JA 20th Nov - Jodha finally in GUILT mode - thanks CVs! - Page 4

Originally posted by: sashashyam

A very lucid, coherent, logical and comprehensive analysis, my dear, but then I am hardly surprised by that!

Coming to the present point of dissension, more than anything else, Meghana, Jalal was willing to abandon his throne just to keep his word to Jodha. I am continually amazed at how casually such a gigantic gesture is forgotten! I felt very strongly that it was highly irresponsible of him to have made any such offer, which was completely contrary to his rajadharma,but the fact remains that he was willing to make an unbelievable sacrifice for Jodha's sake.

After the tiger mauling, when he thinks he is dying, he does not utter a single word of reproach to Jodha. It was incredible.

He goes out of his way to make sure that Sukanya not only gets married but has a place of honour in her sasural.

I really do not know what more people want from him. I wish Jodha had got married to a proper macho Rajvanshi who beat her daily like Sharifuddin, and had had a vicious nanad and, instead of Hamida who loves her more than her own son, a saas like Meerabai's. Then all these nakhre would have been got out of her long ago, including the idea, bizarre in those times, that her husband had to wait for her explicit consent and pleasure before touching her.

Take a look at Maharana Pratap, which is far more historically authentic (and no wonder it won so many awards at the ITA, to next to none for JA), to see how a proper Rajput queen was expected to behave,especially towards her husband. I do not know where these CVs got their Jodha from, but realistic she is not.

Nor is Jalal for that matter. The real Akbar would not have tolerated all this nonsense from Jodha for a minute, and even if he did not want to do any bal prayog on an unwilling wife, would have pronounced the triple talaq and dumped her back in Amer labelled "psychologically damaged goods". Wink

Jodha is constantly talking of her sanskaars. The first duty of a queen is to produce an heir for her husband's kingdom, and this was dinned into their heads from childhood. Jodha neatly avoids this primary obligation, but she has no hesitation in taking expensive gifts for her whole family, right up to the Ratanpur fort, from the Mughals, on the basis of her being Jalal's begum, though she proclaims constantly that she hates him. Talk of selective rights and obligations! If she had had a saas who reminded her daily of the need for her to produce an heir in short order, Jodha would have soon understood that marriage is not a one way street.

To come back to this latest episode, I knew that Jodha thinks, or rather thought, the very worst of Jalal, but today's was much more degrading stuff than she had ever said to him thus far. That remark about Jalal wanting to have an immediate fling with that baandi left a very bad taste in the mouth. It showed a total lack of refinement in her; I would not have believed it possible that a high born princess could talk like this, no matter what the circumstances,and no matter what the provocation. No wonder that when she made that crass remark , Jalal's face twisted in sudden disgust. Rajat was superb then.

Bakshi Banu's treachery would be a very painful blow to Jalal, for though she was only his stepsister, he loved her dearly. She actually tells Jalal she loves Sharifuddin so much and that she does not want to lose him; as you noted, talk of the beaten woman syndrome!She is proof positive of the saying that the worst criminals are not those who are evil, but those who are weak.

I do not see where it is said that Jalal has forgiven Sharifuddin for the murder of the hakima. All he does is to drop the idea of beheading him personally at once, which was in any case not possible, and he has every intention of catching him later. Whether he will execute him,with Bakshi Banu pleading for his life and Jodha, with Hamida and the rest of the Teen Devian as a supporting chorus, pleading for Bakshi Banu, I expect they will both be let off with a banishment.

Nor do I see why Jodha should become a laughing stock once the truth is known. There would be sympathy, but why would anyone jeer at her?

I loved the way Jalal left the jashn and came out to comfort Ruqaiya, for he knows exactly how she would be feeling; her pain and his pain are the same.

The Jodha-Ruqaiya interaction was a pleasant change from their past exchanges, but this is an exception; I do not think they will ever get on together, not to speak of becoming friends.

If today's precap was any indication, Ruqaiya will try hard to get Jalal back, and on a different plane. But that will very likely not work at all, for Jalal sees his bond with his Gatti as one of lifelong friendship and solidarity, not of anything emotional or tender. The hardest thing of all is to move from friendship to love, and if this shift is one-sided, it creates huge problems.

An orderly, civilized menage a trois ( a household of three ) exists only in the imagination. Life does not settle down into neat compartments, least of all when it comes to love. I do not see it happening here either. To answer a question often asked here, yes, a man can love two women, but in different ways. The question is not that. It rather is whether the two women can live contentedly in their separate compartments, and here I am not referring only to Ruqaiya, but to Jodha as well, once she really falls in love with Jalal.

Well, all this lies on the lap of, not the gods, but the CVs. I am sure that the end result will be melodramatic and unsubtle, not plausible, or logical, or intelligent. Once one accepts that, the rest becomes easier to bear!Wink

Shyamala