Friends, I love, love, love happy surprises. Yesterday I got one of the happiest surprises of my life when Maddy WhatsApped me around the end of the second segment when she saw the small preview of what comes in the next segment. (Maddy watches the 7.50 pm Zee HD version of the show while I watch the 8 pm Zee version of the show, so she's just slightly ahead of me and usually sends me updates as the show is happening so that I can salivate and be ready to see what she's seen).
Anyway, yesterday after the second segment ended, Maddy WhatsApped me urgently, saying "Last part of the episode Jodha will reach ..." and she had put a ton of smilies and hearts next to the message. That was all I needed. I went and sat two feet closer to the TV screen with my eyes peeled for the arrival of Jodha ... utterly thankful to the Creative Gods for surprising us all with this arrival scene on a day when we had all prepared ourselves mentally for more delay.
And boy, did Jodha arrive ... almost everybody at Agra was at the gates of the palace at the appointed hour as her doli was carried in. An excited-nervous Jalal, looking spectacularly handsome, was standing at the head of the rows of men at a discreet distance from where the doli was put down. His eyes were bright with anticipation, searching for her the second her doli was stationed.
The curtains of the doli parted as Jodha tentatively stepped out and stood up. She started walking a few steps towards the crowd of folk eager to welcome her. She was like a fairytale princess - a vision floating in, wrapped in the the folds of a gossamer pink cloud of fabric, her eyes constantly searching across the crowd for the love of her life.
For a brief while the women folk gathered around her and claimed their share of greetings .. she hugged and kissed Rahim, Hamida, Salima, Shivani ...and then her feet were washed as she stepped on a bed of rose petals, and her aarti was done. Jalal had seen her through all this ceremony. All the while, he kept looking directly at her, willing her eyes to look at him.
"Where is the Shahenshah?" Jodha's voice cried inside her. She faintly turned up her eyes and looked straight ahead and the crowd between them parted as if on cue. And there he was - the greatest-looking man on earth staring straight into her eyes, unable to let her take her eyes off him for even a second. She stared back mesmerised. Theirs were the only pair of eyes that wouldn't stay silent and kept speaking a language of their own.
In the space of just a couple of minutes it seemed as if volumes were spoken between them. His eyes never lost their wistful longing as he asked her a silent question "Where have you been all these days? Why did you starve me of the chance to look at you and fill my soul?" And she replied with her eyes brimming with tears "Forgive me, because I hid myself from you so well that I almost lost myself!" As he continued to look at her, there was just the hint of a beckoning in his eyes "Keep moving forward, I am here, the wait is over." Her eyes replied back "Let me stay where I am and let's speak the language of the eyes for a while. There are too many people here. There will always be time later to close the distance between us".
I was reminded of the line I'd read long ago but never thought I would ever see it in its purity on screen "In one soft look of the eyes, what a lot of language lies".
Ufff ... what a poor word this "uff" is when you are trying to describe how transported you are after seeing something so ultra-special pass between two people, who lives you are so vested in. Yesterday, after seeing that last lingering scene, I am ashamed that all I can say is "uff", "uff", "uff" ... for my vocabulary is deserting me!
I am sure every one of you reading this post must have heard your own imaginary dialogues as Jodha and Jalal spoke to each other with their eyes yesterday. You are free to make of it what you wish, and I have just shared what I could translate from what I saw. The moment was so special, that it would be sad to call it by the standard term of "eyelock". How crass that sounds when we what we witnessed was so out-of-this-world!
(How on earth did you do this to us, Rajat and Paridhi? We never saw anyone else on screen while you both were silently exchanging love through your eyes!)
How the episode started and went on
Coming back down to earth, this was the last scene of an episode that started out as if it was a continuation of yesterday's endless waiting. Jalal was anxiously pacing up and down the terrace of the palace, every now and again getting an update from a sipahi on how far Jodha's trip had progressed and how near to Agra she now was. So glad was Jalal to hear these words that he started handing out his necklaces and ornaments in happiness to the message-bearers.
In the harem, the envious ladies were all talking of how this Jodha was so special to Jalal that he had gone to extreme lengths to ensure that her welcome was out of this world.
Ruqaiya saw Jalal on the terrace barely able to contain his excitement, and she decided that the best tack to take with him was to show shared interest in his eagerness for Jodha. "I am extremely happy too that Jodha is on her way, "she said, "but waiting like this feverishly is not going to bring her faster!" Jalal thanked her for her sentiments on Jodha but replied with an answer that did not at all sound like what she wanted to hear "What can I do? I am so anxious to set eyes on Jodha. I don't feel like talking to anyone, getting immersed in anything else. There's just one thing on my mind just now and that is Jodha!" And soon their brief rubaru was interrupted by yet another sipahi saying Jodha is really close to Agra now and should be home by the next afternoon.
Seeing very little could be said to Jalal in this state, Ruqaiya decided that the best policy would be "if you can't beat em, join em". She started issuing instructions to all the bandhis regarding the decoration of the palace and the cooking that was all to be in the Rajvanshi style! All the while her eyes seethed with fury, barely suppressed.
Maham who was standing there uttered an eloquent "Waah!" at Ruq. "Are you making elaborate arrangements for your sworn enemy's arrival?" she mocked Ruqaiya. At once Ruqaiya went back to her staple rebuttal. "Jodha can never take my place. She can never take Jalal away from me. I am not angry anymore, I am being smart. I have just decided to get Jalal even closer to me by getting closer to what he is closer to ... which you will never understand, for you did the opposite and now look where you are!"
If Ruq thought she had halted Maham in her mocking, she was mistaken, for after Ruq uttered this high-sounding speech and turned to go, Maham smiled with evil glee to herself. The silly girl was constrained to accept Jodha in Jalal's life and was trying despite her jealousy to make the best of it!
Meanwhile Jodha's caravan came upon a row of tents by the wayside, and out stepped Mansingh to greet his uncles who were escorting Jodha. Jodha was utterly surprised by all this, as she came to know that it was all Jalal's idea. He had instructed Mansingh to create this encampment for Jodha to spend the night in comfort before the last bit of the journey could be done by the next morning in time to reach the palace by afternoon. Mansingh proudly conveyed to Jodha that the instructions were all Jalal's that he was just carrying out! "Did he give you any message for me" Jodha asked, trying to quieten her growing longing to hear more of Jalal. "No", said Mansingh, "but he has you on his mind all the time. He's not been happy all this while but hearing of your arrival has transformed him now. He is the happiest man on earth." Jodha savoured these words.
Back at Agra, Resham was shunted out of her room in rude style by Maham who didn't want to discuss the Jodha arrival with anyone. To add to matters, her son arrived with his henchmen fuming against the level of fanfare that was being indulged in by Jalal for the arrival of Jodha. Maham ominously told her son "The whole of Jodha's Hindu crowd is polluting our palace and stripping us Mughals of our standing in this Sultanate. We have four enemies to take care of - Mansingh, Atga, Todarmal and Jodha - and of these Atga needs to be despatched first."
It was a long night for Jalal and Jodha to spend away from each other, as they both stood where they were looking up at the moon, Sleep was far away as they both indulged their secret longings to see each other the next day. Strains of the Amer music came on as we were shown a flutter of shots of both of them living through the agony of the final bit of the separation. The last hour always feels like the longest!
And then it was morning. As I had written before, the men at the palace stood arrayed at a distance from the gates while the women flocked closer to the gates. Jodha's doli was brought in and as she stepped out, the women of the palace claimed her attention and hugs. Jodha's eyes started searching for Jalal's. He had already seen her and was willing her to look for him and find him. When she did find him, everybody else in the scene became redundant. All that I could wrap my eyes around was the sight of these two speaking to each other without a word across the small space that divided them. I was left in a bit of a daze long after the scene and the episode ended on this conversation of the eyes.
The precap then intruded on my consciousness. Jalal was handing Jodha a whip while they both were in her room alone. "Hit me" he was saying "For there is no relief for me from my grievous mistakes unless you really lacerate me."
I can't wait for the next episode, folks, because I don't think Jodha needs to whip him when she can hug him or whisper solace. He seemed in distress and tears, so a lot of TLC is on the way!
(Just see that you are watching the TV alone for the next episode. Or your family will wonder what has happened to you as you get gut-wrenched in public. I don't think the next episode is one that should be seen with people around.)
My comments on the episode:
Isn't it strange that every time we all collectively decide to drop our hopes for a good episode, we get one? Yesterday this thread was full of people who said "Wish Jodha will arrive in the Tuesday episode, but we had all better not set up hopes, for the Creatives may decide to bring her in only on Wednesday". My friend Jyoti even said "It may only be next week when Jodha arrives, so take a chill pill till then". I had all but given up hopes and started watching the episode with a lot of deliberate detachment, and true enough the first two segments were just again all about Jalal waiting for Jodha nervously as Ruq showed her jealousy and Maham slightly bared her teeth.
But then suddenly I got word from Maddy that the small preview at the end of the second segment was showing the arrival of Jodha ... and so suddenly the whole episode started taking on a romantic hue! I watched with great anticipation and I must admit the Creatives not only gave me what I wanted, but they did it so beautifully that this episode will remain in my collection of most cherished episodes for a long time.
It would have been so easy for the Director and the Creatives to overdo the eyelock scene and make it standard issue. How many serials have we seen where we had full on 10-minute eyelocks shots from 360-degrees, as the camera encircled two people who had a staring match. How ugly it could have been and how blessed we are to have had a Director with a soft focus eye and Creatives who were not ham-handed.
There was utter beauty in that last scene that I cannot help but point out three things that were simply sensational:
The clothes people were wearing was surprisingly not heavy at all. In fact Jodha led the group with a soft and floaty, cloud-like silk outfit of an ethereal gossamer pink colour ... and her make up and jewellery were understated too. She did not arrive looking like a tacky doll on top of a wedding cake.
Jalal was also in subdued colours, and apart from his headgear, his face looked clean and sharply cut. His eyes were keen with the surma he usually wears, but the make up did not overwhelm the look in his eyes.
The other actors around too did not sport heavy shades of colour which in the afternoon sun would have looked loud. Hamida was in a soft peach and but for little Rahim in his brighter green and yellow shades, all the adults were softly dressed and softly made up.
I got the distinct feeling that the Director has deliberately chosen to make this scene a quiet and hushed one rather than include any hint of overstatement. The Director's finesse was the hallmark of this scene. Everything about the scene - its lighting, its choreography of all the actors moving silently around and doing their bit (almost like a dance), its soft focus camera overview and the close ups that were never too close to people's faces ... it was all done immaculately.
All the time, the exact distance between Jodha and Jalal was visible to us. If the camera has gotten too close to people's faces and just lingered on their eyes alone or their smiles alone, it would have looked odd besides not giving us a sense of the overall atmosphere. Here the close ups were of just the right length of time and never so intrusive on the overall ambience of the arrival shot.
I thought it was perfect. I never saw this much on the first viewing, but when I looked at the scene again and again, I could not help but marvel at the camera work and the deliberate tactic in using softness of colours and focus as the theme of this sequence.
b. The absence of dialogues
There were no words to clutter the scene. But for a few gentle sighs and utterings of happiness from Hamida, there were absolutely no words spoken at all. Before the scene started, there were the chants of the public in praise of the Shahenshah and his Jodha Begum, but as the doli entered the portals of the palace, even the chants became part of the receding background score.
There was then some gentle music, and everything was just "acting and emoting" without dialogues. Words would have been again too crass had they marred the scene with heavy layers of spluttered emotions. Everybody just contained themselves, withheld their emotions and let their eyes do the talking.
Jodha clambered out of the doli in silence and stood up, her eyes searching for Jalal. Rahim ran up to her and even he did none of his "Choti Ammi" type of scream. He just ran up to Jodha and she bent down to give him a hug and a kiss. Hamida and Salima then came up to Jodha and she bent and touched Hamida's feet, got a hug and then hugged Salima. Jodha's eyes then lit up to see her sister Shivani after so long. She gave her a soft pat on the cheek and then a hug and kiss as well.
Salima pointed to the ground and Jodha understood that she had to step on a rose-petal filled plate as her feet were washed in silence. Then Salima did a typical Rajvanshi aarti for Jodha. Through all this was a mellow undercurrent of peaceful actions without any raucous merriment or overt fervour. Considering that Jalal had taken all pains to make it all a grand event, the Creatives and the Director could have gone overboard with the laughter and gaiety and jokes and pokes, but they didn't.
Then came the moment when Jodha looked up for Jalal and as if on cue the crowd of people parted so that she had a straight view of Jalal. For the next 4-5 minutes there was just some palpable eye-speak, and no words again to dispel the continuing but now loaded silence. The episode ended too on this note of quiet satisfaction on the faces of the lovers.
Did you all notice that we had almost 8-10 minutes of no dialogue, and just the dialogues of everyone's eyes? Remarkable, isn't it? That is why this scene was so powerful. It reached out to us audiences at the gut level!
c. The whole journey of Jodha was beautifully planned.
In fact, now when you think of it, we guys were cursing the previous episodes for non-progress, but silently the stage was being set for making Jodha's arrival extremely memorable. There was a beautiful "bidaii" scene at Amer, which started with hugs and blessings of Jodha's family, and then she got into the doli and kept still looking out on the people she was leaving as the doli left the Amer palace.
Then came the Bharmal paigam to Jalal, saying "By the time you read this, Jodha must already have reached half-way to Agra. Wish you both a long and happy married life". From then on we got Jalal's eye view of her journey. He issued orders to Atga to post his sipahis along Jodha's way to know at every moment how close she was to reaching. He issued orders for a grand welcome for Jodha as he and his mother had envisaged.
Salima got busy with flowers for Jodha's room and all in all there was an undercurrent of excitement building up at the Agra palace, and in us, the audiences as well. I think, in hindsight, that we too were put to the test of patience so that we could feel all the eagerness and longing that Jalal was feeling. I think this may have been a deliberate ploy by the Director to give us audiences a taste of the longing and impatience in Jalal's mind.
Then came the moment when the caravan of Jodha reached the encampment set up by Mansingh to herald their arrival. It was an extremely thoughtful gesture from Jalal, via Mansingh, to know exactly where the doli would have reached by nightfall and to have arranged for a comfortable night for Jodha. Remember Jalal had told Mansingh "I want Jodha to have such a lovely arrival that she forgets the sorrows under which she departed".
The whole encampment was a beautiful sequence in the story and allowed us to feel the long night of Jodha and Jalal - separated from each other, yet anticipating that the morning would bring the togetherness.And then of course, as news reached Jalal that Jodha has already sighted Mansingh and was now under his care, all seemed to go like clockwork.
If you cast aside all the other scenes that came in between in the last couple of episodes, and just focus on how the journey of Jodha was picturised, you will see how beautifully the Director, the actors and the Creatives have handled it!
Sigh! I have come to the end of my post, and yet so many things inside me feel unsaid. It is one of those days when there is a lot inside my head and heart - but in keeping with the mutedness of the whole last scene of the episode, words are refusing to escape me. Whatever I want to say feels like too much clutter that may spoil the lovely lingering after-effects of the scene I am carrying inside my head. I'll now leave it to you all to add your feelings here.
It's lovely to be able to share a moment of heartfelt happiness with friends like you all who are all on the same wavelength of attunement. Thanks for your company, folks, in this moment of real satisfaction!
