Friends, there seem to be a lot of different kinds of opinions about yesterday's episode, so I thought I'll add to the confusion by including my opinion also!
Some people seem to have loved the sweetness of the tent scenes, especially all the ups and downs of the sleeping arrangements and the "initiatives" Jalal took for Jodha's safety. Some others seem to feel despondent yet again with the behaviour of Jodha - especially since we expected her to be more accommodative of Jalal after he saved her life, and instead she seemed at her shrewish worst and was trying to blame him for everything - things he did and things he didn't!
There are three points I want to cover about yesterday's episode, but because I have an official presentation to complete (that I am making a royal mess of!) I will try to be short and sweet about my points (I said I'll try, although it is an ordeal for me to try and be short!)
Jodha's behaviour towards Jalal: why I am not at all worried!
It is absolutely true that in yesterday's episode, the events of the "eventful night in the khema" were seemingly overtaken by the behaviour of Jodha towards Jalal. It all seemed to start from the garden scene itself, when that slip-and-catch became an opportunity for Jodha to sharpen her claws against Jalal. He needn't have said what he did to needle the girl with a "Watch your step!" kind of snide remark (even if he did not mean to be very snide). She replied with a barb about thorny pathways and people who throw thorns on pathways which was not very clear to me: who threw thorns where?
Secondly, she made a royal fuss about wanting her own khema in the tent during the journey and conferred with maids and baandhis on the ill-intentions of the Emperor! The maid then has to tell her that the Emperor may not be ill-intentioned (and he wasn't!). He was well prepared for this attack by her wanting her own separate sleeping arrangements. He set up the two separate rooms, but then how was he to know that the night would be disturbed by an Ameri attacker, a false alarm when she arose for water, and a snake. Poor chap, Jalal. He was being wrong-footed by Fate! And his reluctant wife was getting every opportunity to nail him for everything.
She said the Ameri attack was caused by him (as people in Amer resented her marriage to him!). She was then confronted with him moving into her quarters for her safety whereupon she drew her purdah down with the aplomb of one zealously guarding her chastity against potential rapists, and she refused to fall asleep from fear of his attack on her (resenting the way he could fall asleep easily). She must have been thrown by his arriving at the water pot with sword at her neck, and it must have given her a moment's further panic, although we were spared her lecture and instead she merely reassured him it was she and not some new intruder. Thanks God for the small moments when she said nothing much! And finally when he "disrobed her dupatta" we got a moral lecture worth repeating to our grandchildren as an example of "the need for abstinence and self-control in husbands".
But - and here's the big BUT folks! - I am not worried about Jodha's behaviour at all because:
a. We viewers know the story is going to turn arounnd soon and the more shrewish she is, the more she is going to shoot herself in the foot when she "falls for him" as she will shortly after Mohan has entered the frame.
b. It is a well-known fact that whatever is about to die - even people - exhibit a kind of "last spurt of extreme vigour" before collapsing dead. Even a flame is supposed to burn its brightest just before it goes out. Jodha's hatred of Jalal is exhibiting all the signs of an emotion that has run its course, is about to die, and is doing so kicking and screaming, hoping to stay alive but knowing the end is near. I have no doubt at all that Jodha is "hanging on to her hatred" for self-protection because deep inside she senses that a great change in herself is impending. Even before Mohan comes to help the love story along, I am sure Jodha innately senses the winds of change blowing inside her. Her ferociousness smells of desperation to keep the status quo in the face of change.
c. It takes two hands to clap but Jalal is not playing this game any more. He is just not rising to her bait! Jalal seems to have already passed the stage Jodha is in. Remarkably yesterday, he showed no usual desperation to supply her with his own brand of anger. In fact, wasn't it ever so surprising that he barely reacted at all, except for an occasional smirk, a raised eyebrow or half a derisive smile? He simply said: "I don't want to see your face either as you sleep, so please have your own khema". Then he said nothing at all to the taunt about being the reason for Ameri discontent over Jodha's shaadi. In fact after telling people to "Takhliya" he calmly said "Okay, out with it, what did you want to say?". He did not try to explain his reasons for then occupying her tent and said "You sleep if you want to, because I will!" ... and finally when she blamed him for the dupatta snatching, he just, without words, returned the dupatta with a flourish and revealed the snake with the glee of a man who had his wife trapped in her own verbiage! Jalal was as restrained as he could be (no mean feat!), no doubt because he seems to have passed over that point at which Jodha is. She is still battling change, whereas he, probably after that speech to Maham about the "same boat, lonely hearts" has probably resigned to some change as inevitable. All this may not be overtly felt or articulated by Jodha and Jalal yet, but these are my inferences of their behaviour from what I see, and I wonder if they can see themselves as I can see them! Not yet, perhaps!
Adham starts playing up and what the consequences may be!
There is little to say about Adham Khan at this stage, except that he seems to have got to the next phase of his existence by actively plotting to kill Jalal, as opposed to his earlier wanting to do so, but not being potent enough to contemplate action. The important point that struck me is that he is a non-starter if his mother ain't by his side giving polish to his machinations. So I see hard times ahead not for Jalal but for Adham. I think I can count on him to botch it up. That would be very good for me, because I sense that Jodha need do nothing much about Mahamanga if her own son can bring his mother down with his ill-timed and ill-strategised initiatives! I don't know if Adham has the powers to produce a tiger in the forest and direct the said tiger to attack Jalal. I am willing to believe he would be foolish enough to try, though!
Ruq is getting restive, and this bodes ill for her!
The chess game that Ruq played with Salima was full of dialogues with subtle double-meanings. The way Ruq boasted about her prowess at holding her game together and saving "her King" while Salima quietly challenged Ruq's strategy was interesting. I expected Ruq to be what she was and to win in the end - for as Salima herself said, Ruq is fiercely competitive and desperate to hold on to Jalal. But Salima surprised me by being the person with whom Ruq played this game, and that brought me to wonder what Salima's role in the future would be in this game between Ruq and Jodha in holding on to Jalal.
Salima was silently watching Ruq's belligerence and was at times thoughtful and at times seemed privately aghast. But Ruq overplayed her hand, I thought, by showing Salima her real sentiments. After Ruq saw the vision of Maham scoffing at her for losing Jalal to Jodha, Ruq viciously cut Salima's "King" (i.e. Jodha) as if she were beheading Jodha herself. To Ruq the game was taking on the semblance of hard reality and she could not play with sportsmanlike spirit. It became all about wins and losses, beheadings and staking claim.
If I were to borrow the "symbolism hat" from Jyoti and Khush, I would think the symbolism of this chess game was that Ruq may have won the battle, but Salima, who is now privy to the ugliest side of Ruq, may start helping Jodha with her "inside track" on Ruq's intentions ... and thus Jodha may win the war!
I doubt Salima would be an open ally to Jodha for she may never choose to be seen as taking sides. But she has already developed a soft corner for Jodha (we've seen that many times now) and she may "facilitate" Jodha's wins by providing "tactically vital information disguised as advice" at key points. Already in the last but one episode she was "advising" Jodha on how to go to Ajmer to pray and not just to satisfy Hamida. Salima seems to be helping Jodha "manage people, expectations and events". She seems guileless but astute. It is this kind of help - subtle and yet influential - that Salima can give Jodha (and she has had years of experience with handling a hot-headed husband and has acquired worldly wisdom the hard way).
There that's the extent of my ability to understand symbolism. Jyoti and Khush, please help me out here!
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