Jodhaa Akbar is Ashutosh Gowariker’s soon to be released film and is based on the love story of the Rajput princess Jodhaa and the famous Mughal Emperor, Akbar. The music of this movie makes a big splash, typical AR Rehman style. Ever since the promos have been aired, I have been eagerly waiting for the album to be released. Without further ado, let’s get down to the nitty gritty!
The first track of the album, Azeem-O-Shahenshah opens with lots of earth shattering beats and fan fare. It transports you back to the Mughal Era and makes you want you dance, in a way. It’s been sung by Mohammad Aslam and Bony Chakravarthy. Never heard either of them singing before. Rehman does a good job of mixing some soft tunes in between his trademark beats.
The second track, Jash-e-Bahaara, has been beautifully sung by Javed Ali. It’s a very melodious and romantic song. I have seen the song on Youtube (Click here) and Aishwarya Rai looks really pretty. I’m not really sure if Hrithik Roshan suits the role of Akbar. Hrithik just looks like Hrithik! Towards the end of the album, you’ll also find an instrumental theme based on this song.
The third track, Khwaja Mere Khwaja, has been sung by the maestro, A.R Rehman himself and is my favorite 😀 It reminds me of Ishq Bina from Taal and Piya Haji Ali from Fiza. I have always felt that AR Rehman excels when it comes to Sufi music. I don’t know how he manages to compose these songs, because this genre is definitely one of the most difficult to even conceptualize. I’m a sucker for A.R Rehman’s voice because it’s quite distinct and a little “cracked”, if you know what I mean.
Sonu Nigam and Madhusree have done a decent job in the next song, Inn Lamho Ke Daaman Mein. I didn’t really like this song much, because it gets spoilt by some unnecessary strong vocals. The entire effect is not very good. The last song, Man Mohanna, which has been sung by Bela Shende, is also quite dull compared to the first few tracks in the album. You might like it if you are fine with devotional songs.
All in all, I highly recommend this album. It lives up to the expectations of AR Rehman fan(atics)s and is one of the best Hindi Movies albums to be released in a long time. The last that I liked was Guru, which had also been composed by AR Rehman. 🙂
I’m not sure if I’ll watch the movie- I don’t fancy Hrithik Roshan trying his level hard to portray the role of Akbar. Wasn’t Akbar a little rotund? Hrithik should have put on some weight, at least. We could have expected some more perfectionism from him. Anyway, this is a music review and I don’t intend to spoil it by talking about Hrithik Roshan.
You can download the album from this link.
Rating: 4/5
Let’s end this review by watching a trailer from the movie:
Time and Again 
Okay, this is too much.. actually, being an ARR fan … I cant stop my self buying the cd or downloading it …….. 😛 which is better u think .. hmm you are making me crazy about this now… 😛 I really really want that CD nowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Oh yea, correct the spelling of Role .. u have written rold 😉 .. and I think Hritik suits well as Akbar :)well thats my view 😉 … its because we have too much of his chocolate looks .. thats because we are not ready to accept him as Akbar or any serious roles.. hmmm final word should be after watching the movie 🙂
Ruhi: Thanks for this. Not that Bollywood films are on my radar anyway, I have to say finding out two people I intensely dislike are thrown together in one film is good warning to stay away. Thanks for that tip 😉
Oh! I guess I should get the cd ! the songs are great !
I hope the movie will be good too !
Dinsan- I’ve been listening to Jodhaa Akbar non stop on my iPod all evening. Crazy, eh? The songs are really good- except for the two I mentioned. You can listen to them online before downloading (the link’s in my post) if you want.
I don’t think I’ll be watching the movie though. Can’t tolerate Ash and Hrithik. They need to do some course in acting. 😉 Now don’t beat me up.
Shefaly- I share your dislike for Bollywood movies. If you take a look at my Cinema page, you’ll realize that. 🙂 I’ve just written 2-3 Hindi movie reviews and I gave them very bad ratings, so much so that people almost start fighting. (You saw what happened with the Taare Zameen Par review).
But I don’t know why, I can never stop myself from listening to AR Rehman songs- Hindi, Tamil whatever. Like they say, music has no language. 🙂
Xylene- Great! Hope you trust my review…don’t beat me up if you don’t like the songs. 🙂
@Shefaly: I intensely dislike Aishwarya. Mostly I dislike the over-hype around such an incompetent actress. I am neutral about Hrithik though.
@Ruhi: I am also unsure how the movie will turn
out. and unlike Shefaly (or you, if you too dislike them) , I do enjoy Hindi movies, along with others. I can’t pooh-pooh the entire Hindi movie genre. 🙂
@ Poonam Sharma:
Yeah…I dislike Hindi movie (99% of them) 😛 I do like Hindi movie music…mostly, the old ones though. But I’m a sucker for AR Rehman’s compositions. You need to listen to all the songs if you already haven’t. And why has your blog not been updated since ages? I’m still waiting for that post on movies. 😦
I can’t say much about the music…..
as I am a big fan of Mithun da and Bappi da…and Anu malick… my latest fads were Dum laga from dil dosti etc. and move your body from Johnny gaddar…
But i must say the costumes of this movie are going to be great….
and yes we all know where the songs can be downloaded from, R you should respect AR Rehman’s music…this is plagiarism…
Lawyer, Ronnie Screwwala may sue you…
😉
Anurag- Are you serious about Bappi and Mithun da?! 😮
Oh yes !! I never lie…I love Bappi da..and if Mithun Da is there in Song, its like Sone Pe Suhaga…
I am a disco dancer….danchikk dinchikk…
I am looking forward to seeing this movie and thanks for the music review. Hritik is a good actor and I think that he should play the role well. Lets see.
@ Poonam: You are reading too much into what I said, which was ‘Bollywood films are not on my radar’. I do not have any views on the genre as a whole but the logistics of seeing a Bollywood film for me are onerous enough for me not to bother watching the mostly-mediocre fare. If something is good, then I make efforts to get it from our local version of Netflix.
@Ruhi: My post is still in drafts…not getting a continuous half an hour or one hour time to write. Perhaps will post it by weekend.
yes, I like Rehman. But I have a strange affliction yaar.when music is on I stray away with my own thoughts, I drift away from music and do not pay enough attention it deserves.
@Shefaly: Did not read too much. 🙂 Just that you don’t like too many Bollywood movies.
I’m an A.R. Rahman fan too and since you’re saying the songs are very good, I will give them a try.
The movie looks impressive and I might just watch it even though it’s got Aishwarya in it. I don’t know but I really hate that woman. Now that she’s married Abhishek, I hate her even more. And Abhishek has started figuring on my hate list too.
I’ve seen the promo’s. When I went to watch TZP, they showed the promo of this movie as it was getting released. Then it got postponed by 3 months or something like that. Though Hrithik looks impressive as a Mughal emperor, I’m afraid his voice might kill the entire effect. He doesn’t have a very manly tone but then again, if the character is depicted well, nothing can stop the movie from being a success. This one’s got so many people. There’s an Ashutosh Gowariker who has done Lagaan and Swades. Then all the chicks will go watch it for Hrithik and the guys for Ash. Even if the movie is bad, I guess it’ll clear the production cost. You’ve got to learn not to expect much from the so called great directors after what happened with Saawariya.
Anurag, Nita- thanks 🙂 All the best with the movie. I’m going to skip it.
Poonam- Yes, I can understand. Take your time. 🙂 I know what you mean by straying away with the music…everything else around me stops moving as soon as I start listening to music.
Ish- 100% True. I don’t expect anything actually. I won’t even watch this movie. Never liked Lagaan. I saw Swades a couple of months back and really liked it. But I don’t think this movie will do well because you see the promos…Hrithik’s voice modulation is hopeless. He doesn’t suit the role one bit. If he looks so unimpressive in the trailer, I don’t know how he’ll look like in the movie. Yes, you’re right about the fan part…their fans will make sure that the movie recovers its production costs at least.
Okay…so nobody cares for Ashutosh Gowarikar…
Well i belive Jodha Akbar belongs to this man- Ashutosh Gowarikar and i really love him….
definitely i ‘am not gonna miss it…
Gowarikar has got an authentic style of his own…which makes him an important director in present day bollywood…
By the way, music was good…
ARR rockzz..(!)…while he is doing ok in Hindi…his std is going down in tamil…doing all ugly shit….
Arjun- Agree, Gowariker has a nice style…but I didn’t like any other movie except Swades. The music is definitely very good. 🙂 AR Rehman hardly ever disappoints. This album is better than Guru and the music befits the Mughal Period extremely well. I don’t know a lot about his Tamil albums, except for same famous ones like New York Nagaram, Kandukondain, Boys etc., so I can’t comment on that aspect.
HI. just tumbled on ur blog. GOD!!!! its great. 🙂
regarding Jodha Akbar, I think the music might sound a litttttle better after watching the movie. But, yes the songs do have a different appeal.
@ mashedmusings:
Hey thanks for your comment and welcome to my blog. 🙂
Yes, you might like the music better after actually seeing it on big screen, I agree. It’s difficult to conceptualize how it will look like. But I feel that in a traditional sense, music shouldn’t be dependent upon anything ‘visual’, right?
Yes, this is how it used to happen in good old days, but nowadays if the well picturized songs climb the charts really fast…and if the movie is a hit..then Jackpot.
But yes, I agree with you. you should listen to music with ur eyes shut. 🙂
@ Amit:
You made a very interesting point there- “but nowadays if the well picturized songs climb the charts really fast”; so even if the song’s not really melodious, the visuals compensate for it. 🙂 You’ve just identified the main problem with almost all the Hindi movies out there. They won’t progress further until they get over the “musical” hangover.
I was waiting for the album to be uploaded to ApunKaBollyWood 🙂
Am downloading now. Thanks for the update.
Coming to the movie, I’ve liked Ashutosh’ Gowarikar movies. Although the story in both his movies develops in almost a similar fashion (from protagonist point), yet both were good. I just have a few concerns.
It’s a period movie around the Moghul period. Urdu wasn’t developed yet. Mostly Arabic/Persian was spoken in the Courts (AFAIK). Considering it, will both the leads be able to render proper tallaffuz? Will the dialogues be able to create the era… the way they did in Mughal-e-Aazam?
To be honest, I don’t have much doubts on Hrithik’s tallaffuz (accent/pronounciation), but Aishwarya is a big concern 😐
The Umrao Jaan remake was a big big disaster. (I couldn’t watch past 15 minutes). Please note I am a die hard fan of Muzaffar Ali’s 1981 classic. I once tried reading the english translation of the Mirza Ruswa’s Umrao Jan Ada by Khushwant Singh, but couldn’t. The essence of the poetry was lost in translation. 😦
And yes. You’re absolutely right. The kind of image that we always have had in our minds for Akbar (which closely resembles to Prithviraj Kapoor 🙂 ) isn’t quite the way Hrithik looks…. and it doesn’t really matter if Akbar was more like Hrithik in real life. 😛
@ Bipin 3~ Upadhyay:
I don’t think we should even be thinking about the language part here; Hindi movies are quite illogical in that they even make goras talk in Hindi- so forget about Arabic/Persian, or even pure Urdu. I have doubts regarding both Hrithik and Ash and won’t be watching this movie. 🙂
I’ve been so out of touch with these things that I didn’t realize the album was out until I read this post. Damn!
Anyway, I liked the first song — Azeem… and the next one, Kehne ko. Actually, most of them are pretty good. Rahman Rocks!
Shravan- Yes, the music’s quite good..agree. 🙂
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Rahiman is overrated. He should stop singing publicly. He just does not sound pleasant. From his compositions, only one song stood out from the rest and that was Man Mohana. The only reason it stood out was because of the impressive background score supporting the song. This score was as good as any one has heard since the beggining of film music worldover. The singer in fact went out of tune and back on track before going out of tune again and recovering. This happened during the drag. However, the quality of the score was such that it could be overlooked. There were some precious few moments during Azeem-o-shaan 0-shahenshah, when promises turned into threats. Good use of the drums and the classical female chorals. I’d rate the album 4 out of 10 and that is generous.
@ Sir Vibhudi Aatmapudi:
Thanks for your insight. I really didn’t like Man Mohana. I think that was one of the weakest tracks of the album. About Rahman’s voice quality…if you don’t like the way he sings…then well…I dont know what else to tell you except this- Please stop listening to his music then. Probably you can’t appreciate his style.
Cool Blog I like your review! Would yo consider going a review/blog of a new age album?
My Group Phoenix Rising Phoenix Rising is releasing a CD of music
called ‘Ascension’ specifically designed for relaxation,
meditation, massage, and de-stressing in a tight world. In addition to Wendy Loomis and Monica Williams, ‘Ascension’ will
include 6 amazing artists: Jennifer Lim (guzheng), Debra Podjed
(tablas), Jessica Styler (hang drum), Suellen Primose (cello), Irina
Mikhailova (vocals), and Karen Segal (guitar). There is a track from the CD up on http://www.myspace.com/bayareacontemporarymusic
Let me know if that is something that interest you and I can send you the tracks via email!
Have a great weekend!