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.

[edit]Plot

Shah Jahan was known as Prince Khurram (Zulfikar Sayed) when he was about 19 years old. Khurram was Emperor Jahangir (Arbaaz Ali) favourite son, whom Jahangir wanted to be the future Emperor of India and his wife Noor Jahan (Pooja Batra) was well aware of this fact. Noor Jahan was earlier married once, but when her first husband died, Jahangir married her. Ladli Begum (Kim Sharma) was Noor Jahan’s daughter from her first marriage. Noor Jahan 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 Jahan’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 Jahan sees this love as a hindrance to her plans of making her daughter the future Empress of India and she succeeds in turning Emperor Jahangir against his own son Khurram.

Noor Jahan 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 Jahangir against Khurram. When Khurram meet Jahangir, 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 Jahangir 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 Jahangir died, Khurram became Prince Shah Jahan 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 Jahan 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 Jahan 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 Jahan 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]

[edit]Cast