Taj Mahal

Set in the Great Mogul period (1592-1666) in India, this familiar tale recounts Emperor Shah Jehan's (Bedi/Syed) dedication to build a fitting 'monument of love' for his beautiful dead wife Mumtaz (Jehan). Purporting to be Bollywood's most expensive film to date, the film has epic aspirations in every frame. But lavish sets, huge battle scenes and costly costumes do not a 'Mughal-e-Azam' make. Some of the rupees should have been spent instead on acting lessons for the large C list cast, and on proper subtitling as the  poetic Urdu dialogues get lost in literal translation. Khan adopts his Indian tele-serial approach to filmmaking: the result is an overlong glossy soap. Only Naushad's haunting score successfully recreates the mood of a bygone era.