More fruits of my previous survey.  I must say, this word-of-mouth method is giving me a higher hit rate of good stuff than my previous random blundering through Netflix.

Just what I wanted in the way of historical romance-drama.  Loosely based-on-history tale of a famous Indian Moghal emperor of the mid-1500s and an arranged treaty-marriage that becomes a love match with a Rajput Hindu princess.  *Gorgeous* costumes and set-pieces, not least because the film company was apparently able to use the real settings, such as the famous Red Fort in Agra.

I was a little frustrated because I couldn't read the dress code -- every hat told a tale of the allegiances of the head under it, I'm sure.  Lots of social and political subtext streaming past, of which I caught only glimpses, though watching it twice helped some.  Good plotting, amazing choreography -- the musical interludes in this three-and-a-half-hour epic were few but ranged from choice to utterly stunning.

Seeing the very eyeable Hrithik Roshan in this very different role gives me an expanded appreciation of his range as an actor -- *wildly* different from the characters he played in Koi... Mil Gaya and its sequel.

I would think any reader of epic fantasy would like this a lot.  It's pretty much got it all, at least if one is willing to accept music in place of magic.  They aren't so far apart, in this instance.

Highly recommended.


Also chewed through another disc of Castle, featuring a writer who lives like no writer I ever met, and dipped in to the first disc of City of Vice, a low-budget BBC mini-series about the start of the Bow Street Runners engineered by Magistrate (and novelist) Henry Fielding, ably assisted by his blind brother John who eventually succeeded him in the post.  I read a non-fiction book on the subject a year or so ago; it's interesting to see it all brought to life, although both the milieu and the plots are deeply depressing/distressing.

Ta, L.