MohenjoDaro

#MovieReview #Mohenjo Daro

Why did ‪#‎AshutoshGowarikar‬ make this film? A romance-cum-revenge drama set in circa 2500 BC in the ancient civilisation of Indus Valley; it was an exciting idea, but it remained just that, an idea, and didn't quite go beyond that! It turned out to be a prolonged and agonising history lesson for 6th graders, replete with Alien/Undeciphered Language/Script, Unicorns, Worship of Mother Goddess, Seals, Terracotta Toys, Barter trade for Indigo, trade with Sumerians for bronze weapons and of course the role of river Sindhu in nurturing and eventually destroying the Civilization! Just for the record, my history teacher had made the lessons in Indus Valley Civilization more interesting than Gowarikar, despite his expertise in weaving historical dramas, and creating this one with romance and revenge themes interwoven.

So,@Hrithik , an indigo farmer's nephew, living in a non-descript village, follows his dreams and lands in #MohenJoDaro, not quite sure why he was enamoured of the place! But once there, he meets a pretty girl ( @PoojaHegde) daughter of a high priest, wearing a strange head gear and oh so predictably, falls in love with her! That she is betrothed to the evil son of the evil ruler @KabirBedi is a minor irritant, because, of course, Hrithik the macho warrior will destroy all evil from the city and banish the scheming, greedy rulers from the city, which has already acquired some reputation as an abode of intrigue and guile! What follows is a painful 1st half, woven around a stratified society, depicted most clumsily through an equally stratified city architecture, with a soothsayer providing ominous historical inputs and being the usual prophet of doom!

The scheming plot unfolds more in the second half, which meets a wee bit better treatment in the depiction of a free style wrestling bout between Hrithik and two Uzbek Giants. But the best part of the film is the flood in the river Indus and how Hrithik assumes the role of a Noah to steer everyone to safety, to the Doab before the deluge devours all evil!

The film is almost entirely silly. Why does the priest's daughter become synonymous with Goddess Sindhu when her mother dies at child birth? Why does the evil ruler decide to make her his son's Sangini, no one knows! Too much effort goes into explaining the well known facts about the ancient Civilisation, without providing additional insights, so much so that you almost hear Gowarikar, the history teacher, saying kids pay attention, our lesson today is on Indus Valley Civilization! That effort shows and makes the movie tedious. ‪#‎HrithikRoshan‬ looks jaded. # PoojaHegde is at best attractive. ‪#‎Gowarikar‬ created so much ennui with the film, that my friend and I, both having studied history at some stage in life, were left arguing whether the Indus people buried or cremated their dead! But in the end she concentrated on the larger lament; the fact that we are doomed to watch monochromatic films, if Fitoor was Grey, this was Brown! And yes one universal truth, wife-bashing is an ancient sport, descending to mankind from its ancient civilisations! Yuk!

Don't watch this one. Wait for Gowarikar's next!