Having read one or two "iffy" reviews of this film, I went to see it without any great expectations. And, for the first ten or fifteen minutes or so, with all the battles and the intrigues going on between the sons of Shah Jahan, I did wonder what all that had to do with "an eternal love story".
However, when the "real" story of the film got going through the flashback device, I was more than pleasantly surprised - and very pleased - with the film.
I thought everything about the film was great - the colour, the sets, the costumes, and especially the music. As for the acting, one has to make allowances for the sometimes kind of stilted acting and dialogue that these epic Indian films seem to carry with them. Nevertheless, as time went on, you really felt like "hissing" the older queen Noor Jahan and empathising more and more with the young lovers, Prince Khurram and Arjumand. I thought that Zulfi Sayed and Sonya Jehan played the latter very well, whilst I kept thinking how gorgeous Sonya Jehan was! Later, and much to my surprise, I found out that this was her film debut. Let's hope we see much more of her in the future.
What particularly interested me was to see close comparisons in the sets and music of this film with that other great spectacle, "Mughal-E-Azam". That came out especially in the interiors of the great palace, and more particularly in the duet with singers conducted between Arjumand and Laadli Begum in front of Prince Khurram. It was only afterwards that I realised that Naushad had composed the music for both films!
As with "Mughal-E-Azam", this film is one definitely to be seen again, and the DVD purchased tout suit!
