Friends, yesterday's episode of Jodha Akbar was a medley of sorts. Many different things happened in different directions. But underlying them all was a theme where I felt that all three - Ruq, Maham and even Jalal - played out this game of "insult Jodha" which was not very nice to watch.
Jalal till now has been upset not with Jodha's meeting the "gair mard" but with the fact that she was lying to him. Okay we understood that. But yesterday when Jalal woke up in her room and she got a chance to ask him what he meant when he said "...she should not have done this to him" and he got a chance to explain, he did not say anything.
Then where was the need to become derisive of Jodha in the later half of the episode, when the issue of Hoshiyaar's birthday party came up? Jalal is seen agreeing with Ruq that "People have to be kept in their places", and while Ruq was talking about Hoshiyaar, I got the distinct feeling Jalal was talking about Jodha.
Is Jalal going back to his "insulting" days with Jodha, in order to handle the dilemma of how to bear with Jodha's lying? Why is it that even when he is outright asked by Jodha what his problem is, he fails to articulate it? If he does not want to say what is on his mind, it will naturally and definitely play on him later and burst out in ways that are not too savoury for either himself or Jodha, isn't it?
Anyway, here are the three major themes we saw in yesterday's episode with my comments on each ... (today, folks, I have an eye doctor appointment that stretches from 8 am in the morning to about 5 pm, so my post is going to be short, and I also may not be able to read and reply your posts on this thread till the evening. But I promise to read everything when I get back home!)
The morning after the night before - the reactions of Ruq, Jalal and Jodha
The episode starts with a scene of Ruq having a bath and an uptan massage, when in her typical style she uses the audience of bandhis to show off her previous night with the Shahenshah. "We played games, we had jaam, we talked ..." she says - but the important part is whether they did anything else, which she doesn't say! The bandhis are duly impressed. Ruq is then of a mind to complete the showing off with Jodha, because unless she crows about all this to Jodha she gets no deep satisfaction.
In her room, Jodha does her early morning aarti for Kanha, and spreads dhoop around the room, remembering to spread some even towards the sleeping Jalal on her bed. Moti suddenly comes in and is stunned out of her wits to see this spectacle of the sleeping Jalal and she asks Jodha in hushed tones "When did he come, and what did you both do?" Jodha shooes off Moti as fast as she can!
Within seconds, though, Ruq appears and starts her showing off to Jodha. "Oh what a fabulous night I had with Jalal," she begins." I am truly his Begum-e-Khas, the harem in back in my hands and Jalal's days are mine and his nights are mine too ..." So saying she turns her head ever so marginally - and sees the sleeping Jalal on Jodha's bed. All the puffed up pride in her escapes with a "whoosh" like hot air from a pricked balloon. Jodha wears an enigmatic expression that hides some pride behind a face of non-reaction. Those of us who had earplugs ready for Ruq's screeching did not need it. Because Ruq just turned on her heel and walked of in a huff, feeling utterly flattened!
It was then time for Jalal to wake up. He starts by rubbing his eyes and asking for Ruq, but suddenly finds Jodha standing there with a glass of water in hand. He is rather shocked and surprised to find himself in the one bed where he never expected to be! Jodha then gives him the footnotes ... of how he arrived drunk in the middle of the night and how she had to put him on the bed after he fell to the floor ... he digested all this with some difficulty, because, I suspect, he was a bit shamefaced about his state of drunkenness that did not let him remember anything at all.
To top it all, Jodha then said "Your were trying to say something to me yesterday, you were asking me "why I did it to you?" ... what was it all about?" Given this fabulous chance to say all that was on his mind, Jalal refused to reply. He said "It was nothing!" Jodha repeated her question, but he still didn't reply. Instead he seductively reached for the glass of water behind her almost hugging her in the process. And then he went away leaving Jodha none the wiser. His sudden departure and his unexplained aloofness distressed Jodha.
He then went in for his bath where bandhis were tending to him when Ruq appeared there. Jalal asked Ruq to send the bandhis away and give him his bath. Ruq said churlishly "Why don't you ask your favourite Jodha Begum to give you this bath ... you slept in her room last night, didn't you?" Jalal snapped back "Do as I say or just get out." My God, he was sparing no one! Hardly had Ruq registered that he did not want the talks to go in that direction, she became all docile and started rubbing his back and saying "Okay, forget all that, let's talk about how glorious our night together was!"
My comments on these scenes:
There was a great deal of ambivalence in Jalal's behaviour throughout this episode. He was tossing like a ship on tumultuous waves, going between extremes of behaviour. He found himself at night in Jodha's room after his drunken state loosened his mind from its iron control over his emotions for Jodha. But once it was morning, he hated himself for having done what he did in the night. I think he couldn't reconcile himself to his own actions.
And then Jodha asked him the most irking question of all. She asked him to explain what he meant in the night when he said "You should not have done this to me!". Folks, did you see how embarrassed and reluctant he was to explain himself? He needed to be asked twice, and the only thing he could think of saying was "It was nothing".
Why was he so cagey about coming out with his dilemma and telling Jodha that he was upset with her lying? Why did he talk in riddles about "You should not have done THAT to me" without saying WHAT? Was it a continuation of the same feelings he had the previous day that Jodha should not get a feeling that he was snooping on her, suspicious of her.
The fact is that not only is Jodha lying here, Jalal too is lying here. He's lying to her that it is nothing! Jodha can probably answer his questions, if he asks them, with her innocence. But he refuses to ask Jodha the key questions because he does not really suspect Jodha, he just hates her lying, but he feels that if he questions Jodha it will look like he is suspicious of her activities with other men.
His need for Jodha to have a good impression about himself is allowing him to live with the immense irritation that troubles him. This whole problem it seems is not about Jodha at all. It is about Jalal not wanting to lower his esteem in Jodha's eyes!
Hoshiyaar's birthday plans go for a toss as Ruq, Maham and Jalal deride Jodha
Jodha was suddenly summoned by Moti because apparently Hoshiyaar was crying his eyes out! When she got to the spot Jodha tried to see what the problem was. It was really a sad issue. Poor Hoshiyaar remembered that it was his birthday, but as he thought of his mother, his eyes welled over with uncontrollable tears. He was holding a small keepsafe from his mother sand saying what a dreadful life it was as a Khwaja Sera, with no one to care for him, no one to call his own, belonging to neither gender and living a life of utter unspeakable loneliness and ill-treatement. Jodha was so moved that she bade him not to cry and gave him her own kangans as a birthday present. With a little more cajoling Hoshiyaar started to smile and forget the sadness and the moment was won ... but Jodha decided that something must be done for making the day special for poor Hoshiyaar!
Jodha then went to Ruq as the head of the harem to get her permission to host a small party for Hoshiyaar. But Ruq laughed at Jodha, sneered at her, with the most evil smile I have seen so far on Ruq. She scoffed at the idea of a party for a khwaja sera and said such liberties should never be given to these menials. Additionally, she said, it was an expense, and Jodha had already spent too much from the harem kitty when she was in charge, and had thus mismanaged accounts.
To add to Ruq's derision, Maham was there agreeing with Ruq. Jodha said "Okay, if you won't give permission, I'll ask Jalal", and she went away. But after she left, Maham and Ruq had a whale of a time decrying Jodha's idiocy. Ruq said "You know Maham, last night as you told me, I asked Jalal about Jodha irking him ... and he let slip that Jodha was lying to him about meeting someone. I think Jalal is increasingly suspicious of Jodha and that's great news for me". Maham laughed showing all her 64 teeth. "Bravo, Ruq", she said "That is the way to go. We have to make Jalal more and more suspicious of Jodha - and that should send them apart."
Jodha promptly went to Jalal, for the permission to hold the party for Hoshiyaar, but if she expected him to listen to her as he always did so far, she was mistaken. He became boorish. He shouted back at Jodha for the giving such room to khwaja seras and said parties for them are not done. And if Ruq has said no, Jodha had better not pursue the subject. He shouted so hard that Jodha was taken aback by his fury (and so were we!). He said "What do you think? Do you think I will always bend to your every whim?"
Later in the precap Jalal and Ruq semed to be having a talk about this very idea of Jodha's for a party for Hoshiyaar ... and Ruq was telling Jalal "We cannot afford to give such room to khwaja seras to celebrate birthdays here, it is not done." And Jalal replied insultingly "Yes I agree, people need to be kept in their places!" and I am sure he meant Jodha!
My comments on this scene:
Folks, I would blame Jodha here for carrying things a bit too far - and in trying to push the limits of everything she in needlessly inviting and heaping insults on herself. Agreed she felt very bad for Hoshiyaar, but was a birthday party strictly necessary? Could it not just have been an informal gift-giving by all of Hoshiyaar's friends?
Knowing the harem was now in Ruq's hand, and both Ruq's and Jalal's permissions were needed to host an event, not to mention the expense, was it at all prudent of Jodha to go with an appeal for a birthday party to the very same two people who were being unpleasant to her of late? Ruq was always intractable, but then wasn't even Jalal standing aloof from Jodha these days? Knowing that these two people were keeping a distance and acting difficult, was this the time to broach a subject like a birthday party for a Khwaja Sera?
Also, Jodha seems to have no idea of the scale of problems that may stem from setting up "precedents". Would it not become necessary later to celebrate every birthday of every khwaja sera if allowance were made in Hoshiyaar's case? Does Jodha have even that wisdom that she should not start something that may have Sultanate-wide ramifications later and become unmanageable?
She seems so blind to the consequences of actions that start from the heart. Sometimes it all works out beautifully if she starts on her heart-driven causes, and at other times it becomes a nightmare for the administration of the Sultanate if she sticks to heartfelt ideas and tries to push them through without a care for hierarchical niceties.
Also it's not a done thing to go over someone's head in an administrative set up. When Ruq is in charge of the harem, saying "I'll go straight to Jalal" was like insulting Ruq and belittling her self-esteem. And then what is the guarantee that Jalal will want to get involved in every little dit and da of the harem and its inmates? He has put Ruq in charge precisely because he doesn't want to have to handle all these petty issues. Going over Ruq's head to him puts him in an awkward position which Jodha must understand.
Yesterday part of the problem was that Jalal was too quick to insult Jodha as a way of hiding his own inner irritations. But at the same time we have to fault Jodha also for inviting insults. She cannot be so whimsical all the time and hope that if she says "It comes from my heart" it will always be the correct decision!
Sujamal gets all puzzled by Sharif's odd behaviour about the painting of Jodha
Sujamal was carrying the rather large portrait of Jodha with its cover to Jodha's room under the orders of Bakshi. But just then who should come in sight, but Sharif! Sharif unveiled the portrait and saw what Sujamal was trying to do - shift the portrait - and he clenched his teeth in anger. "Put it back at once in my hojra" he said, his eyes looking daggers at Sujamal when Sujamal tried to say it was Bakshi's idea to give it to Jodha.
Within minutes of Sharif giving his contrary orders, Jalal appeared on the scene and started looking at the portrait. Sharif immediately tried to defuse the whole issue by telling Jalal "Bakshi has done this portrait of Jodha to keep in your room". Jalal then shrugged his shoulders and Sharif sent Sujamal towards Jalal's room. Sujamal naturally, after all these to and fro orders, started feeling extremely puzzled. Why did Sharif want the portrait first ... and then why did he suddenly lie to Jalal? He was thinking of all this as he made his way with the portrait to Jalal's room.
Later Jalal was alone in his room ogling the portrait of Jodha, when she came to visit him about the Hoshiyaar party. He suddenly didn't want to be caught admiring her portrait, so he quickly covered it up with its cover, and acted nonchalant. When Jodha then asked for permission for Hoshiyaar's party and he then barked out this negative answer, it seemed perhaps as if he was trying to hide his admiration for the portrait with a harsh biting reply to Jodha. Either way it was clear Jalal was in two minds when Jodha came to him!
My comments on this scene:
Believe me folks, this portrait is becoming a time bomb. Sujamal is on the verge of discovering exactly why Sharif is doing all this humming and hawing of this portrait's presence and its location. When even this portrait goes out of his hands, I am sure Sharif is now going to commission a third portrait of Jodha for his own room - since the first one has gone to Jodha and the second one has gone to Jalal. That is when Sharif may get squarely caught by Sujamal, and his true colours, his leching for Jodha will become patent.
The other fabulous possibility here is that Jalal may see Bakshi and thank her for sending the portrait to his room. What will be Bakshi's state of mind when she hears that? She is going to ask Sujamal why he did not follow her orders and why he took it to Jalal's room, and he may have to tell her about Sharif's intervention. Bakshi is going to be even more miffed and the target of her ire is going to be Jodha.
Where I feel this portrait issue will intertwine with the larger issue of Sharif and his plot to kill Jalal is this: I think when there is a plot to kill Jalal and Sujamal takes the arrow,and Sharif is suspected, Bakshi is going to side with Sharif and blame Sujamal for having evil designs on Jalal's life. She may say that Sujamal enacted the whole scene to nail Sharif, to cover up his jashn attack. Bakshi herself does not know who Sujamal is and how he is related to Jodha - only Maham knows that - but Sujamal may become a convenient fall guy for Bakshi in her bid to save Sharif.
I also just hope and pray that painter lady enters the picture somewhere now as soon as possible, and let's Sujamal/Jalal/ Jodha know that Sharif is behind this painting spree. My atma is not in shanti till this Sharif's leching is nailed. It is not part of the main story yet but a side track, but this leching, if it continues, is giving me fears of an abduction attempt when Jodha is in the jungle, so I am hoping against hope that at least this painting's significance hits Sujamal and Jalal before Sharif can go further in his lechings to try and kidnap Jodha.
Two more comments I want to make on the makabra scene and the precap of the surang:
The makabra scenes
Maybe the Creatives expected all of us to be very confused ourselves with this seesaw behaviour of Jalal. There was therefore a need for the makabra scenes to come on again to straighten our understanding of what was happening between Jodha and Jalal. And so the two souls were seen talking to each other at the makabra.
"The distance between us had grown," Jodha said. "I was not able to talk to you, and you were misunderstanding me." Jalal replied "My anger was about something else, and it came out on something else entirely. I didn't want to be angry with you, but the circumstances forced me to become angry with you. And you too were not telling you the truth." Jodha said "I had a good reason for this Shahenshah". Jalal admitted "I didn't want to hurt you Jodha but we were both victims of circumstances, at my end and at yours." "But I still trusted in you completely", Jodha said.
I am not sure what all this meant, really speaking. Except that both were admitting to a communication failure. But at least the Creatives gave us this scene to show that both of them blamed themselves rather than each other for the miscommunication. So far so good!
The surang precap
About the sinister precap where Maham is seen talking to some strange and shady guy and then entering a surang ... I have no clue what this is all about. Is it to do with Adham? Could she be knowing that Adham has killed Pir Mohammed and is she trying to save Adham before he enters Agra by warning him to stay away if the news has travelled that he murdered Pir Mohammed?
Or is this all about Jodha and Jalal and the "gair mard" story? Is Maham trying to stage-manage someone else as the "gair mard" to implicate Jodha ... in case she finds it too slippery to really nail Sujamal? Because it was she who hired Sujamal as Khwaja Sera, so at some point she is also culpable for not checking his antecedents thoroughly. In that case is she setting up another fake "gair mard" and planning not to name Sujamal as the "gair mard"?
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