the film stars two of the best Bollywood actors in the business - Aishwarya Rai as the Hindi queen and Hrithik Roshan as the Muslim king. They are not only both excellent actors, are extremely easy on the eyes, but they also have a cinematic presence equal to any other respectable actor from around the world. These two actors are at a totally different level than any other Bollywood actors whom tend to stick to their overly dramatic cheese school of acting. It was nice that Aishwarya Rai tried Hollywood with little success (poor movie choices), but I'm still waiting for Hrithik Roshan to make it as an international star. I have a feeling he will never choose to be in a Western movie because he and Amitabh Bachchan (whom narrates at the beginning and end of the film a la Ian McKellen-style) are two Indian actors that have reached God-status in India. The acting in this movie is top-notch all-around. I personally did not like LAGAAN that much - I thought it was overrated, acting not all that, and a ridiculous story about cricket. Too long and only worth seeing once. But JODHAA AKBAR is the real deal. Even though the movie is 209 minutes, it feels very short and can easily be watched over and over again.



The story is the usual royalty-type, Shakespearian story, but there's nothing wrong with that: Two kingdoms of different religions (hindi and islam) try to unite in peace with the Islamic king hooking up with a Hindi princess. Within each kingdom, there are members of the royalty family who support the unification, while there are other royalty members who are corrupt, want war, and want to poison the relationship between the king and queen. We've seen this story many times. But that doesn't matter - I love this type of story. It's exciting, gripping, touching drama. Great stuff! There are two highly entertaining villains in this film - one's an evil nanny who's got serious depth to her character, while the other one is your typical two-dimensional, power-seeking, war-mongering evil dude. The only thing really interesting about him is that he reminds me of an Indian Benicio Del Toro and he really seems kick-ass tough.



I have read other JODHAA AKBAR movie reviews commenting on the action scenes of the film just being "bookends." I watch a lot of action movies and I'm constantly in search of eye candy films with or without substance. JODHAA AKBAR is a film with both eye candy and substance, and I wouldn't call these action scenes "bookends" - there are many memorable action scenes in this film that are far better than the non-eye candy action scenes found in many of these recent, epic-type warrior films from USA and Asia. This movie is certainly not a fair action movie with good drama. This is a great dramatic film with great action.

Here are the action eye candy scenes to be amazed by:

1. Barely any CGI! Real people in the armies! Real sets! Real outdoors! A treat that is hard to find in action movies nowadays!

2. Cannon wars!!! This ain't a "take-your-turn", "I'll shoot my one cannon at you, then you shoot your cannon at me." This is "all-out-holy-shit" tons of two armies shooting loads of cannons at each other. You know the movie trend of armies shooting a sky full of arrows at one another (300, Hero)? Well replace those arrows with cannon balls, and that's a scene that you get in this film. That was a "holy shit" scene.

3. Elephant wars!! Sure, they aren't as vicious-looking as the CGI-ed tusk-swinging Elefonts from RETURN OF THE KING, but the real, non-CGI elephants in this film are just as fucked up. They sort of just walk into the opposing army and just casually step on warriors and you see close-ups of warriors getting bloodily smooshed to death. It was a "holy shit" scene.

4. Two awesome sword-fighting scenes as intense and well-choreographed as the sword-fighting scenes of Jet Li vs. Donnie Yen in Hero, Michelle Yeoh vs. Ziyi Zhang in Croutching Tiger (their first fight) and the sword-fighting scene of Ziyi Zhang vs. Andy Lau in House of Flying Daggers (their first fight). The same Asian drum music was used as well which certainly built up the intensity of the fights.

5. One fight scene similar and as intense as the Brad Pitt vs. Erik Bana scene from Troy.

6. Furthermore, any one-on-one fights in the movie were not short, went on long enough without living out their welcome, and were all perfectly filmed and well-choreographed.

7. And as most of us know, there is no kissing on the lips in Bollywood films, but Hrithik and Aishwarya do have a steamy love scene. No clothes were shed and no sex was shown. Just two great actors with amazing chemistry can make foreplay hotter than an R-rated sex scene in some other movie. These two actors have such good chemistry together that they turn India's censorship to their advantage.

8. And there's an intense scene of Hrithik Roshan taming a wild elephant.



After months and months waiting for this DVD (instead of waiting a couple weeks, as most Bollywood movies are released on official DVD after a couple weeks after theatrical run), I was happy to hear that this was going to be a 3-disc NTSC Region-Free DVD set for under $20. Since the movie is long, the film is broken into 2 discs with the extras on a third disc. What a great deal? Nope, not at all! Fans of this movie got punk'd. The DVD company, UTV, released a DVD package that looked like the Lord of the Rings DVD of India. But unfortunately, someone screwed up big, big time. Does the DVD have excellent mistake-free English subtitles? Check. Does the DVD have excellent Dolby Digital 5.1 Hindi audio? Check. Does the DVD cover state 16x9 ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN on the back of DVD cover? Check. Is the DVD video actually anamorphic widescreen? Hell fucking no! Those fucking UTV idiots fucked up this DVD. The actual DVD video is non-anamorphic, interlaced, letterboxed bullshit. Now I have many non-anamorphic, interlaced, full screen, and/or letterboxed DVDs that I can zoom in on my HDTV with no problem. But the minute you zoom this DVD just a notch up to try and make it bigger to fill your HDTV screen, BOOM! Pixilation! Horizontal lines that look like window blinds! What the hell! But if you leave the video as is, and don't zoom it, it's a pretty clean, bright, crisp, clear video. I enjoyed watching the film, even though it felt like I was watching a movie with a thick black frame. It felt like I was watching a framed piece of art....movie. So, someone fucked that up. They should have mentioned it on the back of the DVD cover - that's what's most annoying. Just write "4x3 letterboxed widescreen" on the DVD cover back. It would suck, but it wouldn't be as annoying as false advertising.

On the third disc, there are plenty of extras about this film. All the deleted scenes (letterboxed as well) are interesting and could have been put back in the film (the film would be an hour longer though). The bios of the cast and crew are nicely written. There's a bunch of interviews with the actors and crew. There's a historical reference essay about the film. And there are movie trailers.

MOVIE: 9.5
DVD VIDEO: 5 (0 points for the lack of anamorphic video, 10 points for the interlaced, letterboxed widescreen video quality if you don't zoom it in to fill your HDTV)
DVD AUDIO: 8
DVD EXTRAS: 7 (there's no "making-of-the-film documentaries" on this dvd which would have been nice)



Overall, it's a great film that needs to be seen to really see the full potential of when Bollywood puts thought into their films. I can't imagine a Hollywood studio NOT picking this movie up. There is no way in hell that this film will not get an American movie studio DVD or Blu Ray release. It might be a longer wait for the anamorphic DVD version. But this DVD is just fine until that version comes out. It's such a good movie that I do recommend people buying this DVD. But on the other hand, I'm not sure if people should support these UTV assholes for falsely advertising ANAMORPHIC video on the back of the DVD cover. But you definitely have to see this flick!

Here's the English-subtitled movie trailer:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1xV35ZjsrU

TGM

flixtime

toddly, appreciate your investing the time to share your thoughts on the movie.

I suppose the best shot at a U.S. DVD release is if JODHAA AKBAR follows in the footsteps of LAGAAN and gets shortlisted for the Oscars. As of right now, JODHAA AKBAR certainly seems the frontrunner to be this year's submission from India.

As to the movie, as one who is more than a little fed up with the shaky-cam and hyper-editing prevalent in too much of contemporary cinema, I was most appreciative of the fact that director Gowariker didn't try to inject himself into the movie by over-utilizing the aforementioned techniques. He showed confidence in both his characters and story, and that is something I wish more modern directors would do. The more classic style of cinematography in JODHAA AKBAR was a pleasure to witness.

mr_jbloggs

Thanks for the review. Great movie, shame about the non-anamorphic DVD release.

toddly6666

Mr Jbloggs, how did you watch it on your HDTV, as is or zoomed in?

flixtime

To follow-up...India's submission for the Oscar awards is...not JODHAA AKBAR.

They picked Aamir Khan's directorial effort TAARE ZAMEEN PAR...a film - about a dyslexic child - which failed to impress me and is not much more than TV-movie material. But of course Disney has acquired the international DVD distribution rights to the film, so I expect that had more than a little to do with the pick...big business wins again. Oh well, another year, another botched pick by the Indian selection committee...at least they are consistent.

At least the intermission song is really good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwaF7BEz8Jc

TheDoug

Toddly6666, I agree with mr_jbloggs you did a magnificent job of summarizing all that's good about this non-traditional Bollywood movie. Having watched "Lagaan" (by the same director) I was curious to see this "epic" style historical drama. Like you, I was blown away by the sets, photography, acting and coreography of both the dances and fighting sequences.

I too have the UTV 3-Disc set you mentioned and even though I agree that it is interlaced letterbox rather than true anamorphic 2:35 ratio, we don't want to give the impression that this is a "full-screen" formatted disc though. (It still deserves the 5 rating you gave it.) I watched this on a 36 inch HDTV and generally was able to overlook this falsely formatted feature regardless of the "false advertising" on the case.

Anyway, here are some pics of one of the UTV sets available in NTSC Region O format:




From what I understand and have seen on Ebay and elsewhere, there are other UTV sets with the artwork similiar to the screenshots you showed on your original posting. As you can see by the set I purchased, this has the dark-green background with the sepia-toned imagery. I'd love to see pictures of other DVD sets from this movie.

toddly6666

THE DOUG, thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed the film. And I'm even happier that Bollywood films are getting better. I've tried looking for the other DVD versions of this film with different covers. I still haven't found a descriptive review of the UK PAL version yet if it exists or not. From what I hear, this DVD is produced by UTV everywhere, which means the same wonderful interlaced video quality. If there is any news about a better DVD version of this film, it will most likely turn up in this Bollywood dvd forum right here: http://www.zulm.net/forums/viewtopic...st=0&sk=t&sd=a

FLIXTIME, who's the group of Indian geniuses that decided that movie for the Oscars submission? I didn't see it, but they should have chosen Jodhaa Akbar if they want more foreign investors in Bollywood. Since they didn't choose Jodhaa Akbar, now there will most likely be an even longer wait for a decent dvd of this film. Are they still going to release a Blu Ray of this film? Has a Blu Ray ever been screwed up in which it plays like an interlaced, letterboxed dvd?

flixtime

Hey toddly, I don't know who these committee folks are...but I think they've done a poor job in selecting their submissions over the past few years. While I'm very disappointed in JODHAA AKBAR not being selected, I can better understand this year's selection of TAARE ZAMEEN PAR as opposed to some of their past oversights. I recall - maybe in 2004 - they had a quality Bengali film - SWAPNER DIN (not on DVD) - that I felt was a worthy candidate but they bypassed it. I recall one of the committee members saying something along the lines of "not understanding what SWAPNER DIN was about"...trust me you didn't have to be a rocket scientist to understand the film...so that speaks to the qualifications - or lack thereof - of some of the committee members. DOR, DHARM, etc....the list of missed selections these past few years is disappointing. JODHAA AKBAR was the subject of some controversy in India...something in regard to not being historically accurate...so, coupled with the Disney tie-in with TAARE ZAMEEN PAR, I can see why JODHAA AKBAR was bypassed. Doesn't mean I agree with the choice, but in hindsight, I really should have seen it coming. At least TAARE ZAMEEN PAR isn't as hollow a film as the ones they usually select.

Also, I think virtually all the Hollywood studios are already invested in India...Indian cinema is the "in" thing with the Hollywood suits right now. Even a specific market like the Telugu cinema audience is still a greater number than the population of France. I recall all these Indian-Hollywood tie ups are all scrambling to try and develop some Indian superhero characters around which they can build film franchises (since that is the current rage in the U.S.). Even more interesting, Steven Spielberg is now being significantly bankrolled by an Indian company called Reliance. You saw Mani Ratnam's GURU...well the guy currently in charge of Reliance - Anil Ambani - is the son of the guy that movie GURU was about. He is one of the richest men in the world.

toddly6666

Well, it seems that the JODHAA AKBAR English-subtitled BLU RAY is the one to get. The reviewer says it's a lot better than the DVD, so I may have to upgrade to a Blu-Ray player sooner than expected. Here's a review from blu-ray.com:

BD: BIG Home Video
Authoring House: Digital Entertainment
Title: Jodhaa Akbar
Region Coding: A/B/C
Video: 2.35:1, HD 1080p 16:9, AVC 23.976Hz (Avg. bitrate 30Mbps. Peak bitrate 36Mbps)
Audio:
Hindi - Dolby Digital 5.1 (48khz 448 kbps) <-- Default track.
Hindi - DTS-HD MA 5.1 (48khz)
Subtitles: English

Special Features:
NONE

Special Mention:
No Watermark Logo, during songs or otherwise. <-- 'Yash Raj' please note.
No scrolling advertisements during songs. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.
No advertisements before or during the movie. <-- All Bollywood Video companies, please take note.

Review:
The video quality is quite dissapointing, with the picture looking washed out and dull. The colors are dull & drab as if they have faded. The contrast levels are poor and blacks look like dark grey. All this specially stands out when compared to the Bodega BD, which has a beautifuly vibrant and colorful picture.

The audio on this is downright dissapointing, specially when compared to the absolutely fantastic Bodega BD. The surprising and almost shocking thing is that, I could barely make out any difference between the lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 448kbps' & the 'DTS-HD MA 5.1' tracks. To me, it almost seems as if they have taken the lossy master and re-encoded it in 'DTS-HD MA'. Compared to the Bodega BD audio, the audio here is comparitevely lifeless and the bass very boomy. Even the surround and channel speration on the Bodega BD is far superior.

Maybe if I had not seen the Bodega BD and more importantly, if I did not have it at hand, to do a side by side comparison, I may have found the 'BIG Home Video' BD slightly more acceptable. But given that I do have the Bodega BD and I have seen it side by side with the 'BIG Home Video' BD, I can't but say, that this is not a very good BD. In conclusion, I suggest you rent this, instead of buying it. That is, not unless you are a big fan of the movie and you absolutely must have it, or the English subtitles are a must and/or you are limited to 'Region A', then and only then buy this 'BIG Home Video' BD. Otherwise, the Bodega version is worth every extra cent it might cost you. In any case, this 'BIG Home Video' BD is a definite and huge improvement over the absolutely crappy, non-anamorphic DVD release, which has been the only available option so far for people who need the English sub-titles.
My ratings:
Video: 3.5 out of 5.0 (Bodega BD - 4.5 out 5.0)
Audio: 3.25 out of 5.0 (Bodega BD - 5.0 out of 5.0)
Extras: 0 out of 5.0 (Bodega - 4.0 out of 5.0)
Overall: 3.25 out of 5.0 (Bodega BD - 4.5 out of 5.0) <-- Not an average.

Equipment used for testing:
Projector: Panasonic PT-AE2000U
Screen: Da-Lite 4:3 120" 'Model B' - White Matte
Viewing Distance: 11' 6"
A/V Receiver: Denon AVR5800
Speakers: 5.1
Front/Main: Paradigm Reference 100 v2
Center: Paradigm Reference Studio CC v2
Rear: Paradigm Reference 100 v2
Subwoofer: Paradigm Reference Servo 15
BD Player:
Oppo BDP-83 (Hardware modified for Region Free with latest firmware)
PS3 (Region A with latest firmware)

toddly6666

I ordered this Blu Ray eventhough I don't have a Blu-Ray player. haha

toddly6666

All-Region Taiwanese anamorphic, English subtitled DVD now available: http://dvd.jsdvd.com/product_info.ph...ducts_id=27078