In 2001, Ashutosh Gowarikar’s “Lagaan” became the third Indian film in history to receive an Oscar nomination. The story, featuring villagers in British India who challenge their rulers’ tax impositions with a game of cricket, established Gowarikar as one of India’s leading filmmakers. It also triggered his preference for period dramas of epic proportions; he followed it up with 2008’s “Jodhaa Akbar,” a less dynamic but lavish fictional rendition of the love story between the famous Mughal emperor and his Hindu wife. A few forgettable films later, Gowarikar has returned to his favorite genre with “Mohenjo Daro.”
Based on the city at the heart of the Indus Valley Civilization, the film is an ambitious attempt to paint a portrait of a relatively obscure slice of the past. But the same writer-director who set the bar for historical fiction 15 years ago doesn’t meet it even halfway now—bloated and tiresome, “Mohenjo Daro” is a struggle on many fronts.
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