Friends, for this weekend thread, I am starting with this post in Jyoti's absence. She will be adding her take a bit later in the day.
Overall, last week, we saw the end of the miscarriage saga on a rather unbelievable note, we saw the rather sad and mixed-up interchange between Jodha and Jalal (about Jodha leaving for Amer and the couple splitting up), we saw the colour, festivity and misunderstandings injected into the "last few days of Jodha at Agra" via the Meena Bazaar and the Holi celebrations, and we have the full set up now for the two huge tracks next week ( the suicide-and-rescue track and the tiger track) ... Whew!
Looking at the last week, there are some things that happened that I want to highlight on this weekly analysis thread:
1. The miscarriage track ends with the unmasking of an incredible culprit
We had two and a half weeks of suspense regarding the miscarriage mystery to go through, and most of us were by then utter wrecks having to suffer the unchanging raves and rants of Jalal, the inexcusable absence of any decent investigations, the nazarband of Jodha and her family and their feeble and ineffective protestations, and a host of exchanges of a very unpleasant kind between Jalal and Jodha ...
Finally, finally, Jalal went into disguise, turned himself into an amateurish sleuth and went in search of the "real culprit" after realising that a small and idiot-looking dibbi could exonerate Jodha and her family. What was the end result of all this? Well, well, well ...
It was the unmasking of the "Mahamanga humshakal"! And what an incredible story that was, not only from the point of view that Ekta brought in the age-old and much-worn-out trick of humshakal-exploitation for story value, but for the sheer idiocy of Jalal's supposed methods of tehkikaat!
He heard out Jodha and Rahim, got an artist to sketch out a Mahamanga look alike, and finally landed on the premise that it could NOT be Mahamanga ... and therefore it must be a lookalike. He went through surangs, and spied on and asked the fake Maham some "probing questions" and even looked at the history of humshakal usage ... and finally in the grand sabha, he enacted the drama of the two Mahams!
At the end of it all we had that belated end to the Maham-miscarriage saga, and we also had an end to the brainpower of the viewers! It was all so incredible that we were dumbfounded with disbelief and shock that fifteen days of our precious lifetimes were spent in this chase! What improvement have we got in the love story of Jalal and Jodha after all this? ZILCH!
2. Jodha and Jalal get all mixed up about Jodha going back to Amer
Last week was also all about the mixed up communication going back and forth between Jalal and Jodha about the couple splitting up for good. First Jalal comes and says he wants to make amends for wrongly accusing Jodha of the miscarriage murder, and he wants to set this right by giving her two options - freedom to return to Amer or a chance to stay on as his Begum. He clearly says its her choice to make.
Next day he comes back to her room to say he has some good news which she conveniently interprets as him saying he is ready to send her back to Amer. How she made this connection God alone knows, but that's where the wheels turned. He did not even try to correct her misunderstanding and instead talked of her being just a "do din ka mehmaan" and went away.
From then onwards this notion that Jodha was in Agra only for two more days gained ground. She kept up the story from her side, he kept it up from his side. A miscommunication became the de facto deadline for departure.
The big question for me is: why did these two people talk at cross-purposes? Was it all because they were saying one thing but actually intending another thing and in the process they pre-empted each other at the wrong places of the dialogue and got to a wrong destination entirely in their talks?
Did he really want to give her the freedom or was he secretly hoping she wouldn't take it? Did she want her freedom to be her choice, or did she want to pretend that she was the victim and he was the bully sending her away? And did she want her freedom at all? I am now carrying the conviction that both don't want this Amer departure to happen, but both are standing on ego. She is unable to face the dismay that he no longer wants her. He is not able to stand the dismay that she no longer wants to be with him. They were never "friends" to be sure, but then if they are so suffering in silence, both of them, at the thought of this Amer departure, what are they really feeling for each other?
In true Jodha and Jalal style, whenever they feel a lot, both of them over-react by starting shouting matches and hyped up melodrama, so the next week we can see a grand culmination to this misunderstanding phase with a couple of near-death experiences, thanks to a suicidal dive into the water by Jodha, and a hand-to-hand fight between Jalal and a tiger!
3. Maham has had a good week with respect to her foe Jodha
The person who seems to have had a really good week last week was Maham. He chaal regarding the humshakal worked and she went scot-free (what's so great about that anyway, since we all knew that villains always go scot-free in serials!). But the interesting part of it was that she then felt the need to do four things just to secure the fact that she was free of Jodha's (and viewers') continued suspicions:
1. She went back to Jodha and Rahim to double check if they still carried any signs of suspecting her on a continued basis. Rahim was subtly threatened, while Jodha was actually given some reverse-conditioning. Maham believed that by admitting guilt to Jodha in a smirky way, Jodha would be so stupefied that she could do nothing with the truth even if she had it with her. Maham remembered to tell Jodha that no matter what happened she had perfectly and fully programmed Jalal into believing only the Maham humshakal story, and Maham had even gone to the extent of increasing Jalal's belief in her via this saga!
2. For the benefit of viewers, and her brainless son Adham, Maham went through the whole flashbacks-filled story of how she found the humshakal in the first place and nurtured the connection over the years till it came to her assistance in this case. Maham was able to show us viewers how complete is her domination of events, when the humshakal became "shaheed" in the cause of Maham! Wow!
3. Maham also had a wonderful time when Jodha accidentally threw Holi colours on her. A strategically appearing maulvi seconded Maham's theory to Jalal that this was not just an accident but an insult to religion! And that Jodha who had been given the licence to practice her own religion by Jalal had gone to the extreme of insulting his religion! Even the normally religiously-pliant Hamida expressed utter fear on Jodha's behalf for this "gunah". With her face red from Holi colour, Maham was the queen of the moment! She had Jalal's ears, had eaten his mind fully, and had turned him into an unthinking wretch, and could congratulate herself for the way he then behaved in Jodha's room, throwing one of his grandest fits yet!
4. For ultimate safety from Jodha's prying ears and suspicious mind, Maham needed to eliminate Jodha from Agra if she could. From some source that remains a mystery to us, she has elicited the happy information that Jodha is shortly to depart from Agra to Amer, and that Jalal is making the necessary arrangements. Yesterday, she decided to try and hasten Jodha's departure by telling Jodha her mother Mainavati has already arrived to collect her in disgrace, in front of the whole Agra household and Jalal. A lot of us in the Forum believe Maham was lying to Jodha, because just a minute or two before that Jalal himself had told Jodha that if her father's men do not arrive by the evening, he himself would personally send Jodha away the next day. So how come Jalal knew nothing about Mainavati's arrival? It was a big Maham lie again, it seems, just to ensure that Jodha's mind was completely in tatters and her suitcase was packed!
Wonderful week Maham has had. Now let's see how next week turns out for her! Nothing will happen to her, but for our sakes I hope we can at least expect she won't be on the screen as we watch the suicide rescue and the tiger twist!
4. Jalal packs "the last few days of Jodha" with activity
In the middle of all this hungama of last week, one thing needs to be specially mentioned. Jalal seems to have engineered things such that Jodha has an eventful last few days at Agra. Whether he intended this as a punishment to her, or to make her submissive to his wishes, or to just try and keep her interested in Agra is debatable.
But he did insist that she take part in the Meena Bazaar, and he did allow her to have her Holi celebrations the next day, and he did keep her occupied at her stall in the Meena bazaar giving him an unwanted lecture on the value of colour in life, and overall he did help occasionally take her mind off her departure to find some relief in the activities and celebrations before her.
When Ruquiaya yesterday actually congratulated Jalal on buying all of Jodha's Holi colours at her stall to make her life "colourless" soon, I noticed that Jalal did not smirk as he usually would, and he did not find Ruqaiya's remarks funny. He in fact looked a bit sad when talking of Jodha's impending departure and he actually said "Let her enjoy her last few days here".
Wow, Jalal, that's the first sensible sentence I've heard from you in all these days that gives me hope of the love story progressing! Keep it up, boy. This coming week you have to pack your own days with a lot of activity such as horse riding, swimming, rescuing damsels in distress who do not want to be rescued, shouting at them and also saying "Mein tumko yeh bewakoofi nahin karne doonga ...", and then tiger-hunting without bullets in your gun!
Most importantly you have do some horseback riding with Jodha also on the same horse as yourself and a lot of viewers have already started speculating about the half-centimetre distance between your bodies and your hands around her, doing God knows what, during the ride back. The forum viewers are unable to wait for this scene and for a close up view of the whole horseback doubles situation. Do not disappoint us please, get active! Hope you have as much of a funfilled and packed week next week as you have given Jodha last week!
5. Why did the Creatives choose to have an untimely Holi?
One question that confounds me about the last week's events is: why did the Creatives think of Holi as an add-on to the last week. It was an untimely celebration if we take the real life Hindu festival calendar. So why Holi of all festivals to be celebrated by the Jodha Akbar team in the middle of September?
The only conclusion I can come to is that somehow they needed to show something that would add up to a religious insult on Mahamanga, so that things would come to a big head ... and Holi colour thrown on Maham was the least controversial way of showing such insult. After all it is not such a big kalank that may irk public sentiment and lead to street protests, and at the same time it could lead to some colourful scenes on-screen. For instance in the serial Qubool Hai, which is totally based on Muslim families, they were there shown playing Holi with full fervour, so that may show how Holi is also enjoyed by Muslims on occasions. But in this case there was scope to "make much of it religiously", so that the story of Jalal and Jodha's enmity could be reach a high pitch without too much viewer backlash.
The Meena Bazaar scene with Jodha selling Holi colours seems to have been added on again for the purpose of leading to the Holi colour throwing the next day with the Mahamanga incident at the centre of it all.
This is all my guesswork, of course. Who knows why the Creatives do what they do? Maybe they were just celebrating the fact that 90 people left but 90 others were found to carry the serial forward!
6. How much does the Amer family know about Jodha's going?
A good question to ask at the end of last week also is: how much do the Amer family know about Jodha's leaving Agra for good. We know that Jalal did not tell this to the Amer boys before they left, and we don't know exactly what was written by Jalal to Bharmal in the paigam, and how much was said and how much was left out. We also doubt if Maham is telling the truth to Jodha that Mainavati has already arrived at Agra to take Jodha back to Amer.
The whole mystery therefore persists about this departure of Jodha to Amer and its arrangements made by both the Mughal and Amer families. The reason this question churns my mind is because, looking ahead, I am wondering how Jodha will manage to stay on in Agra after the suicide attempt? She and Jalal have taken this "two more days to departure" story so much further into every dialogue that unless there is some drastic climb-down of ego-driven positions somewhere, how will this "staying on in Agra" happen?
7. The value of the suicide and tiger tracks to the love story
The tiger-fight track, following on the heels of the suicide-rescue track, seems to suggest that some kind of patch up happens between the two tracks. Jodha does stay on, but for how long is the question. Because if the tiger-track comes when Jalal himself is taking Jodha to Amer it would suggest that Jodha's family and Mainavati did not appear at Agra to take Jodha back and so Jalal had to take her himself. But would Jalal himself need to take her back? Would his men not suffice as an escort team to take Jodha back to Amer?
So does that mean there is some patch-up between Jodha and Jalal after the suicide-giri such that Jodha and jalal later take a shikar trip into the forest? And is this a shikar trip or a trip for something else when shikar incidentally takes place? Everything is a mystery!
The only thing we can safely say is that these high points in serials like the suicide-rescue and the tiger-track are generally meant to create more "love" between the characters. So at the end of the two exercises, if both Jodha and Jalal realise they were about to lose each other, and this makes them aware that they do not want to lose each other at all, and they also realise that they need each other in their lives ... then all's well that ends well for next week!
What's left to be known by all of us is:
a. Is Jodha really going? Or will circumstances that will make her stay?
b. The importance of the plannned suicide track in the love story of Jodha-Jalal
c. The importance of the planned tiger track and its value to the love story
d. Is love in some small form finally making an appearance in their lives?
8. My hope and prayer to the Creatives
I hope for all our sakes that we have at least one week ahead of us packed with sequences that involve just Jodha and Jalal, without all these sidey characters, and that the stagnating love story moves forward by some substantial measure. Enough of these mysteries, these misunderstandings, these machinations by villains, these miscommunications, this misery of constant fighting.
Welcome, buddy! We have been waiting for you for nearly two weeks since Tatasky said you were coming. What took you so long? And while you are en route to Jodha and Jalal, if you are hungry we have some people you can eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner. How would you like to chomp on Mahamanga, Adham Khan and the Maulvi that said yesterday that Holi colour on Maham was a gunah in religion? They are tasteless people, I agree, but at least they are fat and big and will fill your stomach, especially Adham Khan!
And by the way, I don't know if I should tell you this, but Jalal's gun has no bullets! So you will not die a swift death at his hands. He will have to show his full herogiri, facing you in a hand-to-hand combat, wherein we hope you will tear him up slightly in some interesting body parts.
There are several Forum members hoping you will tear Jalal's kurta and eat Jodha's dupatta so that we get maximum exposure value for the subsequent hichkichahats between the two of them.
Jalal has to kill you, unfortunately, since he is the hero of the serial (and not you!) for which he may use his famous dagger. But you will die knowing that you have served as worthy a purpose as the eternal and historic love story of Jodha and Jalal.
If a common and lowly humshakal of Mahamanga can demonstrate her loyalty to a useless cause by having her head willingly decapitated, I pray, Mohan dear, that you will choose to die a greater and more dramatic death in a bigger cause! (Also do you by chance have any humshakals in the forest for future use? Just thought, I'd ask!)
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