Ritu's Reviews

Under the baton of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s direction, one would expect Eklavya to be a royal experience. And royal it is. With classic sets designed by Nitin Chandrakant Desai, the timeless beauty of Rajasthan, an amazing set of technicians from cinematographer Natrajan Subramanian to digital colorist Warren Lynch, the film is aesthetically all one can dream. Every scene appears as if Chopra’s painted a masterpiece. But that’s just it; it would have been nice if he realized he wasn’t making a portrait but a moving film. As a still it makes for great eye-candy but as a movie it doesn’t make for an epic.

The last film Chopra directed was Mission Kashmir in 2000. Now after seven years he comes back as director. Of course during this time in between he’s had great success as a writer and producer for Munnabhai, Parineeta, and Lage Raho. Having been greatly involved in the intricacies of producing quality films, it seems with EKLAVYA he continues to focus on the details and neglect the big picture. It’s evident he was far more absolved in the grandeur.
However EKLAVYA – The Royal Guard is one of those tricky films it’s hard to make a good or bad call on.
It has above par production quality, a fairly good story with a moral, great actors with greater performances, is UNDER 2 hours (rare for a commercial bollywood film), and only has ONE song (again rare) that flows with the film. The revived lesson of how to determine your ‘dharma’ from the teachings of the Mahabharata has been beautifully relayed.

So then you sit and wonder, why is it not as stellar of a film as it should be? The answer is ironic but it’s in the length. Indian cinemagoers are so conditioned to watch long films that when something ends so quickly, it’s as if it was half-baked. The tone of the film from start to finish is the same. Most of the scenes are under-developed, preventing audiences from forming a connection with the characters and/or situation. Pacing is brisk in terms of length, but dilatory in terms of speed.

What indisputably amaze are the performances. Saif and Vidya’s chemistry is still on fire. Vidhya takes notice for her child-woman like enactment and Saif swings higher on the totem pole as Prince Harshwardhan. Amitabh Bachchan obviously delivers with amazing grace and sets new heights of accomplishment. A delight on screen as always, Sanjay Dutt puts smiles on viewer’s faces, but only in snippets with a brief role. Jackie Shroff, Jimmy Shergill, and Raima Sen give their competent best. Boman Irani is highly effective.
Eklavya – The Royal Guard is a film out of the ordinary but is not Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s masterstroke as a director. Technically the film is effervescent. It can be applauded for it’s visual finesse, performances, and story with a moral that will likely stick with audiences. But on many other fronts the film disappoints. What it boils down to is Eklavya not having the certain ‘oomph’ that spins audiences dizzy with either emotion, laughter, or thought. Eklavya – The Royal Guard is an average film made on an above average scale, netting out to Ritu's 3 stars.