Synopsis:
The pristine marble walls of the Taj Mahal tell tales of a family -- the royal family of the Moghuls -- driven by an overpowering passion of love and hate. At the center of this drama are the young lovers, Prince Khurram, son of Emperor Jahangir and Arjumand, the niece of Empress Noor Jahan. Amidst burning ambitions, a power struggle and a dark conspiracy, the budding romance of the two teenagers blossoms as Prince Khurram goes on to ascend the throne as Emperor Shah Jahan. Their relationship lasts 19 long years, until 1631, when the Empress passes away giving birth to her 14th child. Deeply struck by this tragedy, Shah Jahan devotes 22 years to perpetuate her memory. When it was completed, the Taj Mahal becomes Mumtaz Mahal for him, and when his body is interred alongside hers, together they became the Taj Mahal. (taken from allocine.co.uk)
SPOILER:
The movie starts out with an elderly Emperor Shah Jahan (Kabir Bedi) in the midst of a civil war. His son Aurangzeb (Arbaaz Khan) and Aurangzeb’s brother are intent on taking the throne. They fight their brother Dara and Dara’s son who are fighting for their father. The artillery betrays Dara and start opening fire on their own troops. Dara and his son are defeated and imprisoned by Aurangzeb. Aurangzeb kills his brother who helped him win the war and Shah Jahan’s spiritual advisor and places Shah Jahan and his elder sister Jahan Ara (Manisha Koirala) under house arrest. He then kills Dara’s son and then kills Dara. He puts Dara’s head in the serving plate when Shah Jahan and Jahan Ara are served dinner.
Jahan Ara sees her father gazing at the Taj and asks him about her mother. She asks when he first met her. We then flash back to when Shah Jahan was younger and first met his love.
A young Shah Jahan, then Prince Khurram (Zulfikar Sayed) meets Arjumand (Sonya Jehan) while out hunting deer. He accidentally spears her veil with an arrow and frees her. It is love at first sight for both of them.
Arjumand is the daughter of a General for the then Emperor Jehangir (Arbaaz Ali). The General is also the brother of Emperor Jehangir’s wife, Queen Norrjahan (Pooja Batra). Queen Noorjahan (Pooja Batra) has a daughter from a previous marriage, Ladli Begum (Kim Sharma). Noor wants Ladli to marry Khurram as all of the Emperor’s children are from his previous marriage. She wants Ladli to become the next Empress.
Once Khurram finds out who Arjumand is, he pursues her and tells her that she will be his Queen. He then asks Arjumand to meet him at a garden across the lake that night if she loves him. When she leaves, we see that the Empress had overheard the proposal. She keeps Arjumand from leaving her room in order to prevent their meeting. Arjumand finally uses rope to climb out her window to go to Khurram and gets a sailor and his men to row her in a boat to the garden. She meets with Khurram there and they spend the night together.
The next morning, Arjumand is worried about what everyone will think. Khurram says that they will go back to the palace together. They come back to the palace hand in hand and Khurram tells the Empress that he loves Arjumand and intends to marry her. The Empress says that this will not happen.
the Empress has the sailor put to death because he brought Arjumand to Khurram that night. Then she tells her brother to leave and take Arjumand with him. The family leaves and when Khurram finds out he takes some men and goes after her.
The Empress learns when Khurram leaves that the Emperor had agreed to marry Khurram off to the daughter of the ruler of Iran. She is upset when she learns of this as she wanted Khurram to marry her daughter. She decides to kill off Khurram so that his brother, someone who has always fancied Ladli, can become Emperor and make Ladli his wife. She tells the Emperor that the General and Khurram are planning to take over the throne and are raising arms against him. The Emperor is shocked and orders that they be brought back in chains to him. The Empress then goes behind the Emperor’s back to her lover and orders him not to capture Khurram, but instead kill him and Arjumand.
When Khurram meets up with Arjumand, they are attacked by the Emperor’s men. The General prevents Khurram from being murdered and Khurram is brought back as a prisoner with Arjumand. Khurram faces a trial and he says he is innocent and that the Empress is behind all of this. Khurram’s brother jumps up and says that he overheard the General and Khurram plotting to take over the throne. (Noor had spoken with him earlier and convinced him to lie.) Khurram is then taken away to be imprisoned.
The Emperor finds Arjumand and insists he is not going to punish her. But he is angry that everything was ruined because of their love. He says that her lover’s door is open and that she should just take him away. Arjumand goes to see Khurram and convinces him to marry the Iranian Princess as his Kingdom will surely be in ruins if his brother runs it. He relunctantly agrees and marries the Princess.
The Princess dies after some years and then Khurram was finally free to marry Arjumand. You see that they had a happy life together and she bore him many children. She gives birth to her last child and then feels herself dying. She tells Khurram to build a monument to their love. She then passes away. Khurram then builds the Taj for Arjumand and lays her to rest there.
We then switch to an elderly Shah Jahan. He mentions to his daughter that the next day is the 40th anniversary of his wife’s death. He asks her to go ask Aurangzeb if he could visit the Taj and pray at his wife’s grave. Jahan Ara leaves to do so. Aurangzeb gives his permission, provided that he go with armed guards and is back before sun down. He gives Jahan Ara a prayer cap and rug he knitted to give to his father.
While Jahan Ara is away, Shah Jahan falls asleep and dreams that his deceased spiritual advisor comes to him during the night and leads him out of the palace to a waiting boat to go see Arjumand at the Taj. Shah Jahan takes the boat and then we see a young Arjumand and Prince Khurram become reunited. Jahan Ara comes back to her father and finds her father has passed away. We learn that Shah Jahan was laid to rest next to his wife and that the Taj then became known as the Taj Mahal.
