Friends, everybody's dearest prayer got answered yesterday when the wounded Jalal was brought directly to Amer and now viewers can have their heart's dearest wishes fulfilled when Jodha is put in a position of having to tend and care for Jalal and thus grow closer to him. Four great things happened yesterday, specifically, to make the episode a good one ...
a. Jalal was brought to Amer by Bharmal himself.
This was something none of us guessed would happen! We went all over the place thinking it may be Todarmal, Pratap, the poor man who shared his lunch (or maybeJalal himself) who would ensure that he would be cared for at Amer. But in then end the Creatives solved the dilemma very simply.
In Amer Jodha finally repaired and wore the necklace with the great properties to save her suhaag, and there, in the forest, Jalal got saved by Abul Mali last vicious stab by the sikka that was lodged in his cummerbund and acted as a sword-stopper. No sooner had Jalal realised that Abul Mali was unable to finish him off, he grabbed a handful of mud and threw it into Mali's eyes, and after thus momentarily throwing him akilter, Jalal grabbed the sword and the initiative and soon had the sword at Mali's neck (which was twisted like a chicken). But in a final fit of rage Jalal decided not to kill his behenoi, and instead blinded him in one eye and left him on the ground among the other bodies of his henchman. Jalal's parting shot to Mali was "I've got to go to more important things now. I have a kingdom of praja to care for who need me and I've got a wife to manao and win back with my love - and they all need me to live for them! " So saying Jalal got back on his feet ... but his wounded body swayed ... only to be caught in the tender loving care of Bharmal's man who were standing by on the ready.
Next thing we knew, Jalal was safely in the bed in Jodha's room at the Amer Palace, having been tended by the vaid already and swathed in bandages. Bharmal kindly gave Jalal the footnotes. He had decided to send troops behind Jalal, even though Jalal had decided not to have more than four men with him. And thanks to this sagacity, Jalal was saved in the nick of time by Bharmal's men being on hand to ferry him post-haste to Amer for proper medical treatment! And thus, to everybody's delight, Jalal was at Amer ... finally!
b. Jalal's reflection is seen by Jodha at the Gangaur festival.
The restless Jalal however would not listen to Bharmal and take enough bed rest even after the extent of his wounds were seen and clucked over by the vaid. He insisted he had to meet Jodha and talk to her. He simply would not allow Bharmal to keep him in this room away from his Jodha.
Eventually Bharmal had to tell him that Jodha was not in the mahal at the time, for she had just done her Gangaur puja along with all the royal household ladies and gone to the waterfront as usual to float her diya. Jalal of course, knew what that was all about, since the last time there was Gangaur, he had been in Amer and Jodha had seen his reflection in the water and known that this man was to be her life mate.
With Jalal aggressively resisting all attempts to stop him, Bharmal himself and one of his sons took hold of the tottering Jalal and decided to take him to the waterfront, where he could see Jodha and possibly meet her. Jodha has already reached the waterfront and when it was time to float her diya, she was touched by her mother's words. The last time she did this ceremony, the previous year, her mother had said to her "If you see a reflection of someone in the water as you surrender your heart's desires to the Universe via floating this diya in the water , that person in the reflection, it is believed, will become your husband and life mate". But this time around Mainavati, knowing Jodha was estranged from Jalal, amended her advice very sagaciously. She merely said "Float this lamp Jodha, for it is said that all your heart's desires will be fulfilled". Jodha couldn't help but appreciate her mother's changed advice for she knew that her mother was sensitive to the fact that she and Jalal were estranged, and she knew that Jodha had latent wishes in her heart regarding repairing her relationship with Jalal, even if she were outwardly still angry with him.
As it happened, Jalal too reached the very spot he stood at the last time around so that when Jodha lit and floated the lamp she saw his reflection clearly in the water (as Jalal too had intended she should). Jodha could not believe her eyes, for she had no way of even suspecting that Jalal was in Amer too by a twist of fate. So she told her mother "How strange that last year I saw him in the water, and this year too I have seen the Shahenshah in the water as a reflection". Her mother gave her an arch look. Both Bharmal and Mainavati knew that Jodha needed to get used to the idea that Jalal was in Amer but they didn't want to shock her with this information at the waterfront but to let her find out at her own pace back at the Palace.
Mainavati, who seemed a bit more astute regarding Jodha's real state of affairs, decided that to use the direct method with Jodha (now that Jalal was here to make up with her) would only be counterproductive. So Mainavati tried out a bit of reverse psychology. She said "There's no need to keep talking about the Shahenshah, now that you have come away from him in anger. Let him be, you get on with what you came for." That sentence seemed to work brilliantly for all that Jodha could think after that was the Shahenshah and his reflection in the water!
Before Jodha could turn and look around to see if Jalal was really there in person or if it was just her "brahm" Jalal has developed such acute pain in his shoulder that Bharmal had to move him off to bed pronto. So when Jodha looked around , Jalal was not there. She therefore carried with her the idea that it must be her imagination, and that she was unable to shake off thinking about him even though she had left him!
c. Jodha sees jalal in her bed and get a reality check from Bharmal.
When Jodha came back to her room in the Palace after floating her lamp in the water, things took her by utter surprise again and she had to wonder if she was seeing visions that were like a long-running movie! For in her bed was Jalal, ostensibly asleep.
Jodha kept asking her aunt if she was still seeing things for she was seeing Jalal everywhere, and lo, she was also hearing his voice in her head now (this was when Jalal realised she was just outside his room and started calling out her name!). Her aunt discreetly left Jodha there when Jalal himself stirred to come and talk to Jodha. When she saw him but still thought she was seeing things, he put a hand on her shoulder to show her he was real. That's when it hit her that he really was here in Amer and she asked very churlishly "Shahenshsh? You are here? How did you come here? And I have told you already I don't want to talk to you, and I don't want to go back with you to Agra". Jalal was about to answer her, when Bharmal himself appeared there, asked Jalal to rest on the vaid orders (which is when Jodha also realised how very hurt he was), and then Bharmal said he wanted a word alone with Jodha. He took Jodha out of the room, and then began a talk between father and daughter where he gave Jodha a piece of his mind. Jodha asked her father "Why is the Shahenshah in my bed, and how is he so wounded?" Bharmal gave Jodha the full account of all that had happened, even down to his soldiers helping Jalal get to Amer. "He needs rest and care now" said Bharmal to his still reluctant-looking daughter. "That's why I have put him in your room."
"But you know father that I do not want to live with him in the same room" said Jodha still very ill-naturedly. "There are times when anger should not be demonstrated and this is one of those times. Along with your pati, remember he is also the Shahehnshah. Have you any idea how far and hard he searched for you and for how long he has left Agra following your trail? And with every opportunity he is trying to talk to you, but look at you, just look at you ..." said Bharmal.
"Okay so you don't care to look after him? Fine" Bharmal was by now dripping with sarcasm, "You go and make yourself comfortable in some other room. But ask yourself Jodha, are you the same girl who broke all Palace rules just to save the life of a bird once? This is your pati, severely wounded. And you ..." he said with gritted teeth and a lot of frustration, "you are just pleasing your own ego!" With that Bharmal stormed off leaving Jodha to swallow his decrying of her! Was Jodha being half-decent in refusing to acknowledge Jalal and his wounded condition and taking an ego-held position of distance from him and nursing an anger against him still? We'll see that in the comments that follow in this post!
d. Mainavati succeeds with Jodha by using reverse psychology.
A little later Jodha was sauntering in the balcony of the palace, when she saw her mother making elaborate arrangements for food and fruits and medicines to be taken to the Shahenshah's room. "Jodha what are you doing here? Should you not be resting in your room?" her mother asked her (meaning of course, "Why aren't you with the Shahenshah?'). Jodha replied a bit deviously "I didn't want to disturb the Shahenshah."
Unlike Bharmal, though, his wife has already used some reverse psychology on Jodha and had seen it work. She, as a mother, was better able to read the situation Jodha was really in. Jodha had previously been angry with Jalal and left him, and now all that remained of the previous anger was the empty shell of ego. Mainavati knew that intrinsically Jodha could never forget her husband, and was in love with him, and could not be kept away if he was so wounded and suffering. But ego was standing in the way of Jodha acknowledging all this dichotomy of feelings for the Shahenshah. Mainavati used reverse psychology again on Jodha and more deliberately this time, and it worked sensationally. "Jodha" said her mother, "your father thinks you should be caring for the Shahenshah ... but I don't think so. Why should you go and do things for him when you don't like him or want to care for him? I think I will help you by shifting all your things from that room to my own room, okay?"
"Oh, no, mother" Jodha replied almost too hastily "Dad is right. The Shahenshah is after all a guest here and wounded too, right. So to look after him would be our natural parampara. Don't worry I will do the needful." Mainavati looked as if she was relieved that Jodha knew the sanskaars of this house and would care for the "guest". Then Mainavati told the waiting daasis, "Go and do everything I have advised you to do for the care of the Shahenshah." But again Jodha butted in "Keep a glass of milk there for the Shahenshah and the game of chausar for his entertainment. And mother, I will myself make the lep that always makes him well quickly". Mainavati with a sigh of relief bade the daasis to follow Jodha's instructions now. Then after Jodha had slunk away from there looking a bit sheepish, Mainavati talked to herself "Look how angry you are on the outside, Jodha, but I know you are in love with the Shahenshah. You are looking upset because you secretly want him to come and mano-fy you. Ambe Ma, make everything okay soon, please".
The precap was awesome of course. Jalal wakes up from a doze to see Jodha leaning over him so close that it almost looks like her face is just inches away from his and she is about to kiss him. He is surprised totally and makes an attempt to ask what is happening, but Jodha shushes him up still looking intently at him. Looks like the TLC phase has started and all ego had been cast into the dustbin?
My comments on this episode:
a. My comments on the necklace symbolism:
Let me start with the beginning of the episode ... the necklace and its symbolic effects. As I had said yesterday, it was a typical clich that the Creatives had used to show us the "connection" between Jodha, her necklace and its state of repair, and the health and safety of Jalal. But if you try to put the hackneyed clich aside, the overall purport of the scene was that no sooner had Jodha repaired and worn the necklace than Jalal got the upper hand over Abul Mali, and so long as the necklace stayed on Jodha's neck, her suhaag was not only protected by Jalal's own initiatives against Mali, but also by the appearance of Bharmal's troops in a timely fashion to ferry Jalal to Amer - where care and love could be showered on him abundantly! If only they make necklaces like these nowadays, hospitals would have fewer patients!
b. My comments on the Gangaur reflection symbolism:
But anyway, once the chamatkaar of the necklace was done with, came the second great symbolism of the episode. The loop closure of the Gangaur lamp floating ceremony was gone through. Jalal despite his wounded body insisted on walking - or rather, tottering - to the waterfront to go and stand at the same place he had occupied in the last Gangaur, so that his Jodha, when floating her lamp, could see his reflection again in the water. Once before she had seen him thus, it had resulted in their marriage. I think the Creatives wanted to show that this time when Jodha saw his reflection again in the water, there would be a "renewal of their marriage".
In this connection I just want to take a moment to talk about another sanket we saw a few days ago when Jalal defended the poor widow near the ashram and declared that everyone deserves a "second chance at love". At that time, in my comments I had noted that there is some big symbolism in the idea of making Jalal defend a widow and defend the "second chance at love idea", when they could very well have not made the girl an unmarried youngster, and ishe could have been any girl going against society. But the fact is that a widow was deliberately chosen to evoke Jalal's speech about "second love being everyone's right".
Here again in the Gangaur ceremony, with the repeat of Jalal's reflection in the water, I thought I saw this notion of "second love" being reinforced. I think the Creatives are meaning to show that even if the "first love" of Jodha and Jalal was not as perfect as it should be, the "chance at second love" should be given to them where they both could this time shape the kind of love that is above suspicion, doubts, anger, ego, ill-temper, accusations and repeated misunderstandings.
c. My comments on the contrast between Bharmal's and mainavati's tactics
After the symbolism of the water reflection, there was a very lovely contrast shown between the way Bharmal handled Jodha and the way Mainavati handled Jodha that is worth mentioning. It came home to me that both methods have their own merits and one method without the other would not have worked so well on Jodha. It was clear that Jodha was on a "high moral trip" with respect to Jalal, nursing her anger beyond reason and beyond sensitivity to Jalal's wounded condition and his repeated pleas to talk to Jodha, which she resisted (or rather looked like she was running away from).
Bharmal used the "straight talk and reality check" method with Jodha. He told her to her face "What you are doing is not OK. He is not just your husband, he is the Emperor. He has run from pillar to post looking for you. He has not even returned to Agra and has dropped everything to make you his priority, but I am ashamed that you, who even have shown sensitivity to wounded birds, cannot find an ounce of your usual sensitivity and care in yourself. What are you made of? Guests in our home are treated with better decency as per our sanskaars. Fine, if you don't wish to look after him, even when he is in this hurt condition, do please shift your belongings elsewhere and be happy!' This hard and sarcastic form of "reality check "was needed because Jodha had to be told some home-truths. She needed to know that her parents were not very proud of her at this moment, and while they supported her need to insist on respect in her marriage, all other sanskaars and decencies of the family could not be held to ransom just for the principle of "distance from Jalal".
Mainavati on the other hand, played with Jodha differently. She used reverse psychology because she too was a "contrary woman" , I suspect,and knew how contrary women respond to negative pressures. She first told Jodha at the lamp floating ceremony "Stop talking about the Shahenshah and thinking about him after you have left him anyway!" That worked exactly as she expected. Jodha could think of nothing else butJjalal. Emboldened by the success of the first attempt, Mainavati then re-used the same tactic again to get Jodha to acquiesce to caring for Jalal in his wounded state and sharing a room with him. She said "I know you don't want to have anything to do with him, so move your things to my room and let the daasis care for him". Instantly Jodha fell in line. She said "No, I will care for him" and she gave every coverr-up reason she could think of as justification (" ...because he's a guest ... because he's wounded ...!). She even said " I'll make my own lep for him, because it works well for him", as if that too was the actual reason behind the act! Mainavati could only smile that she had Jodha exactly where she wanted her. The girl was in love with Jalal but was blinded by ego and was in locked into a thinking rut where Jalal was concerned.
Great ... so both Bharmal and Mainavati used different strokes, and both worked in their own way. If Bharmal had not used straight talk outside Jalal's bedroom, Mainavati's later teda talkmay not have worked as well. And if Mainavati's teda talk had not already worked at the Gangaur ceremony waterfront, Bharmal's straight talk may not have worked as well. Jodha in her current position needed both - mental spurring and emotional spurring. Her father gave her that mental spurring that made her think of her priorities, and her mother gave her the emotional spurring to be able to unlock her heart.
d. My comments on Jodha's behaviour
But let's for a minute focus on Jodha herself. It would be so easy to condemn her today because
a. She was churlish to a fault with Jalal when he tried to talk to her
b. She was still holding her adamant position when her father talked to her
c. She was clearly reluctant to engage with Jalal even when her mother talked to her.
Jodha first response in all three cases showed her to be almost heartless, insensitive to Jalal's emotional and physical hurts and intractable even in the face of scolding by her father.
I don't want to try and defend Jodha from all that she seemed to be to us viewers, who thought, no doubt, that she should have sunk her high-horse and her antipathy when she saw Jalal here in such a pathetic emotional and physical condition.
But that's just the point, isn't it? Even before she saw Jalal here in Amer, she was already buried in the labyrinth of her own crooked mental maze. She was already seeing visions of him during the Gangaur puja, and then when she went to the waterfront, his reflection looked like a continuation of her "brahm". She looked up and he was not there so the feeling of having seen a "brahm" continued. She then saw him in her bedroom which was the last place she was expecting to see him, having just said her alvida to everyone including him at the ashram. Then how could he be bodily here? More "brahm"?
Jodha was trapped I think in her own woolly mental state not knowing if she was really seeing Jalal or just having visions (just as Jalal himself was seeing visions of her in the forest). So some part of her mixed up mind can exonerate her lack of instant recognition of his condition.
Added to this was the fact that even when he sat up in bed she barely cognised his swathes of bandage ..., the fact that he was wounded may not even have registered on her! In fact when Jalal tapped her shoulder and she responded to him churlishly, even then it didn't look to me like she had really registered his full physical condition. She looked for a moment nonplussed and answered him purely like an auto-response tape recording "I won't go with you to Agra. I won't talk to you!"
She probably saw he was wounded but not how much. It was only after her father told her the story of Abul Mali's vicious attack and his being saved by Ameri sipahis that the truth must have come home to Jodha that Jalal was really here and he was badly wounded. So up until her father spoke to her, I think Jodha was reacting like an automaton, trundling out the same responses "I am seeing him as a vision. I won't talk to him. I won't go to Agra with him!"
Jodha I think was driven by the empty ego that remains long after a real hurt is forgotten. As they say, its's always easy to forgive someone in your heart for that takes just a moment. But the ego never let's you forget that hurt for a long time even after you have forgiven ... and that stands in the way of the forgiveness being complete.
In this episode yesterday I felt as if I was seeing not Jodha but an empty shell, with woolly mental visions clouding her and an empty ego driving out hackneyed responses from her mouth like an automaton.
Further, as Mainavati said, probably her ego was playing games with her. Jodha was in love with the Shahenshah, but her ego was trying very hard to look still upset because she secretly wanted him to come and mano-fy her.
I felt like saying to her "Wake up Jodha. The worst is over. Jalal is here. He is wounded. He needs you to wake up from your haze and your automatic rutted responses. He need you to give him your full attention, your understanding, your healing hand and your forgiving and loving heart. I know, Jodha, that you are this caring, sensitive soul within that is already past the hurts you felt from him. Now you need to shake yourself up, wake yourself up and smell the roses. Life is good, and he's at Amer with you! You are far away from the morass of Agra. Here are your halcyon days. Make the most of them, my girl! He's all yours ..."
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