Sonya,
This is a thoughtful and balanced assessment, and I would agree with almost all of it. As I wrote to Ela above, I liked two things about Jodha yesterday.
One was the calm dignity, firm but free of arrogance, with which she put that cheeky chunari seller in her place, capping that by draping the expensive chunari -
fit only for the Mughal Shahenshah's begums - over her maid's head. It was a splendid put down, much better than chewing the woman out,and she added a solid retort about Mughal
shehzadis and Rajputanis to sew everything up. Of course it was the 150 mohras that spoke the loudest, but she handled the whole impeccably. She will handle Mahaam Anga the same way when the time comes for that.
Second, I liked the open, childlike (
not childish) way in which she laughed when Motibai ends up with mud all over her face and over that 150 mohra chunari. It was like a carefree little girl, and it was charming.
To come to your analysis, it is true that Jodha treats her maids as her equal,and that is admirable, but there has to be a limit to that. I did not like the way Motibai bargained for that
chunari like a housewife in a fish bazaar, without waiting so see what Jodha felt about it at all. She should keep the rank and dignity of her mistress in mind. It looked bad, the way she behaved. This is what comes of too much freedom for one's staff. There has to be some discipline. The Mughal court is far more hierarchical and formal, and if Jodha treats the staff there the same wayas in Amer, and tries to befriend all and sundry there, she will soon be in the suds. A queen must be kind, but a bit aloof and dignified as well; otherwise the staff will start being presumptuous. As was Motibai yesterday, even if she meant well.
As you say, Jodha does not stand out in a crowd, except that she is prettier than the rest.. She does not have the body language as yet. A queen should so stand out, and that is where a regal presence comes in. I do not feel that she has the
bepanah husn that Jalal keeps repeating like a parrot. I think the Parvati of DKD Mahadev, who has just left that show, would have made a far better Jodha, in terms of both sheer looks and of presence.
Of course that is a personal take of mine, and other will see this Jodha quite differently. Plus, what we have is going to be what we get, and there is no point complaining about it. At least we have a very good Jalal.
I agree with you that Jodha could, so far, afford to be as simple and straightforward as she is because she has never faced any serious dilemmas,any great danger, any great tragedies, in her life as Jalal has. She has never been as lonely as he is, so lonely that he does not even know that he is lonely. Lonely in that he has no one with whom he can connect with the certitude that the person is not out to use him one way or the other. He is the xlosest of all to Ruqaiya, and still, when she praises his appearance, he is sure she wants something from him.
Jodha can thus afford to see things in black white, to run to save a pigeon or a deer (I loved her quick thinking wrt the deer,and so did Jalal, whose eyes lit up with instant appreciation as soon as he saw the smoking twigs), and to lecture her family on the Rajput code of honour.
The first time she is pulled both ways is about Sujamal, and when he joins up with the enemy to redress what he sees as a great injustice done to him, Jodha will understand that there need not be one clear right and one clear wrong, and she will suffer. As Jalal suffers when Zaheer is blinded and later dies, when Takhtmal is murdered, and when so many other things go very badly wrong.
Jodha will have to grow up, to learn that life is not so simple, that there are competing pressures that have to be balanced, and that for an emperor, his empire and its needs come before all else. That the imperatives of statecraft often cannot be subjected to personal concepts of right and wrong, or to those of human sympathy.
For example, no matter how sorry one feels for an expectant mother at the personal level, there is no way the kind of criminal fraud that Farida and her paramour are planning to pull off, making their child the heir to the Mughal throne, should have gone unpunished. They should have at least been jailed, if not executed. In any kingdom of the 16th century, in France or Germany or England or China, such an offence would have resulted in the instant execution of both of them for high treason. At the very most, they would have waited till the woman gave birth and then executed her. That is what is done these days for a death row woman convict who is expecting a child. How can one argue that the crime is excused just because she is going to have a child? What happens to the law then? Should every begum of the emperor who cheats on him and then practices this kind of criminal fraud and
lese majeste get off scot free?
Well, let us see if and how Jodha learns all these things. I hope she does not become a Hamida Banu II.I cannot stand that whining, lachrymose woman. The one in the film was way better, just like Ila Arun was much better than this Mahaam Anga. She was really scary at times.
Once again, I really liked your analysis of Jodha's inner workings.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Originally posted by: SonyaBlade
Shyamala ji,
for your take on Jodha, do you think that maybe they are protraying her right now because they want ot make difference very obvious with regard to how much she enjoys life and dances around and basically has little to no worries, vs Jalal's world which has basically been a struggle since birth.
I find they are treating the character of Jodha to be protrayed a bit childish, full of love and respect, but lacking in wisdom and maturity for lack of a better word. Also they are showing that she has no deception to her what so ever...that what you see is what you get and she has no concept of playing coy, smart, selfish, deceptive or anything else that is related with Ruqaiya and Maham Anga...
We will definitely need her to learn quickly that she needs to play with some cards hidden and to have a poker face...strategy after all doesn't make someone evil or good, it shows who has the better brains.
I fear that we are going ot have to wait for the brains and mind of Jodha to mature.
I think the way the character is written - is that Jodha doesn't consider herself better than anyone else just because of her birth...
In today's episode she definitely didn't stand out from her posse...however the actions that she took without showing any attitude in my opinion speaks far greater on the value of a future queen as opposed to one who looks like a queen...
your thoughts?
Shiv Shakti
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