Friends, this is going to be a bit of a short post today because I have an office presentation to get ready and I haven't even started on it. I am very crushed for time today. But there were just two or three high points in yesterday's epsiode that merit some attention. I am highlighting these points an also making a huge prediction at the end:
One, Jodha and Jalal seemed to be condering whether to declare their love for each other.
Moti was on one side cajoling Jodha to go and tell her feelings to Jalal and Jodha was wondering if she should do so. On the other side, Jalal was hesitating telling his feelings to Jodha because he couldn't risk another rebuff from her. He consulted - of all people- Hakim Mirza (the local love guru?) who said Jalal should certainly talk of his feelings to his lady love ... but if he has already once had a rebuff then he'd better not talk of it again, for fear of spoiling even the friendship that now existed.
So all in all, the question now arises: Will the subject of their feelings be broached between Jo-Ja now? If so, who will tell their feelings to the other first. I feel either Jodha will tell Jalal of her feelings first, or both may wait it out. But it looks certain that Jalal may not be the fiirst to tell Jodha of his heart, for fear of the second rebuff, and for fear of losing the fragile friendship that has been built with Jodha in recent times.
I am not sure if all this "feelings and rebuffs discussion" yesterday is a sanket that the old Jodha paigam will now be read and Jalal will come to know that Jodha rebuffed him only because she had not enocuraged him to come to her hojra in the first place. But the truth is that even if the old paigam were found (and Rahim helped Jalal to know the truth that Maham had embroidered the paigam contents), it still doesn't makeJalal sure that Jodha is nowadays readier to receive his advances than before. So I think Jalal, once bitten twice shy, will try not to broach the subject, even if the paigam is found ... whereas Jodha, with Moti's egging may decide to gather courage and broach the subject to Jalal. If Jodha decides to tell her feelings to Jalal it would only be fair, for Jalal has already made one try with Jodha. It is now her turn, and I hope she does think of talking to him - that is, if this Sujamal entry now does not create a fresh MU!
Two, Jalal sought Salima's advice on this whole harem election business. I anticipate a twist in the election.
It was a short scene between Jalal and Salima, but it seemed important, since it gives some sanket of a twist in the elections to take place in today's episode. Jalal went to Salima to say his mind is tossing and turning with this whole harem issue, and he really doesn't relish the prospect of having to name one or the other of his wives as the harem in-charge. Choosing anny one wife is surely going to upset the other! Salima just suppressed a laugh and said that was the whole nature of Kingship - one could not run away from facing the unpleasant duties. So either Jalal could remain as he was -in uljhan - or just choose the one wife as the "audhedaar of the harem" and be done with it. Jalal too sardonicallly laughed that there was no other way out.
But later in the episode the sabha was full of the voters and the candidates, ready for the elections, when Jalal announced the rules of the election. It would be an open election, and every voter would have to transparently declare her choice of candidate between Jodha and Ruqaiya. The one with the maximum votes would be declared "audhedaar of the harem".
We all know from the precap that it becomes a tie and Jalal is placed in the unhappy position of having to give in his casting vote in favour of one or the other wife. Who will he choose? Now here we can all go to town on our predictions. My own prediction is that he will noot actually have to choose, because suddenly Jodha will say "I don't want the vote or the audha, I want to give the audha to Ruq - but I want get a promise from the Shahenshah to abolish slavery which is a curse upon the Sultanate".
She will then dramatically produce Babu from her quarters and tell his story (and the stories of the other slaves she had met on the street), and even maybe take everybody to the backrooms of squalor at the harem and show them the plight of the slave bandhis. Thus Jalal will again be impressed and thrilled to see Jodha's far-reaching vision for the kingdom and her compassion for aam praja. He will also be able to see that Jodha never wanted any audha at all. And thus Ruq will be reinstated and as promised yesterday to Hamida, Gulbadan may give Ruq a lot of advice to change her highhanded ways and do a good job at the harem.
(There was a lot of speculation amongst all of us yesterday whether this boy Babu being in Jodha's room would be a black mark agaisnt Jodha for transgressing harem laws, but I think it will not be. This is because the promo hints at the tied election being the high point of the election and not the MU regarding the boy. Also Sujamala has now made an entry so I feel sure sure that there will be a not be a series of MUs one after another now - first about the boy and then about Sujamal etc etc. It won't get that complicated, is my hunch.)
Three, Sujamal's entry may be timed with the Jodha love declaration to Jalal and the unmasking of the Sharif portrait issue.
Thes e three things looks like they will form one track. On the one side Jodha, after the harem election business is over and she has the eyes and heart of Jalal in her pocket, may decide that she should follow Moti's idea of telling her feelings to Jalal. At the same time, Bakshi Bano may start getting seriously upset that her husband is too preoccupied with this Jodha portrait and she may start saying it has to be given away to Jodha immediately and go an give it to Jodha saying her husband accidentally painted this isntsead of Bakshi's own portrait.
Now while all this is happening, Jodha may go too the market on a separate trip to the Ambe Ma temple to give thanks after the slavery issue is settled. She may then chance upon Sujamal in beggar's disguise and already the precap shows that her initial happiness at seeing him soon changes into a wariness about him, knowing how angry Jalal is with him.
By some combination of events, I feel that initially Jodha may be tempted to not tell Jalal about having met Sujamal, and she may advise Sujamal to go away unseen. But Sujamal may insist he did not do this peet ke peeche se war on Jalal's cousin brothers - and Sharif and his henchman may be involved in that creatiing stabbing-like wounds as a twist perhaps when the bodies were en route to bein returned to Agra. That may bring the topic round to Sharif ... and Sujamal may also tell Jodha to beware of Sharif as he has a burri nazar on her ... and Jodha may remember tha pianting that Bakshi brought to her saying Sharif got it done!
What will happen to Sujamal after that - and will Jodha herself tell Sujamal to go and face Jalal openly, or will she give up Sujamal to Jalal, or will Sujamal himself flee after hearing that Jalal thinks he did peet ke peeche se war, or wll Sujamal flee after Bharmal and Sons arrive with Mewat in their hands - its all up for conjecture.
My own hunch is that Sujamal may decide to give himself up to Jalal and tell the truth as Jodha advised, and even offer to return Mewat back to Jalal to prove his truthfulness - but he may instead decide to flee when Bharmal and Sons will enter the picture with Mewat captured by them thus leaving Sujamal with nothing to offer back to Jalal. Thus Sujamal's entry may give a scare of MU but may fizzle out after he flees. Bharmal and Sons will patch up with Jalal.
Instead of detailing any scenes today, I want sum up all that I have written above and detail my predictions and timelines here ... (see if you all agree with what I am writing):
1. Jalal has already started the elections at the sabha by reading the rules yesterday, so now the election will happen today, and it will be a tie. But just before Jalal has to vote, Jodha will say "Please give your vote to Ruq, I want no audha, I want instead your promise to abolish slavery". She will produce Babu, and tell his story, and show everyone the state of the baandhi life in the harem. Jalal will be aghast and thus abolish slavery. He will be thrilled and impressed again with Jodha's absence of audha greed and compassion for the slaves.
2. Jodha will then decide to tell Jalal her heart's feelings as per Moti's egging. Meanwhile she will plan a trip to Ambe Ma temple to pray thanks for the slavery settlemment. That's when she will chance upon Sujamal as a beggar ... and she will be in two minds what to do with him. He will say he never did the "peet ke peeche se war" and blame Sharif and his men for that and also tell Jodha of Sharif's burri nazar. Jodha will be in two minds what to do with Sujamal. Jodha's uljhan may lead her again to the tarazu where Jalal may give some advice which will help her on the handling of Sujamal. Jodha's will then perhaps advice Sujamal to give himself up to Jalal, and may convince Sujamal to face Jalal and explain his innocence, and as proof of his sincerity he should also return Mewat to Jalal. Sujamal will be prepared to do this.
3. Meanwhil, however, Bakshi may bring the portrait of Jodha to her room and explain that Sharif accidentally got it painted. Jodha will now realise that Sharif does indeed have burri nazar and Sujamal was right. She will again have an uljhan what to do as Sharif gets bolder and bolder with her. Should she tell Jalal or handle it herself? That will be Jodha's new dilemmma.
4. Now while Sujamal is all set to face Jalal and explain his innocence and return Mewat, these Bharmal and Sons may arrive in Agra after successfully re-capturing Mewat again for Jalal, and thus Sujamal's plans to make a peace offering to jalal will go phut. Sujamal may thus flee instead of facing Jalal. And the Bharmal family will patch up with Jalal after this display of wafaadaari.
5. But Maham or some villain like that will have seen Jodha with Sujamal and may decide to create muddy waters between Jodha and Jalal. But despite the chaals of Maham, Jodha will not get caught with Jalal regarding Sujamal, because unknown to maham, Jodha may at that very moment decide to confess her love to Jalal. This will actually divert Jalal's mind away from Sujamal into accepting Jodha's love and declaring his own mind.
6. IMPORTANT: My personal hunch is that this Sujamal case will be used by Ekta to spin a surprise on the audience. She knows that we have all seen the movie and are expecting and dreading this Sujamal MU. So Ekta may deliberately create an MU like situation (by making Maham spot Jodha with Sujamal) to raise the TRPs ... but as a surprise twist this Sujamal trip may fizzle out without any MU and leave us all relieved. The TRps will shoot up high from fear of MU ... but the matter will actually then resolve peacefully and the love of Jodha and Jalal will go forward.
Okay now that I have given my prediction please everyone have a ball. Unleash your own predictions here!
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
