The reassuring thing for me today was not so much that Jalal believed that Jodha was telling the truth when she asserted that she knew nothing about the Shivani-Tejwant affair. It was rather that that he did that NOT merely because he trusted her, but because of logic and because he was able, rightaway, to spot solid proof for that.
I was very pleased with Jalal about this, for this was a decision made by a percipient and shrewd monarch, not by a frustrated and lovesick shikari, as Ruqaiya describes him in a cruel but accurate summing up of his obsession with Jodha.
NB: No, Munni, you should not blame Ruqaiya for that term; I do not think she meant that Jalal's pursuit of Jodha is triggered only by his desire for her. If that was so, she would be least bothered. She is bothered only because she senses a kind of emotional dependence on another woman which is a first for Jalal. She says shikari because of his perceived need to win in this particular chase; it is the same obsession that a hunter has.
Jalal: Some here have quoted Jalal as asserting that he knew from Jodha's eyes that she was not lying, but that is not what he says. The part being cited actually goes like this: Mujhe apni nigahon par yakeen hai. Main jaanta hoon ki Jodha Begum jhoot nahin bol rahi hai. Note that he does not say Mujhe bharosa hai ki Jodha Begum jhoot nahin bol rahi hai. He says that he knows, ie as a matter of fact, not of trust.
Earlier, Jalal affirms that even when Ruqaiya was reading the letters out to him. he knew that Jodha would not lying if she denied all knowledge of this affair because, and this is the clincher: if Jodha had known of it in advance, Shivani would never have written her that kind of farewell letter.
It is thus a judgment based on solid evidence, not a matter of blind trust. It was this that reassured me. An emperor worth his salt cannot make judgments based on personal predilections like trust or faith in an accused, no matter how close the accused is to him.
This said, Jalal does trust Jodha far more than she trusts him. He says so after the false pregnancy affair, adding that he does not know why he does so. But she is so lacking in perception that she does not grasp the significance of what he says then.
Bharmal's responses were bizarre; he seemed to be repeating Jalal's questions back to him, and he looked more than ever like a suet pudding. The only Ameri who looked horrified was Sukanya. And it was curious that nothing was shown of the goings on among the guests; the action shifted at once to Jalal's chambers and stayed put there.
Mahaam: The irony of it tonight was that the intrigante sans pareille, the mistress of intrigue Mahaam, who was so clever in recruiting Ruqaiya to do her work for her, scored a self goal and overreached herself when she included Shivani's farewell letter to Jodha in the bundle of the prempatra. She was rejoicing because the wording of the letter could give the impression that Jodha had indirectly instigated Shivani to bolt, with all that talk of prem being an unshakeable foundation for a relationship, and thus all important. But then she missed the cardinal point: that the very existence of such a letter would, to a shrewd judge, exculpate Jodha. Unluckily for her, Jalal's grey cells decided to come alive today of all days!😉
So even Mahaam missed a trick there. If she had suppressed that letter, Jalal might not have believed Jodha's pleas, for then it would have been just a matter of blind trust which, after The Shove, he does not have in her any more.
Jodha: Paridhi's Jodha was uniformly good today, and the quickwittedness with which she spiked Ruqaiya's accusation by citing the dature ke ark ki dibbi found in Salima Begum's rooms was impressive. She is evidently a woman who can keep her head on her shoulders even in such a crisis. She was also dignified in the explanation she offered Jalal, and I applauded her not starting to plead or remonstrate with him when he switched tracks and accused Bharmal.
But I wish she could have spared a thought for her favourite devar and what he must be going through. But what with the awful shock of Shivani's betrayal, and with Amer's rusvaayi clouding her mind, that was perhaps too much to expect!
Ruqaiya: I felt sorry for Ruqaiya, conned so expertly into pulling Mahaam's chestnuts out of the fire for her. She was too shrill and sharp, but everything she said was spot on, and Jalal knew it, whence his angry outbursts.
Besides, she is the only one who really cares for the prestige and power of the Shahenshah and the Mughal sultanate, partly of course because her own prestige and power are linked to that, but also because that kind of total identification is bred into her bones.
It will never be like that for Jodha. Amer will always come first, for all that it must have been drilled into her from childhood that after marriage, the sasural must come first. So many here are relieved that she at least thought about the humiliation of the Mughal sultanate, even if only after that of Amer. That in itself is very revealing; it is like the Prodigal Son, who left home and was a rebel, and when he condescended to come back, he was welcomed with open arms and a fatted calf was slaughtered for the celebratory feast. The Good Son was taken for granted. Jodha is the Prodigal Daughter for so many, who jump with joy when she makes some tiny gesture of respect for the Mughal royal family. There is no arguing with this.
What lies ahead: Though it is Bharmal who is now in the frying pan, with Jalal convinced he was knew all along about Shivani's liaison, I do not think Jalal will be able to bring the matter home to him. It remains to be seen how precisely Bharmal gets out of it.
The precap evidently refers to Shivani & Tejwant, with Jalal harshly proclaiming that they would be punished for shaming the Mughal sultanate and hurting his brother, and brushing away Jodha's pleas (for mercy?). But I do not have any very high hopes of his staying the course. In fact I am pretty sure his scowling at a tearful Jodha, and wagging his finger at her as he threatens dire retribution for the runaways, will also come to nothing, and will end up as the mother of all damp squibs.
The sad truth is that nothing Jalal says means anything any more when it comes to his dealing with Jodha. He tries to sound determined and fierce, in order to convince himself that he has not become weak because of his obsession for Jodha, but he knows what the real score is and so do I. He will thus very likely cave in and let them off, and I would not be surprised if he persuades Bharmal, by elevating the kaarigar, to accept the truants and endorse the marriage as we
If that happens, folks, you can heave a sigh of relief, for I am out of here.
I was prepared for this amar prem being unbalanced, with Jalal as the lover and Jodha as the beloved. Good for her, and I never thought her capable of any great romantic passion any way. For Jodha, no man will come ahead of her Ameri parivaar.
But a man of straw, a Shahenshah who is prepared to stand insaaf on its head because he cannot see Jodha weep, would turn me off for good. I despise men who become like poodles when they fall in love.
Moreover, as Sandhya pointed out elsewhere, Jalal's grey cells might have functi0ned this once, but only because it concerned Jodha, like the time when he spotted the dirt under the murdered Hakima's nails. They do not seem to work in any other context, and Sharifuddin in the kaal kotri is better informed about the dangers threatening Jalal than he is.
This yoyo exercise, with one of the two leads alternating as the idiot in residence, is also beginning to be tiring. And an anaemic, oscillating relationship, that seems to anchored in the man's weakness, not his strength, and the woman's blindness, does not seem, at least to me, to be the stuff of epic romance.
The CVs might yet surprise me, but with the present stuff doing such wonders for the TRPs, why would they even bother trying? After all, does the wise old maxim not say If it ain't broke, don't fix it?
This will very likely sound sacrilegious to the 98% here who are now in ecstasies over The Look (everything about Jalal and Jodha seems to need capitalisation these days: The Shove, The Handhold, and now The Look!) that a tearful, departing Jodha, and a Jalal trying hard to look ruthless and ending up looking as if he was made of soft marzipan, exchanged last night.
But give me Viraf Patel's Mrityunjay in Ek Boond Ishq, and his Tara any day! The screen is literally lit up by their deep, total emotional dependence on each other, and their desperate caring for each other. No one else exists for either of them. That is le grand amour, not this amar prem that is forever in the making. Alas, Viraf is reportedly quitting that show soon for Bollywood. Good things, it seems, never last!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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