I am absolutely fascinated with the Ajanta caves. When I heard about Ajintha the movie and the realistic sets created by Nitin Desai, I was keen to see it but somehow missed it in the theatre.
DVDs are not available even though I keep checking in the stores. Eventually I found out about a TV screening today on Mayboli TV channel which I'd never even heard about and there I was watching Ajintha at last.
The first scene of the hunt and the sudden (re) discovery of the Ajanta site was very good and I expected the rest of the movie to follow suit. Unfortunately it did not.
The love story between the lead pair is a haunting tragedy, and could have been made into a beautiful film, easily a blockbuster. The poor script with far too many song and dance routines, mediocre dialogues and stilted acting was a let down and this is surely why the film did not do well.
The sets were good and the location scenes well filmed. The last piece of vocal music was beautiful. I am glad I got to watch it even though it was a let down to what I had expected.
With a tighter script and better overall everything, there is still scope for Bollywood to remake this tragic love story into the superb film it deserves to be. In fact India and Maharashtra tourism should provide tax sops to make such a film and promote this exquisite ancient heritage site. Anyone listening out there?
