A film based on Emperor Akbar's life and times inspired by Rudyard Kipling? Manohar Ashi, a short film and documentary maker, has done just that with Akbar's Bridge, an eponymous Kipling poem which glorifies the Emperor's winning, cosmopolitan ways. The film - which premiered before a select audience in Bhopal last fortnight-is based on an incident in 1566 * , when Akbar shelved a plan to construct a mosque on the banks of the Gomti at Jaunpur and instead, built a bridge across the river, earning secular gratitude.
* - The article wrongly mentioned the year as 1556. It should be 1566. I have corrected this year.
For good measure, Ashi also brings in a dash of other poems into play-Alfred Lord Tennyson's Akbar's Dream, and Rabindranath Tagore's Dindaan which is about a Hindu king who gives up a plan to build a magnificent temple and bows to his wife's wishes to give the money to victims of drought.
Good, secular credentials apart, the film, which Doordarshan said it will pick up for Rs 7 lakh, cost more than three times that-making the sale unlikely. But Ashi is still flying on the secular angle and romantic appeal for a pitch to another buyer.
And, on dancer and IAS officer Shovana Narayan's debut effort, playing the role of a potter whom Akbar meets incognito. The reason: she hears the emperor plans to build a grand mosque as an offering to Allah so that his wife, Jodha Bai, bears a child, and tells Akbar that his officials had been extorting money from the poor artisans and workers for building the mosque.
Kiplingesque: Akbar with wife
http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/manohar-ashis-film-akbars-bridge-glorifies-emperors-winning-cosmopolitan-ways/1/281886.html
The film revolves around Akbar and Jodha Bai.
Interestingly 1566 was the same year when Akbar and Mariam-Uz-Zamani went on a barefoot pilgrimage to the Dargah of Sheikh Muin-ud-din Chisti in Ajmer. This point was mentioned in the old blog post about kids of Akbar and Mariam Uz Zamani.
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