SS Rajamouli, filmmaker extraordinaire, who is widely known for movies such as Baahubali and RRR, took to social media to say that, inspired by an ancient tree, he wanted to make a movie on Mohenjo-daro. He said he tried his best but was denied permission by Pakistan to visit Mohenjo-daro.
It must be mentioned here that a movie on Mohenjo-daro was released in 2016, starring Hrithik Roshan and Pooja Hegde, but saw a lukewarm response from critics and audience alike. Mohenjodaro was directed by Ashutosh Gowariker.
Mohenjo-daro site is located in the Pakistani province of Sindh, located 510 km north-east of Karachi. It was the latest settlement of the ancient Indus Valley Civilisation, and believed to be one of the earliest cities. The site was discovered in 1922, and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980.
According to UNESCO, the discovery of Mohenjo-daro revealed evidence of its customs, art, religion, and administrative abilities of the inhabitants. It was made mostly of baked bricks, and had public baths, a college of priests, drainage system, wells, soak pits for disposal of sewage, a large granary etc. The planned city comprised a citadel area, buildings along streets intersecting each other at right angles, and an orderly form of sanitation and drainage systems.
Though he has produced the costumes and the sets describing the Indus valley Civilization and taken help from archaeologists to envisage the advanced town planning of the ancient city of Mohenjo- daro, Gowariker has super-imposed a foreign sensibility on his film. He has adopted the attitudes of civilizations in conflict areas like the Middle East of the Biblical period and the Roman Republic later. The central character in the film, Sarman (Hrithik Roshan), is a heroic citizen who battles injustice in his city state, in a manner resembling other heroes in Hollywood movies like The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur, Spartacus and the more recent Gladiator.
The star of the show, Hrithik Roshan, is impressive with his athletic physique, his unshorn locks and his passionate speeches on liberty and equality for ordinary citizens of the city. Unfortunately, the telling of the film is slow, long winded, pointless, and extraordinarily boring. This is disappointing.
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