Exceptionally hot episode with everything we wanted!

Friends, ☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️☺️!!!!

OMG, OMG, OMG ... what can I say! Today's episode was nearly full 13 minutes of love scenes of a very very very hot kind between Jodha and Jalal ... and I cannot even begin to describe the feeling of being part of an audience that waited nearly 120 episodes for some semblance of love and sexual awareness between Jodha and Jalal - and got an episode almost fully with nothing else other than what we wanted!

On a day when I should be writing at least 12 pages of my own post, going over every exquisite detail of the love scenes, I am going to keep it short. Let me just say I am deeply affected by what I saw on screen, so forgive me, folks, if I leave you all to your imaginations replaying the scenes over and over again, instead of my trying to re-create the magic of the scenes through my writing, and failing! I can't even begin to complete with trying to describe the way the two - Rajat and Paridhi - set the screen on fire today!

1. I was so afraid that either Rajat or Paridhi may have reservations about playing such scenes convincingly, and even after the promo I was wondering if these scenes would just be slightly touchy-feely but not so hot after all. Many people on the forum were also writing that the feeling was not quite reaching Rajat's eyes in the promo, but whoa! What did we get in the end?! Both the actors were at their unreserved best and the scenes were mind-blowing! Did I even see a fleeting kiss on the cheek, or was it just a very close shot where he brushes off her hair from her face with his breath? The Creatives seem to have been reigning themselves in with great difficulty for 120 episodes, because today they looked like they had let themselves loose and they were unstoppable! And as for Rajat, his slinky, sexy, hooded eyes were super-sensational, and I thought Paridhi matched him beautifully - her eyes too were full of ready-to-burst emotions. I can't seem to forget the look in both their eyes! Their hands met, there was a lot of pulling and pushing and hugging, but the eyes take the award!And so do their whispered voices in that bedroom scene!

2. Many people on the forum also expressed apprehension that all this just might be in Jalal's imagination and this kind of love may never come to pass because Jodha will spurn him. I am saying: So what if it's his imagination? It shows that such thoughts have taken his head by storm. As Ekta has also said that the days of ghrna are over ... I expect Jodha to demur, but I also expect her to get fully affected. She may spurn him but she won't be able to forget such thoughts about him! She too is affected by the music, remember? And we have the Benazir track coming up too ... there is going to be a lot of pressure on her to let herself go as well, at least in her imagination if not yet in actions!

3. I absolutely loved the way the song that Ramtanu Pandey started singing - the lyrics of his song - then became the new lyrics of the Amer tune that always plays in the background when Jalal and Jodha have a romantic moment, especially in that bathtub scene. I loved the way they Creatives intercut between Ramtanu Pandey's musical strains and the Jodha-Jalal love scenes ... the music was beautifully matched to the mood of the romance, and where necessary the Tansen music gave way to the Amer music and then went back to Tansen and so on. Sensational piece of "musical and cinematic choreography" - it was like some mesmerising dance between music and action on the screen, with the Amer tune now and then bringing back evocative memories of the way the Jodha-Jalal romance had started!

4. Talking of what Jalal was really feeling here is my understanding (maybe you all have different opinions on this!):

In the scene of the bathtub the mood was very sexy (in the imagination of Jalal), but later the mood changed when they were both shown in the bedroom (still in the imagination of Jalal) when he seems to ask her if she wants to walk away from him if she doesn't feel the mohabbat for him. She is shown as conflicted between walking away from him and yet lingering on. So that shows us that in his imagination he was first feeling unbridled physical feelings for her, but is slightly later in his imagination prepared to anticipate and accept her demurring as natural and to be expected. His imagination did not permit him to assume ready capitulation from her. That says a lot!

This bit of his imagination, about her demurring, is much before he leaves the concert midway fully drunk and Maham comes to him with the same idea (that even if Jodha demurs and says she didn't write all those feelings in the letter, he should not let her go away from him because she feels all that in her heart). So again, it is not as if Maham gave him that idea that Jodha's demurring means the opposite - that she does not want to spurn him. He had started getting that idea before Maham reinforced it to him.

It was also interesting to me that in that drunk Jalal scene with Maham, even though Jalal has had all these imaginings about Jodha and he even says he is happy because of Jodha's letter, he says he is going to sleep on his own ... but Maham tells him he should go to Jodha instead. Somewhere I got he feeling that though Jalal had had amorous thoughts of Jodha all evening, evoked by the beautiful music, and he was happy that Jodha had written that letter, even seeing in his imagination that she wanted to move away from him but couldn't ... yet it was not in his mind to rush to Jodha and claim her and he was ready to go to his own bed till Maham pushed him in the direction of Jodha. The precap scene further shows him asking again if she really meant everything she wrote in the letter! That could also be imagination and not real, we'll have to see tomorrow. But I liked seeing that Jalal still respected Jodha enough to have some lingering doubts about her readiness!

5. Was Jodha affected in the same way by the music? I like to believe that she was partially at least affected by it, though not as much as Jalal, perhaps. She was seen giving Jalal a sideways glance when the music started, with a coy look in her eyes, which he then reciprocated. It was after that stolen mutual glance that he then launched into a full-scale imagining of all those romantic scenes with Jodha. So I got the feeling that Jodha was not all that immune to him when the music started affecting her.

6. Was Ruq not amorously affected by the music? That says a lot too, doesn't it? In all this I wonder what the role of Ruq will be especially if the jealousy factor for Jodha comes from Benazir the dancer and not from Ruq-Jalal closeness? Spoilers says Benazir will try to seduce Jalal after Jodha spurns him, so let's wait and watch. But I have a question: does the intro of Benazir mean the Creatives have listened to us that we do not like seeing an overdose of Ruq-Jalal, and so they have made Benazir the counter-force to Jodha, awakening in her the feelings of genuine jealousy as Ruq was never able to do so far, even if she was so close to Jalal?

That's all I'm going to say folks on Jodha-Jalal. Today, for a day, leave me to just sit with my imagination and write less! I want to wind up and go back to La La Land, with two other fleeting issues to write a few lines about!

Maham-Tansen face-off: great expectations of interesting times ahead!

Maham sends Resham to go and call Ramtanu Pandey for the concert but Resham returns with a negative answer from him. From the outset, it looks like Maham and Ramtanu Pandey are on a collision course. Maham decides to go and see Ramtanu Pandey herself. She talks to herself that she is hoping Ramtanu Pandey can achieve what she herself can't (i.e. bringing Jalal and Jodha together phsyically!) She goes across to his rooms, but he is busy clearing his throat and also beginning his riyaaz with an "Om" chant with his eyes tight shut!

Maham's coming into the room gets him at his scornful, disdainful best. I like the way she tries to introduce herself as the Wazir-e-Aliyah of the Sultanate, but he is totally unimpressed. He tells her to leave as she is disturbing him. Then she says with a slightly placatory tone "I am sorry if my being here is disturbing your riyaaz. I hope you will practice well so that the concert this evening is splendid." He replies contemptuously "I practice not to impress others at a concert, but purely for my own pleasure."

Maham then is seen looking a bit sharp after his insolence. She starts self-talking: "If this man refuses to do what I say, I will finish his family off!". But the perceptive Ramtanu Pandey seems to be also a mind-reader! He repeats to her word for word what she was thinking, making Maham acutely uncomfortable. She looks at this musician as if he were a strange sort of specimen!

Even after all this, however, Maham is not thrown (tenacious lady!). She goes on to ask him to please play something beautifully romantic for the evening. She says she has heard that he can light lamps with his raagas, and even make the skies rain. He needs to grace the occasion today with some music that evokes great love. He wants to know what love she is talking about ... between whom? Maham says "I want that your music should evoke great love between Jalal and his new begum Jodha. There is distance between them that must be bridged, for the Sultanate desperately needs a waaris! So please do play something that will make mohabbat blossom and peak!" Ranmtanu Pandey seems extremely thoughtful ... and then pleased to oblige!

I think, as I wrote on Friday, that Tansen and Maham are being played by the Creatives against each other. Today's interaction seems one further step in confirming this. It should be exceedingly interesting to see how this extremely perceptive man reads Maham's mind, and foils her plans to harm the Jodha-Jalal relationship before she even has time to execute them fully. Today he seemed to go along with her idea of fostering the love of Jodha and Jalal with his music. But I suspect he did this not to help Maham or as appreciation of her explanation of why mohabbat needed to be built between Jodha and Jalal. I think he went along with Maham's idea for reasons of his own.

Maybe he has himself seen something in the Jodha-Jalal relationship that he felt he should let his music encourage? Or maybe he just thought Jalal was too untouched by love and felt he should bring some romance into the life of the Shahenshah - even if had not yet interacted with Jodha or understood her emotions yet? I like the fact that even we cannot fathom Ramtanu Pandey's mind. The future episodes should be full of surprises!

Tansen-Jalal face-off: two great minds find ways to respect each other?

I loved the Jalal-Tansen face-off in that Diwan-e-Khas scene. First of all Jalal was dressed again "gorgeously", although a shade less "golden" that on that birthday wearing that Bappi Lahiri suit! Anyway, Tansen (I'll call him Tansen from now on, since "Ramtanu Pandey" is a trifle long to type!)was sitting in the sabha in front of Jalal seemingly fast asleep - or rather deep in a trance? Jodha seemed concerned that his lack of respect for Jalal should not make Jalal lose his cool!

Then as if suddenly coming awake, Tansen says "Oops sorry, but music transports me into a different world. It's my passion!" Jalal seems to accept that artistes with a passion for their music may occasionally forget they are the ordinary people before a King! To this Tansen replies "I don't see myself as part of the ordinary people!". The banter seems to have the quality of a tussle between two great minds, neither willing to yield an inch.

Then Tansen says he needs to hold up the King even longer to get his "sur" in place! By now Jalal is turning deeper red, when Tansen then seems to be unhappy with his "sur". He says "I seem to have now lost my voice and cannot sing!" He definitely looked like he was testing out Jalal! But Jalal being the impatient man that he was, was not going to be drawn in discussions. He drew his dagger and to the surprise of everyone threw it as close to Tansen as he could, scaring Tansen into letting out an alarmed squawk! Then Jalal said "Okay so we see your voice is back. Can we now start proceedings?" Tansen looked almost pleased that he had found a worthy opponent in the King!

And then he sang, and the rest of the episode went in a blur for me, as the King lost himself in his own imagination, fuelling his thoughts with more and more drink!

This Jalal-Tansen scene was wonderful, I thought, because both men seemed to be getting the measure of each other. I liked it that although Jalal seemed to come out the "winner" in the mind games, Tansen had the look of one who had seen something in Jalal that deeply interested him. In the moments of this interaction I think a kind of deep and lasting foundation of mutual friendship between the shrewd king and his wily artiste was born.

Okay, folks, now can I go back to seeing the episode yet again? So can you all! Bye for now and sweet dreams!