Hrithik actually manages to step out of playing Rambo-Akbar and become the smouldering Sufi, a Rumi-Akbar, with ease. And as he makes the transition, he makes us believe that Aishwarya is the ultimate dream, the woman through whom he can create his beloved Din-e-Ilahi, the religion that combines the best of Islam and Hinduism. When he looks at Aishwarya, we see her through his eyes, she ceases to be a plastic beauty. As his eyes crinkle with desire, we begin to desire her too.

This is the secret of screen chemistry. We have seen it happen before with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, with Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, with Raj Kapoor and Nargis — and now with Hrithik and Aishwarya. The strange thing, of course, is that in the other cases, the couples were actually deep in the midst of an affair and so the transition of that passion onto screen was not difficult. But in Jodhaa Akbar Hrithik manages to create magic with Ash on screen without any off-screen passion between them.

He does it through his sheer emotive calibre as he plays the perfect man, good-looking, sensitive, caring and the perfect king. And, a Muslim. Are we ready for that? So Hrithik becomes not the stereotypical hard-core terrorist that the community has been lately identified with, but rather the embodiment of love, and, despite scenes of war and cruel justice, we believe him. We fall in love with him, and because we love him, we fall in love with the object of his desire — Aishwarya.

... contd.