The Oscar nominated director , Ashutosh G (for best Foreign language Movie Lagaan ) casts Hrithik Roshan (one of India’s most beautiful actors) and ex-Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bacchan in this love story of Mughal Emperor Akbar the Great.

First things first - the movie is as historically true as you can expect entertainment movies to be.   So much for history.Hrithik and Aishwarya  and the other actors more than compensate for the historical in accuracies . Akbar didn’t win all battles by negotiation, but as a descendant of Mongals did use massacres selectively for shock, awe and deft political manouevering.

But the songs are good , the people are lovely and the movie sets sparkle with mughal grandeur . Lots of Bollywood masala, and some inspiration from Troy ,the Hollywood movie. Which is sad actually. Why borrow the climax from the famous Eric Bana /Hector and Brad pitt/achilles contest.

Hrithik and Aishwarya might as well act in a Hollywood movie rather than copy one. their chemistry makes the movie tick, and you might get to see one of the slowest sensual love songs created in the new generation Bollywood.

Watch Jodha Akbar……..good time pass and well worth your ticket money…… but forget the history of both Akbar and Troy and go with lowered expectations…and you will have a reasonably good time.

Good night Baghdad

We met as soul mates
On Green Zone Island
We left as inmates
From an asylum

And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung ho
To lay down our lives

We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses

And we learned fast
To travel and fight
Our armored cars were heavy
But our bellies were tight

We had no home front
We had no one
They sent us John Mccain
They gave us Jessica Simpson

We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ
With all of our might

We had video cameras
To shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe
And played our Eminem tapes

And it was dark
So dark in our humvee

And we held on to each other
Like brother to brother

We promised our mothers we’d write
And we would all go down together
We said we’d all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Remember the Sunnis and Shias

Remember the imprisoned Iraqi

They left their childhood
On every acre

And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn’t matter in the thick of the fight

We held the day
In the palm
Of our hand
They ruled the night

And the night
Seemed to last as long as six weeks
On Green zone Island

We held the street corners
They held the rooftops
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives

They heard the hum of our convoys
They counted the humvees
And waited for us to arrive

And we would all go down together
We said we’d all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

(with credit to Billy Joel from Good Night Saigon)

 
 From an Article in Time on US Air Force  demands for extra funds.
1)  Days earlier, Carlson said that today’s U.S. Air Force “simply cannot fight and win against the fleet of airplanes that have been developed and are flying in India, China, and so forth,” a claim questioned by many experts. But his view has been reinforced by the companies employing 25,000 workers in 44 states building the F-22 — the prime contractor is aerospace giant Lockheed Martin — and their allies in Congress.

Now what is flying in India is a fleet of Mig 21 s that are two decades old, and cant dare take on Pakistan, leave the United States. That’s right, they cant blame the Russians for the money so blame India.

2) And if you thought your wife spent a lot….

More than $1 billion is being sought for 11 passenger planes, seven of them Gulfstream Vs favored by Apple’s Steve Jobs and Sir Elton John (no mention of any Required Force justification here).

Then there’s the line item seeking 100,600 handguns (there are 330,000 people in the Air Force) featuring “improved ergonomic design and higher caliber effectiveness” at $1,157 a pop. The service also wants 210,000 M-4 carbines at $1,747 a clip.