As you would see from the title, after this latest episode, I am, and I am sure you are too, in a state of hesitant optimism or lucid pessimism, take you pick, about the way things are going. Given the way this tale has been yo-yoing, the mrigtrishna (mirage) term might well turn out to be the correct one, but I intend to keep my fingers and toes crossed tightly enough to qualify them for an American style pretzel contest. So should you!
I have decided to take every episode as a new story. This is the only serial I watch. The time slot suits my needs. I cut veggies etc during this time. 😆
Dhakoslabaazi; The precap was, for me, the highlight of the whole episode, with Jalal being informed soulfully by Jodha about her keeping the Mahashivaratri vrat for him . She does not forget to add, in her typically disastrous style, that she will be doing it because her Maasa had made her promise to do that. Now if you were Jalal, how would you have taken that statement?
So, when he retorts snappily, Jab aap hamein apna shauhar hi nahin maanti, to yeh dhakoslabaazi karne ki kya zaroorat hai? I was clapping hard. It was savagely ironic and spot on, and Jodha is left speechless.
Me too. You have no idea how Happy(?) I was. 🤣
We will undoubtedly find out tonight if she has a neat comeback line, or disarms him by dissolving into tears. Of course to the accompaniment of Mirza's mantra (about mohabbat meaning that one cannot hurt the object of one's affections even if one wants to) playing in the background, while Jalal lowers his aggressive chin and stares at her tear-filled eyes. By now, I am as tired of this corny mantra of Mirza's as I am of the overused Jalal-Jodha background theme!.
That was the biggest Joke---Baby Mirza teaching
But for now, Jalal can be given a couple of brownie points for not behaving like a marshmallow left out in the sun, but putting Jodha clearly on the defensive with that irrefutable question. and I hope He lasts like that😳
But none of this, which simply marks his admirable acceptance of and respect for the faith of others, need have anything to do with his believing that prayers can save his life when it is endangered. The two are quite diferent things. Jalal has always claimed that he writes his own fate with his shamsheer ki dhaar, and while the shamsheer is not even seen in his jungi riyaaz these days, and might well be rusting, the principle presumably still holds!😆
Another brownie point is due to Jalal for his managing to withstand the magnetic pull that almost overwhelms him when he passes in front of Jodha's chambers.👏
At that moment, he is acutely irritated with Mirza Hakim for having made him face something he does not want to acknowledge at all. This is thanks in good part to Mirza's most unfortunate assertion that love can make even an emperor so weak that it can bring him to its knees. That was not only incorrect - true love makes one strong, not weak - but it was also the worst possible thing to say to a proud man who is in a state of denial about the very idea of mohabbat as applied to himself. Whence Jalal's muttering to himself, as he passes by Jodha's rooms, about the inexplicable anger, the jealousy, and the restlessness he now feels.
Bechara he is confused and irritated with this new found feeling . No wonder [ if the rumours are true]he announces Ben as his next begum or is this one of his tricks??????
As for his decision to go to Ruqaiya for the night, it need not be on the rebound from Jodha at all. Why should he not spend the night with his chief queen? It must be something that he does all the time, and he does not have to have a reason for that, like not wanting to be shoved to the ground once more by Jodha! He is not in a good mood, and probably he wants a break with his Gatti. It is surely better than doing it with the khaas tohfa, even if she was not a vishkanya!
But I have a feeling that he is going to see Jodha instead of Ruqs and will blurt out something which will anger Rugs and prompt her to join hands with Maham
Sibling affection: The scene earlier with Mirza Hakim was warm and affectionate, as I had expected. Jalal is always very affectionate in a tactile fashion with his siblings - he hugs Bakshi Banu whenever she is sad, and his opening embrace of her in the confession scene was very touching. So he wants to personally prepare Mirza for his first battle, and hand over his shamsheer to him before he leaves. Ideally, Hamida Banu should have been there to bless Mirza, seeing that his mother is not there, but she has not even tried to come and comfort him, so that is too much to expect . If Shivani had married him, she would have handed him his sword, after the aarti. HB cares only about Jodha.😕
Memory loss re: Mirza Hakim?: As for Mirza, he was talking as if he had been at Jalal's right hand all these years, noting his expressions before every jung ka eilaan (did he start at 10 years old?), instead of having been doing his manmaani in Kabul, as per Jalal himself (in episode 49). 😆
Imperator resurgent: Jalal seems to crawling back to his old self,😃 witness the terrifying mirthless smile of old with which he tells Abul Mali that he has had his eye on him ever since Abul Mali entered Agra, and that while as for his being executed, waqt hi batayega, he would make sure the traitor experienced hell on earth while still alive.
He is also beginning to resume his siyasati self.
Even if the cvs are showing illogical things, we can really enjoy Rajat's performance😛
Please do not fail to note that this time, Jalal extends his confabulation with Atgah Khan, instead of becoming distracted by the sight of Jodha Begum and immediately dropping affairs of state to start squabbling with her. This too was an achcha lakshan!😃
Question: Does that mean that Jalal's spies also spotted the touching Benazir-Abul Mali embrace in the middle of the Agra Bazaar? If they had done so, Jalal would be on to the KT (khaas tohfa) already and by himself.
I had wondered then how Ben got out of the palace just like that!😕
I hope he has figured out Benazir, just as he had Abul Mali spotted as soon as he entered Agra. I want him to get out of that trap on his own. Jodha can come running in and try to take the bite, perhaps, and thus prove her bonafides as a devoted patni, but Jalal should be smart enough to take care of himself. Let us see. Chechi if Jalal does that how can the cvs make Jodha MAhaan????????😆
The zahreeli dosiza angle: We should also not forget one thing here. Even if Jalal knows that Benazir is out to get him, he will not realise till the very last moment HOW she plans to do that. I am 50-50 there. If he doesnt know then why did he wash his hands? and if he do Know then why did he allowed her to come close which was interrupted by Ruqs????? 😕
So, even if he is expecting her to attack him when she gets to be up close and personal with him, he will be looking out for a stab with a khanjar, not a deadly snakebite. Now he is a strong man, and he would never dream that in any such eventuality, he would not be able to overpower her physically. So her actual move will catch him unprepared, and he will have to react very quickly.In that case our Jodha will come to the rescue😉
This leaves open the possibility that even if she bites him, the poison might act far more slowly than the norm, giving some time for Jalal's rescue team, very likely headed by Jodha. I think we will have that climax only on Friday. and If Jodha takes the bite she will not die but will be in Thrishanku for some time and we will get the REAlisation😆
Question: Why would Benazir want to go ahead with her murderous plans now, with Abul Mali in prison? For this means that even if she manages to dispose of Jalal without getting caught for it - one presumes that she is a contract killer and not a suicide kisser! 😉- someone else will seize the throne. Abul Mali will not be let out of prison by the successor to Jalal, who would hardly want another contender for power, but would very likely be executed pronto. What then about Benazir's imperial ambitions (which are crazy in any case) ? OMG she will then take a complete U turn😲
Jodha: Her tenacious campaign to protect the Shahenshah from Benazir is admirable in its persistence against all odds. It is rooted partly in a desire to make up to him for the Shivani fiasco, partly in order not to feel guilty that she did not do all that she could to stave off such a a disaster. As she says to Moti before she sets off to meet Sharifuddin for the first time, if anything bad happened and she had not done all that she could to prevent it, she would never be able to forgive herself as long as she lived.
This is not the desperate fear of a woman out to save the life of the man she loves. While Jalal will not accept to himself that he loves Jodha, Jodha has, as yet, no idea she is moving towards that most uncomfortable state of being.
It remains to be seen for how long she is safe from that. For love is rarely a bed of roses. It brings insecurity, vulnerability, and often great grief, more often that it brings roseate happiness. As I wrote earlier, when love comes, it is mostly not cock a hoop with fine feathers, but slowly, dragging itself on bleeding feet.and even if she realises she will keep quiet coz she will remember Ruqs warning about other begums being furniture like after some time😭
A major faux pas: Both Jodha and Mirza are like tubelights with a defective choke. One takes till today to decipher the code and the other has still not done it!😉😆
Jodha's immediately confronting Benazir and showing her hand prematurely was both very ill-advised and counter-productive. But she is always "like that only" - remember the time when she unwisely reveals to Sharifuddin that she had masqueraded as a daasi at Amer and learnt of his skulduggery in the Ratanpur fort affair; which led to his wanting to hit back at her and embarking on the false pregnancy track?
Our Jodha Begum never connects such obvious points, as she is not given to introspection, and so she never learns from her past mistakes, but repeats them conscientiously. After all, she might be a Rajvanshi princess and a Mughal Shahi Begum, but she is still an Ekta Kapoor heroine! 😆
What she should have done instead was, as she does not have Benazir's letter, to write it out from memory and go to Jalal with the coded message she has deciphered. I live in hope, however, that Jalal has deciphered the message already before sending the "paigham" on to Kabul; his aural memory is amazing.👏
One significant comment Jodha made while watching Abul Mali was "It is tragic how all of Shehenshah's near and dear ones are out to betray him!' She conveniently forgot about her Sujamal Bhaisa, of course, whose treachery was no less, for even if he did have a valid reason for opposing Bharmal, for him to betray Amer to Sharifuddin was despicable. Where is this guy anyway?????😕
Mahaam: I liked Mahaam's calm explanation of Jalal's decision to Adham, who will of course be reassured and more convinced than ever of his mother's siyasati skills when he gets to lead the Malwa campaign.She has brains, you have to hand it to her, and is also generally a very good judge of character. Today that included the kaabil Mansingh, though I am sure she detests him on principle.
The jung: Do not get your hopes up, folks, but with any luck, you might have a 3 minute war, if only for Mirza and Mansingh to win the Mughal equivalents of the Mahavir Chakra. Not the Param Vir Chakra, as you mostly get it only posthumously.
The Mahashivaratri climax: My bet is that it will end up like a mythological film Thats for sure, with Jodha deafening the helpless Kanha here with her desperate pleas, and Jalal waking up to the precise kind of danger he faces from the KT there, of course at the very last moment! There will be much intercutting between the Jodha-Kanha duo and the Jalal-Benazir duo, till we reach the fatal ending, for Benazir, that is. 🤣
Given that this is an 8 pm family show (some of the dubious recent tracks notwithstanding!), we are unlikely to get what 99% of the forum would die for: Jodha rushing in, repeating The Shove, this time on Benazir, and replacing her at the very last minute for The Kiss (of course it needs capitalisation!). But there is nothing to stop you all from dreaming of it!😉 Someone wrote an OS too😊
Shyamala B.Cowsik
PS: Lashy dear, this one is for you, and you know why!
Thank You Chechi. LOved your analysis as usual. I cant wait for this Ben track to end and also that letter Fiasco.
Smitha
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