As usual, I love the calm reasonableness and the thoroughness of your posts, and this is no exception. But I am afraid your take on Jalal's present state of mind is very different from mine. Permit to try and explain why I feel so.
The picture painted here, of a Jalal concerned only about Jodha's partner in crime, and worried that she will revert to her ghrina mode is, to me, quite simply unbelievable. This is not a private crime, it is a major political crime, of treason against the Shahenshah. The only possible punishment for it would be death, but that would also make Jalal a laughing stock across Hindustan.
What Jalal actually feels is the demented fury we see during the sword practice. It is also exactly what his alter ego, the cuckolded husband of that shameless woman in the Diwan-e-Am says, plus what he, the Shahenshah. roars out while pronouncing judgment on her, that after her child is born, she should be stoned to death (the standard punishment for an adulteress in those days).
That is exactly what he would like to do to Jodha at that moment, if only it could be done without creating an unbearable scandal. Do you remember the distilled fury in those two scenes, and the venom with which he spits out the words badzaat aurat? He is not calm or even just hurt by her infidelity, as he believes it to be. He is possessed with blind rage,but he does not show it. Let me see if I can make out why. This is an extract from my own post of today.
Jalal's restraint: It has been argued here and elsewhere that Jalal does not yell zinda jala denge, order Jodha stoned to death,or pull out his shamsheer to do the job himself, and instead soliloquizes about his having been given the worst ghaav iin his life, because Jodha has now got under his skin and can hurt him, as opposed to merely making him furious. This is true to some extent, for after all, their relationship, such as it is, has come some way since the dature ka ark days.
But in these particular circumstances, that is not the main reason for his seething, glowering silence, interspersed with fleeting, pathetic attempts at projecting gladness, rather than exploding, as is his wont, in destructive rage.
Jalal's restraint is mostly because he cannot stand the idea of a public scandal, which would inevitably lead to his being branded a cuckold by the whole of the court and the awaam, and mocked at and derided for that. That is the one intolerable insult for any man - even today, this is the prime reason for crimes of passion ending in the murder of the unfaithful spouse (for which French courts used to routinely acquite husbands under the crime passionel defence till late into the 20th century!). How much more hellish must the very prospect have been for an emperor?
And this one is not about a baandi like that Farida. This is a Shahi Begum, jiske saath baakayda nikaah karke Agra le aaya tha. The corrosive ridicule would have eaten away at the roots of even imperial power. His image would never have recovered from that.
Not every king can be a Henry VIII, who did not care a hoot for any ridicule on this count. As you might remember, he tried 2 wives publicly, without any hesitation, for the same offence, and executed them both. One, Anne Boleyn, was innocent of the charge, and the other, Katharine Howard, was not.
I was glad to see it all coming out into the open in the precap, for this is an abcess that needed to be lanced and drained and cauterised. It is not clear if there was anyone else there, but I would imagine not.That is why Jalal says nothing on the earlier occasion when Ruqaiya is also present and Jodha accuses him of having broken his word to her . If she had not been there, his accusation would have come out then itself.
Shyamala
Its hard to enjoy this in between phase between the actual crisis and resolution, before the mystery gets solved. As long as we remember that Jodha Akbar did reach the final destination of complete trust and love, then we can accept that they had to go through lot of hardship and tests to pass with flying colors in the end. My review today is going to focus on how this in between stage shed new light on the progress the characters have made.
Jalal:
I remember the time he found out about his bandhi cheating on him and how he was ready to kill her. It was only Hamida who could stop him from making this big mistake. Then, we saw the Jalal during MC track with his extreme reactions. He held all her brothers as captives, humiliated her father and found an excuse to kill Sukanya's would be. It did not take him a long time to run to her room and hold her responsible for the MC.
I wonder if he remembers any of how much he had to work hard to get a normal decent Jodha back. He tried even giving her an option to go back to Amer, that one backfired on him big time. He had to see her go thru suicide and what not to bring this relationship where she started to trust again and even cooked food for him. That many GHRINA lectures cannot be forgotten by anybody, wondering if that's also one of the reasons he is being very cautious in breaking all hell on Jodha. I wouldn't blame you Jalal, we also get scared when she starts her shuddh hindi bhashans.
He finds out about Jodha's pregnancy and calmly accepts everyones wishes. He broods on it for the whole night. But, the only thought on his mind is who would dare to make this mistake of betraying him along with Jodha. How different is this from the MC Jalal who jumped to immediate conclusion. The offence if real is very serious and grave. Any normal person would have blown missiles, in this case inspite of being a Shenshah Jalal stays calm. He has come a long way indeed. The next step would have been to start recollecting all the good things Jodha has done. To think did she ever fail, lie or cheat.
He approached Ruqu's help before wanting to talk to Jodha about it. He still did not disclose the fact that he didn't do anything on that night. The only reason I think he did not is because he did not want Ruqu to find out about Jodha's crime yet. Its not a simple blame like putting extra spice in my food, but a grave that would put a black mark on Jodha's character forever. That to some extent means he wants to be completely sure that Jodha committed such a crime, may be subconsciously he knows or hopes she is innocent. The thing though is that he trusts people around him and does not doubt the khwaja's diagnosis. He will think in this direction maybe after Jodha gives her dhamkedaar shudh hindi bhara lecture with full on puffed up anger and congress panja.
Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani
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