Can a perfect recipe end in a tasteless dish? Yes. Vidhu Vinod Chopra had the perfect raw material- India's finest actors, a brilliant cinematographer, best technical equipment. Above all, with the backdrop of a modern royal family, he had an opportunity to bake a gripping drama of emotions, betrayal, and character. Yet, 'Eklavya' emerged as the final product..<br /><br />Chopra's only point is whether eklavya was wrong in not challenging the tradition (dharma). It is a thought-provoking subject, but chopra uses such a deuced round-the-corner approach to get to it. The entire movie is senselessly maneuvered to reach a point in the end where such a question could be asked. A good movie would have tried to explore this conflict between tradition and conscience throughout such that the conflict serves as a core to the movie. But, Eklavya manufactures irrelevant events before this question is placed to be answered in one swift action (stunt, if you like).<br /><br />Ironically, a character-based movie like 'Eklavya' pivots on underdeveloped characters. The director suddenly introduces the character and expects us to understand their positions and allegiances. A little more of character-delving would have added strength to the film. Most characters are either explicitly bad or explicitly blind (pun unintended). Eklavaya's (Amitabh)conflict between duty and parenthood is never clearly represented. NOt until the very end, which is perhaps the only meaningful part of the movie. Eklavaya character, in absence of any development, emerges as puerile- an immature guard who acts only on instinct and remains oblivious to the truth before it is thrown at his face.. Saif remains wooden and leaves the audiences to wake up in between and decide what his character is up to. The ladies are treated as fillers when an over-intense drama has to be temporarily paused.<br /><br />In the end, You feel nothing for the characters. you want to cry for eklavya, but you don't know him enough. You want to hate Jackie Shroff and his son, but director doesn't inspire you to. You don't know what to feel for saif, since more time is spent in showing his romance than his place in the drama.<br /><br />The problem is that since there is very little to happen in the movie, it drags at leisurely pace giving scenes which make bear no relevance on the ultimate message. Bad actors could have made this movie intolerable, but bollywood's finest rescue it. Amitabh and saif do full justice to the inexplicable characters given to them. Others hold their own, except the usually brilliant Bomaan Irani, whose eccentric portrayal of the king is annoying.<br /><br />Sadly, Bollywood is infested so much with mediocrity that anything different is hailed as a masterpiece. Eklavya is different, but it is pointless. it completely squanders the head-start given by brilliant backdrops and imaginative camera work. Incidentally, for this technical brilliance only, it deserves the 2 stars given to it.