Aditi Rao Hydari shared this image. (courtesy of aditiraohydari)
Pour: Dharmendra, Naseeruddin Shah, Aditi Rao Hydari, and Aashim Gulati
Director: Ronald Scalpello
Evaluation: 2.5 (of 5)
Free-roaming historical fiction meets twisted family drama in Taj: Divided by Blood, a Zee5 series produced by Mumbai-based Contiloe Pictures. The canvas of the Indo-British co-production is huge and the narrative arc spans several decades of Emperor Akbar’s nearly 50-year reign. But the series isn’t quite the epic it wants to be.
The 10-part show is about war, bloodshed, palace intrigues, conspiracies hatched in the shadows, murderous feuds and forbidden love that pits father against son. The plot has no shortage of real dramatic potential — to be fair, a significant portion of it is realized — but the series’ overall impact is undermined by a preponderance of passages that fall far short of what they promise.
Taj: Divided by Love never gets bored, but could have done with a bit more vigor. It depicts Emperor Akbar as a man and ruler, coping with the constraints and strains of his onerous royal duties, assuming his paternal responsibilities and dealing with his consorts.
Written by William Borthwick and Simon Fantauzzo, the screenplay showcases the Emperor’s three sons to their fullest, but fails to do justice to the women in his life. The Begums are played by Zarina Wahab, Sandhya Mridul and Padma Damodaran.
All three take advantage of the limited opportunities to make themselves noticed. Wahab is particularly underused. They certainly don’t take center stage as much as Aditi Rao Hydari does in the role of the hapless Anarkali – a tragic, melancholy, imprisoned woman. Hydrari is up to the challenge. She’s beaming, although she too could use a little more play.
Given the fate suffered by the female characters in this series, it seems that this is not a kingdom for women. One of them is held captive against her will, many others are forced into sham marriages and condemned to silently yearn for love, and the Emperor’s Begums have a hard time making themselves heard. In the male-dominated universe that Taj: Divided by Blood takes place in, a degree of monotony and predictability is inevitable.
Embodying serenity and sensitivity by Naseeruddin Shah, Emperor Akbar is a man who responds to conflicting impulses – often vacillating from acts of wisdom and benevolence to traits of despotism. He’s a character prone to actions and decisions that make things worse than they already are.
The Emperor is a guardian of justice, a defender of secularism, a much-married man and the father of three young men who have nothing in common in character. The sons are the biggest test of his patience – and his wits. Advisors such as Birbal (Subodh Bhave), Man Singh (Digambar Prasad) and Abul Fazl (Pankaj Saraswat) stepped in to show him the way forward, with varying degrees of success.
The Emperor has hidden a secret in a prison that no one else has access to. When the cat is out of the bag, it puts him on a collision course with his eldest son, Prince Salim (Aashim Gulati), a young man addicted to wine and women. His concubines keep him far too busy to worry about what the future holds for the kingdom. Salim isn’t the only son the emperor is trying to tame.
The series also struggles with inconsistent pacing and lengthy tracks that seem to beat around the bush a bit too much. Taj: Divided by Blood is more fiction than story, of course, a fact credited to Anand Neelakantan and Christopher Butera as “story.” The show works best when the action is limited to the palace interiors and family dynamics.
Akbar’s harem is inhabited by three begums – Salima (Zarina Wahab), Ruqaiya (Padma Damodaran) and Jodha (Sandhya Mridul), who is understandably keen to see her son, Akbar’s firstborn Salim, as the next Mughal Badshah. The obstacles along the way create the conflicts faced by Salim and the rest of the palace.
Taj: Divided by Blood revolves around the dispute among the brothers and their cohorts over the succession of the emperor, who in turn angers conservative elements in his kingdom and beyond by introducing the Din-i-Ilahi, a religion recognizing every faith and aims to crush sectarian hatred and promote humanity and harmony.
Episode 2 of Taj: Divided by Blood is devoted almost entirely to a skirmish in Kabul between the Mughal Army and a band of rebels led by Emperor Akbar’s half-brother, Mirza Hakim (Rahul Bose). The battle scenes, built on epic proportions and intended to represent war at its most gruesome, seem rather mechanical and unexciting.
The decision upsets the already fragile balance in the kingdom. The situation is made worse by the fact that none of Akbar’s sons are ready to become emperors yet. Self-centered Salim is busy with his concubines. The middle son, Murad (Taha Shah Badusshah), is overly hot-tempered and impulsive. The youngest, Daniyal (Shubham Kumar Mehra), is a pious soul too soft and sensitive to stand a real chance of following in his father’s footsteps.
Salim is smitten with Anarkali at first sight. The liaison means trouble. Always on the alert, Murad is prone to acts of defiance that keep the Emperor on his toes. And Daniyal, being advised by the head of the ulema, stumbles upon a truth about himself and a mother he’s never seen, pushing him down an incline.
Some of the key technicians on the series are English – director Ron Scalpello, cinematographer Simon Temple and music composer Ian Arber.
Taj: Divided by Blood is made with care. Portions of the show have enough drama and intrigue to spice things up. However, it often feels tense and repetitive. It’s neither Mughal-e-Azam nor Game of Thrones.
That’s not to say the show doesn’t have its moments. It’s quite compelling, especially when it examines the simmering fraternal tensions after the Emperor has decided that the heir to the Mughal throne will not be his firstborn, but the son of greatest merit.
While Naseeruddin Shah has the responsibility of keeping the show running, the three actors in the roles of sons – Aashim Gulati, Taha Shah Badussha and Shubham Kumar Mehra – bring enough to the table not to be overshadowed by an actor at his best.
Its ambition is high and its execution competent, but Taj: Divided by Blood lacks real luster.
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