Take a rubber band and stretch it, stretch it until it is so taunt that any further it will snap - In time limits, that would be 3hrs and 30 minutes, the duration of this movie. I once read somewhere, “the length of a film is directly related to the endurance of the human bladder”. With due respects to the director ( I quite loved his work in Swades), I wasn’t entirely convinced with the treatment of the subject. Firstly, the story is not a work of imagination, but a part of history which, a good number of us have already been fed with. Therefore, the focus should be the presentation. Secondly, we all know history is replete with details and to attempt to capture every bit of it is unnecessary and wasteful, in a span of a movie.
Lets talk about the execution. This is an epic of war and love . Recent times have seen a horde of such films and its natural that the mind tries to compare. Battles that look farcical …. trust me, a bunch of meek clowns running aimlessly at each other ?? Its a war !!, for heavens sake at least show some aggression and a hostile fervor. Costumes were ok but repeated. We have grown to expect some grandeur when it comes to such movies, but believe me, claiming to cast a 1000 dancers is just not it. There is so much that could have been done and Bollywood has the money.
I am a great fan of Aish and when I look at her, I look at her eyes. But sadly though, this time, there is only so much a make up can do to defy age.
Coming to the music, AR Rahman , my demigod . Seriously, his music is not for the casually curious coffee break listener, but it grows onto you. If you do accept that, you would love his work in the movie and Choreography wasn’t bad either. Hrithik does a good job, and his presence is a huge plus for the female crowd !
CarbonRipples rating : 2.5 Stubs 
The first para captures the essence of this movie…I would give it two stars – one for Hrithik who has done his best to carry the entire movie on his shoulder and the other for wonderful music from ARR. I didnt like the camera. Entire screen was filled up with people and the director seems to have spent most of the budget to get their costumes.The movie lacked the finesse – which showed up in the battle sequences and the sword fights. Definitely I cant even think of comparing this with gladiator, 300 and the like, but that should have been the standard for historical movies. It fails miserably and to sum it up – Jodha Akbar is a 40 crore mega serial which fails to evoke emotions !!!