08-20-2007, 06:51 AM
And yet, the Hindi films with a "historical" background continue to show the Great Mugal with a very favourable narrative - completely purging all the uncomfortable details - even developing them in the mould of generous and great rules. In the same line of 'Mugal-e-Azam', was recently made "Taj Mahal" (Did it come out?) based upon Shah-Jahan.
Director Akbar Khan says:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'I don't believe that Shah Jahan and Jahan Ara shared an incestuous relationship,' says the director of Bollywood's costliest film.
To make a magnum opus on Taj Mahal is no joke. No one knows that better than film-maker Akbar Khan. That's precisely why Bollywood's most expensive film, Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal â An Eternal Love Story, has already taken over two years to make.
Ask Akbar Khan why he is taking so long and he immediately cites how a period film like Devdas had taken three years to be made. "Even a properly made modern-day film should take this time. Mine is a magnum opus. I will release the film only when I am sure that it has the authentic feel that I want," he said from Mumbai.
Apart from the difficulty of getting all his cast together, Khan also had a tough time deciding which historical narrative he would choose to depict Shah Jahan's love story. "I had read up historical texts including Akbarnamah, Jahangirnamah and other works by foreign scholars. Europeans have a strange way of interpreting things in their own light. They sense incest even when they are describing a father-daughter relationship between Shah Jahan and Jahan Ara. I couldn't accept this interpretation. I have shown a loving relationship between the father and the daughter. My Jahan Ara is immensely dedicated to her father and there is no room for incest in their relationship," he said.
Debunking myths was another area that Khan had to address. Stories of how Shah Jahan had got the fingers of all the 22,000 workers who had constructed the Taj amputed are widely in circulation even today. "To have their fingers amputed can only be a figment of imagination," he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...701444.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now the same Hindi film makers woud make all the efforts to show the Hindu history in the worst light. They would even invent stuff to do that.
Director Akbar Khan says:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->'I don't believe that Shah Jahan and Jahan Ara shared an incestuous relationship,' says the director of Bollywood's costliest film.
To make a magnum opus on Taj Mahal is no joke. No one knows that better than film-maker Akbar Khan. That's precisely why Bollywood's most expensive film, Akbar Khan's Taj Mahal â An Eternal Love Story, has already taken over two years to make.
Ask Akbar Khan why he is taking so long and he immediately cites how a period film like Devdas had taken three years to be made. "Even a properly made modern-day film should take this time. Mine is a magnum opus. I will release the film only when I am sure that it has the authentic feel that I want," he said from Mumbai.
Apart from the difficulty of getting all his cast together, Khan also had a tough time deciding which historical narrative he would choose to depict Shah Jahan's love story. "I had read up historical texts including Akbarnamah, Jahangirnamah and other works by foreign scholars. Europeans have a strange way of interpreting things in their own light. They sense incest even when they are describing a father-daughter relationship between Shah Jahan and Jahan Ara. I couldn't accept this interpretation. I have shown a loving relationship between the father and the daughter. My Jahan Ara is immensely dedicated to her father and there is no room for incest in their relationship," he said.
Debunking myths was another area that Khan had to address. Stories of how Shah Jahan had got the fingers of all the 22,000 workers who had constructed the Taj amputed are widely in circulation even today. "To have their fingers amputed can only be a figment of imagination," he said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/artic...701444.cms<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now the same Hindi film makers woud make all the efforts to show the Hindu history in the worst light. They would even invent stuff to do that.