Here I am, with an ebbing migraine that has left me feeling woozy. But your post is so interesting, with all that bottled up exasperation, almost rage, bubbling up like lava from a volcano, that I want to comment on it at once. So here goes.
All that you have said in the post, right up to the part in blue, is absolutely true and correct. No one can dispute it, especially the point at which Ruqaiya Begum crossed the Rubicon and entered the realm of wickedness, which was, for me, with the afeem track. The fake pregnancy and the Hussein part too can be understood, after a fashion, as Jodha tries to do with the former. But the afeem part is criminal, and it cannot be understood or forgiven. As Ruqaiya was not exiled by Akbar and went on to live out an honoured old age, the CVs here will make sure that nothing about this crime ever comes out.
It was the same with Mahaam Anga in that her worst crimes, especially the engineering of so many miscarriages among Jalal's wives, not just Ruqaiya, never saw the light of day, and in the end she died with honour, floated along on a tide of saccharine sentimentalism on the part of Jalal. She was not a minor character, but a central one, and her wickedness would make Catherine de Medicis applaud. But still she got away almost scot free, for the only thing for which she was punished was for the Sujamal fiasco.
I agree that Ruqaiya has been shortchanged by the CVs, who wanted her, once Mahaam had departed, to take her place as the main villain. You can see that: the afeem track started only after Mahaam's death.
The earlier Ruqaiya was power mad, arrogant, ungrateful and unkind to her subordinates, rude to most others and much else, but she had flashes of genuine integrity - as when she slaps Hoshiyaar, both for suggesting that Jodha's baby should be got rid of (this was during the mistaken diagnosis of Jodha) and that it would be good if Jodha died after consuming that poison- and her love for Jalal was deep and sincere. Now she is pure black on the side that we, the viewers, see, and off white on the side that Jodha and Jalal see!
You are angry because she has not been tarred and feathered and stuck in a pillory. But that is not going to happen. The female villains in our soaps, which is what Jodha Akbar has become, never get punished, for the mahaan female lead has to prove her mahaanta by forgiving them regardless of what they did. Here, of course, both for Ruqaiya and Mahaam, what they did is not going to come out, at least none of the worst parts. So for what can Ruqaiya be punished by Jalal?
Moreover, the CVs, I feel, are also feeling the lack of a comedy track of the kind that was there during the Badri-Kajal track, also centred on, if you remember, on Ruqaiya's cooking. Whence these Mathura sequences, which I for one enjoyed as it gave Rajat the opportunity to show up his skills at facial comedy (by the way, I do not think you have seen either of my 2 tributes to Rajat, on pages 9 and 13 of Mandy's Chund boondein thread).
Consistent character development in such serials is about as common as rain in the Sahara. So there is no point fretting about Ruqaiya going unpunished when there is so much, and much worse, to fret about. Especially the unforgivable waste of Rajat's talent and what Akbar has been reduced to. And the foisting on us of this Salim-Anarkali jodi, for all that they have been sidelined a bit of late due to the plummeting TRPs when their prem kahani was up front and centre.
Lastly, it took me a while to get over the loss of Smiley Suri's elegant, complex, compelling and fascinating Ruqaiya, and her replacement by this one. If you look thru the extract below, from my fourth post in this forum, which you might not have seen, you will understand why. Compared to that loss - and the part in bold shows exactly how heavy that loss was - the subsequent additional distortions in Ruqaiya's character seem to be not worth bothering about.
I do not know if the above makes any sense to you. If it does not, you can always blame my migraine!😉
Shyamala Aunty
Extract about the introduction of Ruqaiya Sultan Begum from Jodha Akbar 13: Sheh, par mat nahin
Ruqaiya Begum is that rara avis, a woman who can hold not just a man, but an emperor, effortlessly. Not by her beauty, for that is no more than passable, but by her intelligence, her political shrewdness, and her total self-possession. Plus the fact that thanks to a lifetime of knowing him, she can read his mind like an open book. Jalal must be having a lot of affection for her, as much as he can have for anyone, but as he says, the vital point is not that she is his wife, but that she is his friend. And he has very few friends.
So she teases him ruthlessly. There is the arrogant gliding walk - like a model these days on the catwalk - with which she slides past all the simpering females who line the upper terrace for a glimpse of their lord and master, and ensures that his eye not only catches hers, but stays with her, right until she glides back and out. It is a delightful display of control, and no wonder the other aspirants to imperial attention turn a delicate shade of pea green!😉
When he appears in her chambers, she does not run to him and fawn over him. She stays where she is for one long minute, leaning back against the bolster, her left arm negligently outstretched. Clearly the lady has Attitude with a capital A. Especially when she is smoking a hukkah, with ease and elegance.
She makes Jalal resume the game of chess that he had left unfinished the last time , declaring Zid hamara haq hai. This not said with pretty coquetry, but with unhesitating certainty. He knows her very well, so he is not riled, plus he is a natural, self-assured dominator who, as he says, hates to lose. Ruqaiya then displays the ready talent for repartee that must have won his heart and, even more so, his mind: Hamein jeet pasand hai, isiliye to dil har kar aapko jeet liya hai.
When he does make a winning move, the pun in her acknowledgement Yeh to kamaal ki chaal thi, refers as much to his disappearing act, that she has already found out about, as to the chess game. Her unfailing instinct tells her that there is something new in the air. When Jalal reveals to his friend that he had gone to Amer, her eyes narrow as she looks into the distance, and their expression is hard to read. He is leaning forward, fastening her eyes with his own. Can he read them?
All in all, Ruqaiya is the most fascinating woman I have seen on TV in a long, long time and Ekta's team should be felicitated for having portrayed her as such an enigmatic, astute and intellectually superior individual. She is clearly an original, and she will be a delight to watch.
As and when Jodha arrives on the scene, Ruqaiya might be supportive of, indifferent to or resentful of her; it is not yet clear which. It would, I feel, depend on whether she sees Jodha as threatening her very unusual bond with their husband. Bar that, royal wives in those days were taught to adjust to others of their number. Either way, Ruqaiya will leave her mark on the Jalal-Jodha relationship.
Between her and Jalal, it is not really either check or checkmate, for as of now, they are both playing on the same side- Jalal's. I for one found it wonderful that someone like Jalal could relate so well to a woman, treating her as a confidante and an equal. I do not know if he loves her, whatever that might mean, but what they share is something even stronger than romantic love. Jodha, whatever Jalal's infatuation with her, is going to run into some very tough competition.
Channel V Dil Dosti Dance
Arjun
