My dear Uppaas,
I could not agree with you more, and I would like to add my two bits very quickly. So I hope you will not mind it if I paraphrase below what I wrote on Vicki's thread lat e last night.
My take is far harsher than yours on Jodha but right now, I think what she deserves is a sound spanking.
"About Jodha, I think you - and you are of course far from alone in this respect - tend to romanticise her to excess, perhaps as the designated heroine. I do not see her as embodying
all shades of humanity and womanhood, unless you include in this description being brattish, and overtly and publicly rude to the man who is both her husband and an emperor, and thus has to be accorded at least public respect.
Not to forget a tendency to hold forth, at the drop of a hat, about the superiority of her native culture in the most condescending and even sarcastic manner possible, like a Hyde Park soap box orator. I found her lecture on colours pompous throughout, delivered as if she was talking to an uncultured inferior being, and in parts completely meaningless.
She was also trying so hard to needle him that she lost sight of all good sense and even her royal breeding. Her apologists never tire of saying about Jodha that she never fails to maintain proper decorum towards her husband
in public, no matter how she rails at him in private. Today, she threw even that to the winds.
The way is which she declared, in answer to his polite question of what was the significance of having a stall of colours, that she did not consider it necessary to tell him that, was not only extremely rude, but betrayed a total lack of breeding dismaying in a princess born. One wonders what the Shahenshah' s attendants, not to speak of her own,would have thought about such behaviour in public. Nothing flattering to Jodha, I am sure.
I was delighted that her deliberate impertinence in soiling what she thought to be his white dupatta boomeranged on her,and she fell flat on her face. I almost cheered Jalal for having tripped her up so smoothly and effectively.
The symbolism of her colouring what would have been a widow's white with pink, thus making it a sign of happiness for a wedded woman (though then it would have to be red, not pink), as it has been interpreted elsewhere, would have been perfect, except that she did not do it for that purpose. She did it to spoil something that she thought belonged to him. That she was left with something gifted to her that is now unusable seemed to be poetic justice!
To those who protest that she is doing no more to Jalal now than what he did to her during the
dature ka ark phase, there are two answers to that.
One, that he has apologised for his unfairness then, and in public. He is not being given any credit for that. He should be. Not many modern husbands would do as much, if they were in a similar position of absolute power. She has been as rude herself repeatedly in the past, and still is. In fact she is going from bad to worse.
Two, that there is a distinction to be drawn between public behaviour and private behaviour. Good behaviour. especially in public, is something one owes to oneself and to one's upbringing, it need have nothing to do with the way others have behaved or behave with you. I thus have nothing against Jodha ranting at Jalal in private. But in public it is an entirely different matter, and that is what distinguishes a lady, and more so a princess, from the common run of ill-bred humanity.
So when Jodha burnt her wedding joda, after having been cautioned by her mother about the likely consequences for Amer, I felt that she was behaving like a reckless fishwife. Today I felt that she was behaving like a shrew. Royalty is taught above all never to let their self-control slip, no matter what the circumstances. Judged by those standards, Jodha is sadly wanting. She has always been so.
It seemed to me that Jalal treated her today the way an adult treats an ill-behaved and obnoxious child, with exaggerated patience and unshaken calm . Not as if he was trying to patch up an as yet non-existent relationship, but rather as if he wanted a civil parting free of any hostility or vindictiveness. He thinks she has chosen to leave, which does not surprise him given the assurances of hatred and contempt that she bestows on him so liberally. I do not think that at this point he is thinking of her staying back, and when he refers to the
aakhri khwahish of a departing guest, it is precisely that and no more.
To sum up, while we all know what is to happen eventually, probably after another 200 episodes, right now, to say, as Vicki does, that Jodha is
Promising that this marriage is for keeps and she will always be his shield, seems to me to be so far out into the future as to be clean out of the range of sight for the present. In the meanwhile, I am tiring of all this unending prodding and poking of the tea leaves or chicken entrails to see where their putative love affair is headed, while all we get onscreen these days is an endless series of tiresome squabbles and exercises in one-upmanship, interspersed with bouts of
rona dhona and acid-tipped exchanges.
If I had paid for a ticket for this show, I would ask for my money back and go buy a DVD of Jodhaa Akbar. Aishwarya's Jodhaa would be balm for nerves frayed by the shenanigans of this avatar.
I do apologise if I sound acidic myself, but today's Meena Bazaar encounter set my teeth on edge. I set great store by proper behaviour and good breeding, and I do not like it when these are found to be so patently wanting in the accredited heroine.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Edited by sashashyam - 12 years ago
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