Friends, congratulations to all! We finally discovered that Jalal has ears!
(And his mouth was largely shut ... the few times it opened, there was more sense than all of last week! And his face was more like a puppy dog as compared to last week when he looked like a wicked witch!)
Here's his demonstration yesterday of the sudden discovery of his ears:
1. He listened to Jodha
Wow, did she give him a earful! She was at her hatred-filled best, and whether she herself believed everything she said to him or not (I don't think she is as extremely against him as she says!), he still got to hear all of it. With every sentence his face grew more tight, and he stared everywhere, till she finally showed him the door, and he found his way out in mute silence.
2. He listened to Ruqaiaya
She had a few direct questions for him that gave him no sideways room to maneuver: "Why did you need to marry Jodha, when she clearly hates you and wants nothing from you - neither the throne, nor power, nor wealth, nor status, nor name, nor any happiness, and in fact not even you?" She also asked him: "Why would Jodha even need to kill the baby if she herself had no motive for any of this?" Good questions. I could see Jalal's ears twitching, and our ears also, but no sound of an answer was heard!
3. He listened to his own motives
With the questions Ruqaiya asked he was forced to listen to his gut - and he found himself explaining (rather to his own self, I thought) his reasons (or rather, his poor reasons) for marrying Jodha. It was to avoid the feeling of defeat of not marrying her, it was to feel the victory of marrying her, and it was to feel the satisfaction of crushing her "guroor" and seeing her discomfiture! (Friends, neither do I believe all this explanation of Jalal, nor do I buy Jodha's explanations yesterday about her hatred of Jalal. The more someone tries to count their reasons on their fingers, the more suspicious I get about the cover up of other emotions!)
4. He listened to his adviser
The poor adviser got his five minutes of glory yesterday (which he would have had during the war itself if he had not played dandiya there!) when Jalal asked for his advice. The adviser was forthright (at the risk of his own head) to say: "You are not on the verge of committing a mistake, My Lord, you have already committed one, and you may become a serial "na-insaafi" perpetrator should you do unto Salima what you did unto Jodha!" Good show, adviser, and do remember to bite your Emperor's ears more often!
5. He listened to his conscience
At the Diwan-e-Khas, Jalal showed that he had listened to his conscience and despite his sombre look and subdued voice he managed to show that he had still something of a "sher" in him when he said "Though the Amer-walas did not bring their subooth I got some other subooth that could exonerate them." He then did all the politically and ethically right things in re-instating the Amer pride, rewarding loyalty, and restoring Mansingh to the chair next to him. He tried to include Jodha's release in this list of achievements but alas, she made him look like more of a puppy dog that has not had its breakfast!
6. He listened to Mansingh
In fact he actually asked to listen to Mansingh, who upstaged his father and uncles by becoming the spokesman of their gratitude and expressed his profound thought that the Amer-walas would surely stay back in Agra till the culprit was found, for they too were worried about the death of the "uttaradhikari" of Agra! This was the only piece of sweet music Jalal heard yesterday!
In the coming weeks I have no doubt he will also needs his ears to perform for the following:
7. He will listen to Salima
Salima will no doubt pass the "bedroom test" and drink/eat the kesar/poison blithely, thus proving her innocence. And the interfering Jodha will no doubt get some suraag from Rahim that he was playing with the dibbi in his mother's room after finding it with Mahamanga (or whatever is the culprit-exposure story!). Jalal will thus need to keep his ears clean to hear the Salima-Jodha drum-roll, perhaps accompanied by the Ruqaiya fiddle.
8. He will listen to Hamida
Yesterday Hamida has already launched into her son's reasons for being what he is, and she looks like she is spoiling for a "heart-to-heart" with her son. No doubt very shortly the already-red ears of Jalal are going to have to bear the mother's advisory on how to handle Jodha and bring her around. Hopefully by that time he will already have felt the void left by Jodha's huff in his life (and so his ears will lap up his his mother's words).
9. He will listen to his heart
Or rather he will discover he has a heart that needs listening to! He might have to start searching for it, but he may find it either inside himself or inside Jodha (if he is already an advanced basket case!)
10. He will listen to the cheetah
Since the tiger has refused to star in this serial (on account of contract issues?) the cheetah is likely to roar rather ominously when Jalal, Jodha and Hamida are on some dargah trip (as per Khabroo). So the ears of Jalal will get their exercise in the forest. Then will follow some herogiri with the cheetah that will help wipe away some more of Jodha's angst, and then for the next instalment of what follows we will have to wait for Khabroo!
Meanwhile, congrats again folks. We did it! We whined so much all of the last ten episodes that the Creatives have covered their ears, and said "OK please shut up folks and take what you want!".
Cricket
