Mr. Gowarikar take heart, you aint alone
iView Author:
Medha Dutt
(Kolkota, India)
Email:
primidutt [at] gmail [dot] com
Mr. Gowarikar take heart, you aint alone
Hmm…..Gowarikar, the new K. Asif? Not bad. Actually, it’s quite apt I guess. Well, before you begin to think that I’m probably one of those rare species, who actually liked the recent Gowarikar flick, let me make myself clear – Jodhaa Akbar was a disappointment, and a major one.
Why then do I agree with someone out here that Gowarikar is the new K. Asif? Well, I’ll tell you why. The only reason being that K. Asif probably played with history the same way that Gowarikar does.
Oh yes, before you jump out of the chair and start mailing those, ‘what the hell….’ kinda replies, let me present the evidences that I have painstakingly collected.
First, in one of the scenes of Mughal-e-Azam, K. Asif shows Emperor Akbar reading a letter/note. Now thanks to Gowarikar, we all know that Akbar was in fact illiterate (Gowarikar atleast adheres to history there!), so how the hell did he manage to read?
Again, much hue and cry is being raised about Jodhaa being Jodhaa. I mean, Rajasthan has not let the movie in! Well, I’m sure everyone remembers K. Asif’s Emperor Akbar aka Prithviraj Kapoor and his Queen, Jodhaa Bai aka Durga Khote.
Many historians doubt whether a courtesan named Anarkali ever existed, and even Jehangir’s (Salim) autobiography has no mention of her. So was that pure fiction?
If Gowarikar makes his Emperor Akbar sing love duets and show off his bare chested machismo to impress his Queen Jodhaa, K. Asif had gone a step further – trust me! He actually made a mere courtesan (Anarkali) haughtily dance in front of the mighty Emperor Akbar, and actually having the gall to wangle her little finger under his mighty nose and sing ‘Jab pyaar kiya to darna kya’ – oh, didn’t we all just looooove that moment?
So, why blame poor Gowarikar if he plays around a bit with history? C’mon guys give him a break! Even Santosh Sivan went over the top, while making Asoka. Remember, the song and dance sequences? I wish I could forget!
The fact out here is that no director sticks to history alone even when making a historical movie. The basic funda is that the movie has got to sell. And to do that you got to twist the plot a bit here and there. If that means recreating history, so be it!
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
vary well said……..
and its no history text book which are also propaganda driven, so why blame gowarikar.
was watching mtv. gowarikar said that “in every fifty years or so history is rewritten.” so true.
history is speculation at the best. specially indian history is a hoch-potch. after independence the leftist historian dominate academia. all the modern indian history is written by them.
now you can easily imagine, what could be the degree of bias in a leftist intellectual.
:-??
Nicely put. I was highly disappointed with the movie too. The only partially refreshing scenes in the movie were when hrithik was on the screen. Personally, I do not care about authenticity of historicals/period movies as they are not history lessons in the first place.
Hrithik onscreen gave me headache. He was like an actor from my high school drama club.
I would not disagree with you ML but I felt he was the better person on the screen. Anyway, my crib about the movie can be found here:
http://saranghere.blogspot.com/2008/02/review-jodha-akbar-too-simple-and-flaky.html
Sarang, I liked Aish more than you. To me she was natural with her body language and delivery. I blame AG for not fleshing out Jodha more and for portraying more the girl(Jodhaa cried a lot here) than the fiery princess.
@ML
I agree that AG is to blame for the lack of life in the characters. Regarding Aish, I believe that her performance wasn’t any good to make me forget the lack of life in the character. She was as monotonous as always.
I love this quote from Dan Brown’s “Da Vinci Code” & this sums up History to a large extent.
“History is what is written by the Winners” & we for certain can never verify if everything we read is always true. It’s true but also from the writer’s perspective.
I usually go to the movies for entertainment and not for a History lesson. This was provided to me even when I did not need it in School.
This sudden urgency to probe and understand history is funny as we have had these glitches for many years now. Even Amar Chitra Katha’s had their issues but I read them because the provided us a very good view into Indian Mythology.
I still believe that Ashutsoh is the new K. Asif and I loved the movie for what it was, A MOVIE
I fail to understand how the assassin managed to kill himself by licking cyanide off his wrist band! Akbar lived from 1542 to 1605 and cyanide was discovered in 1782!! hmmm….:w;
Nice 1 Prim
!
But the satirical language of the article suggests a distaste for twisting the facts of history … after all as some1 already said one goes to a film for entertainment , nt a history lesson… (there are textbooks for tht ;) )…
i think its quite ok as far as the director provides a non-boring method of killing a coupla hours
It is certain that Medha Dutt missed the first couple of minutes of the movie, probably was busy buying popcorn. When different history books show different views, how come it is Gowarikar
The points made in the article are actually reasonable. but the fact still remains that with Jodha Akbar, AG disappointed all of us big time. He was the one who had the guts to create history with Lagaan, touch a topic like Swadesh sensibly. Here he indulges himself in a romantic fiasco without any content. His strong area is creating anecdotes and trivia that hold the audience’s attention. Now its like a traditional fashion show with the Agra fort in the background. Seems the entire movie was a showcase for Ash and Hritik….pathetic.
And with great reviews and public reception, it’ll sure bag the filmfares this year, another proof of the award ceremony’s vanity. Btw, deepika from OSO has been nominated for “Best Female Lead” in addition to “Best Debut”….its completely fucked up…
one more glorious thing about JA
its emphasis is on love and romance
not on the wars
this emphasis is tremendously important.
if you look into textbook of histories.its all war. war and nothing else. aurangjeb is a full chapter. meera is a foot note.
it is not that history is of war only. there were love too. but question is, what you want to look at. nadirshah is a chapter, farid is not even mentioned.
look at the brighter side.
change the emphasis, from sword to love.
talk about those who spread love, not about warmongers.
Ashutosh Gowarikar has taken a tremendous leap from past in this regard.
up till now war was the subject of history, love was not even mentioned. JA is about the love, of a ruler who fought many wars.
hail AG
hail JA
:x
=d>=d>
@ Vishrant
I wanted 2 reply 2 ur comment, bt then thot better of it. Dont want 2 break the candy floss image u hv of lv! Carry on, buddy!
@Vishrant (13),
Its not believable that Ashutosh might have emphasised on love story angle more than the war angle in JA. First doubt has basis – hindi cinema has been livining virtually on love stories and its directors have got training that way only.
second, to make a war based film director needs a different kind of mind set and vision and technological awareness which may not be present in hindi film directors or script writers. Its very difficult to conceptualise an Apocalypse Now in Hindi cinema because training is not like that.
Ashutosh might not have chosen love story in JA because he wanted to propagate love all around but because he was more easy with this set up only.
What you are saying is very noble and humanity has to think about that but its unreal expectations from film makers because most of them understand langauge of profit only. whatever can bring cash on BO will be followed there.
Humanity does not understand from History because first its quite difficult to understand what and exactly how things were happened in past. Europe is suppressing few traits because of memories of WW1 and WW2 but its too early to say anything as new generations there may be forgetting what had happened and again same mistakes can be followed.
Its not like this that Hitler is totally condemened. Still polticians and many people are there who admire him. Given a chance Hitler can be repeated again.
History in crude form is tasteless and useless. Its like Satya Kathayen or Manohar Kahaniyan, who killed whom and how police caught the killers or how theyescaped.
In long term only parables work. Hence bad people are turned in to Rakshas in long term and good people in to devatas and their tales though dont look like our own but message is hidden there for all to grasp and these kind of history appeal humanity more.
Hindi cinema = love story because of dependency on music (songs) .
Its not for bonhomie purpose. Though its good. but thats another factor.
Love stories appeal psyche of emotional Indians more.
“its emphasis is on love and romance
not on the wars
this emphasis is tremendously important.
if you look into textbook of histories.its all war. war and nothing else. aurangjeb is a full chapter. meera is a foot note.
it is not that history is of war only. there were love too. but question is, what you want to look at. nadirshah is a chapter, farid is not even mentioned.
look at the brighter side.
change the emphasis, from sword to love.
talk about those who spread love, not about warmongers.
Ashutosh Gowarikar has taken a tremendous leap from past in this regard.
up till now war was the subject of history, love was not even mentioned. JA is about the love, of a ruler who fought many wars.”
This is certainly not something different..Every Western historical epic has a flattened love story at the centre of it..This one wasnt any different,but the love-story in itself was quite bland.
@ medha
yeah ishqa nahien ashan bas itna samjh leejai
ik aag ka dariya hai, aur doob ke jana hai
i am on the other shore
passed the aag ka dariya
there are very few people
who know love throug being
(it is not egoism, as ‘aham brhamasmi’ is not egoism)
usually those people are not good with words
i am
so i can write about love too.
but
can too people discuss sweetness.
one has tasted it
other has not tasted it
so the other who has not tasted it. may go on philosophizing about sweetness. but it will be all word play. with no meaning.
if two people meet who both have tasted sweet. than there will no discussion. they look into each others eyes. and know that the other also knows.
either i know love or i don’t know.
it both cases argument will be unnecessary.
but for the enjoyment of it i am ready to discuss it.
but i am leaving for my village at midnight, so this discussion has to wait.
:-b
@Vishrant,
In your village, make a dumb eating sweet…..
Gunge ka Gurr:)
But how to know Love?
Either one feels love or dont feel……
rk
my point was
about to give more emphasis on love than war
it reached you
you are right history is like 400 year old satyakathayein.
:*
@Vishrant,
If you give more emphasise on Love than war then
either you need very very wise people who know self control or you have scarcity of resources and ultimately that will also end up in bigger war;)
rk
its more than feeling
it begins with feeling than go on growing.
one can do nothing about it.
love is beyond the boundary of doing
it is a happening.
wait, is all man can do.
and
as khlil gibran said – ‘follow when love beckons’
@};-
rk
by emphasis i didn’t in living
man is man he will fight.
by emphasis i mean in history books.
what purpose is served by teaching student about wars.
how the information about the date of panipat is going to help a history student live a worthy life.
instead if he is taught about meera, about farid, about kabir, this may help in his life.
[-o<
Kahlil Zibran – nice quotation wala author/poet/philosopher.
(1)When fuel is finished then can a vehicle follow anything when its not on a slopy road either?;)
(2) Thats why a Budha is never seen to follow even love (in terms as we ordinary people understand). They talk about difference between Love and compassion.:)
(3) Lovers kill each other if not physically then symbolically:(
@Vishrant(22) thats more dangerous for normal society,
If your daughter will wish to become like a Meera then you will feel to protect her.
Meera just happens. Teaching about them in text books is as ordinary as teaching about wars.;) No?
rk
the purpose of the shastras is to give the reader thirst for truth.
gita can not give truth anybody. otherwise for thousand of years it is being read. everybody would have become a buddha. gita can give the thirst for truth. the longing. gita can create a discontent in man. a divine discontent. the buddha dis-ease.
same way teaching about meera is not going to make people meera. but it can give the idea. that this is a possibility for man also. nadirshah is not the only truth. teaching about meera can create thirst.
ultimate journey is alone. longing can be created.
@};-
Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!!! RK n Vishrant ur posta actually rock man! i actually fell dwn on the floor rollin wth laughter! thx a ton 4 makin my day! especially Vishrant! buddy, i cant wait 4 u 2 get bk n resume dis enlightening topic! =))
Medha,
basic idea is to have fun. Its good you got some happiness from something happening at PFC.
once Vishrant comes back from his village and joins again PFC, I will be joining him on any post.:)