Hi all this is from a post that I had made yesterday 'Jodha Akbar - The premise of a Love story' and am presenting the same here for all of you. The one below in red was my initial post and the one following this in blue was in response to Shyamala's comment which also I am presenting here for all of you -
I have been reading up posts on the forum since a couple of months. I have read the analysis that have been posted and the points and counter points. All of them seem to have one of the following 2 premises -
1. Jalal needs to become a better person and Jodha will change him for the better and
2.Jodha needs to change and improve and she can only do so by understanding Jalal.
In short, most here seem to be of the opinion one or the other or both will change due to the other's influence.
Is it possible for one human to change another human - or does each human change himself / herself and the influence of another is just not needed.
Lets talk Jalal and Jodha - They cannot change each other - Jodha cannot change Jalal and Jalal cannot change Jodha - Both have to do it on their own - Jalal has to evolve on his own and Jodha has to evolve on her own - I have now used the term 'Evolve' in place of 'Change' becoz that would be a better term.
Only Love has the power to change a person and make him or her evolve. And both Jodha and Jalal need to evolve and they can only do this when Love touches them - For those who believe that Jodha is perfect I would like to say that she has myopic vision who cannot see beyond her own nose. The day she understands Love is to accept the dark with the light (of self) - to accept the ego and the soul (of self) she will evolve.
As for Jalal - all his supporters do believe he has the makings of greatness and yes all do believe he does need to evolve - And he will since he has already been touched by love (he just needs to adjust to it) - Jodha is not the one who will or can change him. Jalal is on the path to understanding that his ego and his soul are two sides of the same coin and once he accepts both he will evolve.
And from what I have seen in the serial so far - The character of Jalal is far better placed to be touched by Love than Jodha - The reason being - Love can only exist where there is no fear - And the Jalal that the writers have created does not have any fear but the Jodha we are seeing on television is riddled with fear.
One of the major problems with hindi serials, when it comes to Love stories, is that they do not get their premise correct. The premise is that one person can change another which unfortunately is not true and is a very hollow premise. Only Love has the power to change and Love can only happen when there is no fear. If our writers can just understand this basic fact we may get better stories which make more impact and be more watchable.
Originally posted by sashashyam
My dear Adiana,
A very persuasive analysis.
To my mind, when you love someone - a husband, a boyfriend, a child - you should love them as is, and not try to change them to suit you. Any change should come at the initiative of that person, because he/she wants to change. Whether it is to please you or because that person feels a need to change, the end result will be a happy one. But if one loves another with the one point agenda of 'reforming' him/her, the experiment will fail, and the love as well.
I take it that the fear you are referring to is the fear of losing, whether losing the love or the beloved. Jalal is, as you correctly point out, not afraid of rejection and a lack of reciprocity; he had in fact come to terms with the latter, and it was only what he saw as Jodha leading him on and then humiliating him that drove him to fury. Jodha, as you again see correctly, is mortally afraid that Jalal will get her to fall in love with him and then ditch her. Now, there being no way to prove a negative, her fear can only be overcome thru a leap of faith.
Jalal has the seeds of nobility and greatness in him to begin with, and he will bring them out and strengthen these traits on his own. I only hope Jodha gains the wisdom to do the same on her own as well.
But even if she does so, I feel that she is constitutionally incapable of loving Jalal with the kind of all consuming love that he is capable of, the deewaangee that would count the world well lost for the beloved. Do see my response to ngayou above; it will amuse you!
Shyamala
Hi Shyamala,
Have been reading posts on forum and giving my little piece and so am late with my response here.
The fear of Jodha that I am refering to is losing - not the beloved or love - but herself - and this is the only fear that holds a person back from taking that final leap - and this has been used even in the show where Jodha says that she does not understand a love that makes one loose his/her 'Astitva'. This is the fear that is holding her back and that is making her myopic. And this is the fear that I do not see in Jalal's characterization. In fact I actually see a Jalal who wants this, which is what has me intrigued despite the silliness of the past couple of weeks. I still cannot get the words of Jalal when he went to Jodha out of my head - beautifully said it was!!!
As for what I desire - I heard the 'Laal Ishq' song of SLB's Ram Leela and I was totally stunned by the lyrics - ek toh the lyrics are just not SLB - that man does not understand Ishq the way these lyrics portray and the film definitely is not the Ishq that is the essence of these lyrics. But this is what I would like to see as a love story, what the lyrics of this song convey - am presenting those parts of the lyrics which have taken the wind out of my sails -
Tujh sang bair lagaya aisa, Raha na main phir apne jaisa
Apna naam badal dun, Ya tera naam chhupa lun
Ya chhod ke saari aag, Main vairaag utha lun
Mera naam ishq, Tera naam ishq
Mera naam, Tera naam, Mera naam ISHQ!
Ye laal ishq, ye malaal ishq, Ye aib ishq, ye bair ishq
The essence of the lyrics of this song is what I would like some writer to pen down as screenplay and dialogues and someone create it into a beautiful story on the canvas of television or cinema celluloid - And the fact that the poetry has happened gives me hope that soon the visual drama will follow. Someone will have the courage to present it!!!
Hope this gives some food for thought!!!
Even the 'leg-cutter' was better than this vacant chap!!! At least he had substance, was complex, layered and interesting.
Cricket
Anupamaa
30