Friends, there's good news and bad news at the end of yesterday's episode. The bad news first: events did not end the Ben track yesterday itself, and the arrow barrage from Jodha did not kill Ben. Alas, she is bound to wear more costumes and parade before us for another few episodes before we can say a final "tata goodbye"! The good news now: We know exactly how many more "serial days" it will take to see the last of Ben. There is a mehndi ceremony on one "serial day" and then the nikaah on the second "serial day" - and that ends it. Even assuming that these two serial days take at least four normal episode days, it is my belief that by Friday, if not earlier, this Ben saga will be fully and finally over! So my suggestion is that instead of cribbing the waste of this whole week in more Ben-related sequences, let's sit back and enjoy the suspense, the thrills and the drama that is surely now going to happen as Jodha puts her own life at risk to save Jalal from Ben and to end the Ben track!
Coming to yesterday's episode itself, as the title of my post suggests, I thought both Jodha and Jalal were really extraordinarily smart to go "thus far and no further" in their own games. Let me explain this point a bit.
Jodha's smartness:
I thought it was terrific that Jodha, despite having clear opportunity, angle of attack, encouragement from Salima and the motivation to finish off Ben summarily with six simultaneous arrows (and for a moment she even had the vision or daydream that she would do that) actually did not kill Ben directly! Instead seeing Ben leanning towards Jalal for a kiss/bite on his mouth (arrrggghhh!) Jodha successfully launched an arrow attack that split and shattered the couple, sent an ominous sanket of impending death to Ben, did not harm Jalal beyond control, and rendered their whole dargah trip infructuous ... but she did not go for the kill on Ben!
Many of us were so afraid yesterday that if the promo was true and Jodha really killed Ben, there would only be a new misunderstanding between Jalal and Jodha - or Jodha may even become caught for the assassination attempt at Ben, causing Jalal to again mistreat her. But Jodha, as even Jalal pointed out, took the cue from the earlier boat ride she and Jalal had gone on in Amer - when arrows rained on them, shattering them mentally but did not harm them. She knew Jalal had saved her then and would similarly save Ben also now. She tried the same stunt yesterday to ensure the separation of Ben and Jalal, but she did not put herself in danger of being blamed for an assassination or even an attempt at it.
Jodha then was smart enough to help herself and Salima use the very same secret surang that Jalal had shown her before, to reach the Palace before the boatride party arrived, looking on at their dishevelled arrival like an innocent spectator. And what's more, by doing this stunt and by creating the enviromnment of suspected danger and attempts on Jalal, she had given Atga and all his men - and even Ruq - the impression that someone was trying to kill Jalal, and this may well be Abul Mali doing his dirty thing as per his dhamkis. So the security cover around Jalal has now been increased and his men are surrounding him in layers and sticking to him like leeches, making it impossible for Ben to try another idea to get everybody away from him.
Salima voiced our own thoughts when she marveled at Jodha's cleverness to "strike but not to kill", her smartness to get back via the surang, her deftness with her archery skills, and her strategy in surrounding Jalal with security layers! Well done, Jodha!
Jalal's smartness:
Now let's see how smart Jalal was. He knew the moment the arrow shooting happened, that it had to be Jodha! He could see clearly that the arrows were to divide him and Ben on that boat, to frighten Ben out of her wits but not to kill her on the spot, to avoid harm to himself personally and to nullify the whole dargah trip. He could see a parallel to the Amer boat ride with Jodha when exactly the same sort of thing happened. He could also see it ws all an "insider job"!
How many people did he know that used a Mughal arsenal weapon, and wanted to separate him and Ben and prevent his growing closeness with his new Begum-to-be ... who would also want not to harm him but to only send Ben a frightful death threat? And how many people did he know who knew how to get back to the Palace unseen via a surang he had himself taught them about? And how many people did he know that could use a bow and arrow like that? The answers all pointed to his dear innocent-looking Jodha, whose smartness he too had to marvel at!
Jalal saw and understood everything - but look at his cleverness now. He decided to tell Jodha just enough - that he knew she was the hand behind everything - but he did not want to take matters further! He showed her his smartness by asking her pointed questions about who may have done all this and why, as if he was asking her opinion. When he heard and saw enough in her demeanour to confirm his suspicions he left her without a scolding, without a direct accusation and without any sort of retribution - to her own surprise!
But Jodha knew he knew ... as she told Salima. He had been too pointed with his questions and his eyes revealed more than he said to Jodha. I thought his eyes had a mixture of both admiration and incredulity in them as he watched Jodha, with her back straight and wearing a poker face walk away from the Diwan-e-Khas! Only much later when she brought the lep to cover his hand wounds with, did he venture a direct "I know you did it sanket". He said "You give me these wounds and then you yourself come to help heal my wounds"?
The question arises : why didn't Jalal punish or scold Jodha if he knew fully well it was she who had attacked the boat ride? I feel that in the first place, he could put two and two together and make twenty two, but he had no proof, for Jodha had beautifully covered her tracks. But more than that I feel in his heart of hearts Jalal seemed happy that this dargah trip and this Ben closeness was broken. There was some relief in his eyes too after the event (although it initially caused me a lot of angst to see him getting ready-ish to receive Ben's kiss). Thirdly, there is now a suspicion in my mind that Jalal knows something about Ben's treachery if not the full truth about her. And he also knows in his heart than Jodha does not lie. Even if he calls it her "jealousy", I think like Hamida, Jalal too feels somewhere that Jodha may be right about Ben. Maybe he gave her the benefit of doubt yesterday because she has a pure heart as he fully knows ... and she was smart enough not to go for the kill and force his hand, but to just do enough to shatter the party! Well done, Jalal!
Friends, I thoroughly enjoyed the way Jodha and Jalal acquitted themselves yesterday! I saw two clever people give each other "messages" via their actions, but not give room for either one to feel the other had done something "irreparable". Thank God the Creatives made both of them just fall short of going too far!
One other important point that I've been making for the last two days (and I told Ela this also). If the dargah trip had happened it would have given all the wrong signals that the nikaah had divine blessings. On the other hand if the dargah trip did not take place, it would give signals of "apshagun" for the nikaah! So in way I was anticipating that the Creatives would never show a well-completed dargah trip ... and thus they would indirectly signal that the nikaah would not happen smoothly. Now it is clear that Providence itself doesn't support the nikaah! So that's a good sanket for us, isn't it, even if it was all "ashubh" for Ben?
Okay, so much for the Jodha-Jalal smartness yesterday and the aborted dargah trip. The other big point in yesterday's episode was that the costumes of Ben and the intentions of Ben - after all those confounding spoiler pictures. "Why did she need so many costumes to end her story within just the next few episodes?" was the question we were all asking. We got the answer: it's because the Creatives have plannned a mehndi and a nikaah - and so that accounts for the remaining two dresses we saw her in.
Apart from that, the horse picture was accounted for when we saw that Ben is now on some secret assignation to meet a certain secret someone, just before doing her concluding act with Jalal (at or before the nikaah). So Ben is trying to sneak out in baandhi dress to meet this secret person via a horseback ride, because this secret person is now unable to get close to Jalal, thanks to the security cover around him and the Palace now!
What could Ben possibly want to meet this person for ... that too, after the boat ride but before the mehndi and nikaah? My suspicion is that she was full of poison ready for the boat ride yesterday when she wanted to finish the bite of Jalal. But now that things have become delayed, she has got depleted on her poison level, and if she is to bite Jalal again before the nikah or at the nikah, she needs to "tank up" her poison level again. Inside the palace there is a serious scarcity of snakes. Now if that secret person were the supplier of snakes or venom it would make most sense that since he cor she couldn't make it into the Palace, Ben is desperate to go out herself and meet that person! It's because she needs the poison at all costs that she is taking this risk, that's my hunch.
In the process now we also have an explanation of why Salima and Jodha are also going to wear banndhi dresses and follow the surreptitious Ben on her horse. Both Jodha and Salima may see Ben "fill her tank" as it were with more snake poison, and overhear her convo with this secret agent, and they may get clues as to what Ben plans to do to Jalal and exactly when. Or maybe Ben will arrange for snakes and venom to be smuggled to her, and Jodha and Salima may stay ready to thwart this process (a la the Sharif plan!)
I'll stop with this in my "opening remarks" and go on to detaling the two conversations I thought were very interesting yesterday. One was the Jodha-Jalal convo, of course. It was sensational! The other was the Jodha-Ben conversation which was also very good!
How Jalal and Jodha played cat and mouse with their dialogues!
It was evident even as Jalal entered the Palace with Ben and his sipahis after the disastrous boat ride that he was deeply suspecting Jodha of being the unseen hand behind the arrow attack! He looked up at her on the Palace balcony, and sent her dagger-looks from his eyes - as she acted as innocent as she could manage!
A little later at the Diwan-e-Khas, Jalal was having his hand wound tended to, as people watched on with consternation - all except Jodha, who was concerned but also looking a bit guilty! Jalal asked Atga if he had any suspicion as to the attacker, when Atga said the attacker had managed a clean escape but pointed to the Mughal-made arrows and suggested it could either be an inside job or else someone from the Abul Mali camp impersonating an insider. (Salima and Jodha looked like they had swallowed whole frogs, while Ruq and Maham looked like they were spooked!)
But the astute Jalal dismissed the Abul Mali theory saying "Oh no, Atga Saab, this was not an attack on me at all as Abul Mali may have done, if it was him. This was an attack on Benazir clearly, by someone who doesn't think well of her! Let the jasoosis spread around now and see that the nikaah itself is not thus sabotaged." And then on second thoughts he said "I have my own suspicions, but ... takhliya ..." and dismissed everybody from the DEK. Jodha was herself about to rise and leave, when he stopped her from leaving!
Then with an absolute poker face he asked her "What do you think, Jodha Begum, who could have done this attack?" She was temporarily nonplussed but replied with as much cogency as she could summon "May be your enemies?" He was quickly dismissive of this saying "Oh, no, not at all Jodha Begum. Whoever did this clearly did not want to harm me at all, and in fact perhaps did not even want to finish off Benazir either! In fact, do you remember, when we went on a boatride at Amer, a similar rain of arrows attacked us and I saved you from them? Exactly in the same way, there was a rain of arrows on Ben and me as were getting close on this boatride and again I saved her identically! If only I could get my hands on that attacker! It looked outwardly like the attackker was after our lives, but in actuality every arrow was intended not to hurt directly."
Jodha then acted a bit sharp herself asking "Oh, but then how did you hurt your hand?' and he said "By hitting it against the boat keel. Looks like the attacker did not want me to go to the dargah with Ben" Jodha held her ears and said "Oh, I am so sorry to hear that you couldn't go to the dargah." Jalal replied " Anyway this arrow is now in my hands, and soon the attacker will also be." He then added shrewdly "By the way, why do you think this attack on me took place at all?"
Jodha hummed and hawed and said "Well ... maybe that person wanted to stop your trip?" Jalal replied "Exactly what I think. But seeing this antipathy towards Benazir, I am wondering ... were you that attacker? Ummm ... no, no, that can't have been you, right? You wouldn't have done such a thing, would you? So you can leave now." Jodha folded her hands in thanks and left. But the look in Jalal's eyes was to die for. It was a mixture, as I have earlier said, between admiration for her cleverness in leaving no tracks, and yet achieiving all her goals ... and it was also a look of "I know, Jodha Begum, I know!". Fabulous acting, Rajat! Simply fabulous!
Much much later in the garden Jodha and Jalal met again, when she brought lep to apply on his hand wound. This time, Jalal looked directly into her eyes and said "This too is one of your teda actions? You yourself give me the wound and then you come to apply medicine on it?" The scene ends with Jodha looking trapped by the suddenness and sharpness of his query. Let's see the next episode for the continuation of the rest of this conversation. Its going along super-splendidly!
You know folks, at first glance I thought it was the dialogues of this convo that were very cleverly strung together by the Creatives. But when I saw the Jodha-Jalal interaction again and again (to be able to write it all here) I saw how much was said by the eyes, and how few the words actually were in the whole scheme of things. The words were just rolling along the conversation but the silent "astute awareness" in Jalal's eyes and the silent "guilty acknowledgement" almost in Jodha's eyes were something else! Just mute the sound and watch the scenes again, and you will see what I mean!
In a slanging match with Ben, Jodha showed who was deadlier!
In Benazir's room, after the aborted dargah trip, an angry Benazir is ranting to Zakira against this unforseen disturbance to all her plans. She is furious as Zakira looks on helplessly. Then in a sudden change of tack Ben asks Zakira "Where is that secret person we are suppposed to be in touch with? Why has that person not come so far, when we need to meet urgently?" (That "person" ... could it be a "she" and not a "he"?)
Zakira replies "It's not easy to get that person here with all this security cover now around the Palace!". Ben says "But you have to do something. This is our last chance at attack on Jalal ...". Just then Jodha enters Ben's room and it looks like she has caught the tail end of Ben's words!
Jodha says "Oh, you're talking of last chances'? Till I am here, you will never be successful in your attemmpts!" Ben throws her head back and laughs an evil laugh saying "So you think you are going to stop me? Hear that Zakira! But one thing, Jodha Begum, at least you're very brave, entering the room of a deadly vishkanya!" Jodha shoots back at her "I am a Rajvanshi. I avenge my maanhaani. And I don't attcak from behind like you. Even if a snake were to attack me here, I know how to handle it."
Ben then derides Jodha "But what if you make a mistake and the snake bites you? Like this ..." and she reaches out to scratch Jodha's hand, but Jodha pulls back sharply and says "Don't touch me, you ghrinith jantu"(Hehehehe ... "ghrinith jantu" !) Ben laughs again derisively "The same hated animal is the one the Shahenshah is planning to make his Begum, remember! And he seems so keen to accept his impending death at my hands. You've not been able to do anything to save him so far and won't be able to going forward either. In fact it was your blunder that has even brought me to this possibility of becoming his Begum. The one you want to save seems to want his death at my hands!"
Jodha says "Your words sound less than victorious, they sound more like aakrosh. Because you know you've not been successful so far either and never will be. Do you know why? Because it is the unwritten law of the Universe that good wins over evil. I will soon unmask you, leaving you writihing like a snake." Ben replies "Okay, so you go ahead and do what you want while I accomplish my mission. But beware you will be looking at the traces of a snake that has slithered away after the act. Now leave me to get ready for the mehndi rasams, for you know I have to look like a Begum". With that she laughs again cruelly.
Jodha says "Laugh all you want for this may be your last laugh. As long as Jodha lives, no one can harm the Shahenshah!" (Hear, hear!) Ben says "Ooh, how much you seem to love him" but Jodha replies "Its my kartavya. A vachan I took at the time of my marriage to save him from all kinds of sankat. And we Rajvanshi's hold to our vachans."
Ben asks "Are you not afraid of my poison?" Jodha says "Maybe you've not heard of another famous Rajvanshi Meerabai? Even a "halaahal ka pyala" could not harm her. I too am that kind of Rajvanshi. You cannot harm me or the Shahenshah." And with that Jodha trounces out of the room with her eyes attacking Ben till the end of the scene. Ben then says to herself "If this must be my last laugh, then let me make sure I attack you, Jodha Begum. " She then turns to Zakira and says "Get that secret agent to come, Zakira, or else if that person can't enter the Palace, I'll have to go and meet that person myself!".
Folks, to my mind this was not one of those rare scenes ... in fact, in almost every serial, at some stage or the other, we have the "good will triumph over evil" dialogues from the heroine to the villain. Its staple serial fare.
But the part about this dialogue that I found very interesting is that even in this dialogue Jodha doesn't admit to doing all this to save Jalal because she loves him. She says everything else ... kartavya, vachan, rajvanshi, meera bai ... but she doesn't admit what she feels for Jalal. Who is she kidding? The very fact that she's giving Ben her sermons in her own room suggests to me that Jodha is not satisfied with the rain of arrows and needs to vent her pent up feelings to Ben and give her a lalkaar.
Now why would Jodha put herself at risk in Ben's chamber alone with a vishkanya, unless she was either stupid ... or else irrational? She looks like she is in love ... for her behaviour is strange. She shoots arrows and returns to the palace via a surang cleverly. But then she exposes herself to a vishkanya in her own room alone without a thought in her head as to the consequences. Maybe she was sure she would not be attacked by Ben, but even so, it looked like a stupid thing to do to visit the vishkanya just to give her a sermon.
What has been achieved by alerting Ben via these dhamkis? Does Jodha expect Ben will change her plans? I don't think she thought through this carefully. She just went to Ben, I think, because her heart was bursting with words to be said and feelings for Jalal to be vented!
What's coming today? I expect to see Salima and Jodha trailing Ben and the horse, all of them in baandhi clothes. Maybe Salima and Jodha will also succesfully prevent the smuggling in of a supply of snakes. I also expect the mehndi ceremony to take place today, with more suspense about exactly which moment Ben will choose to attack Jalal.
We all know nothing will happen actually during the mehndi to harm Jalal or Jodha, for we have seen spoilers of Ben in nikaah ka joda. So today may be just another day with the "hovering clouds of suspense and impending disaster" but no real action on the bite. The Creatives are going to kheecho-fy this till Friday, I feel sure.
But thankfully, no further than that, I think!
Madhubala - Ek Ishq Ek Junoon
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