Movies As Teachers For Learning The Urdu Language

I find movies to be fascinating tools for learning languages. Rarely are their dialogues cut from the same starched-stiff cloth as a Wren & Martin dinner jacket (unless the characterization requires it to be so). Far removed from the standard fare served in nearly every Learn-To-Converse-In book ever published movies talk about more interesting subjects like love, hurt, machinations, revenge, stillness, discovery, new experiences et al.  That is why movies are a great way to get a feel for the natural cadence and sounds of the language in question. They also serve as fantastic instructors for the appropriate use of idioms and phrases. Usually, they are also refulgent gateways to the culture of the peoples whose language one intends to learn, making the whole process of learning a language fun, real and memorable. Next to talking to native speakers of a language, this is one of my favourite ways of learning a new tongue.

To be sure, movie dialogues aren't the most kosher way of learning the grammar of a new language; they can be too quick, too softy whispered, too incomplete to always follow immaculately but then they more than make up by providing reference to context, diction and accent stress clues as aids to learning. Needless to say some very rudimentary vocabulary is essential to follow the dialogues but then grammar, especially syntax (word-order), can be picked up through the dialogues. One caveat here, if one's objective is to learn the 'Standard' register of a language (usually spotted in the newspapers, official reports and legal papers), then movies should not be one's primary source. They can at best only serve as an aid and should not be considered a substitute for a grammar compendium and formalized instructions.

Luckily, in this post-YouTube era most of us can easily access news, movies, talk shows, songs, regional language channels and even language instruction videos. Podcasts and internet streamed radio stations are also decent alternatives, though they come sans the visual experience. Another great feature one can make use of is 'subtitles'. While watching the movie online or through a software on your computer, simply turn on the subtitles in your target language for any movie and read the translations on the screen while listening to dialogues in the target language. YouTube even allows for slowing down the speed of the video playback (if this helps you).  However this may only work for those popular languages for which subtitles are commonly available. I often find myself turning on the subtitles in some language to English movies. In my books, this is a very special boon for language learners.

I think I first fell in love with this idea when as a kid, one lazy summer holiday afternoon, the VHS tape* of the Bollywood movie Amar Akbar Anthony I pushed into the VCR player turned out to be dubbed in Arabic.

Note to reader - a VHS tape is a magic device from a long gone era; often passed on with reverentially trembling hands from one generation to the next one, these antediluvian pen drives would be usually traded as if made of 18k gold on the local residential kids' exchanges.

Best Movies To Learn The Urdu Language

While earlier a majority of Bollywood movies had dialogues in the language called Hindustani (a slightly-shifted-towards-Urdu middle ground in the continuum between Urdu and Hindi) nowadays the dialogues are becoming more "street friendly". It is possible that Hindustani itself is changing rapidly and that these new dialogues merely reflect this change. Rather than as a chicken-egg problem, I see Hindustani and the language of Bollywood dialogues as part of a mutually enriching feedback mechanism.

Again, in order to extract the best from these Urdu movies, it is advisable for the learner to have a grasp of rudimentary Urdu/Hindustani vocabulary.

Click on the image for the trailer/song/movie snippet (if available). In no particular order of preference:

In Custody / Muhaafiz (1993)

 A movie by Merchant Ivory, based on a novel by Anita Desai, it is the story of a Hindi language professor's quest to keep alive his greatest love, Urdu, by recording for posterity the works of one of the last great, on his deathbed, poets of the Urdu language. The movie is beautifully shot and rife with visual metaphors of the demise of Urdu language. Brilliant ensemble cast of Shashi Kapoor, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi, Shushma Seth, Neena Gupta, Parikshit Sahni and Tinnu Anand, not one weak scene in this movie. Almost all of the ashaar featured in the movie are by Faiz Ahmed Faiz and some of the ghazals are by Behzad Lucknavi

Pakeezah (1972)

This movie by Kamal Amrohi will be in nearly everyone's list of best romantic/tragic movies. Portraying the trials and tribulations of the life of a courtesan (very much on the same lines as Umrao Jaan), the tale ends with a heart wrenching twist of fate. Kamal Amrohi also wrote the dialogues for Mughal-E-Azam and wrote and directed Razai Sultana, two movies acclaimed for their scriptwriting amongst other things. The ghazals from Pakeezah are considered a part of modern Indian culture, especially the celebrated Chalte Chalte which was penned by Kaifi Azmi.

Umrao Jaan (1981)

One of my favourite novels and movies. Rekha did an unbelievably masterful job with her Urdu diction for this movie; it was flawless. The second of courtesan stories in our list, the story is set in nearly decrepit Nawabi Awadh of the 1840s-1850s. Deeply touching and so memorable, the ghazals have been penned by Shahryar, a professor of Urdu at Aligarh muslim University. The only marginally light hearted melody in this movie, Zindagi Jab Bhi, which is about separation, gives you a sense of the tone of the rest of ghazals. And yet everyone, including me, loves them because they speak of the ever repeating story of our lives. Check out the novel by Mirza Ruswa, it's written in a very conversational and easy to access style. My English translation of the Urdu ghazal Yeh Kya Jagah Hai Doston from the movie is here. The entire script for the movie is in Nastaliq Urdu is available here.

Umrao Jaan (2006)

This much vilified 2006 remake may be weak in terms of acting and song writing but it is absolutely top notch in terms of dialogues. Well researched, it is a must see for those who wish to take a detailed dekko into Luknavi Urdu, Adab and Tehezeb of the 1800s. Interestingly, Shabana Azmi played the role of Khanum Jaan (the brothel madam) in this 2006 version, while her mother, Shauqat Azmi played the same character in the 1981 version.

Shatranj Ke Khiladi / The Chess Players (1977)

Satyajit Ray's film adaptation of Munishi Premchand's Urdu translation of Munshi Premchand's Hindi story on the abysmal decay of Indian elite society. Munishi Premchand often did self-translations of his works and he tells the story in very different ways in the two version: Hindi and Urdu, perhaps to give two slightly different messages to two segments of readers. Like Umrao Jaan, Shatranj Ke Khiladi too is set in Mutiny-era Lucknow. The movie follows two chess-mad nawaabs who, oblivious to all the political and personal tragedies around them, are obsessed with playing yet another game of chess. Superb thespian skills on display by Shabana Azmi, Saaed Jaffrey, Sanjeev Kumar, Amjad Khan and a cameo by some Jurassic-era chap called Richard Attenborough who keeps babbling about the Nawaab's Mutaa Wives :D  The entire script is available here in Nastaliq Urdu.

Ek Ruka Hua Faisla (1986)

Probably a surprise addition to this list for most people. A nearly scene by scene copy of the 1957 hit, 12 Angry Men, this movie has no courtesans, no Mughal princes, no ghazals, no tehezeeb and no adab. But it does have loads and loads of very cleanly spoken simple Urdu dialogues, from amuman to maaqool shaks and everything in between. The dialogue does sound made up but then this isn't really a movie review. What works in favour of EkRuka Hua Faisla are a known plot, easy to follow dialogues and repeated use of many Urdu words and phrases. Most of the actors are seasoned theatre and film players which translates into good and measured Urdu diction.

Bobby Jasoos (2014)

I like Bobby Jasoos for its Deccani (Hyderabadi) Urdu. For a considerable time in its early history (fondly referred to as Nash-o-Numa) Urdu developed its own unique image as Rekhta in the courts and bazars of Deccan before taking on the Urdu glean we have come to know and love in Delhi and then in Lucknow. Up until the mid 1800s both the names Rekhta and Urdu were sometimes used interchangeably for the Urdu language; Mirza Ghalib in one of his shers observed رختے کے تم ھی نھیں ھو استاد غالب / کھتیں ھیں کھ اگلے زمانے میں یک میر تھا There is something very endearing and heart warming about Hyderabadi Urdu; I hope to gain a certain level of proficiency in speaking it. Bobby Jasoos is a fun film and makes for great dialogues.

Garm Hawa (1974)

A soul searching statement on the impact of partition on those who chose to stay back in India. Very few such movies have been made on the post-Independence era. The towering figure of Balraj Sahni leads a brilliant caste to deliver some of the most credible performances in India cinema. Kaifi Azmi and the great Ismat Chughtai wrote the screenplay and the story for Garm Hawa, which alone gives this a very high place in my echelon of Urdu movies. Great effort has been made to lend realism through the choice of different registers of Urdu speech (different vocabulary) for different characters based on their region, social class and age. The mesmerizing Sufi song Salim Chisti from Garm Hawa, along with Aaj Rang Hai from Junoon and Khawaja Mere Khawaja from Jodhaa Akbar, is my favourite BollywoodSufi piece.

Other movies which could have been part of this list but didn't make it (entirely due to my excellent skills in lethargy):

Mughal E Azam, Razia Sultan, Gazal, Taj Mahal, Junoon.

Two important points here: First, this is not an exhaustive list by any means. I keep discovering new and brilliant Urdu movies all the time. Second, I have extremely limited access to Pakistani movies and hence, sadly, that entire universe of Pakistani Urdu movies is untouched here. Hopefully, the latter problem will be addressed soon.

I fervently hope that people keep making such beautiful Urdu movies in the years to come.

If you have any doubts about any dialogues from any Urdu movie or want to learn / discuss more feel free to leave a comment and I shall get back to you.

William Jones aka Yunis Uksfardi, Oxford and Persian

William Jones urf Yunis Uksfardi, Oxford and the Persian Language

Most people know of William Jones' superhyperparanormal command of scores of languages, precocious childhood and ever more prodigious adulthood. Most also know that he was the founding father of the famous Asiatic Society of Bengal. However, few are aware that William Jones also went around by the nom de plume Yunis Uksfardi.

In 1771 William Jones wrote a book on Persian Grammar. On the inner title page of this Persian Grammar, William Jones wrote his name in Persian text as Yunis Uksfardi. The sheer sense of wow which I got the first time I encountered this Persian rendition of William Jones' name can not be described. I think it was akin to suddenly finding a small fantastic treasure buried under one's bed. 

Uksfardi obviously comes from Oxford and refers, perhaps, to the deep sense of attachment that William Jones may have had for the University of Oxford. He seemed to treasure his association with the University of Oxford so much that he selected Oxford rather than his place of birth, Westminster, as his last name in Persian. Perhaps he took up Uksfardi as the second part of his pen name because it was at Oxford that he learnt Arabic and then Persian under the tutelage of a Syrian native, Mirza of Aleppo, whom William Jones chanced upon in London and requested him to help him learn these tongues. William Jones was very highly regarded at Oxford and won quite a few accolades during his time there. In 1780 he even contested in the Parliament for the seat from Oxford.

Why did William Jones choose Yunis as his first name though? Some are of the opinion that Jones is a Welsh contraction of John (or of son of John). In this case William Jones had two choices for rendering John into Persian (Arabic):

Youhanna - the Christian Arab version of the name John

Yahya - the Islamic Arab version of the name John 

He swept aside both options in favour of Yunis. There has to be a reason for this choice.

But why Yunis, why?

One gets an idea of William Jones' inclination towards the re-discovery of Ancient Oriental knowledge from the (celebrated) Preface to his Grammar of the Persian Language. The Preface is truly an introduction to the Persian language as it goes into the details of describing the Persian language as well as of the development of the language. He extols the virtues of Oriental knowledge and also denies any validity of the various excuses the British of his time used to make for not showing an interest in Persian culture; ranging from being too busy to waste time on Persian to Persian being a language of barbarians and or of believers in Mahomet,  to everything else in between. Bear in mind that in 1771, warfare between the fractious European powers and the Ottoman Empire was still very common indeed and also that European imperialism was now taking firm shape. William Jones cites Voltaire's unbridled appreciation of Persian literature in support of his ideas. He goes on to explain how Persian has started becoming very important for the British in India for good governance and politics as all court correspondence, firmans and petitions are in Persian and every British official in the Indian courts must be able to hold his own when it comes to reading and writing in proper Persian without resorting to Munshis. This book on Persian Grammar is clearly targeted at the British officials in India. I think I remember reading somewhere that William Jones wrote this book at the request of a director of the East India Company who wanted a Persian manual for the EIC officers. Earlier they had to rely solely on the Indian Munshis for learning Persian and other Indian languages. However, soon after, the British realised the importance of employing local dialects rather than Persian or Sanskrit while conversing with the commoners. To this end, Fort William College was established in Calcutta at the turn of the 19th century. The British of course, sounded the death knell for Persian in India when they outlawed its use as an official language of British India around half a century after the publication of the first edition of William Jones' Persian Grammar.

In his Preface, William Jones laments the fact that he does not have enough time to write an accompanying history of Persian literature. William Jones, of course had earlier already translated many books on Persian history from Persian into European languages. Perhaps in the title pages of these texts also he may have given his name as Yunis Uksfardi. He gives pointers to Europeans on which intermediate and advanced texts to study in order to extend their basic learning ("the first book I would recommend is... Gulistan, the Bed of Roses..."). William Jones informs the reader that if the learner follows his advice then he will be able to correspond with any prince in India and with any commoner within a year of starting his studies. He also suggests that mastery of the various aspects of Arabic (Arabick) will be completely essential for attaining truly dizzying heights in the knowledge of Persian.

Although William Jones' Persian Grammar is good as a book for learning Persian but it's not the best.. Perhaps it was the best book of its kind in English when it came out but then it was soon eclipsed by other Persian manual. Lt. Col D C Phillott's magnificent book comes to mind immediately as a later day example of a much more exhaustive text, but there is no doubt that William Jones's book was the path finder for learning Persian through English. William Jones' Persian Grammar proved so useful and famous that it has to date never really gone out of publication (latest edition 2010). For me, the true value of the book lies not so much in the main didactic section but rather in the Preface, which William Jones uses very well to converse with his reader and to put forth his case for the study of Oriental subjects.

I end by quoting the last paragraph from Yunis Uksfardi's Preface to his Persian Grammar:

" As to the literature of Asia, it will not, perhaps, be essentially useful to the greater part of mankind, who have neither leisure nor inclination to cultivate so extensive a branch of learning; but the civil and natural history of such mighty empires as India, Persia, Arabia and Tartary, cannot fail of delighting those who love to view the great picture of the universe, or to learn by what degrees the most obscure states have risen to glory, and the most flourishing kingdoms sunk to decay; the philosopher will consider those works as highly valuable  by which he may trace the human mind in all its appearances, from the rudest to the most cultivated state. and the man of taste will undoubted be pleased to unlock the stores of native genius, and to gather the flowers of unrestrained and luxuriant fancy"

I still can't get over Yunis Uksfardi being the nom de plume of William Jones. I think it would have been fantastic to meet him.


To know more about:

Yunis Uksfardi, I mean about...William Jones

LSR Krishna Sastry's quick read of a book on Sir William Jones

Wikipedia on William Jones

The collected works on Sir William Jones at Archive.org

A Grammar of the Persian Language (1771 edition)

A Grammar of the Persian Language (1828 edition) - this one has some useful footnotes to the Preface and the font is more legible.


Asiatic Society of Bengal
The official website - They have done a decent job of ensuring that some of the old manuscripts of India and scholarly papers remain in circulation.
Their history in their words

Learn Persian
Lt Col D. C. Phillott's fantastic book of Persian - Higher Persian Grammar (1917). Make sure you read the Introduction.
And while you're at it, also consider reading his true treasure, a book on Hindustaani Idioms,  Khazana - i Muhaawaraat (Treasure of Idioms) - highly highly recommended.

Or just check any of the 50 trillions websites which help you to learn Persian.

Dastangoi Perfomance - Dastan e Chouboli

My Recording of a Dastangoi Performance of Dastan e Chouboli

I had the good fortune of attending a very entertaining and engaging Dastangoi performance of  Shri Vijaydan Detha's Rajasthani folk tale: Dastan e Chouboli in Feb 2012. The performers were Danish Husain and Mahmood Farooqui and the performance was held at Epicentre, Gurgaon.

I had decided to shot this performance as my first-ever video. Apart from the learning I gained in shooting and editing I also gained hand on experience with concurrent sound recording (a tough job indeed).

Camera: Nikon D7000

Quality: Full HD 1080 29fps

Run Time: 68 minutes+

Mic: Shortgun mic mounted on camera body

This performance is based on a great Rajasthani folk tale by Shri Vijaydan Detha. You can learn more about Princess Chouboli and her vow of silence here at Katha's website which have published a fantastic cloth bound two volume translation of the Chouboli stories.

I love stories and Dastangoi is a great traditional Indian form of story telling. Other than the traditional Dastangoi tales, these days one can see Dastangoi performances based on modern themes as well.

You can read more about the great Dastangoi art tradition here at the Dastangoi blog and at the Facebook page to keep updated about Dastangoi events you may like to attend.

This reminds me I should start reading that copy of Bagh O Bahar I've had with me since the beginning of time...

Daastaan - e - Amir Hamza and Hamzanama

A sketch I made quite a few years back, copied out from a miniature painting on Dasatan - e - Amir Hamza, an epic story of the trials and deeds of prophet Muhammad's uncle Hamza. All Islamic sources unanimously agree that the real Hamza idb Adb Al Muttalib, the Prophet's coeval uncle , died in the Battle of Uhud in 625 A.D. However Hamza's swashbuckling-hero-like qualities and the narratives of real journeys he may have made all over the Middle East, Iran, Turan and the Indian Sub-Continent have lived on in the tradition of Dasatan - e - Amir Hamza in Persian literature and other literatures which have a Persian influence.

This illustration shown above has been copied from one of the greatest illustrated books ever produced, the Hamzanama of Emperor Akbar. This book is a truly phenomenal piece of work. The 15 years long production of Akbar's Hamzanama is considered to be a seminal event in the history of Indian art as it initiated the radical propelling of the tradition of Mughal miniatures to the top echelons of world art. While on the Mughal subject,  it is interesting to note that the different Hamza epics frequently refers to Amir Hamza as Sahib - i - Qiraani, which means Lord of the Fortuitous Conjunction. This title was also used by Mughal chroniclers for their founder Timur. I have written a post on the titles used by Timur here. This takeover of Hamza's title by Timur or assigning of a common title to both personalities for reasons of providing an association is something which has always intrigued me.

Stories from Dastan - e - Amir Hamza are regularly performed on the Indian Sub-Continent and in South-East Asia by dastangoi performers and are quite popular with various groups of audience. Be sure to check out a Dastangoi performance of Dastan - e - Amir Hamza whenever you get an oppourtunity, it's worth it.

I didn't want to write much about the Dastan - e - Amir Hamza as it really is quite popular; I just wanted to share my love for a wonderful fantasy story. The following websites give a lot of information about this great epic:

Wikipedia on Dastan - e - Amir Hamza

Smithsonian Institution - Highly recommended, very beautiful and visual website which uses images from the original Hamzanama of Akbar to introduce the story. The illustration above is also on the introduction page of the Smithsonian Institution's website.

Victoria & Albert Museum holds Akbar's Hamzanama. This website gives some details of the book and also provides a glimpse of the great book.

An academic discussion on the format, size and nature of Akbar's Hamzanama. Here (website) and (pdf)

Tilsim - e - Hoshruba - Nice website on a late 19th century Urdu recasting of  Dastan - e - Amir Hamza by Indian writers who vastly expanded and changed the original premise of the Dastan. This work has been recently translated into English.

You can read more about the great Dastangoi art tradition here

And here's a fantastic Dastangoi performance I shot in Feb 2012

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu9GqO98Ukg&feature=plcp

It's official folks, we're a 7 billion strong family now

Many population based maps are available at this forum.

 

World Map (country size based on population figure) 

India Map (based on population figures), physical map given in faint outline.

Rajasthan, Gujarat, J&K, Uttranchal and most of the North East have shrunk drastically, whereas the metros have swelled up to hundreds of time of their physical size. Uttar Pradesh too has assumed a monstrous size.

Some observations on Perso-Arabic word choice in Urdu and Punjabi news broadcasts on All India Radio Delhi

14th July 2010 – AIR 666 MHz AM
Today in the morning I heard the news on the radio and discovered something interesting.  The radio channel AIR FM channel 666 MHz broadcasts the news in all of the 4 official languages of Delhi: English, Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi. Usually I just listen to the Hindi broadcast which runs for 15 minutes, and then the English broadcast of the same stories in the same words as the Hindi one, again runs for 15 minutes.

However sometimes I listen to the Punjabi and the Urdu news broadcasts as well, again 15 minutes each. The same stories, in the same order, with the same news matter, the same words just different languages .

Now what I noticed in today’s news broadcasts was that although often the Punjabi and the Urdu broadcasts use the same Perso-Arabic words for the same meaning in the same stories, in some places they use different words as well for the same stories.

Urdu and Spoken Punjabi have both developed in medieval India and both have been influenced by a common set of factors such as the Perso-Arabic lexicon of the ruling class, the Sufi tradition, the use of Persian as a court language in Medieval India and major cultural and literary overlaps. Although Urdu has taken on many more Perso-Arabic words than has Punjabi, there are still thousands of identical words shared by the two languages. My personal opinion is that upwards of 50% of the  Perso-Arabic words in Urdu are shared by many dialects of Punjabi as well. Coupled with the facts that the grammars of both Urdu and Punjabi are based on Prakarit, hence nearly identical, and that Hindustaani as a language is a common ground between both means that there is a high degree of mutual understanding between speakers of these languages.

Common Words
Both Punjabi and Urdu broadcasts used many common words and the list would be too long to mention here but I shall provide a few examples of special words to illustrate what I wrote above on the same stock of Perso-Arabic words being employed in these two languages:
Gawaahi (testimony), Hukoomat (governement), Tajweez (to suggest), Iqtasaadi (economic), Muhaiyya (make available), Intazaam (arrange), Qaanooni (legal), Dehshat Gard (terrorist) etcetera.
Here I have not mentioned any of the Perso-Arabic words used in regular parlance.

Different Words
On the day in question the choice of which Perso-Arabic to use in the same stories differed in the Punjabi and Urdu broadcast for the following words:

MEANING IN ENGLISH	WORD IN PUNJABI BROADCAST	WORD IN URDU BROADCAST
To Die A Martyr (verb)	شھید Shaheed	ھلاک Halaak
Counterpart (noun)	ھم عھدھ Hum Auhdah	ھم منصب Hum Mansab
Workers (noun)	ملازم Mulaazim	ارکان Arkaan

To be sure, all 6 of the words mentioned above are Perso-Arabic in origin as well as in their presently used forms. The respective news readers read out near identical sentences for the same stories; the only difference being the choice between which Perso-Arabic word to use from the two words given in the table above for a single meaning. The words from the Punjabi column are very close substitutes of the words from the Urdu column and vice-versa. The import remains the same regardless of which Perso-Arabic word has been used.
It is a case of so near and yet so far.

Let us look at these words in a bit more detail.


Same Words
1. The first word in the table, Shaheed is an Arabic word often used to denote an honourable death fighting for a cause, in other words it means to be martyred. It also stands for witness. Check out my earlier post on the relationship between the words Martyr and Witness.


2. The second word, Halaak is a Arabic word which is used to indicate total annihilation and destruction. In the sense of the totality of destruction Halak is close to the word Fanaa فناء though in India the former has a negative connotation and the latter is a Sufi term used for a positive annihilation of the self into the Creator.

3. The third word in the table, Hum Mansab is a hybrid Perso-Arabic construction. It is made up of a Persian word, Hum (means together/us) and an Arabic word Mansab (means rank). Hum Mansab means counterpart, another of the same rank/position.

4. The fourth word, Hum Auhdah, is a parallel to Hum Mansab and again, it is a hybrid Perso-Arabic construction. Auhdah is an Arabic word which means position//rank/social standing. Hence Hum Auhdah means of an equivalent position or standing.

From a lexicographical point of view both of these hybrid Perso-Arabic words are exact substitutes of each other when one want to use them in the sense of position in a hierarchy. Both Mansab and Auhdah can and do mean rank/position. The choice of which one to use should be germane to most speakers. However the second words of these hybrids help provide an explanation for the differing choice. Most speakers of Urdu, with a minimalistic level of Urdu education, would feel equally at home with both Mansab and Audah. On the other hand, nowadays the word Mansab has almost completely disappeared from the vocabulary of Hindustaani (or bazaar Urdu or filmy Urdu or call it what you will). Most speakers of Hindustaani would be uncomfortable with the word Mansab and would ponder over the import of this word. Most of these speakers would prefer the word Auhdah. As observed earlier, Punjabi is closer to Hindustaani that to Urdu. Hence the use of this word in the Punjabi broadcast. Now this explains why the Punjabi broadcast chooses to use Hum Audah. But then if these words are almost exact substitutes, why does the Urdu broadcast choose to use Hum Mansab?

Well it turns out these words are not exact substitutes all the times. Perhaps the preference for Mansab over Auhdah lies in the historical use of the word Mansab. Throughout Islamic history, in the various Islamic armies, Mansab has been the preferred word for rank. It was always used in the Medieval and Pre-Modern royal courts in the Sub Continent for official and military rank . In fact, the East India Company whole heartedly adopted this word for rank in its muster rolls and even incorporated the Pre-Mughal and Mughal rank of Mansabdaar as a rank of substance in its official military hierarchy. Some, or perhaps many, Urdu speakers would associate Auhdah more with social hierarchy and Mansab specifically with official hierarchy. I have always heard the Urdu broadcast choose Mansab over Auhdah when talking of the rank of a government official . Hence somewhere the more appropriate construction, Hum Mansab, is preferred over the almost there but not quite, Hum-Auhdah, while talking about officials of equivalent rank.
As a side, I would like to mention that speakers of Urdu and Hindustaani use many such hybrid Perso-Arabic words in everyday speech. Some common examples are Bey Shak (=certainly, Bey - Persian, Shak – Arabic), Naa Mumkin (=impossible, Na – Persian, Mumkin – Arabic), Bad Zaat (=bad character, Bad – Persian, Zaat – Arabic), Dast-e-Khatt (=signature, Dast-e – Persian with ezaafe, Khatt - Arabic), Bad Tameez (=unmannered, Bad – Persian, Tameez – Arabic), Hum Safar (=co-traveller, Hum – Persian, Safar – Arabic) etcetera. This feature of Urdu/Hindustaani wherein hybrid Perso-Arabic words are employed, is one of the reasons why some people draw parallels between Urdu and Ottoman Turkish and Urdu and Chughtai Turkic.

5. The fifth word Mulaazim comes from the Arabic triliteral root LZM and means a lieutenant, an indispensable person, an employee. Many of us in India are unacquainted with this “indispensable” origin of Mulaazim and think of it to connote only  a servant / an empolyee.

6. The sixth word is Arkaan. It is the plural form of the Arabic Rukun. Rukun means a pillar, basis, bolster, the foundation. It is a very close substitute of the original meaning of the previous word Mulaazim, used during the Urdu broadcast. For clarity on this I would like to thank Jamshed Saahab who guided me towards the right word, Arkaan.

It is still not very clear as to why there is a difference between the choice of word for the same meaning between the two broadcasts. The difference could be due to a form of diglossia. However this is not to suggest that one of these is a more classical or “higher” language than the other and this is why I shy away from associating the Urdu-Hindustaani phenomenon with diglossia. And of course, I am completely incompetent to speak on matters of linguistic and language theory anyway. Perhaps this has nothing to do with diglossia at all. However the choice of which Perso-Arabic words to use could be the result of perceived diglosia amongst the speakers of Urdu and Hindustaani in the sub-conscious of those who frame the sentences for the respective broadcasts. One need not be a linguistic to believe that different people use slightly different vocabulary sets for the same / similar languages.

The difference in choice of words could also be due to politics, due to dialectical differences, due to differences in the educational environment of those who frame the news broadcasts, due to the different books the news framers read, etcetera.

Nevertheless there is a difference, and this difference between choice of Perso-Arabic words for the Urdu and the Punjabi broadcast excites me. This difference points out the commonality, the unity. Vive le difference.





PS – There is another difference between the Punjabi and Urdu news broadcasts on AIR FM which comes to my mind. Just like the English and the Hindi news broadcasts, the Urdu news broadcast too has a short section at the end which gives a round up of the headlines in the day’s major newspapers in the concerned language. Hence in the last section of the day’s Urdu news broadcast, the news reader reads out the headlines from 4 or 5 of the major Urdu dailies published in Delhi on that morning.
However this headlines’ round up section is absent in the Punjabi news broadcast as although Punjabi is one of the four official languages of Delhi, there are not many Punjabi newspapers of note published in Delhi (perhaps there are none).

Mumbai Attacks - 26/11 - Nov 2008

A lot has been said about the Mumbai attacks. I agree with somethings and disagree with some other things. Here are some things I feel the need to say to those who wish to know:

1. Save the money which would be spent on the candle and / or flowers and / or text messages to each other asking to burn candles. Let's say Rs5 are saved per person.

2. Donate these saving to Army Wives Association http://awwa-india.org/ or other such organisations. Assure the armed forces that we as a nation will continue on our own to support their families withouth passing the buck onto the government or to the army. The families of those who sacrifice their lives for the nation should be the priority of the nation. When they did not pass on the buck onto the government after being called to take charge how can we pass on the buck now?

Simple maths:

If each person above the poverty line living in just Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta and Madras was to donate Rs5 then the corpus would excees millions of Rupees.

Donate to anybody you want to or help otherwise (PM's fund, local gurudrawara, orphanage, school take your pic); all such actions help. But remember do not make them one-off-I've-done-my-bit actions. Small but continuous steps are better.

It does not matter how and where we help but we must. Our armed forces have our respect and rightly so. Even if they do not give up their lives just their presence is important. I can enjoy my life, go to the movies, do what I want, eat, drink, sleep, shop do whatever because there is somebody donning a uniform in my stead. He or she is there on my behalf, not on the government's behalf. Armed forces people risk their own lives for their comrades around them and for us, not for the government, not for the notion of India but for the people who are with them in conflicts (their teams, their group, their subordinates and colleagues) and for the people back home.

3. Ignore the glamour-affected-latest-hero-worship-fish-market-hollier-than-thou media houses which want to tell us how we should show solidarity with the armed forces of India and which news to focus on. Media houses (TV Channels esp) have a huge amounts of costs to recover; they are in an industry where the competition is extremely stiff.They have to make every second of air time count. Working the way they work is the only business model they know of and the only one that helps them to make money. They have to show returns on investments. It is foolish for the citizens of India to expect news TV channels to improve the quality of news reporting and analysis. Let the media be. We all get angry at them but they are to be pitied. They have no credibility and nor do they enjoy the respect of most of us. And of course this applies not just to the news channels but to the highly visible faces of these news channels, the so called news heads and to the content editors as well.

4. Do not forgive the politicians and the bureaucrats. Do whatever it takes to shake the fetid political foliage of our nation. Our politicians play with our lives our parents' lives our children's lives, destroy our youth, get the most courageous from amongst us killed for no reason (often facing terrorists without adequate equipment), dilly dally with reforms, cause the deaths of lakhs of Indian every year due to avarice, negligence and plain apathy and then the corruption...

One way is to invoke Sec 49-O of the Conduct of Election Rules Act 1961. Possibly the only weapon we the citizens have againt the politicians. It is our constitutional right as well as our duty.

Sec 49-O, under the Indian Constitution, essentially empowers each citizen of India to vote for "nobody". A voter can choose not to vote for anybody.

As of now this power can not be used by voters as the electronic voting machines do not have a nobody option but the Hon. Supreme Court of India is reviewing cases to get this option included. The Election Commission of India has also made similar recommendations. Although the Returning Officer at each booth can be informed of a "I vote for nobody" decision this would constitute a violation of the law which states that the decision of a voter can not be disclosed to anybody else.

With some changes this can become a possibility and in that case if the number of people in a constituency who exercise this option were to exceed the victory margin of the winner from that constituency then the election results would stand canceled. Re-election would have to be called for and none of the contenders from the initial election would be allowed to contest again.

Text of Sec 49-O

"49-O. Elector deciding not to vote.-If an elector, after his

electoral roll number has been duly entered in the register of voters

in Form-17A and has put his signature or thumb impression thereon as

required under sub-rule (1) of rule 49L, decided not to record his

vote, a remark to this effect shall be made against the said entry in

Form 17A by the presiding officer and the signature or thumb

impression of the elector shall be obtained against such remark."

Source - Law Ministry Website

http://lawmin.nic.in/ld/subord/cer1.htm

To know more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/49-O

There are other ways also, Checking the affidavits filed by the contenders in your area for criminal cases, and assets declaration among other things , using RTI Act for example.

5. Be good to each other as much as we can be. You love me I love you, to hell with the government, cause it just loves its own self (and even that can be disputed). The government is not the cure for all evil in our country, I have come across many in the government who are hard and honest workers and administrators. It becomes unjust to blame the entire government for everything.

All of us are busy, all of have problems and we can go on doing whatever we do, we can live our lives happily, we just need to make small efforts and do good.

There is some good news. I am happy to know that the Centre has decided to immediately setup new NSG bases in all the metros of India to reduce the reaction time in Mumbai-like situations (as of now the NSG is based out of Manesar near Delhi and it took them more than 3 hours to get to Mumbai).

Further,the states are also being advised to establish their own state-level NSG units which will be the first ones to reach the location of the crisis and act in concert with the Centre-Level NSG units (based out to Delhi and soon out of the other metros as well). The state-level NSG units will be of the same calibre as the Centre-level NSG units. Karnataka has already requested the Centre to help it establish and train a Karnataka NSG. I hope this plan works.

Just remember that more than 4/5th (40 odd) of the Mumbai Attack terrorists have escaped. They are now inside India and waiting for the right time. Better for all of us to be prepared and do our small bits.

Related post

http://azhdaha.blogspot.com/2008/12/symbolic-gesticulation-belongs-to-age.html

http://indianmilitarybenefits.blogspot.com/2008/12/rule-49-o-right-to-negative-vote-not.html

http://indianmilitarybenefits.blogspot.com/2008/11/heartfelt-condolences-irrespective-of.html

India's Oldest Pensioner, Habib Miya, Passes Away at the Age of 138 Years

Habib Miya (20th of May 1870 - 19th of Aug 2008)

Habib Miya (alias Raheem Khan) passed away today at the grand grand grand grand grand old age of 138 years. Born in 1870, he was India's oldest pensioner and every year around the time of his birthday, 28th May, many news stories would be published about this miracle man. To put things into perspective observe that the great Ranjitshinji (in whose honour the Ranji trophy has been named) was born in 1872, a good 2 years after Habib Miya was born and died in 1933, a good 5 years before Habib Miya even retired and a super duper good 75 years before the death of Habib Miya.

Habib Miya was born in Rajgarh in Alwar district of Rajisthan, only back in 1870 it was not called Rajisthan; it was called Rajpootana. Rajpootana as a name had been used since time immemorial to describe the land which lies south of Punjab and Delhi, west of the Chambal river, north of Malwa and Gujrat and east of Sindh. Neither did the British directly rule over Rajpootana nor did they meddle in the day to day running of the hundreds of small and fragmentary princely states which together comprised Rajpootana. Yet Rajpootana was firmly ensconced within the British empire as every princely court had a British political officer attached to it and also because the British Government in Calcutta had treaties will all of them which made it responsible for defence of these princely states from external aggression.

Habib Miya had served in the Raja Mann Singh's ADC Band Group based in Jaipur (or in this case Jaypur or Jeypore - take your pick) as a clarinet player. His official records state his year of birth as 1878. He retired on the 1st of June 1938 and then started drawing a pension of Rs 1.86 per month. This amount after many subsequent revisions finally stood around Rs.2600 per month at the time of this death. That is a 9.73% compounded annual growth rate. Not too bad in relative terms I would say. His bank's manager Mr Rajesh Nagpal always delivered the pension at Habib Miya's home. Habib Miya's name is in the Limca Book of Records as Jaipur and India's oldest person as well as India's oldest pensioner among other things.

It is said that if 1870 were to be taken as his genuine year of birth then Habib Miya would have qualified for the world's oldest living person record. Although his vision started failing in the mid 1960s yet his super centurion could perform all of his daily activities unassisted (including the annual much celebrated cake cutting ceremony on his birthday) and in fact undertook a Hajj at the age of 134 years in the year 2003. Now I am sure this too is a record for the world's oldest Hajj pilgrim. It had been reported in early 2003 that his impecunity had been denying him the oppourtunity for a Hajj however he did succeed in this endevour in the same year.

Habib Miya's food was usually cooked in riri ghee and his advise to others who may hope to emulate his life span was always "If you take care of your body, your body will keep you fit." He attriubted his long life and good health to his good dietary regime. He also advocated keeping strictly away from addictions such as smoking of cigarettes and chewing of tobacco. He was fond of drinking tea. Habib Miya's relatives described him of a positive and happy disposition though he often felt sad about having outlived his wife and three sons. Habib Miya leaves behind a family of 142 immediate descendants.

Immediately upon hearing about the Jaipur serials blasts of this year, Habib Miya condemned the terrorist using very strong words. He felt despair, started crying and refused to eat food. He promptly decided to not celebrate his birthday in any manner in order to show his solidarity with the families of the victims and to display his anger and reproval towards the perpetrators. Special prayers were also held at his home for the same.

May Habib Miya rest in peace and may his spirit of tolerance and good will proliferate.


Habib Miya's life is a kind of a living-history link to the heydays of the Raj when most Indians did not know of or believe in the existence of a nation called India, when the Sun dare not set on the British Empire, when manned flight was another 40 years away, and if you told somebody that voice can travel millions of miles and Arabia will be able to influence global geo-politics you'd be ridiculed at best and beheaded at worst.

This comparison table provides some interesting facts relating to the three years mentioned above relevant to Habib Miya's life and also gives us a look at how long Habib Miya's life has been and how close he was to important events of past and how he often lived throughout the lives other so many famous and influential people (and their grandchildren's as well) :
Truly Phenomenal

HEADING	1870 Habib Miya is born	1938 Habib Miya retires from job	2008 Habib Miya passes away
Per Capita Income of India	Rs 30 per annum	Rs 100 per annum	Rs 36000 per annum
Ruling Monarch of the British Empire	Queen Victoria (1819-1901) "Grandmother of Europe" - She is Habib Miya's first Malika (though not really as Rajpootana was never under her empire), much loved in India; wonder what Habib Miya thought of her. She ruled over the UK for 30 years of Habib Miya's life.	George VI (1895-1952) He is Habib Miya's fourth Badshah (again not really....) and also the last one to reign over India. Just a dude.	Queen Elizabeth II (1926-and still going strong) She can never have the pleasure of reigning over Habib Miya as by the time she ascends in 1952 India has already been independent for 5 years. Take note she is Queen Victoria's great great grand daughter and has ruled over the UK for more than 55 years of Habib Miya's life
Rulers of India	Viceroy 6th Earl of Mayo (1822-1872) Establishes Mayo college for princes at Ajmer, not far from Habib Miya's birthplace. Assassinated in 1872 by an Afghan Sher Ali at the prison in Andaman Islands for pretty much nothing except ..."the word of an Afghan is always honoured...."	Viceroy 2nd Marquess of Linlithgow (1887-1952) enacts the Government of India Act 1935 by which Congress comes to power in 5 provinces for self governance. Please note Linlithgow himself was born in 1887, 17 years after Habib Miya	Dr Manmohan Singh Prime Minister of the independent Republic of India  born in 1932, just 6 years before Habib Miya's retirement and becomes his 17th Prime Minister
Communication	First submarine cable connection established between England and India (Bombay). Another 6 years to go before Alexander G Bell can transmit his famous message to his assistant "Mr Watson, come here, I want to see you" and herald in the era of  'tele-communication'	NBC starts beaming scheduled broadcast shows to New York City television viewers from its studio	"you have an iphone" YAWN YAWN YAWN I wonder if Habib Miya used mobile phones? He was born 7 years before the beginning of the first telephone service
Literature	Mirza Ghalib passed away last year. Chandrakanta hasn't been written yet (Devki Nandan Khatri is only 9 years old) and Munshi Prem Chand will be born after another 10 years	Munshi Prem Chand passed away 2 years ago  and  Ahmed Ali's Twilight in Delhi (ranked in the top echelon of Indian writings in English) will be published after 2 years	Munshi Prem Chand's grandson Alok Rai is a senior professor of English literature at IIT Delhi
Cricket	Ranjitshinghi will be born after two years of this year ie in 1872. W G Grace is born just 22 years before Habib Miya and will remain alive till Habib Miya is 45 years old ie till 1915	First television coverage of a test match. Ashes 2nd Test from Lords and 5th Ranji trophy bagged by Bengal. Series started in 1934 after Ranjitshinghji's death in 1933	The corporate beast known as IPL becomes an integral part of cricket. Television rights sold for a whooping $1 billion
Cadre Strength of the Administrative Machinery of India	Indian Civil Service approx. 900 (yeah just about 1000 fellows managed the "jewel in the crown of the British Empire")	Indian Civil Service approx. 1100	Indian Administrative Service and Indian Foreign Service and allied departments approx. 5900
Transport	First direct railway line between Ahmedabad and Bombay flagged off. Lord Mayo agrees to the adoption of the meter gauge as a compromise between the broad gauge and the narrow gauge and Wright Brother's' flight is still a good 33 years away	AC compartments introduced in Indian Railways. First jet engines tested by Frank Whittle and Amelia Earhart looses her life in an attempt to circumnavigate the Earth by air	The Concorde retired 5 years ago  NASA is flying automated solar powered aeroplanes called Helios and Space tourism has taken off

Oh and for skeptics who may not believe in Habib Miya's year of birth being 1870 here's more fuel to the fire....HABIB MIYA WAS LESS THAN A YEAR YOUNGER THAN MAHATMA GANDHI
Personally I do believe his year of birth to be 1870 for it is not an incredulous claim to my ears. I believe such things can happen and in fact happened more often in the remote past.

With Love to all of you.

Jodhaa Akbar Review

Review of Jodhaa Akbar

Coming of age, Love between a couple after marriage, Religious tolerance
There are some notes at the end of this review of Jodhaa Akbar about how to know more on the historical aspects of Jodhaa Akbar and also on how one can still witness some of this history.

Caution: I am not a film maker. This review of Jodhaa Akbar is an arm-chair review.

Jodhaa Akbar is about the love which blossoms between a husband and a wife after marriage and how it happens . It is about pernicious court intruge (something which the Mughals did better than anybody else in the world). It is about coming of age and taking up responsibilities and making decisions for one's self. It is about religious tolerance and harmony.

Jodhaa Akbar is not about historical accuracy (the producers make it quite clear with a disclaimer to this effect right at the begining). This movie is not about the magnificense of emperor Akbar (even though Abul Fazl would have his readers believe that his glorious benefactor was the Ever Refulgent Light of the Universe even before being born). In an interview director Ashutosh Gowariker was asked if history was central to Jodhaa Akbar and his reply was "It is not central, but it is not incidental either". And this is exactly how one feels during the movie, the historical aspects are in the frame narrative but they are not the main theme of the Jodhaa Akbar.

Timeline - As per my calculations Jodhaa Akbar's core story talks about events from 1559AD to 1562AD and then ends circa 1566AD. This timeline becomes important later on.

Plot summary - The boy king Abdul Fateh Jalal Ud Deen Muhammad finds himself at the helm of the fast receding Mughal Empire in India and he must find a way to put its stars of fortune back on the path of ascendancy. To this end he takes the help of loyal and not so loyal courtiers, crushes rebellions, enters into marriages of alliance, takes cognizance of the ground realities faced by the common folk of his realm, initiates religious tolerance, dances with boys in skirts on his marriage night, and manages to earn the sobriquet "Akbar".
Okay alright, those dancing boys in skirts were in fact the Sufis and probably the warmest part of the movie, but more of that later. Jodhaa Akbar is well made, pleasing to the senses, and sports some good songs.
Let's talk about the good parts:

Good Stuff, ney GREAT STUFF:

1. Hrithik Roshan-
Yes Sir, Jodhaa Akbar will always be counted amongst Hritik Roshan's finest performances, while thankfully Main Prem(s) Ki Diwani Hoon, and Na Tum Jano Na Hum will be relegated under the carpet forever; at least I hope so. Make no mistakes this is the seminal event of his career. This is his English Patient, his Omkara, his Guru; Jodhaa Akbar has changed the way in which even the staunchest of Hritik Roshan’s critics think of him. The respect and admiration he has earned at being able to do justice to a serious role in Jodhaa Akbar will spill over to the whatever other projects he may undertake from now on. Even those who did not understand half of the dialogues due to the slightly Persianised Urdu came out of the cinema halls happy because of Hrithik's role.

"Ay, Every Inch a King" (sans sacrasm)
Hrithik looks and acts royal. He moves and gestures with regal dignity and blue blood purpose (does that sentence mean anything???). He may never be Emperor Akbar in the minds of some of the more puritanical aficionados of history but he looks, acts, feels emperor-like.
One of my personal grudges with Jodhaa Akbar has always been that there is a lot of difference between the physique of the 5feet 11 inches-muscled-to-the-hilt, chiseled-for-the-Greek-Pantheon Hrithik Roshan and that of the character he plays in this movie, the 5feet 4inches odd barel-chested-stocky-mole-sporting-mongoloid-round faced- frame of emperor Akbar. The Lord knows Prithiviraj Kapoor is always going to remain in my mind as the pot bellied Akbar just as any mention of Moses, Judah Ben Hur or any Israelite for that matter conjures up a torrential flood of Biblical proportions in the form of a bearded Charles Heston, clothed in coarse fabric, flinging down God's commandments engraved in stone, from far atop a mountain on the unbelievers, with dark skies and lightening in the background....okay I went too far I know. Sorry. But you get the idea and if you don't here's them photos an'all to help y'all:
= Zill-e-Ilahi, Badshah Salaamat, Jahanpanha-e-Aalm


= Sex on Toast

One look at the excited and ultra positive reception Hrithik has received in the minds of movie goers and you realise immediately that Hrithik has created and cemmented a new youthfull image of Akbar. And another things is that the younger generations seem to identify more closely with Hrithik Akabr than Prithivi Akbar.

Urdu
Jodhaa Akbar makes liberal use of slightly Persianised Urdu words and Hrithik's Urdu/Persian pronunciation is perfect. Speakers of Hindustani and Urdu would know that in these languages there is a distinction between the sounds "g" and "gh" as in "gana" (song) and "ghareeb" (poor) and also the same is the case with "k" and "q" as in "kaam" (work/task) and "qalam" (pen) and Hrithik Akbar hits both the "gh" and "q" perfectly. Even his intonation is very purposeful. "Ma Shaa Allah Roshan Sahab" is all I can say for his Urdu diction. Me impressed.

Acting
Powerful, gentle, ecstatic, sad...all done well. There are shades of his earlier movies in many dialogues but he's doing fine. Also look at intro paragraph above.

2. Camera Work -
Jodhaa Akbar boasts of some pretty good camera work throughout the movie. The technical standards of Indian cinemas keep rising with every new production and Jodhaa Akbar has raised bar a bit further in this respect.

Angles
Angles are utilized to great effect; in fact the wide angles have been used with great frequency often to show not only the character but also to highlight the work done by the art direction team. This adds to the "feel" of the times immensely though on one or two occasions I felt that close ups of the actors would have been better.
The camera angles used in the long shots for all the battle scenes, be they ultra tele-shots of the cavalry approaching the battle ground or top down shots of the troop formations or even shots of infantry running in to clash with the opposition all have been executed with a certain degree of mastery. Though on one occasion somebody did remark that it all looked like screenshots from Age of Empires and that is the honest truth as far as the battle views from top of the hills are concerned but let it not distract us too much from the fact that the work is well done. The hand to hand combat scene between Akbar and Shareef Ud Deen is top notch even if it seems to borrow heavily from Troy in the first few moments.

Use of Screens
Throughout the movie one can experience a sense of mystery and excitement created by use of curtains, marble screens, fine translucent muslins, and jaali work objects placed between the camera and the actor in question. And all such shots add significantly to the experience, though bad lighting or wrong positioning could have easily ruined most of these shots but then they've pulled it off well.

Must see scenes:
(some of these can be seen on the official website http://www.jodhaaakbar.com/, check under trailors.)
(Not in any order of precendence)

1. Akbar Hrithik standing next to tree in Mo'eein Ud Deen Chisti's dargah - This will always be one of my favourite scenes ever. This is the last shot of this scene. Low camera angle showing a larger than life Akbar (do I hear Orson Welles chuckling at back). Emperor Akbar in simple clothes with a pilgrim's scarf on his head, standing in front of a balding tree with white ground and a clear blue sky framing most of the visible background. Even the opening shot of this scene which shows Akbar in supplication at the dargah is a pretty nice shot especially the way the camera comes in...

2. Morning shot of Jodhaa Aish coming out of her room onto the balcony of Amer fort for the last time with pigeons on the balcony. The soft light with not even a hint of Sunlight is perfect. Great dawn shot. Another good shot of her with pigeons is when she is sitting with the pigeons in Amer on a huge cushion looking lost and lonely( after she has traversed over the Aravallis from Agra back to Amer in a huff).

3. Jodhaa Aish in highly colorful translucent veils especially the yellow coloured veil during Dushera, red coloured veil on marriage night, red coloured veil while serving Rajput food to the inner clique of the court, and green coloured veil right at the end while seated with Akbar. Much of the movies colour riot is in part due to Aishwarya's costumes. Though it's not as great a colour riot as Paheli.

4. Choreography of the song Azeem O Shaan Shehenshah. Circles upon circles upon circles involving hundreds of dancers and they've done it beautifully.

5. Sword fight between Akbar Hrithik and Jodhaa Aish. Ah the chemistry there is close to perfect. In fact it's through scenes like this one that the true romantic aspects of the movie get highlighted. This is where their love blossoms after their marriage. One of my favourite dialogues also takes place here, when Jodhaa Aish almost gains the upper hand over Akbar Hrithik during the sword fight and then Akbar Hrithik is quick to remind her "Malika-i-Hindustan, yeh mat bhooliye ke hum aapke suhag hai."

6. Morning sunrays bouncing off bejeweled mirror in the Khwaab Gah

7. Khawaja Mere Khawaja
See below :)

3. Khawaja Mere Khawaja
The zenith of Jodhaa Akbar

(To see the Correct Lyrics for Khawaja Mere Khawja click here . Most of lyrics available onlin seem to be incorrect. I have given the lyrics in transliterated English as well as in Urdu. I have also given the meaning of the song and some of the Sufi terms used in Khawaja Mere Khawaja.)

Hmm...What can one say? The beauty of this song itself is ineffable. Mesmerizing, touching, deep, soothing, connecting, divine...these are some of the words you may hear when talk about this song. One has to hear it to know what I am talking about. I usually listen to this song on a loop atleast 30 to 40 times in a go. Such is its salubrious effect. It is what I would call as a great Sufi song. The lyrics are sublime, peaceful, and establish camp in your heart before you can say "Walla A R Rehman Sahab". He has done a fantastic job. Khawaja Mere Khawaja will forever be my favourite A R Rehman song. I don’t want to write too much about it because I am sure most would have experienced what I am talking about. And make sure you check out the instrumental version of Khawaja Mere Khawaja which can hold its own in front of the best instrumental compositions ever.
The choreography is good, the dresses may not be historically accurate (leaning more towards the whirling dervishes of Konya,Turkey than the Chistis of Ajmer) but never the less the songs has been shot well. I loved the part when Akbar Hrithik gets up at the end and starts whirling with the Sufi dervishes and I believe many people felt good about this part. It is at that moment that the viewers almost fall in love with the spirituality of Akbar. This really helps bring Akbar to life and to paraphrase Abul Fazl "makes the divine light of the Emperor's love enter our hearts".
Just a little something I would like to add about this song. I think it's a type of Manqabat i Khawaja. Traditionally Sufi Sama' and Qawwali programs have had a sort of warrant of precedence which starts with a Hamad (praise to God), then Na't (praise for the Prophet Muhammad), then Manqabat (praise for Ali) and then Manqabat i Khwaja (praise for the founder of the concerned sufi order). In this case the founder of the Chistiya order in Hindustan being Hazrat Khawaja Mo'een Ud Deen Chisti, the Manqabat is for him and one can hear him being addressed as "Ghareeb Nawaz" (a very very popular epitaph of Hazrat Khawaja Mo'een Ud Deen Chisti). Another very popular epitaph is "Mehbob i Illahi" for Hazart Nizam Ud Deen Auliya one of the greatest Pirs of the Chistiya order.

4. Costumes and Jewllery
The costumes for Akbar (Hrithik Roshan) are the best. Although the costumes for Jodhaa (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) come second, they are a distant second. Sure Akbar does repeat a couple of his costumes but truly such rich work, amazing colours, intricate jacquards, merging embroidery (in the words of a vendor of marriage lenghas from Karol Bagh his clothes have "aaal o'er umboideree jaal"). Best Jewellery obviously for Jodhaa Aish. I loved the peacock necklass she wears in the kitchen scene for the Rajputi Dawat.

Malika –e-Hindustaan all ready to fly off on her honeymoon. Wonder how she’ll negotiate airport security though, hmmmm….

And while speaking of costumes there is a glaring error which I would like to point out. Sonu Sood who plays the role of Suja Mal has been made to don the most ill fitting costumes I have ever seen in a movie. The ungainly creases and bulbous folds all over his costumes give a telling picture of how corners have been cut while making Jodhaa Akbar.

Hrithik Akbar's armour and also most of the horse amour was reasonably authentic.

5. Support Cast

Well this one’s a sitter as far as I am considered. The best supporting role has been played by Ila Arun as Maham Anga. I have been reading books on Akbar for more than a decade now and by now I have a fairly detailed mental picture of Maham Anga. Ila Arun is that very picture. Cunning, scheming, plotting….She’s the Prince of Machiavelli’s Prince. The Mughals were probably the best at Harem intrigue and Maham Anga was the best Mughal in this respect. It took Akbar the Great to bring about the downfall of Maham Anga and Jodhaa Akabr depicts th Ila Arun should definitely be nominated for her portrayal of Maham Anga.

Sonu Sood comes second but he is a distant second. Next to Maham Anga it is Suja Mal who is the most important support character and Sonu Sood should have been metted out more professional treatment. These ill fitting costumes are visible even in the promo shots available on the official site of Jodhaa Akbar.

On the other hand tied with Sonu Sood for second place in the supporting cast is the towering personality of Niktin Dheer who lends his leviathan of a frame to the role of Shareef Ud Deen Hussain. This giant even dwarfs Hrithik Akbar’s presence while both are in the same shot and the hand to hand combat sequence between these two at the end has to be one of the best filmed in Indian cinema. I hope to see more of him in the future.

6. History
Jodhaa Akbar, despite director Ashutosh Gowariker’s claim of history not being central to the movie, has a largely accurate chronological sequence of events. Almost all of the events which one may come across in any standard biography of Akbar till the date of 1562-1564 AD have been depicted in Jodhaa Akbar. Accession of Akbar at the age of 13 years, the Second Battle of Panipat, the forced exile of Bairam Khan to Mecca, Akbar’s visit to Ajmer Shareef (though a very famous incident of Akbar single-handedly slaying a tigress protecting her cubs on his return journey from the Sufi shrine does not find mention), elephant fights, Akbar’s marriage with the daughter of the Rajput king of Amer Bhar Mal (duh...), assassination of Atka Khan by Adham Khan, execution of Adham Khan and Maham Anga’s subsequent death, abolition of the Jizya (the religious tax imposed on the Hindus) by Akbar in early 1564, all find mention in the Jodhaa Akabr. Well done Mr Gowariker.

7. Jash Ne Bahaara

Nice humable tune which absolutely refuses to vacate one's mind and indeed does establish a permanent presence in one's heart.

What’s Not So Great (in no particular order of preference) :

1. Historical Inaccuracies

There are many and they don’t really matter as it’s a love story first and a historical movie second; some of the more glaring ones are listed below:

1. Akbar was NOT assigned the sobriquet Akbar by the people of Agra. There is ample documentary evidence to believe that he was called Akbar from a very early age if not from birth.

2. I have not as yet come across any references to a near fatal assassination attempt on Akbar circa 1564.
15th of Sept 2008 - I have recently come across a reference to an assassination attempt on Akbar in an old book on Delhi's history published in the 1950s. The attempt was made in 1566 in the vicinity of Khair Manzil (a madrasa founded by Maham Anga) near Purana Qila in Delhi (not Agra, hence the movie gets this wrong). The assassin was a Central Asian archer employed by Shareef Ud Deen Hussain and he managed to shoot Akbar in his shoulder, though Akbar, as we all know, survived.
Hence this is not a historical inaccuracy at all and I humbly take back my objection :)

3. There was no significant rebellion (as shown to be headed by Shareef Ud Deen Hussain in Jodhaa Akbar) circa 1564- 1565. In fact the first such rebellion was the Uzbek rebellion in favour of Akbar’s half brother Muhammad Hakim in 1564 followed by two more Uzbek rebellions in subsequent years.

4. Jodhaa – though many of us have Jodhaa Bai as the name of Akbar’s first Rajput wife (and Jahangir’s mother) in our minds and the ASI insists on calling a part of Fateh Pur Sikri as the “Palace of Jodhaa Bai” yet no historian of any significance would use the name Jodhaa for this person. I wonder how much K. Asif’s Mughal- e- Azam has to do with creating this impression in our collective imagination. The controversy may seem a bit senseless to some but it holds immense significance to the Rajputs and hence the ban on the Jodhaa Akbar in Rajisthan and Uttar Pradesh.


5. Rajput honour – There has been quite a lot of criticism that the Rajputs have been shown in a very poor light. Some say that it is unfathomable for a Rajput queen (Jodhaa’s mother) to suggest anything dishonouring the word of husband. Further she is shown suggesting suicide as a course of action to her daughter though this would lead to dishonouring her own kingdom (Amer) and would go contra the safety and security of her own subjects. I do not feel myself to be adequately equipped to reply to this criticism and although a case supporting Ashutosh Gowariker’s interpretation can be made by citing the logic of ‘exceptions always been there’ yet it is not very easy to explain this away.

6. The narration in the beginning of Jodhaa Akbar mentions 1450 AD as the date of commencement of Mughal conquest of Hindustan. By no stretch of imagination is this date correct. If Babur is taken to be the founder of the Mughal dynasty in India then the date has to be 1505 AD at the earliest as that is the year of Babur’s first incursion into India. If however Timur is taken to be founder the date has to be 1398-1399 AD and no later than that. In either case the date of 1450 AD is wrong.


7. Bairam Khan’s very active rebellion against his ward, Akbar, is not shown, instead a possible rebellion by him is only hinted at in the movie.

2. Movie Length and story pace – Though almost everybody has been complaining of the extraordinary length and very slow pace of the Jodhaa Akbar (run time is approximately 3 and a half hours) personally I found the movie to be quite well paced and I cannot see a shorter run time doing justice to the story.

3. Language – Again as above a lot of people have had a problem with the level and frequency of Urdu words employed in Jodhaa Akbar and yet I only see the language as adding to the ambience and “feel” of the setting. To be fair Jodhaa Akbar does sport a lot of “massarrat, mukhaalfat, and mashaqqat” et al but then it’s nothing compared to the very very highly Persianised Urdu used in Razia Sultan (in fact Hema Malini did a pretty decent job with her Urdu diction in that one).

4. Aishwarya Rai – Well she’s okay in Jodhaa’s role, but then that’s about it, she’s okay. Nothing more. Bit of a Guru hangover there perhaps.


5. Suja Mal’s clothes – already discussed in the heading Costumes and Jewellery. Really shoddy work there.

6. Some of the close ups in the shots of the Second Battle of Panipat are poor quality.


7. Gowariker’s Akbar’s personality a shadow of the Akbar of history – Akbar’s penchant for the arts, culture, architecture, the sciences, invention etcetera do not find any mention at all in Jodhaa Akabr, although he had acquired a taste for these at a very early age. This in my mind distances Hrithik Akbar from the real Akbar the most, even more than the disparity in the physical features of the two. Thankfully his religious and spiritual proclivities have been depicted very well throughout Jodhaa Akbar.


The Navratnas / Navratnas Controversy

Finally I must write a little on the criticism of the absence of the Navratnas / Navratanas of Akbar’s court as shown in Jodhaa Akabr. To me this objection seems very naive. The Navratnas were the 9 jewels of Akbar’s court who together with Akbar have long been a firmly established part of Indian folklore. There is criticism to the effect that Jodhaa Akbar does not show any of the Navratanas baring Raja Toda Mal (Akbar’s finance minister played a tad insipidly by Pramod Moutho). However this is where the timeline becomes so important. The story of Jodhaa Akbar ends around 1564 AD and one needs to ask the question “exactly how many of the Navratnas had become a part of the Akbar’s court by 1564-1565AD?” The answer is “not many”. Ashutosh Gowariker could not have shown most of the Navratnas, even if he wanted to, as most of them were not yet a part of the top political echelon of the Mughal court. One must remember that emperor Akbar the Great (along with Ashoka) is the only ruler of India to have been given the title “Great.” One must also remember that Akbar ruled till 1605 AD, that’s almost 50 years of reigning over Hindustan and Jodhaa Akbar shows only about 7 to 9 years of that long drawn out period so how much of the magnificence of Akbar’s life and court can one show in a movie depicting only 1/5th of the total time of his reign. Exactly how much of the “greatness” of emperor Akbar is the director expected to stuff into the script of Jodhaa Akbar? This movie is about the very early political events of Akbar’s career and the love between Jodhaa and Akbar and not about the length and breadth of the vast ocean that was his life.

This movie is worth a watch. Infact in my case it's not worth a watch, not two watches, not even three watches; to satisfy my own viewing-lust and appease certains friends and relatives I will end up watching it alteast four times. Yeah that's right 4 times.

Why did I give 4 and a 1/2 stars and not 5? Because the historian in me refuses to be completely mollified.


Bottom Line: One can see Jodhaa Akbar atleast once, if not for Hritik, if not for the technical mastery....then at least for Khwaja.




How do I get to know more about these guys? I want to read.

If like me movies can sometimes induce you to know about the subject or at least this is what has happened in the case of Jodhaa Akbar then you can refer to the following material to learn about Emperor Akbar, the Mughals, and the history of the time. There are plenty of resources and here is a very brief list of some of them (all in English):

1. Wikipedia on Akbar – A good place to start but lacks adequate quality control and prone to changes without notice
2. Richard Von Garbe – A short but very nice and very panoramic booklet on the life of AKbar written in 1909 but still relevant today. Worth a read. Download for free.
3. Emperors of the Peacock Throne A Early – A great read about the rise and fall of the Mughals with a large portion dedicated to the life of Akbar. Written more like a novel than a history text
4. Peacock Throne Wardemar Hansen – Probably one of the best history books ever. Focuses on the period from the last stages of Akbar’s rule down to Aurangzeb. Rife with tales of harem intrigue, incest, power play, chicanery, blood sugar sex magik...an UNPUTDOWNABLE TABLOID OF THE MUGHAL RULE.
5. Jadunath Sarkar’s Fall of the Mughal Empire – The definitive work on this topic. Approaches epic proportions.



If you would like to discuss more on these resources or would like to know about more advanced resources then please email me. I would love to be of help to you.

Where are they now? I want to see.
One can witness some of the history of the movie Jodhaa Akbar with quite a bit of the glory and dazzle intact. Some of the places mentioned below are actually related to events depicted in Jodhaa Akbar.

1. Humayun’s Tomb Delhi – Akbar got it built for his father Humayu at the behest of his mother Hamida Bano Begum (played Punam Sinha ie Ms Satrughan Sinha in Jodhaa Akbar). Many say that it is the proto-type to the Taj Mahal and I would recommend it to all. The tomb and the garden settings around it are the best in Delhi. I could write pages on it.
2. Adham Khan’s Tomb Delhi – Both Adham Khan and Maham Anga are said to be buried here though there is only one cenotaph inside. The tomb itself is in a dilapidated condition and the walls are blanket by graffiti hewed in them by stupid people. But But But why it is important is because it is one of the most unique Mughal tombs as the design is more Lodi-Sayyid-Afghan than Mughal. It’s octagonal a la Isa Khan’s tomb in the Humayun’s Tomb complex and looks a bit like She Shah Suri’s tomb in Sasaram. Perhaps Akbar was so angry at Adham Khan that even after having him executed, by having him thrown him off the roof twice, he did not allow Mughal ideals of architectural perfection to grace Adham Khan’s grave. Also there is a disturbing lack of the ubiquitous Persian Char Bagh found in almost every Mughal tomb.
3. Red Fort Agra - A most beautiful fort. Must see. Most of the movie Jodhaa Akbar features scene setting in this very fort and the Khawb Gah with the huge golden mirror, Bawarchee Khana, Diwan I Aam etcetera can still be seen by visitors.
4. Fateh Pur Sikri –The Mughal enigma. Even contemporary historical records don’t shed much light on why it was abandoned and there are many versions of the story.What is termed as Jodha Bai’s Palace is housed inside this fort as are some of the other well renowned structures such as Buland Darwaza, Salim Chisti’s tomb, Ibadat Khana, Anup Talao, One of my favourite saying is inscribed on the Buland Darwaza and God Wiling I will post something on it very soon.
5. Amer Fort Jaipur – Just like the rest of the monuments in this list, Amer doesn’t need any introductions. Make sure you take the elephant ride from the foot of the hill on which Amer is built all way up into the main central square inside the fort on the top of the hill. The fortified walls which run along the surrounding hills from miles are so beautiful to look at !!! Jodhaa’s scenes in Amer are really well shot. See here.