Friends, the episode yesterday was a very strange one for me. At first glance it looked like a "disjointed" episode with some very disparate things happening one after another ... Jodha's brothers leaving, the swordfight scene with Jalal and Jodha, the Maham-Adam scene, the Jalal-Ruqaiaya scene and finally the Jalal-Jodha scene again about the Meena Bazar stall ... there was a sort of storyline there, but it was also a bit up and down!
When I was trying to see if there was a sort of connect between everything I saw yesterday, and I was trying to go every piece of the whole episode bit by bit, it suddenly occurred to me that this episode was full of some very inexplicable things ...!
I have not been able to make sense of everything I saw, so I'm hoping all of you will tell me how to interpret some of these "inexplicables".
Especially if you read the questions below, you will see that there can be a very simple explanation for all of these questions I have raised ... but there can be a deeper explanation also: it could be that Jalal, while telling Jodha he is sending her back to Amer, is doing everything to ensure she cannot go back to Amer!
Read on and see if you get what I mean!
1. Why did Jalal not mention anything to the Amer boys about Jodha wanting to go back?
On the face of it, the whole scene looked like the Amer boys destination was going to be some other part of their Amer territory and they were not heading directly back to the Amer palace, so one explanation could be that Jalal saw no reason to tell them to take Jodha along back to Amer. But on the other hand, if Jodha was hell-bent on going back and Jalal was as hell-bent on sending her back, would some talk on the subject at least have not taken place between Jalal and Jodha's brothers about Jodha also wanting to go back to Amer? Did Jalal not want the Amer brothers to know that he and Jodha were talking about separation and therefore he didn't mention the subject? He found it in himself to ask them if they had told Jodha they were leaving, so did that mean Jalal hoped Jodha herself would tell her brothers that she wished to leave with them, thus sparing Jalal the embarassment of telling them the separation story? And when the Amer boys said they had no time to tell Jodha, did it not occur to Jalal at that point at least to tell them that Jodha too was also likely to leave soon? It seems strange to me that this whole conversation between Jalal and the Amer boys just missed out on the whole "Jodha leaving" issue totally when it was in fact a key issue in the story at this time between the protagonists. It could have been a natural thing to forget Jodha through this discussion with Bhagwan Das & Co., as they were in a hurry ... but on the other hand I am also asking: Is there a possibility that Jalal did not want Jodha to go with her brothers and is that why he did not even broach the whole subject? Keep that question in mind as you read the next point ...
2. At which point did Jalal write the paigam to Bharmal?
When Jalal was talking to Jodha in yesterday's episode itself he mentioned that it would be just a mere two days of remaining stay for her in Agra and she would then return to Amer. So if that statement were true, then the paigam Jalal wrote to Bharmal to send an escort team for Jodha's return to Amer must already have been sent to Bharmal (sinnce the escort team then would be due to arrive in two days from yesterday). Yet when Jalal subsequently spoke to the Amer boys about their urgent return to Amer in today's episode, he mentioned nothing again about already having sent the paigam to Bharmal to send a fetch-team for Jodha's return! And today again, when Ruqaiya asks Jalal why he has sent for Bharmal's escort team for Jodha and why did he not send Jodha back with her brothers, his explanation was that the brothers were going elsewhere and hence he had asked for a separate escort team for Jodha. But look at the sequence of events ... he only knew in today's episode that the Amer boys were leaving for another destination. So how could Jalal have planned the alternative escort team from Bharmal for Jodha yesterday in lieu of sending her with her brothers, which he knew to be unfeasible only today? It again seems strange to me that Jalal has thus tied his logic into knots. Why is his logic faulty? Is it just a blooper by the Creatives, or is Jalal somehow trying to make an illogical story add up in some tenuous way for "reasons of his own"?
3. Why could Jalal himself not take Jodha to Amer? Why requisition Bharmal's team to take her?
This is one puzzle that interests me exceedingly. Would it not have been easier for Jalal to quickly send Jodha with a team of his own to drop her home at Amer, than for him to requsition an escort team from Amer? This dropping of Jodha at Amer by Jalal's team could also have been thought of after the Amer boys said their destination was not the Amer palace. So neither at the time of sending the paigam to Bharmal, nor at the time of talks with the Amer boys did it occur to Jalal that Jodha and he could both have their wishes speedily fulfilled if only he could send her home with his Mughal team?! This begs the question: what was in the paigam to Bharmal? And what reply was Jalal expecting from Bharmal? A sinister idea is hitting my mind that maybe - just maybe - Jalal was hoping for a negative reply from Bharmal, that Jodha was not very welcome back in Amer, and that Bharmal did not find it advisable to take Jodha home, and therefore he cannot send an escort team? Maybe I am reading too much into the situation and it is in the nature of protocol that Bharmal should send his team and Jodha should not have to lean on Jalal's team to reach back home. But if one looks deeper at this state of affairs, one is forced to ask whether all is above board in Jalal's paigam to Bharmal and whether Bharmal will eventually "satisfy" Jalal with a negative reply to taking back Jodha. (Further we have these SBS spoilers now that Jodha is likely to jump into the water (suicide?) and Jalal saves her. Could this be her reaction after Jalal receives a negative reply from Bharmal, when Jodha realises her father does not quite want her back in Amer, and she decides therefore to take this extreme step?)
4. Why did Jalal not tell Jodha what arrangements he has made for her leaving?
When he could tell Ruqaiya this information about the paigam sent to Jodha's father, why did he need time to tell Jodha what he has done by way of arrangements. Is that because he is buying time with Jodha and still hoping that in the space of the next few days he can change her mind about going back to Amer? I cannot think of any logical reason why he should not want to share this information with her on the arrangements he has made for her departure, especially when they are both reiterating even today during the swordfight scene that they cannot wait to see her back in Amer. Would it not have been utterly logical for him to say "Oh, have no fear, this is what I've done to ensure your speedy departure!"
5. Why did Jalal tell Jodha not to tell anyone about her leaving? And why the stall?
When Jalal could tell Ruqaiya that Jodha was shortly about to leave forever ("... as per Ruqaiya's wish!") why did Jalal tell Jodha not to tell anyone she was leaving? Maybe it was so that she would not alert Hamida and the others at the Agra palace to pressurise Jalal to make her stay. But again, why did he then also press her to put up the stall at the Meena Bazar? Did he do that just to make her submissive in her last two days at Agra? Or did he do that to "keep up appearances" and not let people know Jodha was going to leave? Or did he do that to ensure that Jodha would be given every chance to try and integrate with his set up - a last-ditch attempt to try and keep her in Agra?
I'm sorry if I am sounding like a conspiracy-theorist but I cannot help getting doubts when things don't quite add up! And I must say, many things in yesterday's epsiode did not quite add up for me, and although there can be a very simple, ordinary reason for all of the things above, my feeling that Jalal may be overtly supporting the Amer return of Jodha while also covertly sabotaging it is gaining ground!
I will however reserve judgement till I see the next few episodes, and meanwhile those who want to throw chappals at me are welcome to do so! I need a new pair anyway!
Accha, while on the subject of "inexplicables" here are two related to the real Maham and the fake Maham that also beg for answers!
a. When Jalal gave his many evidences against the fake Maham, he mentioned talking to an old man about the history of humshakal usage in those days and about an expert on "fabrication of humshakals" who could have worked on the Maham fake also. Yet Maham's whole flashback today was that her humshakal was not a fabricated one but a "naturally occurring" one! I found it a bit strange that Jalal should emphasize fabricated humshakals as one of his specially important parts of investigation, while Maham's story was of a humshakal she had accidentally found among the Banjaras!
b. What a strange thing it was again to hear Maham's story ... the humshakal she found was first used nearly eighteen years ago when Jalal was about four (when the humshakal looked exactly like Maham at that age) ... and yet after 18 years the humshakal today still looks exactly like the present day Maham (even though similar looking people age very differently!)
Only one thing I am certain of is that in the near future we may not have another humshakal of Maham in another of her "chaals" as this humshakal has been decapitated. We have to wait and see if she has an inventorry of more such humshakals or this was the only one!
Here's one more afterthought:
Just remembered the brothers never read out loud the letter from their dad, they all read and nod - so it could be a "come right away without telling jodha"???
What if Jalal had written to Bharmal saying "Jodha is pressurising me that she wants to leave Agra and return to Amer. I need your help. I need you to reply to this paigam saying she cannot come back to Amer as it would be a kalank on the family etc. I also need you to hastily call back your sons from here without Jodha. Between the two of us we need to make sure she stays on in Agra and adjusts here instead of running back home".
Could the letter from Bharmal to the Amer boys be in response to such a paigam from Jalal? And could Bharmal's reply paigam to Jalal say "Jodha is not welcome back etc."
Hmmm!
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