Eklavya - movie review

"Om Bhur Buvaha SuvahaThath Savithur VarenyamBhargo Devasya DheemahiDhiyo Yonaha Prachodayath "

is what one ends up chanting, or atleast humming to Shantanu Moitra's rendition of this Gayatri Mantra, complementing the very poetic nature of the movie. Beautiful locales, resplendent period costumes and sets captured by some deft camera work and the Big B's towering on-screen persona is what carries Vidhu Vinod Chopra's Eklavya, The Royal Guard.

The Eklavya locomotive starts trudging with a very ill Rani (Sharmila Tagore) muttering "Eklavya..Eklavya..." in her death bed with the Raja Jaywardhan (Boman Irani) looking over with concealed fury. The Raja calling out for Rani, Rani calling out for Eklavya is the starting scene enough to construct one's own script of what would follow and of course one wouldnt have strayed much from the original.

Prince Harshwardhan, a character convincingly portrayed by Saif Ali Khan (who seems to mature as a thorough actor with every movie) is called for from London on the news of Rani's death. The story unfurls here, thanks to a letter left by Rani and Harsh's "the-only-sane-person" sister Nandini (played by Raima Sen), with a series of events following in a manner which otherwise one might have expected only towards the end of the movie.

The movie is just about 2hrs long, and at the end one feels like he's been out of a 4hr epic drama a la Bansali style. Like any other drama of this genre, there is a dynasty and a royaly guarded secret (literally too), plotting brother Jyoti of the king, played by Jackie Shroff wearing an extension of the same look featured in Mission Kashmir (V.V.Chopra's previous offering) and amidst all this a love story between the prince and the pauper (gracefuly played by Vidya Balan) beautifuly weaved in, well we have seen it all, haven't we? Sanjay Dutt as a police inspector, wearing a pan-wala look, provides some entertainment and you end up hoping for more scenes around him.
Eklavya, played by Amitabh Bacchan, as the ageing and blinding royal guard shouldering guarding of the Devigarh Dynasty of Rajastan, what fell on him as a lineage of royal guards, is Big B at his best (not that he has given anything lesser earlier). As a friend remarked, scripts are thoroughed and characters (actors) chosen is a thing of past, while today scripts are written for characters - is a testimony to what Big B is to this industry.

Eklavya is a well made movie, but like any other movie has its share of ups and downs. Nothing wrong in catching it up over the weekend.