Friends, what a sudden surprise we got yesterday. The episode was going along well. All those who were upset with the precap of Monday, where Jalal was seen shouting at Jodha, must have got placated pleasantly by seeing how Salima argued with Jalal that he should never have shouted at Jodha - and so Jalal actually went to Jodha in great remorse and got her pardon. All this dialogue between them was ultra sweet in the first segment!
But then in the second segment ... WHAM came the shock and hit us in our faces. Shehnaaz was seen alone with the "Shahenshah" doll beheading the doll by the neck and saying "JaJal, see what I will do to you to get the takht for myself. You deserve to die!" ... and then she looked at the "Jodha" doll and said "I will use you to get what I want ... and then since you are so desperate to always be with your Jalal, I'll see that you too are killed and you can be with him forever!"
It was not just the way she dismembered the dolls viciously, folks, but the way she uttered her dialogues with the sheer savagery of a maniacal assassin that chilled my blood. Her face turned from the childish innocent to a barbarian fiend! We had always known that the actress who plays Shehnaaz was a regular villain in most of her serial roles, but she fooled even all of us with this "sadma-hit" childish act of a person who has regressed into childhood. We too started seeing her as just a sad, childish mind with no evil, and thought maybe she was the victim of Maham's saazish or someone's ill-treatment and cruelty. Look how neatly she pulled the wool over our eyes!
Who is this Shehnaaz? I still feel she is the long lost sister of Jalal because she clearly called the Shahenshah "Jalal" as if she expects to have a lot of familiarity with him, Unlike other vamps we have in this serial (Maham and Ruq) she is not anti-Jodha, she is anti-Jalal. And she talks directly of getting the "takht" if Jalal is eliminated. My guess is still that she is probably Aqiqah the lost sister of Jalal now come back in their lives to claim the throne for herself. Maybe she has anger that she has been deprived of a childhood in the palace as she should have deserved.
But the question is whether she is a separate anti-Jalal force or she is in cahoots with Maham ... or even whether she and Maham are at cross purposes for now. Could there be a possibility of Maham and Shehnaaz joining forces at some point if Shehnaaz is a lone operator now?
Also, now, more than ever, I think the surang-captive and Shehnaaz are linked and somehow there is something huge brewing between these four entities - Shehnaaz, the surang baby, the surang-captive, and Maham, where they may working towards the same purpose - the Delhi takht - but not together.
I also have one other doubt. Shehnaaz didn't say she's after the "Delhi takht" alone, she just said generally that she wants "the takht" and for that she has to kill Jalal. So could she mean the larger throne that Jalal occupies and not merely the Delhi takht? Otherwise where is the need to kill Jalal? And connected to this is the fact that she almost killed Rahim yesterday in the doll-snatching fiasco. So is killing Jalal's adopted son also part of Shehnaaz's plan?
The other huge question to ask is: how did Shehnaaz come to be in the same Mathura ashram as Jodha and if she was there from before Jodha reached there, how was she aware Jodha would come there? Was she shadowing Jodha and Jalal for a long while and anticipating their moves ... or was it just by chance that she came upon Jodha at the ashram? And is this dual way of praying - like a Hindu and a Muslim - is it part of her act or a genuine unique trait? Too many serious questions are now popping at me.
Anyway, let's leave Shehnaaz aside for a little while to see what else there was in yesterday's episode.
I want to detail the full set of interactions that Jodha and Jalal had yesterday via four different scenes. I thought that it was beautiful that the Creatives and the Director had so exquisitely shown the four changing hues of the relationship between Jodha and Jalal ... starting from the knee-jerk shouting and anger, to Jalal's remorseful discovery that he had made a mistake, to his gentle placation of Jodha and finally their exquisite love on the morning after.
Let me take you all again on that journey from anger to love that I am never tiring of watching repeatedly. (I especially want to do this for Maddy, my dear friend, who was so down in the dumps yesterday ... hope you will enjoy the way I have detailed the scenes below, Maddy!)
Jalal shouts at Jodha and draws the line on Shehnaaz's continued stay
The episode opened where the previous one left off. Jalal was hugging Rahim after he saved him from the fall and was looking daggers at Shehnaaz still on the terrace, laughing away with completely inappropriate glee at having snatched the two dolls from Rahim. Jodha was standing by Shehnaaz helplessly, neither able to control Shehnaaz nor able to bear the look of sheer anger on Jalal's face. Ruq looked aghast, while Salima looked undescribably pained. "See your dolls are with me" said Shehnaaz exhibiting a childlike one-upmanship that got Jalal's goat. Ruq looked silently pleased that Jalal was looking at Jodha also with the same anger as he was showing Shehnaaz. They all moved away from there as Jalal carried Rahim in.
In the next scene, Jalal, Ruq, Jodha, Salima and Rahim were seen in the parlour of the palace. Ruq deliberately gave the whole incident a sinister twist by asking Jalal "Oh my God, did that girl push Rahim over the edge?" "Looks like that was her plan" Jalal said with clenched teeth and a very angry face. "But who is she, and what is her objective in coming to this palace?" Ruq continued, giving Jalal some more chaabi.
Salima intervened seeing the needless spin that Ruq was trying to give it all. Salima said "She's just a childish girl, Ruqaiaya Begum, and she has come with Jodha from Mathura. She has no evil in her and it was not her plan to push Rahim and neither does she have anything to gain by doing this. She was just playing with Rahim and it was all accidental, Shahenshah." Ruq did not like the way Salima was undoing the alarm she had created in Jalal.
Just then Hamida came into the room and asked after the wellbeing of Rahim. Salima again tried to bring her calm reason to bear . She said "Ammi Jaan, Rahim is very fine now. He was a bit shaken before but now he is so cool. He is such a brave boy, isn't he?". Hamida also asked Rahim "How are you dear?" and Rahim promptly replied chirpily "I am fine now. Shehnaaz was just trying to grab my dolls, and I fell down ... but I am OK now."
Ruq didn't like the simplicity with which all this was being handled casually by Salima and Rahim. She so wanted that this issue should get blown up and Jalal should remain angry with Jodha. Jalal meanwhile was frowning mightily, unwilling to accept that the dangerous moment was now well past. He went over to where Jodha was standing and asked in menacing tones "You knew fully well that girl is a paagal woman. Then why did you allow her to play with Rahim?" Ruq who was not invited into this discussion still added her two bits "Thank God Rahim is safe. How can we trust him with a mad woman?"
Jodha looked astonished by the tack Jalal was talking that Shehnaaz was "mad". She said in defence "Shehnaaz is not mad. She has the mind of a child. Yes we did have a scary incident, and I too love Rahim very much. But I can't accept that Shehnaaz wilfully did a crime. Shehnaaz is like a child and sometimes children's play turns out to become accidentally dangerous. I have spent a lot of time with Shehnaaz. I know she acts mad but her mind is really pure and gentle."
Jalal unfortunately went back into his typical knee-jerk unthinking mode and shouted at Jodha "Bas, Jodha Begum. You just met some paagal at Mathura who spoke a few sweet words to you, and you got "hamdardi" on her? And then you actually bring her with you to the palace, and now we have a near "haadsa" and still you are defending that girl? Here I was running to save Rahim from dire danger and that paagal girl was laughing and clapping! Only a mad nut can do such a thing." Jodha was taken aback by the sheer whiplash-like vehemence of Jalal.
Salima again intervened and said placatingly "But Shahenshah nothing happened to Rahim, right. Isn't that a good thing?" Ruq still wanting to bung a spanner into the works said "But if Jalal hadn't reached on time, what would have happened?" Jodha added "Shahenshah, Shehnaaz didn't do anything deliberately. She did it without knowing what she was doing!". But Jalal was still screaming with his full lung power "Did you not hear what Ruq said, Jodha Begum. That girl wanted to snatch the dolls, and she deliberately gave Rahim a dhakka!"
"You didn't understand my words Shahenshah" Jodha said pleadingly, but Jalal put a stop to her words "That girl is a paagal and she cannot run free in the mahal like this. She has to be sent back to Mathura for her treatment". Ruq added with asperity "Right, she can do something worse tomorrow if she is not sent away". Jalal turned to look at Jodha with a lowered but still ruthless voice "Jodha Begum, make arrangements for her to leave immediately. She cannot stay here with us!" Jodha walked out of the room.
Salima gives Jalal reasons to rethink his behaviour and to talk gently to Jodha
After Jodha left, the argument still continued between Jalal, Salima and Ruq. Jalal told Salima, "How can you argue for her. What if something had happened to Rahim?" But Salima said with grace and dignity "But nothing has happened, isn't it?" Jalal fired back at Salima "So should we wait till that paagal girl does something next that is worse?"
"I beg your pardon Sahehenshsh" Salima said with great firmness, "but that girl is not a paagal. There is a great deal of difference between a paagal and a childish person." Ruq then added obliquely "But this is not some asylum either where paagal patients can get treated. Jodha knew fully well this girl was not right in the head so where was the need to bring her here?" Jalal momentarily agreed with Ruq, to Salima's great consternation. But then a thought struck him "Why did Jodha bring her here though?"
Salima saw her chance to give Jalal a dose of the stark truth. "Shahenshah you have to understand how Jodha was feeling when she left home. When Jodha left Agra and went to Mathura, Shehnaaz was the only friend there with whom she could share her own pain. Jodha feels oneness with Shehnaaz as a result. You and I cannot understand, Shahenshah, what pain Jodha was feeling at that time. How can we now tell her to abandon someone who stood by her in her pain?" Jalal looked immediately at Salima as if she had opened a new door in his mind. He had clearly never thought of this whole matter in this light!
Salima seeing that she was making a dent in Jalal's consciousness, then continued "If Rahim had done the same thing you would have forgiven him. But this girl is no different. She is bodily grown but her mind is stuck in childhood. You have got angry on Jodha without proper reason, Shahenshah. She has only now started healing from the wounds of the recent past and I am afraid your sudden anger towards her today will reopen all her wounds."
Ruq didn't like the trend this advice from Salima was taking. She interjected "But the Shahenshah has every right to get angry in a situation as we now have. " Salima didn't let go her point. She added "Shahenshah, it is not as if Jodha doesn't love Rahim, in fact she loves him more than even you and I do. I know the situation made you angry and you allowed this "anban" between yourself and Jodha. But I beg of you Shahenshah, you have to go and try to talk to Jodha Begum, and put your point to her gently. Tomorrow is your wedding anniversary and to let it fester discord is not good. You should be celebrating this "paak din", and not allow it to degenerate into arguments."
"You are right Salima Begum, I should not have lost my temper" Jalal agreed eventually, with a lot of insight. "I will talk to Jodha about it today". With determination he left the room as Ruq looked on in disgust. All her negative persuasions had amounted to a big zero, thanks to Salima.
Jalal arrives to placate Jodha and reaches some deep places in her heart
Jodha was then fuming silently in her own room "Hardly do we make up when the Shahenshah again does the same old thing. He starts shouting at me for everything. Shouldn't he think over what I said about Shehnaaz's actual condition? But when he's angry nothing works on his mind. He neither listens nor does he do the right thing. He just does what he wishes!"
Jalal just then entered her room with a contrite face and wondered how to open this prickly topic with her again. He could sense that she was very hurt and angry herself, as she was sitting turned away from him. "Jodha Begum" he began tentatively, but she turned even further away from him and her body language was not conducive. In fact she was driven to sarcasm "Pranaam, Shahenshah" she said "have you got some work here with me?"
He drew near her and said softly "I want to talk about what has happened." Jodha bit back "What is there to talk about? You thought I made a mistake, you shouted and the matter was closed."
"Please look at me" he said with calmness and a plea in his voice. But she turned away again. He put a finger under her chin and gently turned her face around to look at him. "Look at me" he said again, and she slowly seemed to come round. He sat opposite her with her attention on him now. "I know I shouted at you Jodha Begum. But I just wanted to explain. Rahim is the son of my atalik Bairam Khan and the only "sahara" of his mother Salima Begum. And now I am Rahim's atalik, and naturally when he was in danger I lost my head. I had to save him in the nick of time, at which point it really got to me to see Shehnaaz clapping and laughing with glee." Jodha intervened "But Shahenshah, I was also trying to tell you that Rahim is no less important to me too. But I know that Shehnaaz has no more brains than Rahim has."
Jalal then said what his heart made him say "I don't want to fight with you any more. I don't even want this tana-maroing between us. Too much has happened between us already. Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary and I just don't want to spoil it. I made a mistake shouting at you, now please, you don't add another mistake upon it by getting upset with me. Please forget what has happened because I am very remorseful about it."
"Okay, okay, " said Jodha suddenly changing her mood. She was now getting more coy than angry. "It doesn't look nice if you are all the time begging my forgiveness." "What?" Jalal asked with some surprise "do I ask your forgiveness so many times?"
"Ask yourself that" she replied with a bit of cockiness, and went off to stand by the window. He followed her "Oh so that means you are still angry with me and don't want to forget what happened?" "Don't I have the right to be upset with you?" she asked - now almost cooled off but still keeping up pretences of anger. "Yes you have the right" he said, "but if you do that it hurts me. I want to say again, I am sorry for what happened. Now please forget all that happened for I cannot see you so upset."
He then went away leaving her eyes following him, her face now looking at him more with love than anger. He had done a good job of getting her off her high horse!
A new dawn breaks in the lives of the lovers, as they greet each other body and soul
The next morning dawned bright ... and a fleeting shot of the Akbar Ka Makabra was shown where the soul of Jodha seemed to move closer to the soul of Jalal.
The scene then cut back to the terrace of the palace where Jodha had woken to a beautiful morning, a very happy day of her life. She was enjoying this meaningful new dawn, when Jalal was doing the absolutely same thing on another part of the terrace opposite his room. He saw her and made his way towards her.
She didn't realise he was near her as she folded her hands to pray to the Sun God. He too took the cue from her and offered his silent prayers. Hardly had he finished praying silently, than he heard her speak her prayers to the Sun God "One year has gone by Surya Dev, when you have changed my ghrina into love. I have seen a lot of different colours of life in this one year. There were many ups and downs but you have made it all OK in the end. It's a new start to my life today. I have just one prayer now ... please fill the Shahenshah's life with fame, "maan" and happiness."
Jalal absolutely loved hearing this and there was a very touched look to his face. She half turned after her prayer when she saw him standing beside her and exclaimed "Shahenshah, you are here?' "I can ask you the same thing, Jodha Begum, what are you doing here?" he said. "I came to say thanks to God for this new direction in my life" she said very simply. His eyes were filled with love as he looked at her happy face. "On our wedding anniversary, my greetings Shahenshah" she said to him.
"You'll get lots of greetings today from everyone Jodha Begum, but I just want to give you, my wife, my personal greetings" he said, and he put his arms around her in a very loving hug. She reciprocated with her own hands holding him tight. It was an extremely sweet hug, both of them reflecting their feelings in their eyes, their bodies very close.
"Greetings to you too Jodha Begum" he said to her at last as they let go of each other. "You are my "shareek -e hayat", my "subse aziz begum" and I pray that Allah gives you every happiness" . As he said these words softly, Jodha leaned forward to rest her face on his shoulder nestling close to him. He pulled her closer and the dawn saw them both together standing as one instead of two. What a beautiful, beautiful scene! Ufff, ufff, ufff ...!
My comments on this episode:
We'll all get plenty of opportunity to examine Shehnaaz and her raaz in detail in the forthcoming episodes ... so today let me just focus my comments on the journey that Jalal and Jodha's feelings took through the episode.
I think rather than always just seeing only the lovely side of love, it is also deeply pleasurable and satisfying to see how negative feelings get transformed into the most beautiful love across a single episode. That's what was so charming to me about this episode. Negative feelings were there to begin with, but they were not allowed to fester ... and instead, in a sequence of four scenes, the negative anger of Jalal was rechanneled into the gentler emotions of remorse, the placation of Jodha and then finally into an abiding love between the two. It was like watching a mini love story unfold within a single episode.
Yesterday when so many people in the Forum were so upset with seeing the Monday precap (where they merely showed that one sentence where Jalal shouts at Jodha), I sensed somehow that the precap was a bad edit of what was going to be the final scene. I had some inkling inside me that after this long separation track that we have been through, the love and Jodha and Jalal has hit a new level where they will not again be separated by harshness towards each other. I had some feeling that the loud shouting sentence by Jalal was only an aberration and it would be ironed out fast enough. In my mind, it definitely was not "another repeating insult of Jodha and that too in public". That's why I kept writing reply after reply saying "Wait and watch ... wait and watch ..."
I am thankful that I was right - for my own sanity depended on the inkling of eventual peace between them that was in my mind.
Now here is something important I want to convey ...
I think the truth of the Jodha-Jalal relationship (that all of us have to accept) is that Jalal by temperament is "quick to anger and quick to cool" and I have a feeling Jodha too has learnt that about him during her lonely days at Amer separated from him. She no longer sees it as a negative in him, she sees it as his natural trait and that is why she was not going round the bend about his "bad behaviour". Likewise he too has seen that she has a natural trait to "give sympathy too readily to the underdog" and beyond getting angry with her for giving snactuary to Shehnaaz, when Salima told him Jodha too needed Shehnaaz's support at one time, he understood that Jodha character trait was such and it was not a "mistake" she had mindlessly made.
In our own families we have always known people who are like Jalal but we do not mistake their bouts of quick anger as "insults upon us" ... often we let it pass saying "That is their natural temperament. Their anger is knee jerk and within minutes they will cool down and get all remorseful". We are tolerant of such people in our own families, so why then do we all assume that Jodha will take every bout of anger from Jalal as an insult in public to her persona. If anything, I think this separation has taught Jodha that Jalal's quick temper should not be over-exaggerated by her as an "insult to her "maan" and "sammaan" and if she does not reciprocate with her own "rootna" the matter will cool off as quickly as it got hot.
Jalal too has realised that his short temper is landing him into problems with Jodha - for he can see how they have hardly patched up the old hurts and he is again repeating his past mistakes of shouting before thinking. But the fact that he has realised his mistake is the important part. When people have a natural temperament to get heated up or cooled down quickly, they may not always be able to stop themselves from doing knee-jerk shouting, but if they at least acknowledge that they have this character fault, the others around them will not mistake their shouting as grave personal insults.
I think everybody yesterday who thought Jalal was again insulting Jodha needs to get Jodha's own new sagacity and understanding that Jalal does have a short temper but he does not mean to be rude. In fact when he cools down, he is very upset with himself for his own character fault. As he said to Jodha in the episode yesterday, he wants her to forget what he did and forgive his weakness - as he forgives many weaknesses in her - and he does not want her to compound his mistake with another bout of her own anger on top of everything. He said in so many words "I don't want this bad blood between us any more. Please don't add your "rootna" over above my mistake in shouting at you. I am very sorry about it." When she said "Okay, okay, don't ask for forgiveness so many times!" he actually was taken by a bit of surprise at how often he is repeating this same mistake. "Have I apologised so many times already?" he asked her ingenuously!
I think folks, that part of being in love, in a genuine and non-artificial way, is to be able to see where someone is really negative versus where someone is unable to help having character faults that are hard to break. In Jalal temper is a character fault that seems to be rearing its head every now and then but if someone in his family exaggerates it, the situation goes from anger to ego, when things become difficult to repair.
In the same way I should think there was a grain of truth in what Jalal also was thinking about Jodha's "over-sympathy for the downtrodden". It is her character fault that she implicitly believes every story of every underdog (like Shehnaaz) and thus gets trapped in the wiles of the chaalaaki people. She has now got into the trap of a very villainous woman who has done a huge naatak of being the downtrodden in front of Jodha.
If Jalal's fault is a short temper, Jodha's character flaw is "sympathy without thought for the downtrodden". But think about it folks, these same character flaws in both of them is what makes them great also . It is Jodha's streak of "sympathy for the downtrodden" that made her bring Jalal closer to his needy praja ... and it is often Jalal's quick anger that also makes him throw out meaningless traditions and bravely introduce far-reaching religious reforms in the face of opposition. His temper has its worthwhile side as her "sympathy for the underdog" has its positive side.
As viewers, I think we have to stop having knee-jerk reactions to precaps and promos and wait with self-control to see whether we are making too much of an issue that Jodha and Jalal are themselves taking lightly nowadays, accepting each other's character flaws as part of their overall lovability!
Sorry if I sound preachy today, but I feel for the very sanity of our hearts and minds we have to be tolerant of our hero and heroine's character flaws and cut them some slack. We should not be too quick to judge and condemn them, as we would not wish them to judge and condemn each other. Let's be to our heroes and heroines as compassionate for their flaws as we would be to our own family members.
My father, for instance, had a horrendously quick temper that often cooled down in one minute but by then he would have said two thousand vile words to my mother. Over the years my mother showed her love for my father by accepting that as his great flaw and used to even laugh about it. My mother, on the other hand, has a "bad habit" of lending money to anybody who cries a sob story on her shoulder. My mother's character trait got my dad so often in the early days but later he got so okay with it he used to laugh at my mother and leave her to her ways.
This is love when people grow to accept each other's flaws and do not take umbrage all the time. Don't you all agree with me that it is time we audiences too accepted the flaws of Jalal and Jodha and stopped thinking of these as continuing hangovers of their early days?
This is the wedding anniversary of their one-year journey of personal and joint transformation. Let us realise they are two different people than they were before, and let us not think that just because they have some continuing character flaws that pop up now and then, that they have not changed at all! Even after years of being in love some traits cannot be changed so easily since that is people's nature to be like that. Understanding that is part of being in love!
Just one more passing thought
Did you all notice this scene properly? Ruq who was systematically sidelined by Jalal and Salima on the Shehnaaz issue, threw a wild tantrum on the morning of the wedding anniversary of Jodha and Jalal and then calmed down when she remembered that Jalal loves her room to be filled with flowers, especially roses.
She thought of a plan to fill her room with roses and to invite Jalal over, but for some reason Hoshiyaar looked aghast when she demanded for roses, as if the Shahenshah and roses do not quite get along! There was just that bit of hesitation in Hoshiyaar that gave me the feeling that somehow Ruq was about to make some major blunder again! Didn't you all also get that feeling?
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