Jodha Akbar 224: A travesty of love
Folks,
I did the write up on the previous episode 223 in a spirit of mild, but distinct optimism. I had hoped that there was some subliminal bond that Jodha was beginning to feel with Jalal, that the looming threat to him from Abul Mali was casting some sort of shadow in her heart that troubled and frightened her.
That it was not the proforma and duty-bound desire for a wife for the preservation of her suhaag and her soubhagya, but something deeper. An irresistible call of the heart that moved her, and which she could not silence despite her resentful ego. A call of the heart that drove her to a frenzy of activity to repair the auspicious haar herself and wear it, so as to placate the Devi and ensure her protection for Jalal.
A travesty of love: But yesternight, all that was washed out, and all that was left was a caricature of a loving , caring wife. This was the kind of wife whom Thakazhi Sivasankaran Pillai would have jettisoned at once, even though she was paaksaaf by Chemmeen standards. For of what use is chastity without affection and caring? And here I am not even talking of that elusive commodity, Love.
All I could see in the Jodha of last night was her resurgent and undiminished ego, and a hitherto unknown heartlessness.
And no, I am not being cattily sarcastic. I am being purely objective, for this was NOT what I had hoped for, not what I wanted. I had wanted to catch at least a glimpse - in Jodha, for it was already there in abundance in Jalal- of the amar prem that we were promised, and which had so far been continually receding, like a registan ki mrigtrishna.
Dismal disconnect: There was a complete disconnect last night between what Jodha said, and what Jodha looked like and what she did.
There were her proforma assertions to herself about jinse prem kiya tha , though no one knew about that of course, not us, not Jalal, and not even Jodha, I expect!!
There was her claiming to see his chavi everywhere , though we were shown her thinking just once of his desperate pleading for punishment to be followed by her forgiveness. I suppose we should have been grateful that it was not followed by th 111th recap of him telling her to leave Agra!
But even as she said all this, Jodha's face and her expressions showed only alarm and a kind of revulsion, as if Jalal's memories, such as they were, were some sort of infectious disease she was afraid she had somehow caught and did not know how to get rid of. Maybe it was meant for comic effect, but it did not work at that level either, for this is not the kind of situation that calls for comedy.
The worst was of course when she came face to face with a badly wounded Jalal, so smothered in bandages as to resemble an Egyptian mummy.
There he was, putting out a hand very tentatively to touch her shoulder, his eyes soft with gentle amusement at her lamenting about her hearing even his voice when he was not there. There was no authority, no demand, in his voice as he repeats his plea that he wants to talk to her - the words stumble over one another in his nervousness. Only the latest, 200th repetition of his consciousness of his gunaah.
Now this umpteenth request is by now meaningless , for he has said all that he wanted to and more in Mathura itself, has bent till he almost fell over backwards, has abased himself to the utmost. Which 16th century king would do anything even remotely approaching this? None.
What more does Jalal want to do now? He cannot do a shashtaang namaskaar to his aaradhya, much as he must be wanting to, because of those mummylike bandages.
I felt like clouting him one for his unbelievable folly in further inflating the already huge ego of this heartless woman. Oh Lord, what did I do to be saddled with such a dolt to worry about!
A study in heartlessness: It was incredible and shocking, the complete absence of all reaction, not to speak of empathy, sympathy grief, whatever, in Jodha's face as she looked at a Jalal who was obviously badly wounded. Not a twinge of pain or shock, not to speak of immediate, anxious queries about his wounds, and rushing to get her miracle lep for them.
Her beautiful eyes, so full of panic-stricken premonitions the day before, were expressionless and devoid of all feeling.
There was nothing but blankness, followed by an acid complaint/query as to why he was here and what he was doing in her room. And of course the besotted fool explains that he is there because Bharmal had told him to rest there.
I have, as you all would know, never thought much of Jodha, but last night she caught even me by surprise with the vertiginous plunge in her character.
Why, even during his outburst of April 4, as Jalal was raging at her and accusing her of zinakari with a gair mard, and cut his hand when he smashed it against the wall, Jodha was immediately taken with his hurt. Now, he is clearly suffering from multiple battle wounds, and the woman has nothing to say. And going by her looks, she feels nothing but outrage that he is here in Amer against her express wishes that mere peeche mat aayiye.
Not even when Bharmal responds to her almost off hand query about why Jalal is hurt with the details, is there any hint of shock or grief in Jodha's face. All she can say is that she does not want to be with him. That was the ruddy limit.
So here we have a woman who says she loves her husband, but does not even wince at his wounds. I wanted to hit her real hard, with I do not know what.
If I had been Jalal's mother, I would have informed Bharmal that since she did not want to be with Jalal, I no longer considered Jodha to be my daughter in law. That I was taking my son back to Agra with me, whether he wanted that or not. Bharmal could keep his daughter where she wanted to be, in her maayka, and for good.
The Ameris and their golden goose: Now, I have neither the patience for, nor any interest in, Mainavati's reverse psychology, or Bharmal's far from adequate dressing down of Jodha.
There is no need to go gaga over Bharmal for giving her that partial reality check. He is not about to let his golden goose wander back to Agra without the remote control that he hopes that Jodha will be. That has been his sole objective, to safeguard his rule and Amer by ensuring the Mughal protective umbrella, and this was the same when he got Jodha married and when he tried to palm Shivani off on Mirza Hakim.
I am sure there will be many high-falutin' theories trotted out to explain why the nekdil , paaksaaf,duniya ki sabse khaas shareek-e-hayat does not give a damn that her husband is half dead. I myself could produce half a dozen if I wanted to, knowing all the while that they were all exercises in clever sophistry.
I am also handicapped by my insistence on not mixing up the Blame the CVs option and the character analysis option. But the fact is that Jodha, as a loyal, caring, devoted wife is a goner as of last night, and any salvage operation now is going to looks a fake as a centenarian's batteesi.😉
Operation Redemption of Jodha: But salvaged she will be, and will soon get another coat of gilt on her already dazzling halo for the kissa sikke ka. That is a dead cert.
Jalal will fall at her feet as soon as he can get up, and will babble once more about Aapka gussa jahiz hai, Jodha Begum, humne gunaah-e-azeem kiya hai aur uske liye hame sazaa milni hi chahiye.😡
He set my teeth so much on edge last night with his tottering about insisting that he wanted to talk to Jodha Begum, that I wished he had managed to get to her at the Gangaur water tank and she had given him another of her patented dhakkas, so that he tumbled down the steps, landed up in the water and could cool his overheated grey cells, if there were any left by now!
I am very, very fond of Jalal, but if my son were to behave like this, like a whimpering, caned schoolboy, I would have NO patience with him, or with his obsession for a hoity-toity, self-centred, ego-driven woman.
In fact, I was surprised that in his Jodhaesque bhashan to a now one-eyed Abul Mali, Jalal did not rank his need to win the mohabbat of his begum over his zimmedari towards his awaam. The way he has been discharging his imperial duties, by neglecting them in toto, I had fully expected him to put Jodha Begum first.
The precap: Ah, yes, the precap. I have been instructed to give my tippani on that. Well, I felt that Jalal looked like a chaste maiden suddenly waking up at night in her bed, and finding a man advancing on her, with what looked like dubious intent. It was extremely funny.
What I could not understand was why Jodha had to drape herself all over him to get at his shoulder - which is presumably what she wanted to do - and slather it with her miracle lep. It was a very awkward way to get at his injured limb!
I suppose it is part of the build up to the " epic love story", which will be one because it is declared to be one, not because it looks or feels like one The CVs will take a leaf out of Alice in Wonderland, where Humpty Dumpty says to Alice, A word (oh well, 2 words!) means what I say it means, no more and no less.
All the die-hard romantics in the forum will be agog with anticipation, and having provided themselves with a goodly supply of tissues, will get set to rhapsodize over the incipient nok jhok of our amar prenis over the next week or two. But count me out, please!
Light relief: Folks, I am tired of being so irritated with this Odd Couple, so let me close on a lighter note. Here are the funniest bloopers/moments of last night, in no particular order.
1) Jalal, after getting that sword cut in his left shoulder from the rear, courtesy Abul Mali, turns and looks at him as Abul Mali boasts about only Jalal's corpse going to Agra. Next shot - after a cut to a beaming Jodha with the haar around her throat, feeling good with herself - Jalal is flat on his back, with Abul Mali towering over him, shamsheer aloft. How did Jalal end up on his back all of a sudden?
2) Jalal, after that almighty blow to his midriff from Abul Mali's shamsheer, looks at the sword doing the impossible, standing erect on its point. A clear violation of all the laws of dynamics, but who cares?
3) What does he do next? He locates the karishmaayi sikka of his Jodha Begum, which, incidentally, has not even been dented. He looks at it with great reverence, and studies every bit of the engraving with loving devotion. He does not even spare a glance to see what Abul Mali will be up to once he has rubbed the dust thrown into his eyes. Yeh to deewaangee aur sajde ki intehaa ho gayi!
4) Once he has subtracted one of Abul Mali's eyes, Jalal immediately launches on a Jodha-style bhashan (vaakayi sangat ka aasar hai!) to the chap who is howling in pain, about awaam and begum ki mohabbat. It was difficult to decide what was hurting Abul Mali more: the agony of his phooti aankh, or having to listen to Jalal do a Jodha. Probably the latter!
5) Bharmal's Harry Potteresque apparating skills are obviously part of the core military curriculum in Amer.😉 Thus, not only does he, after getting the SOS from his beleaguered jamaisa, make it to Mathura the same evening that Jalal gets his comeuppance from Jodha at the lakeside, but his soldiers too are able to ferry Jalal back to Amer within a day as well. Perhaps they made a hammock for him between 2 broomsticks , the latest Firebolts, for sure, and flew him in that way ! (Apologies to non-Potterites!) .
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