Friends, yes, we have another paigam now floating around in Agra. This time its from Shivani to Jodha and it already has had a very good effect, as paigams go. Previous paigams, if you all remember, have been not only relatively ineffective in their results so far, but even perhaps forgotten by the Creatives.
We had Jodha's paigam to Jalal that has gone totally gaayab (and it's the most important one to date). Then we had Ben's paigam to Abul Mali (in free verse) which reached its destination but ended up only instigating some wasted lalkars from Abul Mali. We then had Sharif's paigam to Jodha that said nothing more than he was able to repeat in person when she visited him in jail (i.e. Jalal ke jaan ko khatra). We had Shivani and Tejwant's paigams of never-ending love to each other, which, alas, have only taken them somewhere on horseback, but we have no clue what their destination is.
I hope I am not forgetting any other paigams?
Interesting to note, folks, that all paigams in the Agra region seem to end up with the now newly appointed Postmistress of Agra (i.e. Maham)! How come they all reach her hands only? Has she got some unique scenting mechanism attached to her nose (like a bomb-squad dog perhaps) that smells paigams? Or does she have an ultra-modern sensor that gets her the GPS coordinates of paigams and lets her zero in on them, even if she has to hurdle over windows and beds and tables to reach inside secreted boxes for the paigams?
Okay, anyway, we now have the additional Shivani's paigam to Jodha on the eve of her elopement with Tejwant ... and although it did nothing whatsoever in helping trace Shivani, it had the salutory effect of making Jalal think again, and this time he showed enough shrewdness (after days of hibernation) to state that he believed Jodha, when she decried all knowledge of Shivani's plans. When Ruq started venting on Jodha and her possible prior knowledge of Shivani's desperate elopement (a "mega-tauheen" to Jalal and the Sultanate) Jalal was able to remind Ruq that had Jodha known about the elopment earlier, where was the need for Shivani to even write to Jodha on the subject? Dumb Ruq! And an even dumber Maham - who gave the paigam to Ruq to give to Jalal! A bigger pair of idiots we are yet to see! But Jalal, thanks for jump-starting your brain!
Chalo, so much about the paigam of yesterday, but I want to add another important observation point here before I start detailing some of the scenes of yesterday.
How many of you, like me, feel now that Maham is desperately over-acting? In the last few episodes I found myself giving her some slack by saying merely that she looked like she had 64 teeth and 46 ears! But now the truth is beginning to show badly and no one is able to hide it. The previously calculating, shrewd and canny Maham is also degenerating as a character in this serial. We have been so busy lamenting the degeneration of Jodha and Jalal's characters in the current track, that we have all perhaps not noticed keenly enough how pathetically dumbed down Maham's character has become. Look at her inane and repetitive dialogues, her empty and forced guffaws of laughter, her supposedly nonchalant sudden singing that is sounding terribly OTT, her teeth-baring and clever arguments to her idiot son Adham looking bereft of new content ... and now her eyes are almost vacuous and dull and disnterested, instead of being those sharp eyes that we used to see and marvel at. The supersmart villain has become a kind of court jester. Maham today is looking increasingly like a caricature of her original self!
Is it the dumb track that is so dumbing her role down? Or is it that the Creatives are trying to signal thet she's losing her faculties and her downfall of a sort is near? Or is it just that one more actor has become so dispirited with the goings-on in the script that it doesn't matter anymore? I am very sad that Maham has lost her spark, because if even Maham's character can be slaughtered, what can we hope of Jalal and Jodha's characters?
Okay, now that I have vented to my satisfaction here's an analysis of the two scenes that caught my attention:
The Maham-Ruq-Jalal-Jodha quadrangular!
As I mentioned in my opening remarks, Maham "chanced" upon a necklace and a paigam left by Shivani for Jodha . It read (more or less) as follows: "Oh, dear sister, how I have to hurt you and everyone, but I so love Tejwant the kaarigar that I am forced to elope with him from the Ambe Ma temple so as to avoid marrying the eager but not too impressive Hakim Mirza. By the time this letter reaches your hands, I should be well on my way. Do not therefore try to find me, as I may be far away from your reach even if my thoughts are always by your side, Yours etc." As elopement advices go, this one was a template letter. But Maham again bared her teeth and guffawed at this find (albeit far less convincingly than she used to do before). She and Resham did a sort of Red Indian dance as she explained to Resham that rather than giving the letter herself to Jalal, she would give all Shivani's letters (the entire box) to Ruq, so she could shoot off Ruq's shoulders. Thus no blame would come to herself if it were questioned how she had happened upon the letter!
So off she went and gave all to Ruq (who unfortunately has also joined the ranks of the brainless these days). Ruq went from red to redder as she read the letters and with a flourish of steely determination to "unmask Jodha" before Jalal, she sent word for Jalal. Jalal too, as is his wont these days, "answered the imperious summons" of Ruq with the demeanour of one who is used to deferring to her (for God's sake, could Ruq not have gone to Jalal to spare us the sight of Jalal running at her beck and call?)
Anyway Ruq then unleased enough verbiage to have all of Agra's dictionary-writers scribbling away furiously. She threw abuse upon abuse at Jodha (and indirectly at Jalal too). She berated Jalal for falling for Jodha more and more as she ill-treated him ... and said Jalal was exhibiting the compulsive fascination of a hunter stalking an elusive but ultimately useless deer! She said the fact that these letters were found in Jodha's room implicated Jodha. Jodha must have known of Shivani's elopement plan and must have aided it as revenge on Jalal and tauheen on the Sultanate. If she could remove bullets from his gun to put Jalal in danger, what would she not do to hurt him even more? Was it not enough that she had spurned his romantic overtures outright and made him look small? Jodha must have set her sights on the rich Hakim for Shivani as she didn't fancy her sister marrying a lowly kaarigar! On and on Ruq went ...
Twice Jalal almost shouted at Ruq to keep quiet but that only drove to even more fierce invectives. She went so far as to even ask Jalal why he had become so weak and helpless against a rebuffing and arrogant Jodha!
Meanwhile another strange thing was happening in another room. Maham was giving running commentary of exactly what Jalal would do when he heard Ruq. Almost reminding me of the running commentary style of Maharana Pratap, Maham said "When Jalal hears this, he will tear Jodha out of his life. He will punish her mercilessly. He will ask Ruq to read the letters to him and become a bull enraged ... blah, blah, blah."
Alas, all Maham's expectations went phut! Jalal asked Ruq to read the letters to him and when she was finished he said he quite temperately that he would need to speak with Jodha.
Just then Jodha too had returned from the Ambe Ma temple, her efforts to locate Shivani having been in vain. She was trembling from head to foot, anticipating the embarassment of her family, the rage of the Mughal family, and the scathing tongue-lashings of Jalal. And in addition, she was genuinely worried for Shivani and her ill-advised love affair and elopement. Hardly had Jodha arrived at the Agra palace empty-handed and hoping to break the news gently to her father, than she received Jalal's summons to meet him.
In the room with Jalal and Ruq, Jodha pleaded her innocence, but Ruq literally pounced at her saying she was surely lying and she must have known about and aided Shivani's elopement. How were the letters in Jodha's room, Ruq asked?
Now folks comes the redeeming part of the whole episode. Our heroine and hero, both showed a long-missing spark of intelligence in their very next replies!
Jodha told Ruq "These letters were found in my room just the same way the poison ark bottle was found in Salima's room during your pregnancy. Something being in someone's room proves nothing about their guilt!" Bravo, Jodha its been long since we heard some sentence of real worth from you!
And then Jalal rose remarkably to the moment himself by telling Ruq "No Jodha is not lying. Why would Shivani leave a letter for Jodha if Jodha already knew of her plans and was helping her?" Bravo Jalal, your brains are ticking as well!
This is all too much for us viewers to take when after weeks of wondering where the lead actors brains were, we suddenly got some great flashes of inspiration from both of them almost one after another!
Anyway Jalal further added that he knew all along that Jodha was not lying but had merely summoned her for Ruq's satisfaction! He then dismissed Jodha from the room as he muttered almost to himself but within earshot of Ruq "This is not Jodha's work. She saw Hakim's interest and genuinely brought the idea of the rishta to me. But the person most suspect is her father, Raja Bharmal, with whom I need to have a talk - not as damaad-sasur but as one King to another! I thought it was very strange that he so readily agreed to Shivani marrying Hakim. He could well have resisted giving one more daughter in marriage to a Mughal, or else chosen a Hindu Rajkumar for Shivani as he did for Sukanya. But instead he suuddenly sends Shivani here to Agra for a holiday?"
Jalal sets his sights on Bharmal as the culprit!
Jalal's mind was no doubt questioning whether Bharmal had already found out about Shivani's tendre for Tejwant and had sent her to Agra to separate them both - and when Jodha fortuitously brought the Hakim rishta, Bharmal had grabbed the chance to get Shivani quickly hitched elsewhere.
But now the question is what will happen from here on?
- Will Shivani have left yet another paigam for her father which Bharmal will show Jalal and say "See even I had no idea she had other plans in mind!".
- Or will Bharmal act sentimental and play on Jalal's sympathy as a father trying to do his best to save his daughter from an unfortunate alliance?
- Will Jalal also wonder if Bharmal suggested the court-position for Hakim thinking of him as a prospective and welcome son-in-law?
- Or will Jalal do the grand thing of giving Tejwant status and title to make Bharmal accept him now that Shivani has lost all chances of a decent marriage anywhere else?
Your guess is as good as mine.
Poor Bharmal, is all I can say. Jalal looks ready to put him through the shredder. And if the precap is anything to go by, he is also ready to use his favourite "tauheen" argument against the errant Shivani.
The last sentence of the precap was quintessential Jodha and jalal. She opened her mouth to protest but he put up a finger to say "Aur ek lavz nahin"! And with that the Creatives have also shut us up till tomorrow!
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Mangal Lakshmi
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