Originally posted by: sashashyam
My dear Meghana,
This is for Jalal, to be passed on thru your kind offices, since he seems to be understandably confused about where this changeling of a Jodha has popped up from.
Woh ab tak sitaron mein bas rahi thi kahin,
Use zameen par bulaya gaya hai tere liye!
Howzzat? As for your characteristically charming and perceptive post, the parts I liked the best are in blue.
Incidentally, you seem to have missed my ode to Jalal and Jodha, Sunlight on a butterfly's wings,. You will love it, if I say so myself.
About this new Jodha, the former avatar was a big one for Salvation Army type lectures, and indeed for bhashans of every kind. But I noted on Friday that in contrast with the last session she had with Jalal in the garden, when she was holding forth on the beneficial properties of moonlight before moving on to more improving topics, apparently for the whole night, this time she was almost entirely silent and spent the time looking at Jalal when he was not looking at her, and at times even when he was.
It looked promising for the next week. She might still be too busy niharofying her patidev to think up more bhashans! She had already started doing that in the precap.
I saw a complaint on another thread that the Diwan-e-Khas did not look impressive last night, and that Jalal's apology did not sound as well as it should have. Probably they wanted him to go down on his knees for it! He looked and sounded very sincere and yet correct and restrained, and as for the apology, he did the same after the dature ka ark matter was solved. It was very good of him to have done it then, and it is the same now.
As for the DEK, it is always shown as of the same size and with roughly the same number of attendees.
Reverting to Jalal-Jodha, his face when Jodha says that she needs to go as there has to be someone to look after him, was priceless. Pleased, amused and questioning. And when she was roping in Hamida to get Jalal to fall in line, he was again watching her very curiously with narrowed eyes, like a scientist looking at a specimen under the microscope.
Paridhi too was excellent in her recover when he asks her why she is so eager to go. And the wide-eyed candour with which she argues that she should be taken along was charming.
What I could not understand was Moti standing there like a log of wood and not moving away after greeting the Shahenshah. In the Jalal-Jodha exchange, she is there standing dead centre between them and a little further into the room, completely spoiling the visuals! The woman gets on my nerves with her flat, slightly nasal tone of voice, and very limited acting abilities.
She seems to be ignorant of court etiquette as well. When Jalal says he will take Jodha out to the garden, Moti actually says Theek hai, as if she was giving him permission to do so, instead of Jee, Shahenshah. I wonder if she would have said any such thing to Bharmal in Amer. It was ridiculous.
Similarly, when Ruqaiya tells her to inform Jodha later that she had come to visit her, Moti does not say Jee, Begum Sahiba, but merely nods her head. It is the writer's fault.
Finally, re: Fatehpur Sikri,the Ekta version shown last night , accompanied, be it noted, by a SECOND disclaimer over and above the daily, 30 second infliction at the beginning of each telecast ( which all of us undoubtedly try to blank out), is pure fiction.
However, I thought you might be interested in the authorised official guide to Fatehpur Sikri brought out by the Govt. of India Press, which can be accessed in its entirety at
http://www.archive.org/stream/guidetofatehpurs035312mbp#page/n21/mode/2up.
It has 78 pages and 12 plates, and it meticulously lists every single building in the complex. I visited Fatehpur Sikri last in 1992, but this book is obviously far, far more accurate than my memory, so I would refer you to it rather than to me. It is factual and objective, besides being modest and accessible, all admirable qualities in any piece of writing.
It has an excellent index, which itself gives a very good idea of all that is there.
I will miss your posts, Meghana.. Could you please PM me when you put out anything next, as I do not visit the forum very much?
Shyamala
Udne Ki Aasha
Kumkum Bhagya
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