Friends, all of us who were waiting after Friday's episode to see what Jalal would do about Ruqaiya's sleeping arrangements - whether he would sit outside all night with Jodha - or at least tick off Ruqaiaya for her crassness, were sadly disappointed with what we saw on Monday. The episode opened with Jalal sleeping soundly beside Ruqaiya in the bed inside the khema, while Jodha slept on a charpai on the hard ground outside.
We can give Jalal some small brownie points for at least feeling uneasy, not being to sleep soundly, getting up in the middle of the night and going out to stand staring at the sleeping Jodha. That's all he did. He stood there and stared as she tossed and turned, and his eyes seemed to be getting their fill of Jodha by just simply watching her with a mixture of love and longing.
Then briefly Ruqaiya herself came out looking for the missing Jalal, and saw him looking at Jodha. I think she was so taken aback, or perhaps so full of jealousy at that sight, that the normally voluble Ruqaiya went back inside without a word, leaving Jalal still looking at Jodha, until Jodha herself stirred and her eyes flew open to take in the Shahenshah loooking at her sleeping.
That ended this great sleeping scene continued from Friday, upon which all kinds of predictions and hopes and wishes and explanations had flooded our Forums. Some people said that Jalal was testing if Jodha would withstand Ruqaiaya's behaviour before he personallly intervened ... some others were saying Jalal surely will (and should!) have a few words to say to Ruqaiya about all this ... and yet some others were saying, Jalal would not even go near Ruqaiaya's bed and would spend the whole night sitting romantically in the fresh air outside to keep Jodha company. None of that happpened. He slept well, and presumanbly towards the dawn of the new day stirred outside a bit to see the still sleeping Jodha stirring herself!
And what's more, Shock No. 2 came upon all of us, when after an brief intercut shot of Adham and his men, we were shown the scene of Jalal and his two wives and Hoshiyaar walking into the gates of the Agra palace, and welcomed in by a small committee of Hamida, Atga and Salima! The trip was over! The great romantcic getaway was over! We were back to the kitchen politics in just about three or four episodes. And the rest of the episode yesterday was so nondescript that I felt as if the scenes were all just a collation of loosely put-together sequences by a team of Creatives who were too spent after their "TRP NO. 1 Reached Party" to do much!
Adham was seen shouting at his soldiers as to why the dakus they sent to kill Jalal (when he was with the Todarmal's ) did not properly do their job. He was told that Jalal killed all the dakus instead. Jalal on the other hand convened a sabha at the DEK and asked Atga how dakus were freely roaming an unattended area of his Sultanate? And then he seemed to give a hint he knew Adham could be behind it, for he turned and asked Adham for his opinion on the subject and told him to ensure the elimination of a dakus there!
Hamida who was part of the welcome committee made a bit of a double-edged remark welcoming Ruqaiya back saying "Ah, now you have finally learnt how to go from being khaas to aam!" and she also remarked on how well Jodha and Jalal looked especially after Jodha had virtually risen from her snake venom episode and then hared off to tour the countryside with Jalal.
Meanwhile the only hint we we had all episode that we had seen some three or four "romantic " episodes earlier was in the fact that now and then Jodha and Jalal looked at each other with cow eyes! Jodha spoke to Moti of nothing else but Jalal (amidst flashbacks of tender moments with him during the trip). Jalal on the other hand, sat in his bath, also thinking of flashbacks of Jodha on this trip - but most notably he seemed to remember the Salim Chisti prophecy that she would become Marium Uz Zamani.
Jodha had brought holy dhagas from Chisti that she tied for Salima, Hamida, and Gulbadan. Hamida was so curious about the details of the trip that she deputed Salima to try and ferret out all information for Jodha. Jodha promised a later tete a tete but said she wanted to give one holy dhaga to Bakshi Bano also. Despite Salima's fears that Jalal may not like Jodha getting friendly with Bakshi, Jodha said "Bakshi has prayed to his knowldege for my recovery so I think I should give her this dhaga - and take on Jalal's wrath if need be!"
Ruq meanwhile kicked a baandhi like a football during a foot massage, when the bandhi told her Jodha had probably weathered the trip better than Ruq because she was a Rajvanshi, who was hardier mentally and physically than Ruq. As Ruq was in this fit of rage, Maham appeared like Satan in front of her and said the one key sentence to deflate Ruq "You think you'vemanaged beautifully to separate Jodha and Jalal on this trip? Huh!! You've made Jodha look khas and she has made you look aam. I can see that even if you've separated Jodha and Jalal phsyically, emotionally they are closer than ever before."
Two small points showed us that Maham was right. Jodha was seen once asking herself "Why am I blushing so much at the mention of the Shahehnshah?" and later in the precap, Jalal was asking Jodha "Which part of the trip did you like best - the trip itself or my company?"
And so, folks, we ended the rather dull episode. It looks like we are now in time for Bakshi Bano to say she's pregnant when Jodha goes to tie the dhaga ... and Sharif will thus be freed ... and the "goad bharai" jashn will see Ruq plotting gaianst Jodha again. Meanwhile the Creatives may or may not open the Jodha paigam with Rahim, or bring back Shivan-Tejwant - all to double-expose Maham. The serial is already at No. 1 in the TRPs so I suspect that the Creatives will sit back a bit, do the very mundane and the very ordinary for a while to just keep cruising at the No. 1 ... and maybe only after a couple of weeks of relative calm with filler scenes, they may stir themselves to rev up on a new stronger track when they find TRPs sllipping a bit.
What do I analyse today? I am short of scenes to analyse because not even one scene was worth a big analysis. So here are my ten questions that I can think of at the end of the episode.
1. Why did Jalal say nothing to Ruq? Why did he sleep with her leaving Jodha outside? Even if he thought Jodha wanted to sleep outside herself, shouldn't he have insisted that he would sleep outside but Jodha should be inside since she is the one who almost lost her life after drinking the snake venom and was in recovery even as late as when this trip began? Was it okay for Jalal and Ruq to not care about Jodha's health when they were both the beneficiaries of the snake poison drinking by Jodha? Would it not have been more romantic if Jalal were to have offered to let Jodha have the more comfy bed inside rather than merely stand and stare with longing at the outside-sleeping Jodha? Whose idea of romance is this? And as for Ruq she has returned home with the triumph that she has separated Jalal and Jodha, so what lessons has she learnt at all regarding etiquette and decency? Does Jalal feel good having a best friend with such pathetic manners and ethics? What does tolerance of Ruq's continued bad behaviour say about Jalal?
2. At the DEK sabha, I noticed that Jalal did not take Todarmal's name, so I presume Todarmal will not be mentioned openly except to Hamida at some point this week?
3. Again at the DEK, Jalal did not mention about these teerth yatra taxes on the Hindus which I thought was more a burning issue than the dakus?
4. What will Jodha's answer be to Jalal's question in the precap?
5. Are we going to see enough of Jodha and Jalal in the coming week, or is the romantic season over - and only Sharif and Bakshi and Ruq will now dominate the rest of this week?
6. Where is Rahim, the paigam, Shivani-Tejwant and the expose of Maham?
7. What exactly will be the plot of Ruqaiaya against Jodha at the "goad bharai"? Some petty insults at the ceremony amongst the women? Or something more deeplky evil like linking of Sharif and Jodha romantically to give Jalal some hint that Jodha and Sharif were too cozy with each other? Will Jalal only readily believe such concocted stories and thus give room for MU - or will he this time brush off all such stories about Jodha showing that he at least has progressed?
8. Since the "goad bharai" is expected to be mostly an all-women's affair, will it be a tug of war with the women taking sides? With Jodha, Salima, Hamida on one side ... and Maham, Ruq on the other side?
9. Is there any hope of this week's remaining episodes having any new twist? Or is it all just going to be Javeeda-Adham kind of fillers with in between one or two lollypop romantic interludes between Jodha and Jalal?
10. I am already at a low ebb today, how am I going to survive the prospect of a dull week? Does anyone have an idea how I can drink some snake venom myself and do some herogiri on the Forum just to keep everybody awake?
Pardon me folks, today I seem to have lost my writing mojo. The way the trip ended ultra-pathetically yesterday - and the way the insipid events of the rest of the episode took over, I think the Creatives have all not returned to work after the "TRP No. 1 Reached party" and are all hung over and still living down the effects of their high celebrations. Short of putting up with their lack-lustre offerings , I can see no major hope for this week ...
... unless someone comes up with a sudden unexpected scene that makes us all sit up!
Like for example Jodha tells Jalal "Aaap chaar baar is trip pe "dhakka" shabd use kiye hai. Isse mujhe pata ho gaya ki aap Baba Samim Chisti ke kheme mein dhaga bandhne ke samay kya mannat maange hoge! Aap mere hojre mein aake "kuch kuch" karna chahte hai na? I promise, aap aa jao, aur is baar mein dhakka nahin doongi! Kyunki meri mannat yeh thi ki aap ki mannat sab poori ho jaye!"
