Good Shepherd College nerd, complete with eye-glasses and braces, Agastya Rao alias Champu, has a crush on Piya Goel, and is thrilled when she invites him to go to a dance, only to be heart-broken when he finds out that she really digs another guy. Years later, Agastya has graduated, re-located to the U.S. where he is an astronaut with NASA, and when he finds out that his college sweetheart is about to divorce her husband, decides to try his hand at wooing her. He gets the unsolicited help of one-time Bollywood wonder Suhaan Kapoor, who accompanies Agastya to New York, assists him in successfully wooing and proposing to Piya. On the night of their engagement, Agastya will find out that Suhaan only wanted to help him because of Section 25 of the Hindu Marriage Act - so that could relieve him of the financial burden of paying alimony to Piya, who was the girl he had secretly married much against the wishes of the entire Goel clan. Watch what happens when Suhaan finds out that he has a daughter named Suhaani - and that he still has strong feelings about Piya. ... More ... Collapse

Jodhaa Akbar, the love story of emperor Akbar and his Rajput queen Jodhabai, has been decreed non-historical by historians. That's no great surprise: the love story of Jodha and Akbar as a Bollywood film would necessarily need to be 'created' by the director. No history book in the world provides much insight into, whether Akbar had, or had not, ever married a Rajput princess named Jodhabai.



One does not need to be an expert of Mughal history to spot discrepancies in the film's period reconstruction. For instance, would a Mughal queen step into the shahi (royal) kitchen and cook a meal for her husband, or would she actually make an appearance before his courtiers to serve him lunch, with the queen mother looking on? Possibly not. The film is most clearly a work of fiction built on a skeleton of history, with some characters who are 'real', others imaginary.



The greater part of the controversy around Jodhaa Akbar has, however, centred around the figure of the Rajput princess Jodha, who in the film is married to Akbar as part of a diplomatic arrangement between the Mughals and the Kachwaha king of Amer. According to historians of the period, Jodha was never married to Akbar. The Rajput princess known as Jodhabai or Jodh Bai was in all probability given in marriage to his son prince Salim, later emperor Jehangir.



On the other side of the spectrum, however, is a powerful popular imaginary centring Jodhabai. Known to have been allowed to retain the practice of her religion even after her marriage to Akbar, the name of Jodhabai stands as testimony to the Mughal emperor's greatness and tolerance. Thus, the tourist guide at Fatehpur Sikri would invariably point out to you the palace of Jodhabai popularly known as Jodha Mahal, and tell you how in the time of Akbar the chime of temple bells from the palace would mingle with the sounds of the azaan emanating from the emperor's quarters. In the popular imagination, Jodha's name is almost as inextricably linked to Akbar's as the legend of Mumtaz Mahal is to Shah Jehan. Jodhaa Akbar largely draws upon that popular imaginary. Faced with questions about the film's historicity the director has acknowledged that he has drawn upon the most popular usage in this context, that of Jodha as Akbar's Hindu queen. In Jodhaa Akbar, the Hindu-Muslim angle becomes the peg for a contemporary audience to consume the love story of a Mughal emperor and his Rajput queen. Historians of the period have pointed that this Hindu-Muslim peg in the film has been the superimposition of a more contemporary perspective on the 16th century, when identities were formed not so much in terms of the Hindu-Muslim binary, but rather in terms of caste, clan and lineage.



For the Rajputs, therefore, matrimony with the Mughals would not be a matter of reservation principally on religious grounds. Matrimonial relations among the ruling classes of the period were mostly determined by considerations of rank and stature, and by political exigency. Marriage between the Hindu and Muslim ruling classes was therefore known even in pre-Mughal days, though it became a more institutionalised practice under Akbar and Jehangir. If at all Jodha was married to Akbar, such an alliance would not quite have been the bolt from the blue that it is in the film, where Jodha confronts her father, Raja Bharmal of Amer, for promising her in marriage to a man who would not even know the significance of the sindoor.



Here, of course, 'communalism' or the Hindu-Muslim binary that has structured Indian history in the 20th century and thereafter becomes transposed on an earlier period for it to be more comprehensible to a contemporary audience. The period trappings apart, it is not greatly different from, say, a film like Mani Ratnam's Bombay, with its Hindu boy-Muslim girl love story and message of national integration. While all of this clearly spells incongruity so far as the film's 'authenticity' is concerned, it also upholds the vibrancy of a popular text in its capacity to interpret the past in terms of the present, and to inscribe greater life into the past.



Other such 'discrepancies' in the film could be likewise ascribed. In the film, Jodha is a feminist figure who speaks in terms of 'her' rights, whether it is when she asks for an audience with her future husband, the emperor of India, where she lays down her conditions of marriage, or, later, when she refuses to be wooed back by her husband who had suspected her integrity.



While such episodes in the film are anachronistic, it is more enabling to look beyond their obvious incongruity. Jodhaa Akbar is as much about Jodha as it is about Akbar; a very contemporary perspective constitutes this love story, for without it there would have been no love story, only perhaps a documentary on Akbar the Great, right out of the history books. This love story has no historical basis, but it is also important to note here the dynamic of a popular medium, its power to make the past relevant to the present through the mechanics of pleasure and the imagination. And can even historians discount the imagination in our interpretation of the past? ... More ... Collapse

"Beverly Hills Copy". Albeit, this was blatant "chepoing" of yet another Hollywood blockbuster but it was a damn good one. The fact that it was 1987 makes it that much more amazing. The soundtrack was mind blowing. Overall, a gem in a decade of mostly putrid bollywood productions. ... Collapse

Hindi cinema has been witness to quite a number of outstanding sport-based films, beginning with Lagaan and its rag-a-tag band of desi cricketers to Chak De India's hockey girls, and then in between there was the superlative Iqbal as well. Thus, Vivek Agnihotri's Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal finds itself pitted against some very illustrious predecessors. In contrast, Goal, does not have the gut-wrenching emotional magic of the above mentioned three films, which captured the imagination of Indians everywhere. Goal has everything that you would expect and like to see in a sports film - there is the underdog on the verge of extinction and the final rising from the ashes. The pattern is generally thus, and Agnihotri stays quite true to the formula. He gets the logistics right, but fails in department of emotions. The emotions somehow ring more shrill than true in the film. It is difficult to drum up much feeling for the characters or their cause. The film remains chained to cliches and lacks that certain directorial genius or creative spark from the writing department.



The story of the film is about a ragged band of Indians from Southall who find themselves on the verge of loosing their ground as their lease is due to expire in a year. The council wants to turn the ground into an amusement park for children, malls etc. Their lease could be extended if they are able to pay up 3 million pounds to the council. The only way out that Shaan (Arshad Warsi) , the captain of the team can see is for them to win the football league and grab the three million pound prize money. But what he has for a team is a bunch of Indian migrants, who have lost the habit of winning and are more interested in all things other than football. Shaan decides to recruit the services of Southall United's most illustrious player, Tony Singh (Boman Irani) as the team's coach. Apparently, Tony is the best that Southall had. The new coach manages to get the team into shape, but the team lacks that one key element, a top level striker, crucial if we are to win matches. That problem too gets solved fast enough as Tony discovers Sunny Bhasin (John Abraham), a desi who prides himself on being different. He has dreams of making it big as a professional footballer and would never deign to play for a down -and-out outfit like Southall United. Besides being a genius with the ball, he is also a confused young man who is still trying to win his father's approval. He plays for Ashton, one of the rival clubs and is certain to make it to the playing eleven, or so he thinks. And this is where the racial angle in the film comes through. He is dropped from the team because of the colour of his skin.



Sunny is roped into the team by Tony but the decision does not go down to well with the rest. Sunny has done nothing to endear himself to the others because of his attitude. So an uneasy truce prevails, often threatening to explode. Sunny and Shaan are very different. While Shaan is at the end of his career, Sunny is on the verge of starting out. Also their reasons for playing football are very different. For Shaan, it is a matter of life and death as this is his last season and also the fact that he wants to save his club from extinction. Sunny is not bothered by such considerations. Meanwhile the league proceeds and Southall gradually starts making people sit up and wonder. They are a team transformed as they learn the art of playing as a team. But just before the crucial last two games, one of which they need to win to become league champs, the blow falls as Sunny signs up for another club. This move has been triggered by the Southall council, which wants to go ahead with its plans of a mall and amusement park.



The move is seen as being anti-national by the team members, who have an emotional showdown with Sunny. But all's fine in the end, as Sunny comes back to play the final match. The result is, of course inevitable. The progress of the film's story line is quite predictable, right down to Sunny's reconciliation with his father. What the film lacks is that sense of mission that a Lagaan or a Chak De India have. What Goal has in its place is Southall United, the club that they are trying to save from the goras. What does not quite touch the heart is a bunch of desis in London, trying to save their club from the clutches of the white man. Then, the patriotic angle too is drawn in, and somehow that does not quite ring true. The characters, besides that of Arshad, Boman and John, fail to grab your imagination as a Kachra did in Lagaan or any one of the girls in Chak De. The rest are clichéd characters about the good and pure Hindustani, vis-à-vis the evil white man, is a little too hard to digest. The cause never seems to excite any emotion as well. Even Boman's character of the coach who redeems himself lacks the urgency of the coach of Chak De.



The actors do their best to bring alive their characters but are letdown by the script. All three, Arshad Warsi, John Abraham and Boman Irani, try their best but their roles lack any meat for them to sink their teeth into with gusto. They make the best of what they have and are the most endearing part of the film. Bipasha Basu is there as eye candy and she kind of fulfills that role very well.



As for the film's music, the title track is catchy and has a certain vibe to it. Billo Rani too is a very good number but has no place in the scheme of things in the movie. Its presence as an item song truly jars. But what is obvious from the film, is the hard work that the actors, John and Arshad specially put in – they do end up looking like professionals and do show a certain knack with the ball.



While the premise of the film is definitely promising – a bunch of Indian expats, trying to save their club from extinction, it's in the execution that film falters. It remains an average film and should be seen as such, despite the hype around surrounding it. ... More ... Collapse