CAST: Naseeruddin Shah, Sandhya Mridul, Padma Damodaran, Aditi Rao Hydari, Taha Shah Badussha, Aashim Gulati, Zarina Wahab, Dharmendra
DIRECTOR: Ron Scalpello
Taj: Divided By Blood, is a ten-episode series on the life and times of Emperor Akbar and the battle for his successor. The timing of the series is an important aspect of its mere importance to chronicling the times of the Mughals and their contribution to the Indian history, when the nationalists are busy removing the references.
Credit goes to Ron Scalpello who does not hold the Emperor in one layer of light. He does not bash him and his barbarism but creates a very complex character who is tolerant and compassionate but also who is fallible and ridden with his own insecurities.
For Naseeruddin Shah to be the Emperor is brilliant because we cannot think of a better person who could play the complex character. Sandhya Mridul as Jodha brings layers to the character of the queen. The intrigue and the bloodshed that’s required to keep a medieval kingdom intact and growing is shown seeping into the harem, where an uneasy truce exists between Jodha and Akbar’s other main consorts Ruqaiya (Padma Damodaran) and Salima (Zarina Wahab) to maintain a balance.
The writers Christopher Butera, William Brothwick, Simon Fantauzzo bring in a deviation to history by fictionalizing the story of a hidden room within the harem contains the beautiful ‘kaneez’ Anarkali (Aditi Rao Hydari), imprisoned since she was fourteen.
The series opens with the spectacle of demonstrating the difference between Akbar’s three grown sons: Salim (Aashim Gulati), Murad (Taha Shah Badussha) and Daniyal (Shubham Kumar Mehra) are variously engaged in their pursuits — the former adores ‘sharaab’ and ‘shabaab’ to the exclusion of all else, the second loves feeding his psychotic streak with bloody offerings, the third is a devout five-time praying Muslim.
The audience is led through the process of who amongst this trio — the dissolute, the brutish, the effeminate —is most suited to ascend the famed peacock throne in the Mughal capital Agra.
Akbar’s interactions with his ‘nauratans’ ( nine gems), chiefly Man Singh (Digambar Prasad), Birbal (Subodh Bhave) and Badayuni (Aayam Mehta), the grand palaces and their heavily-decorated interiors, the battle-scenes in which body parts are severed with great relish, the thread involving Akbar’s step brother Hakim Mirza (Rahul Bose) and his open rebellion , and, of course, the very Mughal-e-Azam-esque thread involving the all-consuming, deep love between Salim and Anarkali.
After the 6th episode the series gets fatiguing. Not only to the viewers but also for the actors. The body language and dialogue delivery of several characters is so super 2020ish that its hard to think that these people could’ve come from the 1400s.
After the first episode Dharmendra (Shaikh Salim Chisti) poofs and it feels like a crime against humanity not to give Zarina Wahab, the veteran actor more screen time.
Your mind fails to hold attention of the screen lings and then all you see is gaudy costumes and the set of Mughal-e-Azam 2023
