Definition:
HISTORY, n. An account mostly false, of events mostly unimportant, which are brought about by rulers mostly knaves, and soldiers mostly fools.
- Ambrose Bierce
Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake.
Robert Penn Warren
Anyone who believes you can't change history has never tried to write his memoirs.
- David Ben Gurion
I happened to watch Jodha Akbar this weekend inspite of all the controversies around it.
After awesome movies like Lagaan and Swadesh, I had better expectations from Ashutosh Gowrikar. The movie was worth a watch but not as thought provoking as Swadesh nor had the chutzpah of Lagaan.
The movie has been banned in Rajasthan, MP and a few other states. Historians (read politicians) claimed that history has been distorted in this case.
History definitely is not one of my strong points and I used the tool I use the most for my research.. Google :)
While Wikipedia showed Jodha as Akbar's wife and Salim's mother; other sites talked about the controversy being discussed. I could not get a real site that has documented history.
Some excerpts that I found are:
Abul Fazal wrote the Akbar Nama, Abdul Qadir Badayuni wrote the Mutakhabutawarikh and Nizamuddin Ahmed (also called Nizamuddin Bakshi) wrote the Tabqat-i-Akbari. None of them have mentioned 'Jodhabhai' in their books.
None of Akbar's 34 wives were named Jodhabai. Akbar married the former maharaja of Amer, Bharmal's elder daughter Karkbai alias Heer Kumar in Fatehpur Sikri on Feburary 6, 1562. Prince Salim was born in 1569. Jodhabai was the daughter of Moteraja Udai Singh and she would have been three years younger than Salim and hence, in no way could she have been his mother.
With all these controversies, I guess the movie should start with the disclaimer:
All roles played in this movie are fictitious. Any similarity to any person living or dead is just co-incidential ;)
On the other lines, it is true that Akbar did bring in a lot of reforms for the aam admi (with the budget a week ahead aam admi and taes are in everybody's mind). He tried to bring in religious harmony. His openess for the quest of truth in religion led to his founding of Din-i-ilahi.
Was Jodha bai the woman behind the tranformation of Akbar and the thought process leading to Din-i-ilahi!!!
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