Friends, today's episode seemed to go as badly as many of us expected. Benazir made a sashaying entry and Jalal lost no opportunity (as per the spoiler) to make Jodha feel like a worm - while he acted flirty and partial to the sultry Benazir, giving her the seat beside him at the concert (arggghhh, which Shahenshah of half of Hindustan does that?)
Jalal also reverted to his horrible old form. He became the angry fiend, smirking away at Jodha and getting his thrills at seeing her feel small and insulted. And likewise Jodha went back to being the woefully tearful and torn one, unable to get a word in edgeways with Jalal, and looking all victimised! I don't know why the Creatives gave us back these two people we love to hate!
One thing I smelt throughout the episode, however, was that somehow Ruq looked like she had some plot of her own to initiate after she heard Jalal tell her about the previous evening's fiasco with Jodha. How much she knew is anyone's guess, since Jalal spoke to her in mute, but she did look purposeful when she told Jalal they would discuss this issue later. She then vetoed a plan by Maham to join forces with her to get rid of Jodha - and was later seen at the harem music concert looking more calculative than concerned at the appearance of Benazir. So I definitely got the feeling that Ruq somehow held the key to the solution of the Jodha-Jalal letter misunderstanding problem, and was probably hatching some plan of her own to checkmate Maham.
What was additionally surprising though was that there was this second concert of Ramtanu Pandey slated especially for the ladies of the harem ... and so I got the feeling that somehow what was going to happen - the solution for the Jodha-Jalal misunderstanding - had some crucial role for Ramtanu Pandey also to play in some way! It can't have been simply to give Benazir an entry?
Today, as most of you would have noticed to your dismay, it seemed to be a day of many "mute conversations" and "conversations with innuendo" making it difficult for us to guess exactly what was at play in the minds of the characters concerned. I, for one, found these six conversations very perplexing ...
It was a scene where Jalal looks very troubled and Ruq wheedles him to tell her all about it. I couldn't believe my eyes, but it did look as if Jalal told her a lot of the truth (albeit in mute)about events with Jodha the previous evening. What did Jalal tell Ruq about the letter issue and his visit to Jodha at night? Did he tell her the whole truth or at least a substantial part of it? For example, did he tell her that Maham had read Jodha's letter to him inviting him to her rooms at night, only to later spurn him when he went there, declaring she never wrote the letter? Or did Jalal tell Ruq some other version of the truth, censoring parts that Ruq may not have liked to hear? We can't say for sure, but the look on Ruq's face (partially stunned, but partially thoughtful) suggested to me that Jalal may have confided a lot of the truth to her. Anyway Hamida came in just then and so Ruq suggested they talk about it later. So obviously Ruq already knew quite a bit about Maham and the letter, perhaps, when Maham made a visit to Ruq's room later?
When Maham went over to Ruq's room she tried to get her to oppose Jodha again saying "I have managed to split up Jodha and Jalal to help you - and they are now at loggerheads. You have to try and stop Jodha from usurping your place. I have a plan for all this." But the way Ruq listened to Maham with a half-smirk on her face, and then told Maham "I am not at all interesterd in being part of your plan!" suggested to me that maybe Ruq was trying to say she had a plan of her own? Ruq's mind must have been chewing on the Maham role in Jodha letter issue that Jalal had told her about ... and maybe she was thus trying to stay clear of Maham's plan because she was forming her own plan to help Jalal and Jodha?
The Jodha letter which was read out to Jalal by Maham two episodes ago seemed to make a reappearance today. The conversation Jalal had with Maham about that letter was a bit odd. He first asked Maham if she had indeed read the letter out correctly. When she then produced the letter and said he could have it re-read by someone else if he had a doubt (and looked all insulted) he tore up the letter. He said there was no need to have it re-read by anyone else as he had no more doubts. But what did that mean? Did he imply he was tearing the letter because he believed Maham, or was it because he knew it was not the same letter of the other day? Also he did seem to be wearing a continuing expression of doubt even after Maham's clarification!
When Benazir made an entry, Ruq seemed unruffled relatively by the presence of Benazir, while all the other women seemed stunned. Ruq was also seen talking to herself saying "Yesterday there was a toofaan, today it looks like there is an aandhi!" She looked somehow cool, "knowing" and calculative! What exactly did she mean? Did she mean Jalal was part of the toofaan yesterday and was himself creating the aandhi today? Or did she mean yesterday was Maham's toofaan, but today was going to be Ruq's aandhi? This sentence again had me wondering what it was all about!
Just moments before Benazir's entry Hamida introduced all the ladies of the harem to Ramtanu Pandey with a special mention of Jodha as the Rajvanshi princess. Ramtanu then gave Jodha a special namaste. After all were seated , including Jalal, Benazir made her entry and it seemed as if Ramtanu himself was transfixed with her entry and looks. Even Jalal commented on it asking if he was ready to start singing. Ramtanu seemed to have a moment's break of reverie and he started his song, after saying "Today I will sing for that sundari's whose beauty I have never seen before!" But I am still wondering if it was Jodha's lingering appeal that was working on his mind or the entry of Benazir? It looked like the latter, but the glowing look he gave Jodha when she was introduced gives me a small suspicion which of the two women seemed to hold his mind more. Maybe my own imagination, but I thought I noticed something in the way he looked at Jodha which was different from the way he looked at Benazir!
Midway through the concert, after making Benazir sit next to him, Jalal was seen whispering something to Maham. What exactly he said we don't know. But Maham was then seen going up to Jodha and saying "The Shahenshah wants you to leave this sabha. So can you please make your way out of here?" Now we are not sure if that was exactly what Jalal had asked for. What if he had said something else entirely to Maham? And then Maham perhaps had fabricated a lie to Jodha asking her to leave as if that was Jalal's wish? After Jodha left, Maham could well then try to hoodwink Jalal that Jodha was upset and decided on her own to leave, and thus make Jalal very angry at Jodha's insolence in insulting the musician and himself? Or perhaps, on the contrary, Jalal would get all satisfied that Jodha was miffed with Benazir's entry?
Okay, now that I have raised all these points that made me ponder, here's a slightly more detailed analysis of the three top scenes of the day for me ...
The Jodha-Jalal scene:
Jodha makes her way to Jalal's room as he is seen pacing up and down in barely controlled anger. When she enters he utters a sharp rebuke to her to get out as she has entered without permission. Jodha then appears as if she were going out of the room, but just at the entrance she turns back, re-enters and says "Can I now come in?" His answer again is an emphatic "No!".
But that does not deter Jodha. She enters nevertheless and tells him "I will say what I have come here to say. Give me whatever punishment you want. You just have to listen to what I want to say." And then with an authoritative "Ekaanth" she dismisses all the staff to create privacy. She then goes on to tak about the night before, when he interrupts that he too remembers the night well. She says "I know full well what I wrote in that letter" to which he replies "I too know what you wrote. And for your information no one has ever insulted me the way you have insulted me yesterday". She tries to interject, but he continues ruthlessly "I don't even want to see your face, so please leave".
Jodha says "I'll go only after I have given an explanation of events yesterday. You were drunk yesterday and wanted to have physical relations with me. There was just lust in your eyes for a woman, any woman. There was no "prem" at all". Jalal then hits back viciously "For sure Jodha Begum, there was no "prem". Who do you think you are to attract my "prem"? Do you think you have what it takes to get me running to you? Don't test my patience any more. Just go!"
By then Resham enters with a request that he should go and meet Maham who is waiting for him - and he leaves Jodha brimming with tears and frustrated that she has been unable to get through to him at all, and has only heard what any woman would hate to hear!
I thought this scene today was good for just one reason: she did summon the courage to come and try to sort out things with him. If she had just sat in her room, simmering away with unspoken thoughts, it would have later set a blackmark against her. But after this whole issue unravels at least she will have on her side the fact that she tried to talk to him, clarify things and appeal to him to understand how she felt. He was too angry today to give her much quarter, but later when things have cooled down I am sure he will appreciate the fact that she did not hide from that night but made an attempt to clear the air with him.
The concert scene:
The concert scene was memorable simply because it was a scene that was so outrageously unbelievable! The entire bunch of ladies from the harem were invited for the music concert and were waiting for the arrival of Ramtanu Pandey. He appeared and then asked the ladies "Tell me why I should sing for you all again today?". To this the ever-eloquent Hamida replied "Your music has so many colours to it that it almost resembles our assemblage of ladies who are of such diverse backgrounds. You have to sing to celebrate our unity here!" That seemed to please the artiste.
Hamida then introduced him generally to all the ladies, making special mention of the fact that Jodha was the Rajvanshi princess in this gathering. Ramtanu Pandey gave Jodha a thoughtful glance and then wished her expressly. She returned his gesture. Soon Jalal was heralded into the sabha and he opened proceedings by pointing to the sofa seat to his right and asked that his Khas begum Ruqaiaya should sit there beside him. Then he pointed to the seat to the left of him and said it was for another special lady in his life.
I was mortified when I saw Jodha rise to occupy that seat thinking he was referring to her. How could she thus assume she was the one he was referring to when just the previous night they had had the mightiest row, and even this morning they had parted on such acrimonious terms? Anyway then came the bombshell - literally.
A huge gilded cage was thrown open to reveal a sensuously curved body of a female (whose looks were not all that hot eventually!). But anyway she swung into the sabha, almost knocking some sipahis senseless with her beauty. She took an elaborately long time to walk in giving everybody the opportunity to show us their goggle eyes. The ladies were stunned, Hamida miffed, Jodha curious and Ramtanu Pandey looked stupefied. Jalal smirked away!
Then Jalal (and the Creatives) did the utterly unthinkable. The great Shahenshah of Hindustan asked the sultry siren of nautch to sit beside him on the sofa seat reserved for that "other special woman of his life". Hamida looked like she had been smacked on the head, Jodha was in disbelief, the other ladies tittered nervously - and only Ruq looked like she was able to live through the event with some aplomb. She even said to herself "Yesterday there was a toofaan, today it looks like we have an aandhi!"
Ramtanu Pandey was then asked to break his mesmerised look and start his song, which he did. Jalal whispered something into Maham's ear - and the next thing we saw was Maham telling Jodha that Jalal wanted her to leave the sabha!
I am sorry but this whole scene looked so far-fetched to me that I am wondering if the same set of Creatives who scripted the last two episodes wrote this one also - or whether the juniormost scripters had been drafted in for today to give the tired senior scriptwriters a much-needed holiday after those taxing romantic scenes! What a royal farce!
The precap was yet again a scene where Jalal reverted to his old type. He was shown in his room when Jodha arrives carrying a small box containing presumably a pair of anklets that he had gifted her. She says she no longer has any use for this item as it has no more meaning for her. He is then seen fitting the same anklet on Benazir's outstretched foot (in front of a smouldering Jodha) and commenting on how grand it looked on that foot!
Even if the Creatives want to show that Jalal is trying hard to look like he favours Benazir a lot just to make Jodha jealous, can they not think of some better scenes with more credible dialogues and action sequences? This is so tacky, so farcical ... I am running out adjectives! Imagine folks, an Emperor of more than half of Hindustan reduced to this anklet scene? What can I say? The sooner the Benazir track gets over the better.
I wrote my fears in my post this evening before the episode "I hate these vamps, especially the ones that do these item numbers - because the heroes look like silly flesh-following asses! Why they need to spoil our days - making Jalal sit open-mouthed, giving lecherous looks at this Benazir - is beyond me. Even if it is to make Jodha jealous, who is to bear the torture of watching Jalal look like a besotted fool! " How wrong I was. That was not at all how the Creatives planned to show Jalal!
Look what I was fearing, and look what we got instead. This is not a Jalal "fascinated" by Benazir, but a Jalal who is finding the silliest, stupidest ways anyone can think of to get back at Jodha! Do we need this?
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