Folks,
When was the last time you watched dappled sunlight dancing on the surface of running water? Or the iridescent colours that appear and disappear on a butterfly's wings as the light catches them? A long time ago, I expect. But I saw both on Friday night , as Jalal and Jodha created magic together, and Tinkerbell spangled the screen with fairy dust.
Frankly, I did not expect what we saw, or even ten percent of it. Not even after seeing the new promo the day before, and no wonder, for promos in Jodha Akbar have often proved misleading, or even downright fake, as during the Hawaii incident. I had thus merely voiced the modest hope that they might, at long last, have a calm, sensible, mildly productive conversation. Which, even if it did not resolve the issues of The Letter and The Shove, might at least move them a bit down the path to what we have been assured would be an amar prem gatha.
Friday night magic: What we got was, in the truest sense of the word, magical. Romance of neither the RK Films logo she-slips-and-lands-in-his-arms variety, nor of the sensual, heavy breathing variety. Instead, of the delicate, butterfly-dancing-above-the-water kind, where the most commonplace nok jhok can brighten their spirits as if a candle had been lit inside them. When looking at each other from 10 feet away, or the slightest, almost accidental touch of the fingers, can conjure up the warmth of a close embrace.
Let us walk thru their scenes once more, in no particular order, to confirm my first impression that they were really spangled with fairy dust.
And no, I am not going into anything else from that night: neither the frantic Ruqaiya, so pathetically ill-equipped to tackle what is soon going to hit her, nor her stormy encounter with Mahaam, nor even the congregation in Jodha's rooms with Mirza Hakim and Mansingh, and definitely not that sleazy bit with a creepy Sharifuddin. One does not sully fairy dust with chuna and muck.
Silken bonds of longing: It began when Jodha asks Jalal Aap hamse kya baat karna chahte hain? and lasted till the final shot, over 10 minutes later, of them sitting over an angeethi in the angoori bagh.
Communing with each other, for long stretches thru silence that spoke more than words ever could, Jodha and Jalal tangled themselves in gossamer thin, silken strands of longing for each other - strong and acknowleged on his side, nascent and still unacknowledged on hers. A longing that was all the clearer for never being voiced by either, or even understood by her. Not yet.
Jodha: But it was there when Jodha stopped Jalal, when he rose to take leave of her,with an abrupt Nahin! It was almost as if she had grabbed his hand and held him back by main force.
It was there when she forced a protesting Jalal to take her out to the angoori bagh. Through a quintessentially feminine combination of stubborn insistence that she would go out there ( he must have been mightily pleased when she pouted Kyonki yahan par kisi vishkanya ki prashansa sun sunkar hamare kaan pak gaye hain) and an unprecedented assertion of her wifely rights, as distinct from her status as a Shahi Begum. Aap hamare pati hain na? To hamein baahar nahin le ja sakte?
Delightful, and Jalal, initially taken aback by this new, possessive avatar of his Jodha Begum, must have felt exactly the same as he held her close, if in a somewhat gingerly fashion, and prepared to support and guide her out to the garden
It is worth noting that this sudden yearning of Jodha's for the great outdoors and fresh air was nowhere in evidence when she was chatting comfortably with Moti just before Jalal arrived. Apni Jodha is no slouch, after all, when it comes to feminine wiles!😉
The hidden longing was there again later, when, as they sat together in the garden, she looked across at him with shy eyes that sank at once when she caught his steady gaze.
It was there in her half smiles of pure pleasure when he treated her like a Dresden porcelain figurine, when he fetched the angeethi for her, when he put an end to her anxious looking around for him - kya wo vastav mein chale gaye? - by suddenly appearing behind her and wrapping her, with careful tenderness, in a velvet shawl.
She clearly felt as cossetted and cared for as if he had pulled her into a warm, protective embrace, and she blossomed as never before under such pampering. Which must have been all the sweeter after weeks spent in the marubhoomi, the harsh desert to which she had been consigned after he had turned away from her after the night of the The Shove, and she had had to watch, in escalating horror, as the threat to his life from Benazir came ever closer.
Weeks during which she realized that were he to die, life for her would be no longer worth living, and this no matter how he behaved with her. That her marriage vow Aapse hi hamara sowbhagya hai was now true in the spirit as much as in the letter.
Jalal: The same longing was there also in Jalal's persistent probing to find out why Jodha had done what she did: was it merely out of a sense of duty as his wife, or was there, hopefully, something more to it? So he begins by scolding her for her recklessness, only to be halted in his tracks by her calm pronouncements: Aapko kuch nahin hua na? Hamare liye wohi paryapt tha... Humne socha aapko khone ke sthan par is marg ko chunna hi theek hoga.
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NB: He should have zeroed in on the aapko khona, which is very significant, but his resentment at The Shove surfaces at this point: Kya dekhte, kya sunte Jodha Begum? Aapko yaad hoga, ek din hum aapke hoojre mein aaye the.. kya kya nahin kaha aapne, humein dhakka tak de diya..khair..
But it is clear from the context - of his complaints about the caprices of his begums, and the impossibility of making out what they really mean from what they say- that he has now come round to classifying what he once saw as an unforgiveable insult under the head of feminine nakhras.
This reinforces my point, made in an earlier post, that while it would be most desirable, there will no longer be any need for the mystery of Jodha's paigham to be solved and brought to light. The tidal wave of emotions unleashed within Jalal by Jodha's sacrifice has swept all before it, every past ranjish, gila aur shikwa.
And that is the way it should be, for when Jalal and Jodha finally accept each other fully, it should not be on the basis of proofs that dispel past misunderstandings. It should be on the basis of faith that does not need proof.
Jodha's eyes look anxious and troubled, but she says nothing. She does not want to go down that road again. _________________________________________________________________________
The same longing is there in Jalal using Benazir as a tool to try and prise Jodha's heart open. Which is why when she complains that he never believed what she told him about Benazir, he does not offer the most handy excuse, the milk test that failed. Instead, he trots out only the jealousy angle, that too not, as he once said bitterly, because of him, kyonki aapne hamein kabhi apnaya hi nahin, but only for rank and position.
When Jodha stoutly denies all of this, it is there again in Jalal's follow up question: Aapne hamari jaan kyon bachayi?, and the bright, questioning gaze that he fixes on her face. He is then like a high stakes poker player risking all on a single throw.
Jodha-Jalal: It is there when Jodha does not respond to Jalal's question with her boilerplate formulations: patnidharma, maasa ko diya hua vachan, vivah ke vachanon ka maan rakhna, and that helpful omnibus phrase, kartavya nibhana. Instead, she lowers her eyes demurely and poses a counter query: Aap swayam ki sochiye ki humne aisa kyon kiya.
Which was an answer in itself if Jalal had been able to hear the unspoken words Kaise nasamajh vyakti hain aap, Shahenshah! Kyonki hum aapke liye jaan de to sakte hain, parantu aapke bina jee nahin sakte.
He must have heard them after all, for after hemming and hawing and fortifying himself with circumlocutions - Agar aap yeh baat hamse poochengi to... hum kahenge ki... humein laga ki .. - finally , like a rider clearing a high fence in a rush, he comes out with Aapke dil mein hamare liye jagah hai.
Then, it peeks out again in what Jodha does not do. She does not say anything. But her eyes, raised slowly to meet his in a limpid gaze, speak. They are not shy, not dismissive, and there is no withdrawal. They are direct and questioning, and underlying that is , if only Jalal could read it, the silence that equals consent.
Even if Ruqaiya had actually barged in at this point, something would still have been gained from this truncated exchange. But the gods willed that there should be much more, and so Ruqaiya stormed back, raging, to her own rooms.
Benazir: It was there in Jodha's coming back again and again to Benazir, to try, in her turn, to prise open Jalal's zehen and see what there is in it for her, Jodha.
It is there in her hesitating when he asks - his eyes wide open in a seemingly innocent query Kyon, koi wajah? - why she had disliked Benazir from the very beginning. For she can hardly say because I could not stand your becoming so besotted with her. When she finally hits on an answer, it produces an exquisitely funny moment.
Jalal watches her casting about for something plausible, his face carefully deadpan. He must have been in stitches when she launches into a scathing attack on Benazir's dress sense, adding, for good measure Aise vastra bhi koyi pehanta hai bhala, aur wo bhi kisi aur ke pati ke saamne? (No prizes for guessing whose pati!). 😉He turns aside to suppress the bubbling mirth inside him, as she continues to look at him in righteous indignation. I can bet that this one will later rank high in their collection of insider jokes!
It is there when Jodha pillories Jalal : Aapko Benazir mein itna kya nazar aaya ki aap us par itna aasakht ho gaye? Is mahal mein us se adhik sundar aur bhi to theen! ( Unsaid: Me, in the first place!)
I am sure Jalal does not understand what aasakht means; but for watching DKD Mahadev, I would not have known either that it means attachment. Not that he needs a translation; her tone of voice suffices!
When he claims that all the palace women were jealous of Benazir's beauty, a decidedly grumpy Jodha protests, her neck and head moving in tandem with her voice, Kya keh rahe hain aap, Shahenshah? Itni sundar to nahin thi wo! (Unsaid: What deplorable taste you have, Shahenshah!)
But when he offers to take a kasam on himself about the truth of his statement, the old panic about his well being surges up in her and she pulls his hand down at once, concern for him darkening her face. She fears the consequences of a false kasam taken lightheartedly, and no way will she let his run that risk.
That, however, is not the end of Benazir. Jodha is at it again in the angoori bagh. She demurely watches her patidev from under her long lashes as he, having gently settled her in the garden seat, looks here , there and everywhere - at the heavens, at the balustrade, at the ground, in short everywhere but at her - as he moves sideways and perches himself on the other seat. From where he continues to look all around, as awkward as a teenager on his first date, rather than like an emperor with a harem full of beautiful women.
Jodha finally realises that if this man is to be made to do anything other than gaze at nature and palace architechture, she will have to take the initiative. So she clears her throat, and begins with Shahenshah! But what is the momentous question she comes up with? Sach sach batayiye, ek Shahenshah ki tarah nahin par.. Kya Benazir aapko sach mein bahut sundar lagti thi?
Jalal (secretly delighted) remarks that she seemed to have fallen in love with the woman, who is lingering on in Jodha Begum's mind even after she had been finished off. When Jodha insists on an answer, and Jalal begins with Agar aap apne sawaal ka jawaab chahti hain to.. , I was in stitches seeing her wrap her pallu around her shoulders and straighten up, preening herself expectantly😉.
Her crestfallen face, the half smile she forces after a long moment of evident disappointment at his Haan, wo kaafi khubsoorat thi.. make Jalal, who has been watching her steadily with a cat-at-the-mouse-hole look, like a medieval Rhett Butler, turn aside to hide his smile.
Yearnings of the heart: As they continue to sit there, with their hands, spread out over the flames of the angeethi, dancing a minuet of now touching, now not, Jodha confesses to herself what she was yearning to hear from him. Kaash hamare vishay mein bhi aapke yahi vichar hote! Ek baar kaha hota ki hum Benazir se sundar hain!
Having him call her sundar is not the point. He has done it often enough before. It is that she wants to be seen, in her husband's eyes, as more beautiful than Benazir. This craving is not significant per se, but rather - though she still does not recognize it - as a symbol of what affects her now, the need to come first for Jalal. Ahead of Benazir, whom she sees as having successfully seduced him with her beauty, and soon, perhaps, ahead of everyone else as well. For with nascent love comes nascent possessiveness, and with possessiveness comes jealousy of the competition.
Jalal was not so foolish after all with his jealousy tactic, and Benazir has been the catalyst that thawed our ice maiden.
Jalal is at a different stage of the journey. He is sure of his own feelings now, but unsure of hers, and he will not make a single move towards greater intimacy unless Jodha gives him the signal. Whence his sotto voce lament at the end : Kaash hum aapko bata sakte ki hamare dil mein kya hai.. Kaash aapne Benazir ko hamari zindagi mein aane hi nahin diya hota. .. Kaash aapne kabhi apni jagah hi chodi nahin hoti, ki Benazir to kya, koyi bhi nahin aa sake...
Who is to square this circle? It will have to be Jodha, since for Jalal, The Shove still stands as a solid roadblock. She will have to do the running, and I hope her newly awakened feminine instincts tell her when and how to do precisely that. The trip outside Agra to fulfil Jalal's mannat for her recovery lies ahead, and should be a godsend. It is to be seen if she uses it. The charming precap looks promising, despiter Storm Ruqaiya looming on the horizon.
For those who feel that all this was too much too soon, or that it might not last, or that Jalal was still not looking the astute, dominating, decisive Shahenshah he was not so long ago, I would say this.
Sufficient unto the day is the beauty thereof. Magic should not be analysed, or parsed into nine columns like a grammar exercise. Magic should be exulted in for as long as it lasts. And then, we should all say (with apologies to Oliver Twist): Please, Ma'am, may we have some more?
Moment of the day: When Jalal replies to Jodha's sulky question about, who else, Benazir: Aur agar usne aapko das liya hota to ? by asserting that she could never have done that (Ya, tell me another, buddy!😉), as there was only one Rajvanshi with the taap to do it. Jodha first pouts in mock anger as Jalal looks at her from under his brows, eyes lambent with ill-suppressed mischief. Slowly, the corners of his mouth widen in amusement, and Jodha reacts in sync with that, biting her lower lip as her eyes begin to crinkle with incipient laughter. His smile widens to a delighted grin and she matches it, as both dissolve into silent mirth.
It was a rare moment of shared camaraderie that was a delight to behold. No wonder that when Jalal gets up to leave, Jodha comes up with a resounding Nahin!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
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