I have seen the movie Jodhaa Akbar and must say was a brilliant film falling a little short of a masterpiece; I would say that because I love battle scenes and a couple of battle scenes in the movie were not great, but having said that the movie is just like a poetry. The directors vision to make a movie of this scale must be complimented, Hrithik was just brilliant in his potrayal as Jalaluddin Mohamed Akbar and Aishwarya was as beautiful as ever coupled with a restrained performance. The movie has too many things going for it including the music, the performance of the characters, and brilliant costumes and picturisation.
The question here is though about why was Jalaluddin Mohammed called 'Akbar' and the answer lies in the fact that even though Akbar was not literate at a very young age he understood that only inclusive politics and administration will enable him to become the first true emperor of Hindustan. A few examples of inclusive and secular rule are:
- 5 out of the nine ratnas in his court were Hindus
- Jodhaa bai was a Hindu and her son (Salim) became the next Mughal emperor
- Akbar abolished the pilgrim tax levied on non-muslims
- Akbar respected the Rajputs and his commander in chief was a Rajput Raja Man Singh
All this inclusive actions of made Akbar the true emperor of Hindustan. This brings a lingering question to my mind as to why when a Mughal aristocratic ruler 500 years ago could understand in an era where there was no concept of religious tolerance that our leaders of today cannot understand -- the concept of inclusive progress.
