Jodha Akbar 45: Shadows of the Past - Page 3

Oh dear, I cannot stop laughing at your imagination running riot, in fact I can hardly see the monitor for tears. You, my dear, are an original!👏

I am so glad to find someone who actually reads and likes my footnotes! As for the Agra-London alliance, it would never have got off the ground, as London would have seemed a tinpot capital of a tinpot kingdom, huddling for safety behind the protective width of the English Channel to the successors of Bairam Khan. Riven by religious discord, with its Queen constantly under threat from the Catholic Church, acting thru Philip II of Spain, a hugely powerful and rich empire, all the hype and hoopla about the defeat of the Armada notwithstanding.

Agra would have thought it an unequal match, and then again Elizabeth was no hoor pari to bewitch a Shahenshah, even in the highly airbrushed portraits exchanged before royal marriages in those days, a practice that often had disastrous consequences. Remember Anne of Cleves, Henry VIII's Wife no. 4? When she arrived in London, she proved to be so unlike her portrait that Henry divorced her instantly. Of course once she had caught a glimpse of her lord and master, a corpulent, diseased wreck of the handsome youth he once was, the divorce must have seemed manna from Heaven!

And please call me Shyamala (Di, Aunty or plain vanilla, as you like or as is age appropriate).

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: Moontide

Dear Sashashyam,

May I say I have started looking forward more to the the NBsyou keep attaching at the end of your posts than the main body itself...

love the contexts you are bringing into a very commercial tele-drama and giving it relevance of a different dimension altogether. Has to be the professional prowess speaking 😳

but your note today set off a chain of thought...

what if the nuptial-political alliance was not between Amer and Agra...but between the last of the Tudors and the best Mughal of them all?

would we be rooting for Elizabeth-Akbar right now?😉

then who would have changed whom? would the Tudor dynasty have continued? or was that a healthy way of having kept the British colonization of Hindustaan at bay? or would that pre-pone the reverse colonisation process of today by several centuries...meaning would it have been a colonization of the British by the Mughals/Hindustanis? would it mean curry travelling to England or the prodigal steak and kidney pie given a Mughlai twist in the tandoor? would the prevalent trend be Biriyani with Beer? May be then we wouldnt have had to wait till Prince Williams to know the existence of the Indian gene in the Buckingham lineage? Kohinoor given respite from several re-sizings? Not to mention money saved in visa fees. May be Knighthoods and Mansabdaris would come together and we would have Knightsabdars and Manhoods being conferred? May be even have a hung-Diwan-E-Khaas at a time of political turmoil?

But most importantly...WHO WOULD HAVE CLAIMED FIRST RIGHTS FOR CRICKET??????

Hope the steroid drops did their magic 😃

Thanks for another lovely post.

Love

Moontide

Thanks, Ela. That is a very clever idea, and I too wish she had done it, but then that would not be in character for her at all, as she is now.

How would she do a Jalal to save Motibai? I do not see her fighting her way into or out of the kaal kotri in which Motibai would be incarcerated.

No, I think my take is more likely to be correct; Jodha is definitely going to be forced to reverse course and ask for the firman, and there has to be a strong enough reason to override her pride and her prejudice all at once. Once earlier, it was to keep her parents from being affected by the knowledge of what her marriage was really like. Now it might well be to save her only real confidante in Agra. a maid who is more like a sister.

It holds together, Ela, but let us see. The other plus of this theory is that it will give Jodha the luxury of heating Jalal even more than she does now. Kanha had better order himself a set of earplugs!😉

Shyamala

Originally posted by: elasingh

Fantastic post Shyamala...

I am glad that Jodha didnt accept Jalal's prize as Jalal was not happy with her victory...

On the other hand I wish she should have asked to be made Mallika-e-hindustan...That would have been fun and silenced Ruku for ever...

R u sure that Jodha will use Farmaan for Moti's release? ...I think she might do exactly what Jalal did for Abdul...

I agree that rules of Mughal court were very strict...they are not shown in this serial...The punishment Jalal gave to the couple was mild...In other kingdoms they would have been executed...

I also think that it was Jodha's turn to make the move and not Ruku's...Ruku had made her move in the last episode and then she had stood up...thinking she had already won.

Thank you, Mehvy.

I am glad that we are on the same page on Jalal. The blindfold is really on Jodha right now, you know. Jalal is doing pretty well on his own, now that Bairam Khan's harsh influence is gone, plus he has retained all the useful things that his Khan Baba taught him. Jodha, on the other hand, has her mind so closed against Jalal that it is immune to facts, and would take a blowtorch or TNT to open it up!😉

Aha, a fellow PR aficionada, is it? I have stopped even watching it, after sticking to it for all of 3 years, some months back It was the pits.

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: mehvy12

Hello,

As always I love reading your posts, before for Pavitra Rishta and now for Jodha Akbar. That scene did stick out in the episode for me too.

He saw himself in that child and he did not want that child to live without his parents, like he did. No matter what the reason was for Jalal's parents to keep him far for them, it is a pain that he cannot forget. I wish Jodha would remove the blindfold she has and see how he is as a person. I feel no matter what he may do as a kind she will take it the opposite way. Today itself she left early because of the punishment he mete out, but she didn't notice how the husband and wife had behaved and how Jalal behaved with the child.

I do agree with you that Jodha will amplify his good traits, because right now those traits are being pushed to the back by those he associates with. I am waiting to see how the blindfold is removed and how Jalal will be transformed into Akbar.

No, Meghana, it was not just a clinical comprehension. It was really a shared feeling. Her face was so sad, and that, in this Ruqaiya, is so odd that it stood out all the more.

You are absolutely right about MA, and about Jodha too, if she had stayed on till the end of that scene. But if that is what you would have liked, how would it square with your other desire to cut short the hatred track? Would it not have prolonged that track?

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: meghanajain

Great post! I felt Ruq didnt feel anything for Jalal, she just understood why he changed his decision. She is already feeling insecure and any decision that Jalal takes will lead her to believe it is because of Jodha.

It looks like MA might have poisoned Jalal against his mom, as I cant understand why he would be angry at his mom for leaving him for his own security. I can understand that loneliness part, but holding a grudge is beyond my understanding so far.

I really really hope that Ekta madam doesnt stretch the hatred part for long. Jodha missing the actual verdict was so convenient, just so that hatred track can continue. I would have been more impressed if she saw it and still kept on her belief that this was just one ocassion but Jalal is still jallad...

Ludicrous, and so very standard issue soapish nonsense. What was the problem with Jodha shedding a few tears when her mother is going away and she is not going to see her again for a long, in fact indeterminate period of time?

Even if she had been deliriously happy in her marriage, this sadness would have been there, so why hide it? Stupid in the extreme,that scene. I cannot help wondering if the same person wrote that and the Diwan-e-Aam scene. Does not seem possible to me!

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: Autumn_Rose

Aunty , I wanted your opinion on the scene where moti bai puts aata on jodhas face to hide her tears. Lol

Thank you for such a beautiful and perceptive response. I particularly liked the parts @blue.

Shyamala B.Cowsik

Originally posted by: swtngl

First of all, your analysis never fails to make me think. 😆

You are correct about Ruqaiya's response after being defeated. I couldn't have worded it any better. Her attitude doesn't suit the first lady of Mugal empire. The writers are not doing justice to her character, they keep changing her character to suit their needs. This is not the first time someone has defeated Ruqaiya; Maham defeated her in chess before and she took that gracefully.

The whole chess game was a joke. So many rules were broken that it's doesn't matter anymore that Jodha got another move. The CVs wanted her to win by hook or by crook. She won, in the end that's what matters and that I was correct about the moves she will make. I am so proud of myself. 😆. When Jodha said that she was playing for Shahenshah ka maan rakne ke liye, I was like didn't you say at the start of the game that she was playing because rajputs never back out. I wish Jodha had said that when accepting the challenge, it would have made more of an impact. Because then Jalal would have been confused about who to cheer for the one keeping his pride or the one who is going to make Jodha lose her pride. 😆 About Jalal wanting her to take the award, it is about his pride and ego. Jalal's thinking, "So many people in the room would have died to have this award, how can you refuse." Jalal has a gigantic ego, as he should he is an emperor and women fawn over him.

I love this episode because we got to see more sides of Jalal. I am glad that they are showing more of who Jalal is, his childhood, and why Khan Baba and Maham have so much influence on him. Now I feel like, I can almost grasp Jalal's character. He's a difficult character to understand. Hopefully we will get to see more of him in the coming weeks.

The relationship between Ruqaiya and Jalal is deep. Jalal cares for her, he brought her water. I bolded that part where you talked about the pain in Jalal's eyes mirrored in Ruqaiya's eyes, it was very well written👏. Their relationship has a long history, I don't want it to change no matter how his relationship with Jodha changes.

Regarding the court scene, the child's parents did not have tact. They did accuse and disrespect the badshah and they rightly punished. They did raise their voice in front of him which is a big no no but a person yells when they are distressed. They have just lost their home, way of living, and now they are told they need to convert. Who wouldn't be distressed after that but they forgot who they were speaking in front of. When the child spoke, the change in Ruqaiya and Jalal was so noticeable, both of their eyes soften. I believe that this is when they realized there is child here. Thanks to the child, we got to see Jalal's past.

With Jodha questioning the punishment, I believe she understood that they didn't mean to be disrespectful but their emotions got carried away. Jodha can't do or say anything, her hands a tied so she does the only thing she can, she leaves. With Jodha talking to her Kanha, she has only seen the bad side of Jalal again and again. The only thing she can do is question her destiny.

Shyamala Aunty,

I'm much more calm now and thought I would add to my earlier post but in a more relaxed manner...

What I find disconcerting when I watch this drama is the depiction that Jalal can seem to do no wrong. Whatever his actions, they are justified because Jodha does something to trigger it...and that is the crux of my bewilderment in whether I can watch this purely for the entertainment value in it,

I'll explain...it all started with the very beginning of this show when I was completely taken off guard that the mans feet were cut off because he stole the Shenshah's shoes.

So if I go in order...or somewhat in order from my memory...

1) the shoes were stolen - punishment = cutting off the mans feet,
2) woman is harassed / forcibly brow beaten by Jalal = her husband is humiliated and she is thrown away in a manner that is made to make her husband and her look bad as opposed to the almighty Shenshah,
3) He goes undercover and is somehow able to manipulate and impersonate a Rajputana Male without anyone being the wiser...
4) He is able to impersonate a Rajput guard, and deceive Raja Suryabhan and Jodha...and somehow has the markings of a soldier on his wrist...which should have been quite visible that it wasn't a tattoo but rather a hastily done cut inscription with a knife...,
5)He is able to abscond with the jailed crippled man (forgot his name) and take him to his horse...or steal a horse without anyone the wiser...(we actually have no idea how he got that horse, since he left the horse on the top of the mountain)
6) He is able to single handedly kill a huge pile of men...about 20 or so...and leave their bodies stacked high...not sure why he would bother to stack the bodies after he killed them,


After this the story line was somewhat normal when he went to Agra...


Then marriage time:

7) He conveniently is able to come up with a skilled story to give his council about why he should accept the marriage alliance between Jodha and himself,
8) He sends a spy into the house of Raja Bharmal, without anyone in that house being the wiser that there is a spy that has infiltrated their ranks,
9) He orchestrates the Mu Dikhayi fiasco
10) He is able to keep a tally of everything Jodha does to insult him, and will get revenge/payment in kind
11)He somehow is able to see Jodha's and Motibai's expressions through the parda - and then accepts her Sharta
12) He gets all riled up about his stolen shoes
13) He goes into her tent that night and intimidates her...after ordering her to do something that was inappropriate of him,
14) goes into her room and hurts her wrist, and successfully intimidates her again where she is quaking in fear...
15) orders her to sing in front of men and women for his entertainment,
16)tells her that his goal is to make her life a living hell,
17) makes her bath him,
18) AND now we will be seeing him use Motibai against her to twist her hand into taking something from him that she does not want to take...


Its all such an ego game for him. His pride, his ego, his stature, his insults, his taunting, his punishments...

That is why I have a problem when we say that this is a war between Jodha and Jalal...because on face value, this war is CLEARLY not on the same playing field.

They have shown that he holds all the power...and can use it any way he chooses...so although he let the man and woman released today once his history was remembered, whenever it comes to Jodha his irrational, male chauvinistic attitude is dominate, and ultimately seems to win.

So I ask myself...how is it that this cunning, he who knows everything Shenshah, somehow doesn't know about the atrocities that are happening in HIS country, using HIS name...

I have a very hard time believing that everything is happening without Jalal's knowledge, and this is where Jodha's hatred for him comes from...and I agree with her. How can she - when even I don't believe he is innocent of not knowing what is happening to the Hindu people in his country.

We say she has a duty to be a wife, to honour her position and be his partner...but how do you yield to someone, accept them in your life and want to enjoy the pleasures and sorrows together with them when all you believe is that they are cruel, use deception and trickery to get their way.

Its funny how Jalal never asked why the soldiers took their house, because if this happened to this family, it has definitely happened to many other families. We are not shown that he is investigating as to why their livelihood was taken from them...

If this show manages to get into those matters...and Jodha is with him to open up his eyes as to what is really happening in his kingdom under HIS name..then there is hope for this show on a level not just for entertainment... but on a level that shows that all leaders are responsible for what happens during THEIR watch...

There was a line in the Movie Jodha Akbar that I still remember - when Jalal says to Adham Khan and Maham Ange for why he didn't make AK the prime minister. He said his actions are everything that he (Jalal) is against...it was very powerful in outlining the moral fiber of the character.

As to this Jalal's moral Fiber...I find him lacking in more ways than one.

Sonya

Lovely analysis, Shyamala Aunty.

Dear shyamala aunty,

Oh, I loved your analysis today. I am incredibly sorry for being MIA for the last two posts, what with my newfound obsession with Thomas Hardy and my relationship drama. 😆 😆 I absolutely loved the episode last night, and the flashback of the past rendered it a very moving experience for me. I love how they are setting up the character of Jalal, more human and more accessible than the majestic prototype of royalty. Weird how everyone jumps to defend Jodha because she resembles a real girl of eighteen than a haughty, royal queen figure, and we see double standards when it comes to Jalal. If being famous and powerful could remove the doubts and problems of childhood, then a lot of people won't be what they are. He is not selfish, he does not exactly blame his mother, he is just troubled, he is just lonely. Is it that difficult to understand? Does being a king equate to being a person with no human emotion? Rather, it is this humanity that transforms an ordinary king into a great one.