Episodes 243 and 244: The Case of Confusion Compounded!My dearest girls,
First of all, let me congratulate you on still managing to keep this thread alive, despite such a plethora of DT notes. God knows how long this will last, so let me get my word in before you are gagged for good!😉
Episode 243: Jodha-Mahaam: I was afraid, my dear Gayatri, and the rest, that I was right after all,and that the laurel wreath beckoned! But it seems that we are not there yet, even though I am sure that Jodha Begum is not going to let go of her endemic do-gooding so easily. It is only Round 1, after all, and she is good boxer and is not going to give up so soon!
It is no use clobbering Jalal for caving in and accepting her eventual proposal that he forgive Mahaam; he probably wants it himself, for all his tough talk last night. He is simply not tough enough inside with those whom he cares/cared for.
I was pleased with 2 things in this episode. One, Shehnaaz being revealed as a
full fledged villain; she and Mahaam (who now will, hopefully, get a fresh lease of life) will make a remarkably well matched pair - one sounding and looking sane but really teetering on the edge of insanity, and the other vice versa!
I was pleased not only at the prospect of something more than these diabetes inducing hugs between our lead pair, but also because
with this, Jodha will score a hat trick in picking dangerous lemons as the beneficiaries of her karuna. First Sharifuddin, next Shehnaaz, and pretty soon Mahaam.
Jodha-Jalal: But I agree with all of you that as and when Shehnaaz's
asliyat is revealed, Jodha will neatly wriggle out of any blame for that as well. n fact, I do not think Jodha will feel the least bit guilty at all at having introduced such a menace to Jalal into the palace. She is self-blame-proof.
Need you ask how she will get off scotfree after seeing Salima's incredible excuse
Kucch hua to nahin na? to bring Jalal round? Of course it never occurred to him to retort
Agar Rahim ki maut ho jaati to bhi aap yahi kehtin? That is asking for too much!
The simple fact that all of us have to accept, and the sooner the better, is that this Jalal is as much enslaved by his Jodha Begum as Keats' pale, distraught, wandering knight was to the
La Belle Dame sans merci. He can bark for a few seconds, but as soon as the prospect of Jodha Begum feeling hurt - and this no matter that she is in an untenable position and advocating a ridiculous approach to a mentally unstable person - is brought to his notice (by the cheerleader No.2, Salima) he caves in wholly, and trots off to pacify his
sabse azeez begum. It is hopeless, folks, to expect this Jalal to even approach the truly royal behaviour of Maharana Udai Singh. Now that is a real monarch!
However, despite all this exasperation, the other thing that pleased me was that (a) Jalal went to talk to Jodha partly because of Salima's linking Shehnaaz with Jodha's depressed state of mind in Mathura and (b) because he did not want to spoil his 1st wedding anniversary with Jodha (wonder how many anniversaries he has celebrated with Ruqaiya!😉).
Plus he did not beg Jodha, with folded hands as per his recent
modus operandi, to forgive him. He drew her to face him
with a new found, easy possessiveness, and sat down and talked to her rationally, even if he did say he was sorry for having lost his temper with her. And Jodha's mostly fake
roothna had that
tadka of possessiveness, and so was not so bad after all. Small mercies!
Yes and as for the last scene and that oh so deliberate closing embrace. Can one really be unaware of the presence of a living, breathing human being less than a foot behind one? I think not, and they should have kept Jalal 2 feet away from Jodha; he could have heard her prayers just as well from there! 😉
Shehnaaz track is bonkers: All this said and done, the whole Shehnaaz angle seems plain nuts. The creature is digging around in random chests in random rooms to find what? And she riffles thru the draft
Humayunnama ( if Gulbadan Begum leaves her magnum opus lying around like this, it deserves to be damaged), saying that she might find something there that might take her further towards her goal. It sounds cuckoo.
I cannot imagine who she is supposed to be and what she is aiming to do to dethrone Jalal.
But I LOVED her
bewakoof Jodha!😉😉The only thing I am waiting for is to see Jodha's face when the truth about her is revealed.
What do you bet that Jalal will then come rushing in to console his
sabse azeez begum and reassure her that she was NOWHERE at fault for introducing this killer into the palace and then shielding her with such misplaced tenacity?😉 Don't bet anything, for you are sure to lose!
Episode 244: It was hilarious.
First there was
Ruqaiya's unbelievably dumb chaal - she does not even have the sense to accept what Hoshiyaar tells her about the dead cert consequences if she had, as she was bound to, been found out. Did I not write a few pages back that I could not believe that this woman had ever had the smarts to advice Jalal on political issues, seeing that she seemed to have been dropped on her head as a baby. Now I am sure she must have been dropped from a substantial height.😉
Mahaam-Jalal-Adham: Then there was the most edifying spectacle of
Mahaam successfully trying commando tactics on her hulk of a son. What followed, re: her current attitude towards Jalal, at least the version of it that she wants Adham to believe, was considerably at odds with the plaintive tone of her imaginary pleas to Jalal a little earlier. I am not quite sure which to believe.
As for Jalal's uncompromisingly harsh response to Mahaam's good wishes and her gift, I think his total disillusionment with her was because Mahaam muffed her lines in her unplanned outburst to him. and said far too much about what he owed her (and, to make it sound credible, to Bairam Khan too). That, and her assertion that he had done nothing for her that could compare with what she had done for him put the lid on it, as it made her look mercenary inside out and completely devalued all her sacrifices for him and her incessant care for him. She should instead have turned on the tap and wept copiously about how she was jealous of Jodha for having taken her Jalal beta away from her. Then Jalal would have slotted her reaction as a saas's hostility towards her bahu and might even have forgiven her.
The two crowns: I could not decide which was more comic, the idea of celebrating Jalal-Jodha's 1st wedding anniversary, and this for a Shahenshah with umpteen begums, all presumably wedded to him (but in a place where servants birthdays are celebrated, who are we to complain about wedding anniversaries?😉), or Hamida Banu's
nazrana of the two odd-looking jewelled pieces of headgear.
And these dazzling and intricately bejewelled crowns were made in the one day after Hamida woke up to the anniversary? I suppose she has goblin goldsmiths in the Agra palace. 😉
Now all that remains is for us to face the spectacle of Jalal and Jodha wearing these contraptions and sitting side by side on a throne. If she has the peaked one, she will end up looking taller than he.😉 Already, this height handicap, which I had flagged earlier, was in evidence when Jodha had to bend over carefully to be able to place her head, in a suitably romantic position on Jalal's chest!😉
Yes, and as for the
jhooti tareef comment of Jalal's, I think he means that Ruqaiya is addicted to fulsome praise, regardless of whether it is sincere or not. And no, my dears, those poor
baandis should not be accused of fangirling. 😉What on earth could they have said except that he looked splendid in any outfit? Imagine one of them telling the Shahenshah that something does not suit him!
Shyamala/Aunty
Edited by sashashyam - 11 years ago
Iss Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon
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