Friends, after waiting so eagerly for that awesome hug, it finally came ... and it was everything it was meant to be. But what can I say ... the sudden presence of Ruq coming and watching that hug scene, like an unwanted spectator, with the camera focusing on her every few seconds instead of staying on Jodha and Jalal was awful! Did the Creatives have to degrade the lovely hug, the moment of Jodha and Jalal's first tender touch of each other, by bringing in an angry Ruq as a bystander to the whole scene and make her ogle them, and focus on her reactions, interrupting the beauty of the hug sequence?
I am rather disappointed that a lovely scene was ruined by bringing in a counter-player and by making an unwanted third in the whole atmosphere. I would not have minded if they finished the hug and suddenly later Ruq got jealous or something. But to bring Ruq into the hug scene, standing and watching them for a full five minutes and eating up camera time on herself was something I didn't like at all. I know my friend Maddy hated it for we exchanged quite a few dejected phone messages saying how badly this Ruq had ruined the lovely tender scene of closeness between Jodha and Jalal for us! Maddy said "The Creatives must be sadists!" and I knew perfectly what she meant.
All about that heart-warming hug
Before Ruq entered the picture, however, the hug scene was going along famously. As we saw at the end of the previous episode, Jalal brought the leather whip from his box and gave it to Jodha saying "Punish me please, beat me, for nothing less than that can allow me to even raise my eyes to yours. I am so mortified by what I did to you. Every word of mine , every accusation, cut into you, So do the same to me!" Jodha seemed to momentarily accept the whip from him "How many lashings should I give you?" she asked in a sombre voice. "As many as you please, " Jalal said, "till your heart is mollified and feels the satisfaction of having taken out your angst against me."
"In that case", said Jodha with a choke in her voice, "I'll take the lashings on myself. I was the culprit in all this. You came to me so many times, praying for forgiveness and I stayed hard-hearted, nursing my miserable ego. I deserve the lashings more than you. How could I have allowed you to so wilt in sadness and remorse and stood there myself unmoved?"
Jalal was filled with consternation. "No I was the one to blame" he said, while she countered "No I was." They went to and fro several times arguing about who was the most to blame, till at one point he insisted that there was no punishment great enough for his sins, when the golden words left Jodha's lips. "See, I haven't come back because you abolished the teerth kar or because you pardoned Shivani. I came back entirely for you, for the feelings we had for each other, and because I realised I had already forgiven you long back and was just hanging onto the empty ego for a long. I was punishing us both for no reason except the satisfaction of my ego. That why I need to be punished more than you."
Jalal on hearing that just grabbed the whip from her hand and threw it on the ground. They were neither of them to blame. The hurts were long gone and as Jodha said the charade of ego-play had been going on for too long separating them.
Hardly had Jalal thrown the whip away when a small gust of wind blew some dust into Jodha's eye. She winced with sudden irritation in her eye and in that moment he became all concern. "Show me your eye" he said, drawing close to her, his hands opening her eye to his inspection as his mouth went close to her face to blow gently on her eye. She held his hand as he steadied her eye. Soon the irritating speck of dust was gone, but he noticed she was still holding his hand. And she was not letting go.
Tentatively he moved his hands down hers to entwine their fingers. She didn't resist as she usually did, and that emboldened him. For a long time they stood, looking at each other's eyes and holding hands tightly, more tightly. Then suddenly as if he could bear the distance no more, he put out one hand to her shoulder and pulled her towards him and ensconced her in a hug so tight that there was no space between them any more.
She leant against him, her eyes closed as she savoured the sensation of being in the comforting arms of her husband. Her own hands were straight down beside her body but as the hug continued and his face showed the intensity with which he was holding on to her, she raised her hand tentatively to cover his back, and then she slowly encircled his waist. Her hand kept moving upwards till she too was grasping his shoulders tight. Now there was no doubt who was hugging whom. There was no two of them, there was just one! It all went on for a long time, with both of them closing their eyes and just letting themselves feel the unusual sensations of their first ever frontal hug.
A long while later Jalal drew back and opened his eyes to take a look at her, for she had surprised him by being so participatory in the hug. She too opened her eyes. But they could see nothing else beyond each other. For a while again they stood staring at each other, and then his leant his forehead on hers as if to not break the contact. And thus they both were, as his hand also started caressing her cheek. This was the exact pose when the moment was marred by the unwanted entry of Ruq.
The camera shifted away from the warmth of the couple in love to focus on the cold disbelief and anger on Ruq's face. She knew Jalal had lost his heart to Jodha and that was already making her queasy. But to see them like this , mid-embrace,and worse, in a moment when he was tenderly caressing Jodha's face after they had shared an exquisite hug, was like salt being rubbed into Ruq's wounds.
There was a lot of wasteful camera play on Ruq ... on her clothes, her jewellery, her hands - before the camera went back to Ruq's burningly jealous eyes. Jodha and Jalal stayed totally absorbed in each other oblivious to the presence of a third in the room. This went on for another few minutes, till finally Ruq had seen enough. She turned away from the room and marched out.
Even then Jodha and Jalal had no idea what was going on and all that these two could feel was the presence of each other in the room. They were as contented as two people could ever be, just forehead to forehead, cherishing the sweetness of the first ever substantial physical contact they had ever made as an expression of their love for each other.
I have no complaints about the hug itself for its was exquisite, and the Director had yet again put his light hand on the shot. But the arrival of Ruq jarred. Dunno what to say!
What happened then to the rest of the episode?
Ruq stomped out of Jalal's hojra when she went close to a big decorative pot in a corner and promptly fainted, toppling the pot over with a loud crash. Was the fainting fit a result of the stress she felt seeing Jalal and Jodha together? Or was is it a completely faked fainting fit? I suspect the latter but we will never really know.
Anyway the sound of the loud clatter broke the ethereal world Jodha and Jalal were in, as they both got alerted to some goings-on just outside the room door. Jalal rushed to see the bandhis saying "We don't know what happened, but Ruqaiya Begum seems to have fainted there". Jodha too had come close to Jalal, but Jalal was now focused on Ruq. He carried her limp body to his bed in his room, which was the nearest one, and promptly summoned the Hakim.
The Hakim, after taking her pulse reading declared that it was nothing ... maybe just a spot of stress or due to not eating properly. The Hakim gave Ruqaiya a spot of ark and soon Ruq seemed quite normal. She demurred when Jalal scolded her about not eating properly and said it was all nothing and she now was fit enough to go back to her own bed. But as soon as she got up to go, she swayed again as if the fainting fits had not quite left her. Jodha murmured something about "being careful" which Ruq chose to ignore as if Jodha was an unwanted insect in the room.
She took Jalal's offered help to lean heavily on him and reach her room. There as Jalal looked a bit concerned and sat by her bed admonishing her to take care of her health, she grabbed Jalal's hand in hers and put on a show of love mixed with a big dose of possessiveness. He didn't quite notice that look on her face that showed satisfaction that she had taken Jalal away from Jodha and cornered all his attention. Jalal then withdrew his hand, saying "Take rest, I have official matters to attend to." He kissed her forehead (W*F!) leaving Ruq looking like the cat that had the cream. He then ordered the bandhis around to give Ruq her medicines on times and vanished from the room.
In Jalal's room Jodha was perplexed - she had been in a world of her own, a cocoon, where there was just Jalal and her in an embrace. That had been violently shattered by the fainting fit of Ruq, but the after-effects of that hug had not quite left Jodha. She was still in that haze when she had tried to talk to Ruq but Ruq has brushed her off like a speck of unwanted dust. The shock of that embrace coupled with the shock of the rude dismiisal from Ruq were all playing on Jodha's mind as she stood in a kind of disorientedness wondering what was happening to and around her!
In a later scene, Shehnaaz was busy searching for something in Maham's room, turning all her boxes and their contents inside out when Maham caught her in the act. "Who are you? And why are you here? Don't you know I am the Wazir-e-Aliyah here? How dare you riffle through my things when I am the ..." Maham was about to say "I am the Badi Ammi of the Shahenshah" when she bit her own tongue for she could no longer claim the connection.
The caught Shehnaaz blabbered something unintelligible but when Maham caught the name of Jodha on her lips, she said "Aha! So you are a new bandhi of Jodha and her spy? Come to my room to spy on me, have you?" Shehnaaz found some words finally as she squawked "I m searching for the Kanha murthy, where is it?' Maham looked ready to demolish Shehnaaz, when Javeeda suddenly entered the room and came to Shehnaaz's rescue. She quickly explained to Maham that this girl was Jodha's friend come from Amer with her, and she was a bit crazy in the head. Javeeda quickly swooshed Shehnaaz away from Maham's room ... but hardly had Shehnaaz left when Maham was reminded of that other person in the surang who was an equal or greater pest in her life.
The next minute we saw a scene where Maham entered the surang with a mashaal and then started again berating the person trapped inside by her with all kinds of dire warnings if that person remained recalcitrant and didn't tell Maham what she wanted to know. She then tried to show the person what she would do ... she picked up the swathed bundle (which looks like the baby) and started applying the flames from her mashaal to it. The very act seemed to put great fear into the trapped person. He groaned and groaned. I am saying "he" because this time the voice was unmistakably male!
In the last scene of the episode, Jodha was doing an aarti ofor the Tulsi Plant the next morning and saying her Gayatri Mantra before it, when Rahim came up to her sand said "Yes the Shahenshah did all that you are doing exactly and correctly everyday as he too watered and prayed to the Tulsi Plant in your absence". Jodha was stunned to hear this. Rahim continued in a very adult-voiced style of chatting "You know, the Shahenshsh is a bit akkudu, but he's overall a nice guy". Jodha was even more surprised at this. She handed Rahim the aarti to take and then gave him a bit of prasad which was what he was waiting for. He then ran away saying "Go give the prasad to the Shahenshah also, but don't tell him I called him an akkudu". Jodha promised not to say, and with a last glance at the Tulsi Plant she went away to go and give Jalal some prasad.
In the precap we see the scene of Jodha showing the aarti thali to Jalal and getting ready to give him the prasad, but he is otherwise occupied ... caressing her cheek and moving her errant hair away from her face. His eyes are full of unspoken love and she too looks up at him demurely, knowing the effect she was having on him. She was no less affected by him herself!
My comments on this episode:
I have already said enough about how disappointed I am with Ruq entering the hug scene like that and hogging the spotlight for a long while. What more can I say about that? It will always be my sorrow that this first hug of Jodha and Jalal - something that I had so hoped to cherish and see again and again - got thus spoilt.
There are some scenes I keep watching again and again for their sheer purity (like that scene at Amer when Jalal first sets eyes on Jodha in the palki during Gangaur). I had thought this first hug would qualify again as one scene that I would clip and keep forever to look at whenever I am down in the dumps. But alas, like an ugly insect crawling on a beautiful flower, the scene got "despoilt" for me by Ruq entering the pretty picture. Enough said. I have to learn to live with my sorrow and hope that soon Ruq will be out of the way in Jodha and Jalal's life.
Talking of Ruq going out of Jodha's and Jalal's life reminds me that even yesterday Gem said she had spoken to Zee and the guy there has reiterated exactly what he had also told Ela earlier. The downfall of Ruq is also imminent now. In fact, the guy had told Ela that it would be Maham who would betray Ruq to Jalal.
So now putting the spoilers we got (of Ruq pregnancy) and the Zee guys assurances, this is what I think may happen:
As Ruk said yesterday when the portrait was being painted, she is determined to get Jalal away from Jodha by hook or by crook. So maybe this whole pregnancy faking idea has struck her. (As ideas go it is not a very smart idea at all. For how long can she fake a pregnancy even with the Hakim's concurrence? Maybe a few months?) So maybe the fainting fit yesterday and a few more of those in the coming days will slowly help Ruq establish to Jalal that she is pregnant.
The spoilers (from two different sources) confirm that Jodha and Jalal will plan to spend the whole day of their Wedding Anniversary together. But suddenly a couple of events will interrupt the day claiming Jalal's urgent attention. One will be the discovery of Shehnaaz's baby and the danger it is in. Maybe thus Jalal starts unearthing yet another conspiracy of Maham and Maham will thus fall even lower in Jalal's estimation and she may become "actively punishable" now. Jalal then presumably goes back to Jodha apologising for the interruption of their special day, when again he gets summoned by news of Ruq being pregnant.
I presume he will thus run to Ruq, but as the Zee man said Maham (who may already have found out that Ruq is faking pregnancy) may betray Ruq to Jalal as she herself is unsavourily caught in the surang issue. As revenge on Jalal Maham may say "Hah! You think you can punish me? What about your own little Khas begum that is systematically making a bewakoof of you by pretending am pregnancy just to split you and Jodha apart?" And thus Jalal may come to know that Ruq too is playing a dirty game. He may get so miffed with Ruq that her downfall begins too.
The spoiler says that despite these two interruptions, Jalal still goes back to Jodha and spends the rest of the wedding anniversary day with her and when he tries to placate Jodha for running away on other business twice that day, one thing leads to another and they consummate their marriage on the day of their Wedding Anniversary.
So this is my hunch that on this one eventful day three things may happen:
a. exposure of Maham and Shehnaaz's baby in the surang
b. exposure of Ruq's pregnancy plan by Maham
c. the Jodha-Jalal marriage consummation.
It is after all an Ekta show, so I will not be surprised if for days together we get little progress, and then suddenly one day everything happens! We may even have a mega episode on this highly eventful Wedding Anniversary Day!
I hope the Wedding Anniversary date is sometime soon so that we can get the end of Ruq as a "kabab mein haddi" as fast as possible, otherwise we have to watch her constantly interrupting the precious Jodha-Jalal cozy moments with her fake pregnancy chaal!
Accha, one last thought about Shehnaaz. See, I am now more than convinced that it is her husband and baby in the surang. Yesterday the voice that was groaning there was definitely male. And as the spoiler says there is a real baby there too.
I have a feeling that somehow Maham thinks Shehnaaz's husband has some information on the farman to give her and has captured and incarcerated him in the surang with the baby. Maybe Shehnaaz herself managed not to get caught and finding her husband and child gaayab must have gone bonkers and ended up at the ashram. That could explain why neither Shehnaaz nor Maham recognised each other yesterday.
But one thing strikes me as fitting this whole jigsaw. If you all have noticed this Shehnaaz is forever preoccupied with finding the "missing Kanha murthy", and whenever she finds it she clutches it close to her heart like she's hugging her baby. Could this be the reason why she is always ferreting around for the lost Kanha murthy. She knows it is in Jodha's hojra but still is searching in Maham's room? Is the Kanha murthy a symbolic representation of her baby for Shehnaaz? Is she searching for her baby when she says she is searching for the missing Kanha murthy?
Arjun
Web Series
