Aishwarya takes spiritual steps

By: Subhash K. Jha, IndiaFM
Friday, November 30, 2007

Costume dramas and Aishwarya Rai almost go hand in hand. Audiences are so used to gasping at her magnificently eloquent dances in Devdas and Umrao Jaan that there's much disappointment over the rumour that she does no twinkle-toed twirls in Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodhaa-Akbar.

Jodhaa-Akbar is Aishwarya's third costume drama in a row after the tepidly-received Umrao Jaan and The Last Legion. The question is, will she appease her fans' appetite to see her singing and dancing in elaborate costumes? Or would the stunning diva's glamour-quotient take a backseat to the film's promised authenticity of periodicity? While the actress laughs off the question with a wait-and-watch shrug, director Ashutosh Gowariker is more expansive.

"Well… Aishwarya does have songs and dances in Jodha-Akbar. But they will befit the stature of her character of the Rajput queen Jodhabai. She won't dance like Madhubala in Mughal-e-Azam because she isn't a kaneez in this film."

Aishwarya"s dances in Jodha-Akbar are apparently spiritual rather than sensual. The Queen Jodhabai steps out of her regalia on festive occasions to swirl twirl and unfurl her majestic grace.

As for Sarkar Raj, she neither sings nor dances her way through the role of the gritty no-nonsense ruthless entrepreneur who crosses swords with the father-son duo, played by her pa-in-law and husband.

"After these two epics come out one after another she'll be seen in a stunning smouldering Parisian mould in Pink Panther….just like Dhoom 2 after Umrao Jaan Not that she planned it. But this year Aishwarya and her hugely supportive in-laws (who are all for her career) are sure she will further consolidate her position as the queen-bee of the box-office," says a source very close to Aishwarya, thwarting all renewed rumours of the actress' pregnancy.