| Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story | |
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Film Poster |
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| Directed by | Akbar Khan |
| Produced by | Pen Densham Neil Kaplan Akbar Khan John Watson |
| Written by | Mohafiz Hyder Akbar Khan Fatima Meer Rajeev Mirza |
| Starring | Kabir Bedi Sonya Jehan Manisha Koirala Arbaaz Khan |
| Music by | Naushad |
| Cinematography | R.M. Rao |
| Distributed by | Mashreq Communications Ltd. Trilogy Entertainment Group |
| Release date(s) | November 18, 2005 |
| Running time | 166 mins |
| Country | India Pakistan |
| Language | Hindi Urdu |
Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story is a 2005 Hindi film directed by Akbar Khan. The movie starred Kabir Bedi, Sonya Jehan, Manisha Koirala, Arbaaz Khan, Vaquar Sheikh and Pooja Batra in the title roles. The movie was released on 18 November in India. It was an instant flop, even though it was heavily publicised. Music was composed by the legend of Indian film music Naushad. This was the last work of the music maestro who died on 5 May 2006.
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Shah Jehan was known as Prince Khurram (Zulfikar Sayed) when he was about 19 years old. Khurram was Emperor Jehangir (Arbaaz Ali) favourite son, whom Jehangir wanted to be the future Emperor of India and his wife Noor Jehan (Pooja Batra) was well aware of this fact. Noor Jehan was earlier married once, but when her first husband died, Jehangir married her. Ladli Begum (Kim Sharma) was Noor Jehan’s daughter from her first marriage. Noor Jehan was a shrewd lady, who wanted the best for herself and her daughter and she wanted to get Ladli Begum married to Prince Khurram, so that she become the Empress of the Mughal Dynasty.
Khurram had a passion for hunting and one day while hunting in a jungle, he met Arjumand Bano. Theirs was a love at first sight as Khurram gets attracted to Arjumand Bano’s innocence and beauty, while Arjumand got impressed by Khurram’s great personality. Arjumand Bano was Asaf Khan’s (Aly Khan) daughter, Empress Noor Jehan’s brother. Khurram and Bano again meet at the Meena Bazaar, where finally both of them declared their love for each other. Ladli Begum comes to know about their love, but she keeps on wooing Prince Khurram. Noor Jehan sees this love as a hindrance to her plans of making her daughter the future Empress of India and she succeeds in turning, Emperor Jehangir against his own son Khurram….
Noor Jehan sends her secret lover and the warrior Mahabat Khan (Milind Gunaji) to fight Khurram and to get Arjumand Bano killed. Therefore a war takes place, in which forces were also sent by Emperor Jehangir against Khurram. When Khurram meet Jehangir, he declares that Arjumand Bano was superior to him than the Mughal Dynasty. These turn relations even more bitter between the father and the son. But Arjumand Bano, who was a peace-loving person agreed to forget Khurram and ask him to marry Kandahari Begum (Negar Khan), an Iranian Princess, who was chosen by Emperor Jehangir for Khurram. Khurram due to Arjumand’s insistence got married to Kandahari Begum. On the other hand, Ladli Begum got married to Khurram’s brother. After Emperor Jehangir died, Khurram became Prince Shah Jehan and became the ruler of the Mughal dynasty. He finally get married to the love of his life, Arjumand Bano, who became Mumtaz Mahal, from then onwards they both lived happily but not for long enough….
An unfortunate event took place. Khurram has to leave for war and Aarjumand is pregnant but she goes with him as she used to accompany Shah Jehan in all his battles. Khurram tries to return back to the camp from the battle but takes long time to reach as he forgets his way and Mumtaz Mahal dies while giving birth to her nineteenth child. During her last breath, Mumtaz Mahal asked Shah Jehan to construct her tomb in a beautiful mausoleum, which would be so beautiful, that it could express their love for each other to everyone who would visit the mausoleum. Mumtaz’s death was the greatest tragedy for Shah Jehan he becomes a completely reformed person. He starts off to fulfill his wife’s last wish and makes Taj Mahal as beautiful as Mumtaz Mahal which went on to become the Seventh Wonder Of The World….
In future his sons and daughter grow up. Sons have a greed for their father powers; they keep him in a room from where he can easily see Taj Mahal. He sees his sons fighting against each other to become the Emperors of India and the Mughal Dynasty. Everywhere around him there is violence and warfare. Beheading of slaves and even brothers is no big deal for anyone. In the end of the movie Khurram dies while looking at Taj Mahal. Taj Mahal that took an astonishing 22 years to be made show Shah Jahan as the biggest lover of all times. On his death, his body was laid down next to his love hence resulting in the culmination of their love after death.[1]
| Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story | ||||
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| Soundtrack album by Naushad | ||||
| Released | March 16, 2005 | |||
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack | |||
| Label | Times Music Mashreq Music |
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| Producer | Akbar Khan | |||
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| Naushad chronology | ||||
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Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story was the last work of renowned musician Naushad, who died on 5 May 2006. The audio was formally released at a gala event in Mumbai at ITC Grand Central Sheraton & Towers, Parel on 16 March 2005 by Times Music in tandem with the home label Mashreq Music. The album had some classy songs composed by the maestro that encapsulates the Mughal era. The soundtrack album consists 8 songs, featuring vocals by Hariharan, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Preeti Uttam and Ajay Chakraborty, and an instrumental theme. A special edition Double CD, consisting of the soundtrack album and 9 instrumental pieces that were used as the background score in the movie was also released. This was the first time in India that the background score of a film was released simultaneously with the music release. The lyrics were penned by Naqsh Layallpuri and Syed Gulrez Rashid. The background score was the major highlight of the film.
The album received excellent reviews from critics. The director of the film Akbar Khan quoted, "My film's music needed either a Tansen, a Beethoven or a Naushad...I was only left with the last choice! With the power of his spell bounding music, Naushad has managed to recreate the magic of the bygone era, perfectly complimenting the mood of the film. The music does not touch the eardrum & bounces back, but penetrates and lives in the soul of people." The note by Naushad about this work was "I have composed the music of Taj Mahal – an eternal love story after a long gap. In my opinion, Taj Mahal, the film created by Akbar Khan is made out of sheer love, passion and dedication and he has managed to completely absorb the essence of Mughal history with an in depth knowledge of every character. I have seen the film and can confidently say that Akbar Khan has left no stone unturned in making this epic saga and has narrated history in a very simplistic manner. I am sure the film will appeal greatly to cinema lovers. With respect to the music of Taj Mahal – an eternal love story, I have strived to deliver the kind of music that Akbar Khan had in mind, melody being the chief focus. I sincerely hope that I have not let him down and that the music is liked by music aficionados. I have composed music for other films of the mughal era including Shah Jehan, Baiju Bawra and Mughal e Azam but each film requires different treatment depending on the situation, environment, characters, theme etc, hence I refuse to be drawn into comparisons. I trust I have been able to do justice to the brief given to me by Akbar Khan for his film. I must use this occasion to also complement Times Music in taking the commendable step of releasing the background score that I have created at the same time in a separate CD along with the music of the film as the two go very much hand in hand. It is equally important to promote the background score of a film which is in fact much more difficult to compose as compared to the music score. Lastly, with every new composition, it still feels that I have just begun and there is a lot more to achieve..."