Originally posted by: skanda12
Hi Mansi!
Today you have expressed sentiments much similar to mine, esp with regard to HB.
I had thought that since Mahaguruvaar's episode (today) was going to be the one of the stripping of all audhas and positions from Maham (as per the promo), the Wednesday episode would also be full of revelations leading up to Maham being divested of all her responsibilities in the Sultanate. But that was not how the Creatives were taking things.
We have to still watch the today's episode - to see why, after saying on Tuesday "Keep your positions and your title" Jalal is going to be stripping Maham of all these today. Maybe something will still happen in the early part of today's episode to make the removal of Maham's audha imperative.
Nothing else will happen. It's just that in the confrontation with MA, Jalal had been at his most vulnerable, he had just then been dealt a solid double punch that had left him dazed and emotionally devastated. He had lost Jodha and he had lost his "mother", and what was worse was that he had lost Jodha because of his "mother". At that moment all he could think of saying instinctively was that he was breaking of all ties with her and that he could hang on to the auda she cared for so much more than she had ever cared for him.
But after thinking over it all night long, and after the advice given by SB and HB to act like a king and not as an ordinary person, he will come to the conclusion that MA is too evil to be kept in a position of power. He has already learnt from her that she has misused her power and her closeness to Jalal to increase her own stature and inflate her ambitions. Such a person cannot be allowed to continue in power for not only will she continue her misdeeds but he will also appear to be shielding a "traitor" in front of his awaam. This news has already spread in the palace and it won't be long before it spreads across his kingdom. What answer can he give his people if they question him on why he is allowing a person, who openly admits to doing conspiracies against the king, to remain as the wazir-e-aliya?
What all happened yesterday:
The episode seemed to start with the way it ended on Tuesday. Jalal was in the DEK with Maham telling her that she can keep her title and her positions but she has irretrievably lost a son! Jalal then goes on to add that it was his bad kismet that made him lose both the people he had so valued in his early life - Bairam Khan and Maham - and that Maham, instead of being a mother who let her son climb her shoulders to reach higher in his life, had actually used his shoulders to grab her own title and positions. In short she had used him and his power as the Shahenshah to feather her nest and that was no decent deed of a genuine mother.
By the time Jalal has finished his speech to Maham, he was a broken man, but she was almost apoplectic.
Maham had been theatrical in her diatribe against Jalal. He was more composed and restrained in his response in spite of his debilitating grief. He completely stripped off all the masks she had worn all these years to reveal a woman who had pretended to be a mother to enjoy the perks and privileges of being close to the king and further her own ambitions. He grieved how he had given her unquestioned loyalty and love, inconceivable power and status, and blind trust. And she, had used all these and him to climb up in life. He could not believe that she would extract the price of her milk by taking away the most precious thing to him in the world (Jodha). At that moment, Jalal may have momentarily remembered the old man who had shared his lunch with Jalal in the jungle. That old man had decently refused to take the sikka from Jalal, stating that he could not take something so precious from him. When a poor stranger could show so much understanding, was it wrong on the part of Jalal to expect something similar from his badi ammi?
He could not believe that the two people he had trusted most and loved most in his life had only used him as a means to their end of becoming de facto rulers. This kind of betrayal would have shattered a lesser man.
Side note: It is to Jalal's everlasting credit that he rose like the Phoenix from the ashes of betrayal to become Akbar the Great. He learnt his lessons the hard(est) way and used them to turn into someone who was nobler, kinder and wiser.
Hamida, Salima and Gulbadan too were seen thrashing the subject to pieces, with Hamida in a state of some shock and disbelief. She was a bit distraught ... and seeing that Salima alone was standing upright after the shell shock Hamida asked Salima to go to Jalal and to be with him at this difficult hour and to counsel him as best as she could.
I am commenting on this later on.
Jalal was standing near the tarazu, the one place he always comes to when in conflict. But there was no Jodha there to help him shed his confusion and reach clarity. Ruqaiya was with Jalal, but Ruqaiya could not do for Jalal what Jodha usually did. Seeing him thus cry I thought Ruqaiya would offer solace. Instead she started to cry too out of sheer guilt.
Ruq has never been able to offer any kind of emotional support and solace to Jalal. It is this lacking in her that made Jalal turn to Jodha. She only confessed her part in the imbroglio to avoid being exposed by Maham. She was so scared to see how Jalal was reacting to news of MA's betrayal. If he could break off with MA, surely he would not hesitate to break off with Ruq too. It was this thought that spurred her to own up, hoping that he would forgive her, as he had always done in the past. But, she also failed like MA to understand that this was a changed Jalal. Now nothing and nobody mattered more than his Jodha and her loss.
So great is his connect with Jodha that he was able to calm down only when SB suggested that that is what Jodha would have expected of him. Her assertion that Jodha would want him to dole out justice as a king will definitely color his judgement of MA in the DEK tonight.
Ruq asked Salima with some consternation "Will Jalal severely punish Maham?". Salima replied "I can't say, but I know this is going to be one of the longest nights of his life".
1. Why were we given that soul talk about the last night of darkness and loneliness when Jalal and Jodha have since spent many nights of darkness and loneliness? 😡
2. In spite of being surrounded by his family and friends, Jalal spent the whole night alone. Not even his mother went to him. How much more lonely can anyone get?
Maham, who had by now reached her room, was slumped against a far wall, sitting on the ground, looking like a sad knot.
Cleo and Liz have correctly diagnosed her as a delusional and paranoid psychopath. I have no sympathy for her, even if she had ever really loved Jalal, which is doubtful.
"No mother," he said "you have nothing left. When Jalal lost his value for you, your audha is meaningless" and with that bit of clarity (surprising, coming from him) he left the room.
AT least, there is one person who gave her a reality check.
The episode then cuts to Amer, to the Kali temple specifically, where Jodha has arrived to offer aarti. She bumps into Shaguni Bai there, and is tempted to share her distressful dilemma with her for some counsel. Shaguni does not disappoint Jodha. She starts talking even before she's asked anything "He won't leave you. You will go back to him, in fact you have no choice but to go back to him. Your heart has to be listened to, not your ego."
Jodha interjected, her brow furrowed "But I had to leave that place and him because of the grave apmaan I faced when my charithra was questioned. I feel I did right. But since then there is also some guilt in me as if I have done some wrong. There is no peace." Shaguni then says "You won't be able to stay in Amer for long, you have to go back to your pati. When you will go, only Kali Maa decides. She controls the timing. Think why you were brought her to do that Gangaur Puja. You do whatever your heart tells you to, and Kali Maa will do the rest, the needful". (Alas, those of us who thought Shaguni would offer Jodha a travel schedule were left in the lurch not knowing what would be Kali Maa's "uchith timing"!)
Kali Ma's timing will coincide with the CVs timing. I do believe Jodha will not be in the mood to go back till Jalal has punished MA. Only then, there will be a divine intervention that will make Jodha decide to return to him.
Side note: There is no sense in bashing Jo about this. This whole track is made up. The MU was deliberately created and now she is being deliberately shown as being too egoistic to return. Because if she had returned earlier, there would have been no curtains down for MA. With Jo by his side, Jalal would not have felt so asunder that he would cut off from MA completely. All these events have been specially created to lead to MA's downfall and so we have to accept them.
And those who feel Jodha is wronging Jalal by not being here to support him fail to see that
1. she is in Amer and does not know what is happening in Agra.
2. if she had been in Agra, Jalal would not have reacted so strongly to MA's betrayal and would not have been so pained so as to need her (Jodha's) support.
3. we have to pay for our deeds sooner or later and Jalal is paying up for all the suffering he caused to Jodha in the past year, knowingly or unknowingly, and for all the times he failed to support her.
My comments on this overall episode:
I have four points to highlight about this episode ...
b. I somehow did not like the tarazu mnemonic to be used for a Jalal-Ruq scene because I have become a bit possessive over the tarazu being used only for Jodha-Jalal scenes. So I didn't like it one bit that Ruq was there in that sacrosanct place with Jalal ... and moreover, I didn't like him confiding his troubles to Ruq.
This scene only goes to show that Ruq is no match for Jodha when it comes to understanding their husband and providing him with appropriate guidance and emotional support. Ruq only claims to be his best friend while Jodha is truly his best and most loyal friend. It also allowed Ruq to own up to her part in the whole episode and show her real face to Jalal.
c. I thought Hamida's reactions to hearing the story of Maham's exposure was a bit tame. Considering the degree of distress Hamida had about Jodha's absence and non-return to Agra, and the way she scolded Jalal about it, I had thought that she would display more vehemence yesterday when she came to know that Maham had separated Jodha and Jalal wilfully. I also thought Hamida would be more concerned that Maham had betrayed Jalal and his love for her as a mother figure. But on both counts, she was a bit too lukewarm, I thought. All that I saw Hamida do was to sink into the sofa and say something to the effect of "Hai, hai, yeh kya ho gaya", which didn't seem good enough for me.
You know what folks, I find it - and have always found it - a bit strange that Hamida takes Jalal's love for his Badi Ammi with so much equanimity. I would have expected her to be more jealous, or perhaps more aggressively loving towards Jalal in order to assert her own status as his real mother. So yesterday when I saw Hamida's relatively reaction-less response to hearing about Maham's betrayal of Jalal, and her saazish in sundering Jodha and Jalal, something looked definitely missing.
Hamida could have shown one of three reactions more strongly:
- She could have felt more dismayed at Maham's treacheryand ruination of Jalal's life.
- She could have displayed more glee that Maham was no longer a competitor-mother to Jalal.
- She could have felt more for Jodha's separation from Jalal by Maham.
All three reactions were missing. Which brings me back to the point of why over all these years she did not put up any resistance to Jalal's doting on Maham, nor to Maham's inordinate powers in the Sultanate. She was too resigned, too comfortable with Maham and her stature and closeness to Jalal than I would have preferred. But at least I thought her reaction to hearing of how Maham had separated Jodha from Jalal would be stronger. I guess Hamida is a placid disturb-me-not character by Nature? She has raised her voice in anger on some occasions but it has never amounted to much change in anyone in the end!
This is the part in your analysis that i feel most strongly about.
1. Why did HB let MA dominate Jalal so much from childhood? She wasn't permanently away from Jalal. Why didn't she take an active part in raising Jalal instead of leaving him totally at the mercy of MA? In early episodes, HB has expressed how sad she feels that Jalal isn't close to her and has not imbibed the right values. She wants to know from Salim Chisti when Jalal will change. But, hey, she is the mother. What stopped her from taking charge of his life and deciding what values he imbibes? Why didn't she throw out MA and put someone like JijiAnga or Gulbadan Begum in charge of Jalal, when she could see that MA was corrupting her son?
She received a lot of praise for apparently showing the mirror to Jalal when he failed to bring home Jodha. She showed him no mercy or empathy. True, sometimes mothers have to take the hard line with their children. But a mother must also not turn so blind to her son's pain that she is easily able to accuse him of a crime but is unable to support him in facing the consequences. I wish someone would show her a mirror so that she knows where she failed Jalal as a mother and a queen mother.
1. She failed to nurture him properly as a child, leaving him with caregivers completely. True, all royal families have caregivers but that does not mean that they don't oversee how the caregivers are raising their children.
2. She allowed MA unlimited freedom in controlling Jalal and running the sultanat. She should have put her foot down and not allowed Jalal to give so power to MA.
3. Today she is blaming Jalal for wrongly accusing Jodha and humiliating her. But she has been watching for the last one year how Jodha is being treated. Why didn't she ever take Jalal to task earlier or guided him on how to treat his wife (and queen)?
4. She has ill-prepared Jalal to face the real world, where disappointment and rejection are very much part and parcel of life. As a child king, Jalal got used to getting everything he wanted and when he faced his first rejection at the hands of Jodha, he just did not know how to handle it. He totally lost it. Wasn't it the duty of HB to teach Jalal that he cannot have everything he wants and that he must be able to take failure/disappointment/rejection/a No for an answer in his stride.
5. She can see clearly how devastated Jalal is with MA's betrayal. Why did she send SB to console him? Why didn't she go herself and comfort him? Those who say Jodha is being selfish in not returning to share his grief - what do they have to say about HB, who is very much there and yet refusing to comfort him? Those who say Jodha is being egoistic in sticking to her stand and not budging - isn't HB also now unable to budge from her stand that she cannot forgive Jalal for hurting Jodha? At least Jodha is the hurt party. She at least has some reason to feel "egoistic" about her decision. HB isn't the affected party here. Then why is still being so stand-offish with Jalal? May be she is aggrieved by Jalal's pain but she is not doing much about it. If we can allow a mother to sit back and do nothing to help her son deal with hurt, why are we pointing fingers at his wife? And anyway, Jodha isn't the only wife he has.
Side note: Those who say that Ruq loves Jalal more than Jodha - then why is Ruq unable to comfort him in his darkest hour? Where is her love? Why didn't she swallow her hurt at being pushed by Jalal and try to follow him to his room and offer him comfort and company thru his darkest night?
In my opinion, HB is a total failure as a mother. You are correct. No mother can sit back and watch her son growing so close to some other mother figure, esp one who she knows is morally corrupt and can go to any lengths to achieve her ends. Poor Jalal is really unfortunate that both his real mother and foster mother have never really cared for him as a person. It's to his credit that he was able to handle this and remain psychologically, mentally and emotionally unscarred.
d. How typical it was for Adham and Maham to bypass the message and try to shoot the messenger!
Atga's days are numbered now. He should be dead by the end of next week.
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
