Folks,
This one is for my wonderful young friends who were so kind and concerned about me last night. They concluded that I must be on the verge of acute depression because of the googly bowled at us by the CVs ( that too after putting out that technically correct but totally deceptive precap and promo.), and as palliatives, I was offered a range of pick me ups, from a tel maalish to an e-shoulder to cry on!
I was more touched than I could say, and I felt bad that I had to disappoint so many affectionate and protective young ladies. But the fact is that though I was very cut up that the splendid samhaar of Benazir that I had wanted so badly did not materialize after all, there was ample compensation elsewhere yesterday, and all in all it was a most enjoyable episode.
I thought the googly the CVs bowled us was a clever one. See, they have spared us all the high decibel shrieking and shouting that a revelation that Jodha had bumped off the khaas tohfa (KT) would have inevitably called forth from Ruqaiya and Mahaam, plus a determinedly over the top trial scene in the Diwan-e-Khas.
If what happened was not as good as loveanime's scenario of Jalal keeping Jodha out of the whole mess by affirming that he had discovered that the KT was a zehreeli dosiza and had executed her, at least it was better than some of the other alternatives floating around.
Besides, they made both Jalal and Jodha look sensible at the same time (more of this later), which is a major achievement! Plus they even remembered to explain the absence of the boatman!
Lastly, I would not say that the last precap was a dream. It is a sort of vision Jodha has in that instant, of what she would have really liked to do to the vishkanya. Wonder why she did not go thru with it and make a clean job of it after all! A very great pity, that!
NB: Probably it was the Jodha Akbar wardrobe department that raised objections; having made several sets of shahi libaas for the KT, they would not have wanted to have them wasted😉. Not that any of them can make her look like any kind of shahi begum!
Ah yes, I was cautious enough not to start celebrating the anticipated pincushioning of Benazir till I had watched the telecast. So I did not open up the Moet Chandon after all, and a good bit of the right stuff was saved from for a more deserving occasion.😉
Now, since the episode has already been described and dissected threadbare by some very competent writers in the forum, I can limit myself here to what I liked last night and why, beginning with the very best.
Ghrinit Jantu: I have forgiven Jodha all her follies, past, present and future, for this marvellous addition to our lexicon of choice Jodhaisms, ghrinit jantu! I was hysterical with laughter every time I rewound the recording and watched that bit once more. Oh, Lord, it has set me off again!
Benazir's galeez janwar paled in comparison, especially given the whiplash in Jodha Begum's voice as she pronounced this brand new epithet with the kind of ghrina she had never shown towards Jalal even in their worst phase, and shoved the KT's hand away as if she had been soiled by the touch.
Sherni aur geedadh: The grand confrontation scene between Jodha Begum and the KT was a walkover from start to finish. Full on paisa vasool!
Face to face with a superbly haughty Rajvanshi queen, radiating the unbending pride of her race, and spewing savage contempt for the ghrinit jantu she swore she would expose and have her crushed underfoot like the venomous serpent she was, Benazir was always on the backfoot.
It was not merely that, her grand costume notwithstanding, she looked totally downmarket compared to Jodha. It was more that she could not understand Jodha at all.
She could not understand Jodha's unshakeable confidence that she would fulfil the vachan she had made at the time for her marriage, that she would face every peril threatening her husband before it reached him. That she would make sure Benazir would not be able to hurt the Shahenshah, or her, Jodha, in any way.
She could not understand how Jodha had no fear of her venom. When Jodha said so, in a flat monotone that emphasized her disdain for the sleazy wretch who faced her, Benazir's veiled eyes widened in a kind of fleeting, startled, angry respect.
Her repeated efforts at contemptuous laughter rang hollow, and when she tried to taunt Jodha about the Shahenshah's (non-existent) obsession for her, Jodha's fierce, unwinking gaze made her voice lose conviction even as she spoke. It sounded like someone whistling in the dark to keep her spirits up, for the KT was getting desperate, with her latest and most promising attempt too having come to naught.
No wonder that, after Jodha swept out, with a haughtiness that matched that of her entry, Benazir's fury and frustration erupted, and she promised herself that before she was finished, she would bite Jodha.
That would be truly the unkindest cut of all! I dread the prospect of Jodha on her (apparent) death bed, and Jalal dissolving into a messy puddle of guilt, remorse and self-flagellation at her bedside! Ugh...
Finally, I was a tad surprised, then greatly pleased, that Jodha did not let on to the KT, in vintage Jodha style, that it was she who had nearly pincushioned her. Our Jodha Begum is on a learning track, it seems! If the KT had been told that, she would have very soon found a way to dispose of Jodha Begum, seeing her as being far too dangerous.
Paridhi was superb in the whole of this passage, fiercely controlled, her eyes spitting fire, her voice like a whiplash, every inch of her radiating pride and effortless domination.
One and a half: Next, I loved the scene and a half between Jalal and Jodha, the half being when he glowers up at her from the garden path. I am sure that glare - which she met with an unwavering butter-will-not-melt-in-my-mouth look back till he turned away - was saying I know it was you, Jodha Begum, for who else here can shoot so may arrows simultaneously and so well? And I know why you did it too. Aap to kabhi bhi baz nahin aayengi, Jodha Begum, aap jaisi ziddi aur magroor aurat to hamne aaj tak nahin dekhi!
I was very pleased with Jalal, who seemed to be awakening, like Rip Van Winkle, from a long slumber, for two things,
One, that he makes out at once that it was Jodha, and two, that despite that, he does not say a word to even hint at that, either in public, or to her as an assertion, not as a teasing question. Instead, he fobs the congregation at the Diwan-e"Khas off with the theory that it must have been a member of the awaam attacking Benazir for being a zahreeli dosiza. Adding for good measure that security should be tightened in case someone else attacked him for being a kaafir because he was marrying the aforesaid zahreeli dosiza!
It was a very neat feinting move. The Shahenshah is once more beginning to hold his cards close to his chest.
His catechism of Jodha later is a verbal fencing match, Jalal attacking repeatedly, and Jodha defending herself without yielding an inch, face still and watchful, not giving away anything. They circle each other, figuratively, he on the lookout for an opening to make her stumble, she determined to hold her own. Feint, lunge, parry, feint again. When she holds her ears in mock pious regret that he and the KT had missed out on the dargah visit, it was such unexpected deadpan comedy that I laughed out loud.
Jalal really had nothing to learn or to prove, and he is merely trying to see how long she can hold out under his grilling without blurting out the truth. But his Jodha Begum is made of sterner stuff. So the fencing match ends in a ceasefire, and Jodha departs at last, relieved but puzzled why he has not been harsher and why he has not, despite obviously knowing that it was she, done anything to punish her.
Salima was on the verge of enlightening her on this last point, if only Jodha had let her. It was just as well, for Jodha should learn of that from Jalal himself, not from Salima.
After Jodha leaves the DEK, Jalal's face is a study in brooding introspection, and Rajat brought that off splendidly. He looked like a Van Dyke portrait ready to be framed.
Jalal is ruminating over what precisely made Jodha Begum do what she did, and probably telling himself that it could not be mere jealousy. That she must firmly believe that his life was in danger. Did she really care so much for him to risk being caught, and facing so much humiliation and such a serious charge? Was Jodha right after all in her accusation against Benazir, for all that the milk test had failed? Finally, what should he do about all this now?
It remains to be seen how this is developed. In the precap, Jalal's face was as smooth as marble, unnaturally and, possibly, deceptively calm, as he gets ready to openly ask Jodha why she had done it. If she tells him why, with her trademark forceful sincerity, it might reinforce the dawning conviction in him that the KT is really an ambulant killing machine. For it is not just Jodha whose medulla oblongata is like a tubelight with a defective choke!😉 But will she?
For those who swear by Sharifuddin's latest brainwave, of starving the KT of snake venom, this plan cannot be implemented without Jalal's support, for it needs sound co-ordination and manpower as well. So, unless Jalal sees the light and comes on board, the JS duo will have to look for other evidence. Like the mysterious helper whom the KT is desperate to contact, perhaps?
The samhaar that wasn't:😭😭😭 As I noted above, I was very sad that we did not get to see the KT fed to the fish in the Jamuna (the ones that might have planned on sneaking in a few quick nibbles before she was hauled out of the water should have thanked their lucky stars for what they escaped!) . So, I suspect, was our Jodha, who looked fierce enough to have made mincemeat of a dozen KTs without batting an eyelid. But she clearly never intended to actually kill her, which was a pity, but one has to accept what cannot be helped!
This said, I liked the way in which this scene was neatly linked backwards to 2 earlier events: Jodha showing off her multiple arrow shooting hunar to Jalal in Amer, and Jalal bringing her back, after rescuing her from her suicide attempt, thru the same secret passage that she uses now to escape back to the palace. Shows that there is some collective memory among the Jodha Akbar CVs, even if they seemed, by episode 149, to have forgotten what Jalal himself said about Mirza Hakim in episode 49!😉
I loved the look of weary detachment on Jalal's face as he gets into the boat and looks everywhere but at the waiting KT, who is determined to have him help her into the boat. One is sure that he is thinking back to that other boat ride with a reluctant Jodha, on their way to Amer for Sukanya's marriage.
When she gets up and deliberately stumbles towards him, he looks startled out of his reverie, and his eyes are puzzled and a little wary. But why does he not move away as she approaches him, with glacial deliberation, for what looks like a kiss? He seems somehow frozen and unable to move. Is he still trapped in those memories, and does he perhaps see Jodha coming close to him, as happened at the jashn? It is good that the CVs did not spoonfeed us, as on the last occasion, but leave it to us to fill in the blanks as we like.
Rajat brings all these complex shades of feeling in Jalal's zehen to life with his usual effortless command over facial nuances. What would Jodha Akbar been like without him? It does not bear thinking of!
Question of the day: Why was the Wazir-e-Aaliya notable only by her silence ? She did not even open her mouth at the Diwan-e-Khas session, and even later, though security is usually her bailiwick, it is Ruqaiya who is seen berating the guards and ordering them to stick close to the Shahenshah from then on. Where was Mahaam when all this was happening? Does she have any inkling that the culprit, who is now thought to be from inside the palace, might be Jodha? If she does, what will she do about it? Go to Jalal with her momentous discovery? That will be the Joke of the Day for Episode 161!
Cat and mouse game: Now on to the entertaining prospect of seeing Salima and Jodha traipsing around togged out in daasi outfits, as they begin the latest chapter of Jodha's cat and mouse game with the ghrinit jantu. Jodha looked delightful in Moti's clothes in Amer, but I don't know about Salima. And by the time they are changed and ready to take up the chase. Benazir would be long out of sight, unless the duo have Hermione Granger's Time Turner ready at hand!
There is also the new Mystery of the Unknown Helper whom the KT has been told, obviously by Abul Mali, to expect. I fail to see how the dedfootiya Zakira is expected to identify him on her own; she can hardly go around asking every likely prospect if he/she was sent by Abul Mali! It is nonsensical, but as the KT is sneaking out in the precap, it is clearly to meet him/her. One holds one's breath!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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