Taj Divided by Blood Review: Naseeruddin Shah, Aditi Rao Hydari’s Series Replaces Finesse and Depth for Empty Grandeur and Scale! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Taj Divided By Love Review: The release of this Zee5 series at this time seems intriguing. It comes at a time when there is widespread contempt for the Mughal empire, and where a section of the audience is inclining away from empires of Islamic roots. Taj- Divided By Love, well, tries to play it safe and succeeds for the most part. Taj-Divided by Blood: Rahul Bose Opens Up About His Role in The Web Series.

Akbar (Naseeruddin Shah) is now an aging ruler of his empire and wants his sons Daniyal (Shubham Kumar Mehra), Salim (Aashim Gulati) and Murad (Taaha Shah) to succeed him. But the one he favours, Salim, has no interest in being a ruler and is happy being in love with Anarkali (Aditi Rao Hydari) while Daniyal is a young, manipulated and brainwashed Allah devotee. While Murad does possess the skills of a warrior, his barbaric ways make Akbar reluctant to give the throne to him. A war ensues between the brothers which is further escalated by Akbar's move to assign the throne to the 'capable' and 'competent' son. Obviously, nothing goes as planned.

It would be a stretch to call it an Indian Game Of Thrones as it is a lot tamer than the HBO original. But it does get a few things right in terms of scale and grandeur. Mughals are known for their architecture and movies have depicted this quite well. Taj does a similar job only it's not a blinding exposure to the extravaganza. It has warm and sometimes darker tones which align with the mood of the story. Even Salim-Anarkali's longing and pining aren't painted with bright strokes but with a shade of melancholy.

The writing tries hard to strike a balance for a few characters, and not for others. On one side it portrays Akbar as a ruler who cares for his subjects, on the other side, his savagery is also well-depicted. Maharana Pratap's valour and bravery are repeatedly addressed and respected. In one of the episodes, he acknowledges the fact that Akbar may be an invader but he fights head-on rather than resorting to pesky politics.

However, this 'balanced' handling of the narrative also becomes its undoing. It cherry picks all the famous fables or stories for effect. Even Akbar's secular way of dealing with religion becomes a victim here as it is treated more like a delusion. This perhaps was done to not rile up anybody.

Taj Divided By Blood didn't need 10 episodes. After a while, the stories get repetitive. With every character being one-note, none of them add anything great to the twists and turns or lack thereof. It's just politics where everyone is gossiping and discussing everyone but only a few are actually taking any action.

Watch the trailer of Taj Divided By Blood

Performances range from decent to weak. Naseeruddin Shah seems quite disinterested in the proceedings. Guess he found the character impressive on paper but like Akbar's delusions, that was too a figment of his imagination. Aashim Gulati's character has been so poorly written the man looks pained and perhaps in love too, although I couldn't put a finger on that. Taaha Shah's cruel Murad is good, he just grunts and kills. There isn't any graph for this character. Aditi Rao Hydari, sorry to say, is just here because she is breathtakingly beautiful and that's a pity. Dharmendra Shares His Look as Shaikh Salim Chishti for ZEE5's Taj -Divided By Blood and He is Quite Unrecognisable in There! (View Pics).

Yay!

-balance storyline

-no overexposure to the grandeur

Nay!

-Unnecessarily long

-One-note characters

-An extremely safe storyline

Final Thoughts

Taj Divided By Blood tries to keep a certain section of the audience happy by showing Mughals as savages but in the process, loses out on finesse and depth. Taj Divided By Blood streams on Zee5.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Mar 03, 2023 06:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).