Jodha Akbar, Pan, Gladiator - 5 movies that Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde's Mohenjo Daro reminds you of!

Inspiration is good…but not to the point that it camouflages your existence.

We had a lot of expectations from Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro, despite the Oscar-nominated filmmaker losing his way with his last two releases – What’s Your Raashee? and Khelein Hum Jee Jaan Se.

Ashutosh is always strongest when it comes to depicting historical fables, especially anything beyond the last century and involving kings and peasants, as seen in Lagaan and Jodha Akbar. So when he is heard depicting the pre-historic times and Indus civilization with Mohenjo Dara, blame us for having so many expectations! The film stars Hrithik Roshan, Pooja Hegde, Kabir Bedi, Arunoday Singh and Manish Choudhary.

However, when the trailer came out, instead of blowing everyone’s minds all it did was elicit mixed reactions. While the makers were definitely praised for trying something new on this scale, they were also blamed for bringing nothing new on the table. How many times do we get this story of a rebellious poor hero, a beautiful princess and her tyrant father? Forget the novelty of the plot, the film is filled with historical inaccuracies.

For one, Mohenjo Daro is a name that is given to the lost city by the archaeologists of the 20th century. What was the original name of this town was not known to anyone. Mohenjo Daro mean ‘The Mound of Dead Men’ and I don’t think anyone would want to call their city like that. So Hrithik and rest of the characters calling the city Mohenjo Daro repeatedly will make any historian unhappy. Also domesticated horses were brought in by the Aryans, which happened much after the decline of the Mohenjo Daro city. So there’s that!

Anyways, even the scenes in the film are not exactly original. Here are five movies that the film reminded us of.

Jodha Akbar

The dialect that Hrithik Roshan uses and his manner of speaking reminded us a lot of his previous collaboration with Ashutosh Gowariker, Jodha Akbar. Now no one knows what dialect they used to speak in the Harappan times, but the makers could have made some innovative modulations to the dialect to make it sound different. Even the market scenes shown in the trailer looked like it was plucked straight out of Akbar’s excursion in the other film.

10,000 BC

Ashutosh Gowariker’s Mohenjo Daro reminded me more of the Egyptian city depiction in Roland Emmerich’s 10,000 BC than any Indian civilization that we know. Which also brings us to…

Gladiator

I haven’t read anything about our ancestors having gladiator matches like the Romans do, except for cock-fighting. But then we can screw up our history in the name of cinematic liberties. After all Quentin Tarantino did kill Hitler by barraging him with machine gunfire in Inglorious Basterds!

Rajkumar

This forgotten Anil Kapoor – Madhuri Dixit film was also about forbidden love set in a fantasy land of yore, with a tyrant opposing the romance of the protagonists. In short, it was the’90s version of what Mohenjo Daro is aiming to be.

Pan

Remind me where I have seen this scene before….ah yes…

Also remember the spirit-rousing speech delivered by Hrithik Roshan about how it’s time for the five fingers to be a fist? Think you have heard it before?

Well, you are right…it’s taken from a line from a song from Ashutosh Gowariker’s own Lagaan. The song in question was Chale Chalo.

 

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Anything else that we missed?

Jodha Akbar, Pan, Gladiator - 5 movies that Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde's Mohenjo Daro reminds you of!