Friends, Sivaratri came and went. It just managed to reveal all to Jodha that Ben was a vishkanya. If she had a doubt about it before from whatever Hakim had told her about vishkanyas, yesterday she saw it all before her very eyes. But with that, the great drama of Sivaratri went like a puff of dust, leaving us all wondering what worse is to come for the rest of this week.
Is Benazir on the way out or not? She looks closer to the door, but not quite out as yet! And I live in fear that I have to tolerate her for longer! Yesterday she was heard telling her baandhi, after she had taken her dose of poison from the snake at the temple, that she was well-stocked up with poison that day, and therefore had to ensure she killed Jalal immediately that same night, or she would get depleted again. She and the baandhi were seen making their way to Ruq's quarters, despite knowing that Jalal was spending the night with Ruq and Ruq would shoo them off ... because it seemed imperative to Ben to complete the bite of Jalal on the same night.
But then the precap of the episode belied that possibility that Ben had managed to bite Jalal in Ruq's rooms. For the precap seemed like the next morning - when Jodha was seen telling Jalal that Ben was a vishkanya, and she had herself seen her ingest poison from a snake attached to her tongue at the Siva temple, and Jalal had real khatra for his life from her. Jalal too seemed to reluctantly agree with Jodha's concerns and summoned Ben to the Diwan-e-Khas for further questioning?
To add to all this was one piece of important dialogue from Ruq to Jodha, when Jodha tried to enter Ruq's rooms in the night to warn Jalal immediately after the temple snake episode. Ruq banned entry for Jodha into her rooms, but that was not all. She blamed Jodha and her family squarely and in abusive language for their trying very hard to make Jalal their puppet, annd she even said to Jodha "I'd rather Jalal married a kaniez if necessary, rather than staying married to you. I'll personally see to it that you are ousted from this family, from his life and from Agra".
What does all this tell us? It's now very possible that Jalal will call Benazir to the Diwan-e-Khas, question her, get a negative answer from her and believe Benazir when she says she is not a vishkanya. Ruq will then probably condition Jalal that this is again one of Jodha's ploys to make him all hers and to eliminate Ben from his life, and out of sheer cussedness against Jodha, Ruq (and maybe Maham also) will encourage Jalal no doubt to declare marriage with his kaniez, Ben, if only to belittle Jodha!
Whether Jalal will follow their advice (of Ruq/Maham) in order tomake Jodha feel small, or because he believes Jodha's story of the vishkanya and wants to "scope out" Ben is the continuing question in my mind.
I'd so like to think that Jalal will actually believe Jodha, and will declare marriage to Ben to test out Ben and to verify Jodha's warnings about her ... but anything can happen, and Jalal can also be vindictive to Jodha. So I am also reconciled to the sad idea that Jalal may join hands with Ruq to belittle Jodha, because he seems as angry with Jodha as Ruq! The fact that Hakim talked of "mohabbat", and then Ruq also talked of his "mohabbat" yesterday has irked Jalal a lot - because he is in deep denial about his mohabbat for Jodha. Who knows, he may do this marriage declaration of Ben just to try and erase from his own mind whatever he feels for Jodha in order to escape the clutches of "mohabbat"!
Whatever the situation though, I am breaking a coconut for Ganpati today to pray for the closure of Ben this week. In fact I now hope this dratted Diwan-e-Khas meeting with Ben and this declaration of marriage with Ben gets over today itself ... so that I don't have to live in the torture of waiting to know when that will happen. If it all happens today, even though its real bad to think of, at least tomorrow we will know the worst is over - and the recovery phase can then begin whereby all the situations can go to rights ... I hope!
(God forbid that this marriage to ben ecomes a long-drawn issue with weeks of stretch-out! That will be my worst nightmare come true if that happpens!)
Folks, I am not a happy bunny today at all! But still let me do the analysis of the two topics that seemed top of the pops yesterday - if only to keep my mind occupied and less distressed!
Jalal's quandary and finding solace with Ruq
In continuation of the instructions Jalal gave to the baandhi in the previous episode that he would be spending the night with Ruq (which he said while finding himself strangely standing outside Jodha's doorway), Jalal went to Ruq. But to his utter dismay, she gave him barely a minute to register his surroundings before she began to roundly and soundly abuse him. She said she was talking not as his Khas Begum but as his childhood friend ... but which childhood friend gives another such a volley of unsavoury berating, I am not sure. Ruq did not spare Jalal.
How Jalal bore with it all also suggests his state of mind. He seemed to be in a trance of sorts, alternating between chagrin and anger at the Hakim words that were reverberating in him that he was beginning to feel "mohabbat" ( and it didn't take him a lot, I guess, to realise it was "mohabbat for Jodha", althoough he would hardly acknowledge that to himself!).
Ruq first started shouting at Jalal for ignoring her that evening when he was preoccupied with his soldiers and the war. But when he said he was politically engaged, she rounded on him swiftly saying "I know it was not political thoughts occupying your mind. I know exactly what was occupying your mind. It was that Jodha - and her family".
Ruq then said "Why have you come here? Its been a long time since you did. Why don't you go back to Jodha - where you want to go? Or has she booted you out yet again?". Jalal looked disconcerted and a bit mifffed with being thus rebuffed ... but he still tried to placate Ruq. Seeing him thus giving her slack, I think Ruq became even more emboldened.
She then went on to shout even more at Jalal for becoming the puppet of the Amer family. She asked him why he had released Bharmal from captivity and again ascribed it to Jodha's ensnaring of his mind. Jalal replied that it was Hakim's decision to forgive the person who hurt him, but Ruq would have none of it. She said Hakim was not the only one affected by what Shivani did, the whole Sultanate suffered humiliation by her actions - and thus the whole Sultanate had the right to decide the fate of Bharmal.
And then Ruq broached the subject that was most painful to Jalal. She mentioned the word "mohabbat"" and said he was falling for Jodha in a way that he himself never suspected. He was the victim of the pulls and pressures of "mohabbat for her" that was losing him his reason. Jalal seemed to get very angry at that, and he said "Again that word. How many times do I have to hear that? First from Hakim and now you". He then started shouting back at Ruq.
Seeing that she had gone too far with him perhaps, Ruq then quietened and said a contrite "Sorry" for going overboard, and then told him to sit down. For a moment I thought he would refuse, but after all that shouting he looked like a spent force. He just plonked himself on the bed. Ruq told him to rest while she gave instructions to her bandhis to not let anyone - but anyone - disturb them both for the whole night. She then went back to Jalal and offered to help him release his tensions with a guess what ... head massage!
A grateful Jalal did not wait to be asked a second time. He offered his head and was soon, it apppears, fast asleep, thanks to Ruq's ministrations.
This scene itself was not too impressive although it seemed long. I thought Ruq's doialogues were a trifle overdone. But the fact that seemed to clearly stand out was that Jalal was fighting so much within himself all the feelings and conflicts in his heart for Jodha and this "mohabbat", that he could barely fight Ruq at her most vehement.
He looked like he was putting up some resistance to Ruq - but in the end the fight within him seemed so much more powerful than the fight outside of him ... and so it seemed he felt it was not worth fighting too hard with Ruq. I felt he just gave up out of sheer tiredness.
But for how long can he fight within himself, without it beginning to spill over into his work and his relationships with others? That is something we have to wait and watch. For everyone's peace of mind, the sooner Rahim pieces together the Jodha paigam and all comes to a resolution on that front, and the sooner Jodha takes the bite to save Jalal and shows him what he feels for her, the sooner Jalal himself will settle down - and so will the people around him. Right now, he is prickly, Ruq is prickly - and Maham is ensuring that they both stay that way if she can help it!
Jodha's revelation and the resulting restlessness
Jodha was getting ready to go to the Siva temple for Sivratri pujas when she chanced upon Jalal in the palace courtyard. She asked for his permission for the pujas and to leave for the city, explaining to him why she wanted to do these pujas for his safety asnd welfare as her husband. Jalal however seemed awfully brusque and angry with her (no doubt from the after-effects of the Hakim "mohabbat" dialogue"). He said he neither needed the prayers for his safety nor believed in them, and in any case she didn't consider him her husband at all! (How strange ... is he not her husband just because she refuses to sleep with him yet!?)
Jodha was left speechless, but she said to herself "Yes, its true, I may not give him all his rights as a husband, but that does not mean I am not afraid for his life and I want to pray for divine intervention on behalf of his safety". The entourage of Jodha and baandhis then went to the Siva temple and offered aarti and sang prayers.
Meanwhile of course, Ben (her face covered in a shawl), and her baandhi too, were near the Siva temple in search of snakes. Seeing a snake charmer with a whole basket of snakes, the baandhi exclaimed : "Oh, there's loads of snakes here to keep you happy for a long while!" Ben bent down to take a snake for immediate "consumption". Turning around sharply after the Siva aarti, Jodha noticed Ben and feeling suspicious about why she should be at the Siva temple this day, Jodha followed Ben.
There, deep in a forested area, Jodha couldn't believe her eyes when she saw Ben attach the snake to her tongue, allowing it to inject its poison into her. Her eyes then turned red, and she swayed with the sudden vigour she seemed to have got from the snake poison. She let out a "raakshas" guffaw and said loudly "Jalal, here I come to bite and kill you now". Jodha had heard and seen enough!
She and Moti almost ran to tell Jalal all this ... only to find that he was spending the night with Ruq. Ruq had given instructions they should not be disturbed by anyone, and so Jodha was denied entry when she asked for Jalal. In desperation Jodha asked for Ruq ... but what she then got from Ruq seemed like 12 full minutes of vicious salvo!
Ruq raved and ranted about how Jodha and her family were trying to snatch Ruq's audha and make Jalal a puppet. I won't go into her full diatribe - but the sum and substance of it was that Jodha was a calculative political animal waiting to get Jalal all to herself and snatch all positions of power at the Palace, and so Ruq was going to do everything to ensure the ouster of Jodha from Agra and Jalal's life. If need be Ruq would rather Jalal married some kaniez than stay married to Jodha! Jodha tried saying she had valuable information from Sharif, but Ruq jumped at this chance to ridicule Jodha for now hobnobbing with jail inmates and said Jalal would be frightfully angry to know this!
Denied entry by Ruq, Jodha and Moti sat themselves on the nearest stone parapet to wait out the night. Jodha looked downcast and dispirited and seemed to have no clue as to how to reach the news to Jalal of what she had seen and heard regarding Ben.
In the precap, of course, we see that she did get her chance to spill all to Jalal - but it looked like it was only the next morning when she was able to do so. Jalal looked disbelieiving, but after her persuasion, seemed to reluctantly agree to question Ben at the Diwan-e-Khas. Jodha seemed to loook temporarily placated, but God knows what will now transpire at the Diwan-e-Khas!
Anyway this whole scene yesterday was notable if only to see how far Ruq was gone in her hatred of Jodha. The point most vexing Ruq seems to be that Jalal forgave Jodha's father after the Shivani episode jailing. But it is not even the fact that he favoured Bharmal, but the reason why he favoured Bharmal that seems to irk Ruq the most. She equates his favours for Jodha and her family, despite their wrongdoing things against him, as a evidence that Jodha has a full grip now on Jalal's mind. And when she says "mind" it is clear she means "heart".
I don't think even Jodha has an idea of how much venom Ruq has in her, because she is more concerned right now about how much venom Ben has in her! But if under Ruq's instigation, Jalal declares marriage to Ben tomorrow, maybe Jodha will get the full sense of Ruq's enmity towards herself. At the moment I don't think all that Ruq said to Jodha, however abusive it was, rubbed off on Jodha. All she was worried about was Jalal's safety and how to get the word out to Jalal. To that extent she seems immune to Ruq.
I also suspect that it is we viewers who will feel more bad than Jodha when Jalal declares marriage to Ben. Jodha herself may feel a little less belittled herself - because she may be more worried about Jalal's safety than his latest marriage!
Breaking News: Looks like the new promo shows Ben all sad in the Diwan-e-Khas thinking "No one will marry me now that I've been labelled a vishkanya" ... when Jalal will stand up and say "I will marry you".
Satyanaash! 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡😡
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