Let me start by saying that I watch less than 5 "bollywood" movies a year. So my perspective comes from one of an Indian-American who is familiar with the culture but not immersed. I had seen Lagaan, Swades and enjoyed both thoroughly. So going into Jodhaa-Akbar, I had high expectations. Unfortunately they might have been too high.

The positives: The movie looks stunning. On par or better than any Hollywood epic. The actors are generally good (and obviously very good looking) and the dialogue is good. The songs themselves were decent although there were only 3-4.

The negatives: I didn't go in expecting to see an accurate historical portrayal or anything even close. I went in expecting to be entertained. So the fact that most of the story never happened is irrelevant. The biggest problem was that the movie didn't know what it wanted to be. Was it a history lesson? was it a love story? The movie dragged and the segues between the love story and the story of Akbar's rule were just awkward. At no point do I feel that Jodhaa and Akbar gave a damn about each other. Akbar feels like an angst filled teen and Jodhaa has 2 emotions: happy and angry/sad. Too many scenes that felt like they were just praising Akbar as opposed to making us actually think of Akbar as great.

I really wish they had dropped the entire subplot with Sujamal/Sharifuddin and concentrated on Akbar trying to woo Jodhaa and Jodhaa liking Akbar. And the movie dragged for ever.

I can't believe I asked for romance in a bollywood flick :)