Eklavya

 This could certainly be a better movie.Though its good movie for one time watching,but my expectations were bit high so that might be a reason of disappointment.
performance wise one can't find a flaw in it.
Amitabh as the main protagonist was perfect,he delievered a top grade job.
Saif as a prince was looking really charming and he acted well too,and there were small scopes and share for rest of the cast.Sanju in his 10 minutes role was eyecandy. i loved him.
The movie lacks at the action scale(the scope for the action was really huge but the director missed it completely) but the twist towards the end was good.Movie runs at a slow pace.
The background score was good enough to keep the momentum going.Cinenatography  was excellent. There is just one song in the movie which is good and there was really no scope for more..
overall mustwatch for big B's fans.

i think this movie fell below my expectations, somehow i find the characters flawed, here is my take...

@eklavya - amitabh

he is considered to be a legendary guard with his 9 generations serving the royal family... he is supposed to do his duty when he helps the royal family get the prince (get the rani pregnant) but somehow he ends up falling in love with her... what was the deal about keeping scarf of rani... all the movie he is speaking about the "doing his dharma/ karma" but i dont see his actions consistent with what he says... besides may be he was a legendary guard (the movie does not give much details) but now at the age of 54 he cannot pretty much see anything, he was bound to fail in his duties (or doing his dharma)... when he failed to guard the king he weeps with guilt of not being able to perform his duties but what was the deal about burning the scarf of rani... that meant as if the rani caused him to fail in his duties which did not seem obvious... perhaps another angle to such actions is that he wanted to destroy the memories of rani, but why?... he has fatherly affection for saif but again in doing so he was failing in his duties...

@rani - sharmila

though it is shown that boman is not the biological father of saif but it is never clear that he was a bad parenting father... still sharmila polarizes saif like anything to save amitabh... was it a silent love story between sharmila and amitabh?...

@prince harshwardhan - saif

again counterpart of what sharmila tells her, he is all up against boman to save amitabh... to the extent that he gets boman killed... it is not clear at all that boman was a bad parenting father... he chooses to play the prince or the son of amitabh as it suits him...

@panna laal chauhaar - sanjay dutt

his role was too small, he is pretty much wasted...

@jyotiwardhan and udayvardhan - jackie and jimmy

definitely not the strongest characters... perhaps definitely not tea drinkers either :-)...

overall if you look at the movie, at the end it seems that it could have been very well a conspiracy by amitabh and saif to get the kingdom... with saif declaring amitabh as his father and all... amitabh choosed to not follow his dharma or duties as it suited him... the justification is that eklavya learns his lesson (from the incident of giving his thumb to guru dronacharya)... another lesson i take from the movie is that the strongest of characters fail in their duties when their blood comes into picture, perhaps a lesson for mother of boman that kameshti yagna shud have been with someone else...

the movie probably was much hyped, Vidhu Vinod Chopra giting a Rolce Royce Phantom to Amitabh Bachhan and all those stuff. Yes Amitabh's acting was simply superb in the movie, but there were a little directorial flaws.

Boman Irani has done an awesome job , the role of a complexed man. Saif too suits in the role of the prince but the acting of Raima Sen is disappointing she is shown as a mentally challenged person in the movie, but she fails to deliver the performance needed by that role, sometimes she is very intelligent , and at times she is termed in the movie as a mad girl!Vidya Balan and Sanjay Dutt are wasted in the movie , Specially Dutt he has only a 10 minute role in the entire movie , in fact the whole movie is dominated by Amitabh Bachhan. The story is a little wierd, but the movie is worth seeing once

According to the Mahabharata, Eklavya was a loyal student who gave his thumb as gurudakshina to a Dronacharya, despite the fact that Dronacharya never mentored him. This much is sufficient to understand his loyalty and faith. This movie too showcases loyalty and faith of the main character Eklavya, aptly played by Big B who pledges his loyalty to the royal family even in contemporary times. This one and half hour movie captures our attention because of its technicalities and performances. The story line is very thin but its handled well by the director Vidhu Vinod Chopra who has given us Parinda, Khamosh, 1942-A Love Story, Kareeb, Mission Kashmir … to name a few. The execution of the plot is what captivates us and that’s where he has excelled as in his earlier movies.

Eklavya(Big B) is the guard of a royal family whose fort is in Devigarh somewhere in Rajasthan. His family has been protecting the fort and the family for centuries together. Even Eklavya has spent his entire life serving the family and the fort even in contemporary India. Prince Harshavardhan (Saif Ali Khan) has been in England unable to cope up with the age old customs and traditions followed at his place. He has to come back to India when his mother Rani Suhasinidevi (Sharmila Tagore) passes away after her illness and the king Rana Jayawardhan (Boman Irani) calls for his son. Only people who seem to be happy with the prince’s return to home are Ekalavya, the prince’s sister Nandini (Raima Sen) and his childhood friend Rajjo(Vidya Balan) who is also the daughter of a driver (played by Parikshit Sahani) at the palace. The king’s brother Rana Jyotiwardhan(Jackie Shroff) and his son (played by Jimmy Shergill) are unhappy with their treatment from the king and they would have planned to blemish the king’s name by their plotting against him. Then there is a low caste crude police officer Pannalal Chohar(Sanjay Dutt) who is assigned to investigate these plots and we get to know that Pannalal is a supporter of Eklavya.

With the prince’s return, some truths are disclosed about his birth when he gets to know that he and his sister are not Rana Jayavardhan’s children and also that Eklavya is their real father. These truths shatter the king’s mind he plots to kill Eklavya with his brother’s help. In a surprising turn of events towards the interval, Rana himself is killed even as Eklavya helplessly tries to save him but eventually fails due to problem of his photo sensitive eyes. What follows is Eklavya’s search for the real killers and the turmoil he faces when he gets to know the truth. Eklavya is torn between his loyalty towards the family and his sentiments (these are better watched than told….).

Big B as Eklavya excels as usual. Watching him on-screen is a big treat. Saif Ali Khan again proves that he is a good actor after his performance in Omkara. Vidya Balan is cool and good looking. Sanjay Dutt is good and convincing as the police officer. Boman Irani also has done his best to give the right expressions for the right moment. Jackie Shroff is good as the bad man. But the surprise package of the movie is Jimmy Shergill who gets to show his real acting skills for the first time in his career. He does a very good job as the ruthless villain. Raima Sen is good in a sensible role after a long time. Sharmila Tagore is good as the Rani. Wish we get to see this enchanting actress more on screen. Pariskshit Sahni is good in his cameo role.

The background score is really good and music for the only song ‘Chanda Re’ by Shantanu Moitra is captivating with the real ‘lori’ mood. The visuals of the movie are too good wherein the fort and its various views in various seasons are captured very well by S. Natarajan Subramaniam, the cinematographer. Infact, every frame looks like a marvelous painting on the celluloid. Apt dialogues by Swanand Kirkire create good impact in many situations. Interiors of the palace (art by Nitin Desai) give the real rajput look to the movie.

Vidhu Vinod Chopra does his job very well – getting the best out of the huge star cast and managing the the script tightly by restricting the movie to max two hours and telling everything in style and grace. Some sequences are really executed and captured well.

• The ghungroo sequence -- a blindfolded Bachchan separating the ghungroo from the pigeon -awe-inspiring

• Minutes before the interval where Boman Irani is killed wherein there is the vast desert, a train running through it, the vintage car, the camels running helter-skelter, the sand, the sun, the old ruins – truly electrifying

• Jimmy Shergill’s death and aftermath, Jackie getting thrown towards a speeding train – hair raising

Negatives – yes it has! The lengthy dialogue sequences shot with low voice and no dubbing makes us not understand some parts. Vidya Balan forgiving Saif’s sin in a short time is a bit unconvincing. The pace of the story takes a beating during the start of second half but picks up once we get to know about Saif’s disclosure.

Mostly this movie will be liked by the classes rather than the masses since it hasn’t got the masala elements which the masses like.

Eklavya is a great movie. The storyline is pretty engaging - I was always predicting the next sequence and turned out it to wrong :). It revolves around a Rana (played by boman irani), his sort of body guard -  eklavya (played by Amitabh), his wife, brother and children. The movie is full of royal secrets, murders, interesting tales on these murders.
The cinematography is ultimate and looks like desi movies are competing with hollywood in this area. Acting was great as expected from such a star cast.
Overall a must see - esp. if you like engaging story lines .

This could certainly be a better movie.Though its good movie for one time watching,but my expectations were bit high so that might be a reason of disappointment.
performance wise one can't find a flaw in it.
Amitabh as the main protagonist was perfect,he delievered a top grade job.
Saif as a prince was looking really charming and he acted well too,and there were small scopes and share for rest of the cast.Sanju in his 10 minutes role was eyecandy. i loved him.
The movie lacks at the action scale(the scope for the action was really huge but the director missed it completely) but the twist towards the end was good.Movie runs at a slow pace.
The background score was good enough to keep the momentum going.Cinenatography  was excellent. There is just one song in the movie which is good and there was really no scope for more..
overall mustwatch for big B's fans.

one good thing about this flick is its duration which is around 2 hours coz if u start thinkin its gettin to ur nerves it ends around there..........movie starts with a tale of a royal family with all kind of usual characters ...spins a web around an intriguing relationsip between amitabh and saif and a fallout of that....but it ends in  not such a thrilling way...characterisation were good..not so much on the actionside....so in the end ...chalo ek bar dekh lete hain