What a classy, loving and companiable suhaag raath! - Page 17

Friends, there was so much angst among all of us yesterday as we waited with bated breath for this suhaag rath scene (Did suhaag rath really happen😕 )finally hitting our TV screen. So many of us were a bit upset that Jalal was coming to Jodha, fresh from kissing Ruq Just a hand kiss and forehead kiss should not matter ...and we didn't like the idea that he would do a consummation scene with Jodha insensitively when he had just come away from Ruq's side suddenly remembering that Jodha existed.

But that was not the way it happened at all. The episode did not start with Ruq nor were the scenes muddied with any hint of Ruq,(Jodha did remember ruq though till the very last precap. (And even then it was a jealous and aghast Ruq we saw, taking in the signs of the aftermath of Jodha and Jalal's consummation - which gave our hearts a whole load of satisfaction.)

I have no complaints at all that the suhaag raath episode was sullied by the Ruq pregnancy affair. On the other hand, the love between Jodha and Jalal was so exquisite, that I clean forgot that Jalal's other wife was sitting in her room with a fake pregnancy blow to deal to him. For today it was just about Jodha and Jalal, and that was more than enough. I absolutely loved the way the jealousy of Jodha was transparently admitted by her - leading to one of the finest confessions of love I have heard from a man to his woman. Jalal told Jodha that despite his many wives, it was she alone whose name was etched on his heart. He told her he was "Jodha's Jalal" for all eternity. And they were no different from the Radha-Krishna that she loved so divinely. How could a man have better confessed his love for his woman than to call to her memory that most divine and eternal love of Hindu mythology? And then when he says "If you know so much about my heart, why this jealousy?", she says in the most soul-satisfying way to him - very simply - "Because I love you too!" He persists. "If there is so much love, then why such "doori" between us?" he asks ... and from there it was the dance of bodies and souls coming together in love.

Folks, I have to admit ... it was one of the greatest episodes of a consummation scene I have ever seen in TV serials. It was utterly classy from start to finish, and ever so beautifully picturised. The words I am using feel too poor to describe the way I felt when watching the scene, and even afterwards as I savour all that I had watched. It was the kind of romance I wanted desperately for Jodha and Jalal to have, and it was exactly what my soul has already imagined several times for me. To me it was the love of which legends are written, the ideal love of a kingly man and a queenly woman - with none of it, not even one second of it, hurting to the eye or seemingly out of place.

I loved the way she was caught in shyness at the beginning stages of the touching and feeling and moved away from him often although with a lot of inner ambivalence and an outer faking of miffedness - but then when he started walking off, what a tight and fervent hug she gave him from behind to stop him in his tracks. She just spoke to him with that hug in that moment without any words. The sheer relief on his face when she did that was palpable.

There is something very beautiful born in the moment when a woman who runs from love suddenly finds she cannot run any more ... and her readiness for making love exceeds even the wishes of the man. That moment when Jodha hugged Jalal to stop him from leaving was that turning point when Jalal knew she had arrived in his arms. And then he crowned it all by telling her "Even if you had not done that, I wouldn't really have left!" Ooh, folks, what can I say? This is one magical couple catching us all in their magical love!

The direction was sensational, the art direction was glorious, no part of the whole episode was cheap or cheesy, the actors were fully into it with their faces, and eyes and bodies and even souls speaking to us of their love ... and best of all it was not the sort of inelegant or clichd rough and tumble of bodies that many serials show in the name of physical chemistry and consummation. It was only about love and not at all about lust! Thank you Ekta, thank you again and again for that!

And what's more, it was completely believable. Jodha and Jalal had had one whole year of marriage before they came together physically like this - and their hearts and minds had gone through many ups and downs together. They had finally managed to find comfort and love together at the heart level before making it all physical. The consummation scene between them was thus tinged with nothing unsavoury, crass or rough. It was pure elegance, pure bodily love growing from pure feelings of the heart. It was polished, dignified, aristocratic body language, where the silence and sweetness of their moments together spoke of a deep companiable contentment together. This kind of love-making can only come from two people who have taken the pains to really know each other at many levels before they come together physically as a culmination of their many other forms of love.

There is a place for rough push and pull chemistry - and a place for silken smooth love making. It takes deep friendship and mutual warmth to be able to make love in the way that seems to please both their souls - and the souls of those watching such a scene. How beautifully did they both waltz through this whole episode? It was an episode I will always like to return to and watch again and again for sheer poetry in consummation. We were fortunate to see a consummation scene like this, that took the full 25 minutes of the episode and converted it to liquid magic ...and we're grateful for it, even if it came to us only after 200-odd episodes.

I could write pages and pages of praise and yet not feel I have done justice to this episode, so let me get on with it, knowing that all of you who write on my thread will pile on even more praise than I can ever manage to express.

Also, folks, I know that a lot of you want me to give you the whole episode as I saw it, and so I have spared no detail here below in my description of what happened in the episode ... not a word of dialogue nor the smallest bit of action has been missed. Enjoy!

There are also my "green comments" after that ...

For all those who want to know what happened:

Atga, Todarmal and Mansingh are all congratulating Jalal on his impending fatherhood, when Jalal says he is truly feeling a strange and beautufil feeling about it. "I feel as if I have got wings" he says. "Then why not spread this news to the praja also?" asks Mansingh. "Sure" adds Munim Khan, "The awaam will also be delighted about this." Jalal's face grows sombre. "By no means should this news be spread" he says. "We don't have a shortage of enemies. And we have been through all this before. Please Atga Saab, keep this information away from the world and secure the harem and the mahal on this." Atga agrees.

Leaving the place and entering the palace terrace Jalal bangs into Shehnaaz who starts effusively reacting to seeing him "Mubarak ho Shahenshah for the good news. It is such good news isn't it?" she says. Jalal looks at her happy face and then removes one of the haars he is wearing and gifts it to her. She takes it gratefully and holds it as if precious, but as soon as Jalal goes, she is seen with a changing face. She wears a look of disgust and then breaks the haar viciously. "I don't want this one. I want the haar you are wearing, Jalal!" she says with a wicked gleam in her eye.

In her hojra, Jodha is standing by the window looking very downcast. There is a beautiful full moon outside but she is racked with jealousy. She sees visions of how she had chanced upon Jalal with Ruq at the mention of her pregnancy ... how he had kissed her forehead and her hands ... Tears choke her voice as she walks up and down by the window "Why am I feeling so bad? He is after all the Shahenshah, he has many wives. They all love him and he loves all of them. Then why is my mind feeling so distraught?" She starts crying bitterly when Jalal comes into the room saying "Jodha Begum, where were you all this while? I have been searching for you all this while!".

She quickly wipes off her tears. "I am so happy today" he continues, "and I wanted to share my happiness with you." She is still turned away from him, looking out of the window. "You have a lot of people with whom you can share your happiness", she says. He realises that something is not okay with her. He walks up to her and touches her on the shoulder and says "What happened Jodha Begum? Are you upset with me about something?". The minute he touches her, she snarls back with unshed tears "Don't touch me." She then starts walking away from him. "For God's sake, Jodha Begum", he says, "tell me what happened?" She gathers herself and says "Nothing has happened. Bas, I am very tired and wish to sleep now".

Jalal takes a few steps towards Jodha and says "Tell me what the problem is? Is it that you are very unhappy because you have seen me with Ruqaiaya Begum when we were close? Are you not happy that I am to become a father?" She is still turned away from him steadfastly as she says "You are the Shahenshah, who can be upset with you? It is your right to have countless wives. As for Ruqaiaya Begum, she's your first wife, your best friend and now going to be the mother of your child. How can I feel bad seeing you with her?"

Jalal then reveals a lot of his own agitation on this matter of Ruq's pregnancy as he says "To tell the truth Jodha Begum, I can't remember when Ruqaiaya and I ..." (He couldn't remember when they had slept together of late!). "It's been an age since I spoke or went to her. But when you had gone away, I may have gone to to Ruq and ..."

Jodha reacts to all this as if it is distasteful to her. "I don't want to hear or know all this" she says, a bit too tense."I know you have a lot of Begums and to go to all of them is your duty. But what can I do about my heart? How can I make it understand that I don't have exclusive rights to you? I may look pleased and happy and smiling on the outside, but inside me I am not able to see you with anybody else. How do I tell my heart that just because my pati is a Shahenshah, I have to share him with others. Because husbands have those rights but a wife has to bear it all and keep silent! If a woman even looks at a man, or even thinks about it, it is considered an "adharm". But whatever a man does is all okay? You can keep as many Begums as you like but a wife has to just live with the limited joy that her husband has at least given her the position of a Begum? It is just treated as my lot that as long as you are in my room, I have to try and please you. Yet I can never know for how long you will hold me in favour and when I'll just drop away from your attention. Bas, I am supposed to be just happy that however long you are pleased with me I must consider myself fortunate?"

Jalal has been listening to this diatribe with slowly growing discomfort. "How can you even compare yourself with all the others Jodha Begum?" he asks in a very disturbed way."I never thought you would resent my childhood friend and the soon-to-be mother of my child like this! Yes I am the Shahenshah and yes, I have countless Begums, some of whom I got as gifts and some of whom came to me as spoils of war, and yes, some I adopted because they needed "sahara" after society had discarded them. But all this happened before I met you Jodha Begum. Before you came I was just another bloodthirsty Shahehnshah, a lusting maleand a thoughtless warrior.But what I was not was just a man. I thought the "dil" inside everybody was not inside me. But after you came I started realising I too had a "dil".You showed me I had a heart and you awoke the "nek dil insaan" in me. All these countless Begums of mine dream about me but none can read the dream in my eyes. But there's not one of them whose pain makes me hurt too. There's not one of them whose pain I want to wipe away and watch smile every minute of the day. There's no such one but you. Yes as a Shahehnshah I have countless wives and I have to give them their rights. But not one of their names is etched on my heart! Because it is only you who even with closed eyes can feel all my dreams. It is only you that magnetises me towards you. You are the only one with the power to give me a dhakka, because you are the only one who owns the heart of Jalaluddin Mohammed. You alone are joined to me not by body or mind but by my soul and my breath. Even if you weren't the most beautiful woman on earth, you are the only person I want to live with and live for."

"Look at your Kanha, he too had hundreds of wives. He too did his duty by all of them, but his heart was given to just one of them. And that was Radha, Jodha Begum!" Jodha's eyes widened with shock at hearing his knowledge of all this. And the comparison to Kanha hit home! "In hundreds of temples around the world, he is seen not with his hundreds of wives but just with his Radha! Jodha Begum, a Shahenshah has lots of duties and obligations, but he can make place for love too in his heart. In future years, your name is going to get inextricably linked with mine. Even people who don't know me may call me "Jodha's Jalal". Time changes everything. Tomorrow I may even not have this Sultanate, but my love for you is forever. As long as my name is taken, your name will be linked with it. And as long as I am praised for my deeds my love for you will be intertwined with it. Jodha Begum, this story is not about a Mughal King and his Hindu begum. This story will always be about two people who made two religions into one. This story is about how a barbaric King became a "nek dil insaan". And the person who changed me is you, Jodha Begum."

Jodha, deeply affected by his declarations of love softened her voice as she said to him "You know, as a Shahenshah you have many duties and have to give all your wives your time. But about this jealousy I have in my heart, what can I do about it?" She breaks down into tears again and hides her face from him. Jalal walks towards Jodha and firmly holds her by her arm and turns her towards him. He asks in a soft voice "If you know everything, then why this jealousy?" He looks searchingly into her eyes and they are locked in gaze for a few seconds. Then she can hold it back no longer. "Because I love you!" she says with candour. His eyes widen as he understands her deep pain. It is also something he feels all the time.His own love changes to something that is beginning to feel physical. "If there is so much love, then why this "doori" between us?" he asks.

He starts moving closer and closer to her, his eyes holding their gaze on her eyes and face and lips. She is startled like a deer in the gaze of a hunter. She gently pushes him away from her for sanity. He circles her slowly, still holding her eyes, and then takes a firm grip of her arms. He leans forward as if to kiss her, but she suddenly turns away from him sharply and shows him her back. She is trying very hard not to succumb, perhaps from old habit! He doesn't let go. From behind, he puts his hands on both her shoulders, and moves his face close to her neck as he says "Now give in, please!". She replies "I am in pain." He turns her slowly again towards him and tries again to get his face close to hers for a kiss, but she moves away yet again. He pulls her back by her dupatta. Once more he tries. He turns her to face him and tries to get closer to her face, but yet again she moves out of his grasp. Looking dejected, he starts walking away from her, out of the room. Seeing him leave, she cannot bear it any more. She runs behind him and starts hugging him from behind, both her hands firmly holding onto his shoulders. He is in a haze of physical feelings, but happy to be stopped. So beautiful is this moment to him, that he closes his eyes to savour the feel of her giving in to him. He covers both her hands on his shoulders with his own hands. She too realises what she has done and opens her eyes incredulously.

He then turns her towards him, holds her face with both hands and gently kisses her forehead lingeringly. He then rubs his forehead against hers and says with honesty "Even if you continued objecting, I still wouldn't have gone away!" They stare at each a long while, but then Jodha sways towards him and they get locked in a long, long embrace. Slowly then Jalal opens his eyes and kisses her neck and shoulder. She turns away from him in shyness, but his hands caress the full length of her arms and their fingers intertwine.

The scene shifts gently to the Akbar Ka Makabra where the two souls of Lodha and Jalal talk. Jalal's soul tells her soul "That night between us every wall was broken Marium Uz Zamani". She replies "That night's full moon also seemed to celebrate our coming together." There is a gentle dissolve back to reality as he carries her in both his arms to place her on the bed in his hojra.

In a corner of the Amer countryside, Shaguni Bali is looking at two cowrie shells on the ground in front of her. They look like they are tailing each other. Shaguni laughs in delight as she spots also the full moon hanging in the sky. The cowrie shells now look like they are making out. One has fallen open on its back, while the other is climbed onto the first one. "Tonight is a special night" Shaguni tells the onlookers who are staring at her. "This is a night that comes once in hundreds of years. It is a date that history will remember. See the moon how it shines. Something sure is different tonight. Today love has triumphed. Come let's all dance with happiness". The onlookers get infused with her delight and start dancing, and so does Shaguni.

Back in the Agra palace, in Jalal's room a million romantic candles are burning bright. The table by the bed showed a heap of ornaments that both of them have divested. Jodha is turned away from Jalal on the bed, but he is lying close and caressing her hair, and then holding her shoulder he turns her face towards himself. Her eyes are closed to all the many sensations going through her, while he is unashamedly looking at her as if he cannot have enough of her. He starts caressing her face with both his hands and then slowly removes her earrings, her nose ring ... and then after taking his fill of how pristine and pretty she looks, he lowers his face to hers, but she turns her face away in shyess. Their hands are shown intertwined tightly. Jodha is seen with closed eyes as he nuzzles her neck. But then she suddenly sits up as if she cannot bear it all any longer. Jalal smiles slightly at this sudden shyness in her and then he too rises to sit beside her.

He then moves his face to her back, pushes her long hair aside and his fingers untie the dor of her blouse. He leans forward to kiss her back. Jodha turns towards him emboldened and pushes him back to lie on the bed, as she lies partially over him, snuggling into his shoulder. Jalal hand pulls on the rope that hangs from the purdah above them, and the purdah then cascades elegantly to envelop them both nestling in each other's arms in bed. The camera pulls back to give them their privacy.

The room is very beautiful, lit by the soft light of a million candles as the two in bed are visible barely through the sheer purdah that separates them from our peering eyes. We, the audience, are happy to leave them alone at last. It has been a classy and very loving and very companiable coming together of two people who have known each other for a year already and have found comfort with each other before getting into the next phase of making love.

This was by far one of the more classier scenes I have ever seen of a consummation. I have no complaints about anything. Everything was in the perfect fitness of things, right from the moment they said "I love you to" each other and then alternately wouldn't let each other go till they were utterly satisfied.

In the precap, Ruq comes silently in the morning to Jalal's room, presumably in search of the missing Jalal. Parting the purdah hanging over Jodha's bed Ruq peers in ... only to find Jalal and Jodha deep in sleep hugging each other closely like the last bonds that separated them were broken the previou s night. There is a new togetherness in them as they lie there, half over each other. Ruq is aghast and cannot believe her eyes!

My comments on this whole episode:

There are lots of fine details in the whole episode to thrill over so let me just start running my list ...

1. I loved the way Jalal refused to tell the praja that Ruq was pregnant. I think he is very doubtful in his mind on this whole pregnancy story!

Jalal told Mansingh, Atga and Todarmal that he didn't want the Ruq pregnancy news spread across the praja. This was an absolute echo of what Hamida also had said in an earlier episode. In fact, I believe this is not just because the last time Ruq was pregnant they made a big hoo-ha about it and it all became a miscarriage fiasco. Agreed that thought must have been on Jalal's and Hamida's mind. But more importantly, I think both Hamida and Jalal are not quite 100% certain in their minds that Ruq may indeed be pregnant. Hamida was heard asking the Hakim "How could Ruq be pregnant if you yourself told me last time that she couldn't ever become pregnant? " And today in talking to Jodha Jalal himself was puzzling over when he could have been with Ruq to make her pregnant - he had doubts if he had indeed visited her sometime when Jodha was not at Agra, although he couldn't be sure at all! At this stage neither Jalal nor Hamida suspect Ruq of faking pregnancy, which she is doing, but they have legitimate doubts on how it could have happened. That is enough of a starter for me if Jalal is beginning to question this whole pregnancy premise!

2. I love the way Jodha rants about the feelings of a wife in a polygamous marriage. Jalal's way of confessing his love by drawing comparisons with Kanha was a masterstroke.

Jalal knows fully what she is feeling because he knows that her every articulation of her angst at being "one of his countless women" is nothing but an expression of "wanting to be his one and only woman". She takes a lot of pains to fully empty her heart of all the negativity and desolation that comes from knowing your husband has many wives, and maybe many loves, and that his first wife and now the mother of his impending child must take precedence in his mind. But how astute of Jalal to immediately ask her "How in the world can you think you are just one among the many for me? How could you resent my being with Ruq no matter even if she is to bear my child that I want to have so badly? You are the one that made a man out of me and showed me that I have a heart. And you are the one that etched your name on my heart. And you are the one who will forever be remembered as my love. All the countless wives I've had were part of my history before you came into my life. Now you are the only one for me. I want to be known as "Jodha's Jalal". And how can you not see that I am exactly like your Kanha, who had many wives and yet gave his heart only to Radha - such that it's just the two of them revered for their legendary love in temple after temple?" I thought it was such a masterstroke that Jalal drew that comparison to Kanha. Not only did he know that the Kanha analogy would melt Jodha, in one stroke he elevated his love to that of divine immortal love! I thought Jalal's confession of love was spectacular. And I equally liked Jodha's confession of love that was as starkly in contrast with his voluble style as possible.. She just said it in four simple words "I love you too!" Two sides of the same sentiment. One side showed the value of explaining fully with analogies.. The other side showed the value of saying it as forthrightly as possible without any frills or fuss. Beautiful!

3. I loved the way despite initial reticence and rebuffing Jalal continued to insist she give in. And then I loved the way she ran to hug him when she thought he would go away!

I saw this whole scene as part of the dance of love that lovers through time often go through. Even after the admission of love from both sides, there is just that bit of reticence that Jodha shows in taking their love to the next level when Jalal asks her "If there is so much love, then why this "doori" between us?" At first I thought that maybe this reticence on Jodha's part was intended to show us that she was still a bit miffed with Jalal for having so many wives and thus making her feel a bit jealous. But then I saw her actions again and again and realised it was just the dance of ages. Whenever we have a man and woman, where the man is pursuing the woman, the woman always from time immemorial has teased the man with a bit of initial reluctance. This happens not just in human beings but in all species around us. The female of any species "puts up her price" for a bit before giving in - and perhaps God made it that way so that the man knows that the woman he is chasing is of precious value and not to be taken lightly. Many a mother has taught her daughter not to give herself in too easily! I am so happy that in this episode the Creatives and the Director thought to include a bit of classic womanly "hichkichaahat" disguised as "miffedness" in Jodha before she gave in. Jalal said to her as she continually pushed him away "Please give in Jodha Begum!" Did you all notice that she replied that plea with "I am in in pain!". She did not demur, she did not really spurn him, she was in agony even as she was playing the primordial womanly game of not giving in too soon. But then he did what every man again does. He actedas if he's walking off, when unable to bear the thought she runs from behind and embraces him like she cannot let go. I think it's a super-sensational moment when the woman suddenly turns from prey to captor in a love-making scene! They become equals at that point! And that's why I think he also admits "Even if you had rebuffed me, I would not have really left!". Over aeons, the dance of love has never changed, has it?

4. I loved that fleeting Akbar Ka Makabra scene inserted in between as he carries her to bed. And I love the Amer music that came on at all the right times. And so did Shaguni!

The continuity from the earlier storyline was kept intact so that this consummation scene looked like the culmination of all that had gone before. The Amer music and the Akbar Ka Makabra scenes were very evocative touches to the episode. Even in the flurry of the new activity of their bodily passion the things that had uplifted their hearts and souls in the past were kept lingering in their lives. The Makabra scene and the Amer music have now become synonymous with their soul talk. In the Makabra scenes they really talk in words. When the Amer music comes on they talk in melodies! I also want to add a word about the Shaguni scene. I thought that was splendidly done too, although at first I was wondering why they suddenly brought the loud Shaguni into the picture like comic relief! Then it struck me that they could have harked back to Salim Chisti also but they diidn't. They went back to Shaguni for it was she who swore by this relationship at the earliest stage and then played a part at every critical juncture egging the relationship on. But more than that it was Shaguni's cowrie shells that were so dramatic. Look at that analogy the Creatives offered via the cowrie shells. At first both shells are trailing each other. And then one shall falls on its back, open to receive the other shell that has half climbed onto it. There are many crass consummation scenes that show the humans doing the same thing and this cheapening the look of the scene, reducing it from love to lust. But by using the cowrie shells as a surrogate for the way Jodha and Jalal became the ready-to-mate man and woman, the topic was kept as far away from physical cheapness on screen as possible. It was also not as stupid and clichd as some movies where they show two roses touching each other or two butterflies chasing each other. The cowrie shells idea was very innovative and yet explicit, but still not vulgar!

5. The actual consummation foreplay scenes were perfect and just about enough. And the way the purdah came down like a cascade was a beautiful way to give them their privacy.

Despite all talk of a body double, I personally think there was no real body double used at all. I have repeatedly seen the scenes and I am thoroughly convinced. If at all there was a double used it can only have been in the back kissing scene, but even there I doubt it. (My personal feeling is that Paridhi did all the shots herself ... but just to be careful about her family not getting socially affected, she gave an interview about body doubles - as a cover or insurance against possible future social embarassment for her family.) The way he carried her to the bed while the scene was dissolving with the Akbar Ka Makabra scene was very beautifully choreographed. The neck kissing scene was just fleeting and well done with Jodha's face in full focus while Jalal's face was in soft focus. The subtle way in which their removed jewellery was seen on the bedside table and the way he removed some of her jewellery was well done, even though a trifle clichd. The overall candlelit atmosphere and the whole ambience of the hojra was very elegant. I also liked the way she sits up as he starts getting a bit too fast with her, and he gives a fleeting smile as if he knows she wants him to go more slowly. And then the way he untied the dor of her blouse, even if it was all again a cliche, was nicely done, because we seldom have seen a kiss on the back looking so good and passionate. I particularly liked the way she then took a bit of control to push him back onto the bed and started lying on his shoulder. In the 16^th century, folks, nice to know that sometimes the women too were demanding!

6. The precap was everything I hoped for ... I wanted Ruq to get the message that pregnancy nothwithstanding, Jalal was too much in love with Jodha for anything to matter!

I know that the fake pregnancy did not get exposed before this consummation scene itself - which would have been ideal! But at least the precap showed that Ruq had gotten a very big message seeing Jodha and Jalal sleeping together like a pair of hugging babies after an event-filled night. Ruq had seen that despite her "big and absorbing news" of pregnancy, Jalal's love for Jodha has gone so far that he seemed not to let the pregnancy stop him from bedding Jodha. What more do we want? Thank God, that signal has gone to Ruq. Now in a desperate bid to make the pregnancy the first priority in Jalal's life I feel she will overstretch the whole issue - and she may score a self-goal by revealing all herself at an unguarded moment (that is, if Maham is not faster on the draw in telling Jalal that the whole pregnancy is a fake!)

So much for my huge post today folks. Those who have the patience to read it deserve a gold medal.⭐️ Thats for my self...though it is never an ordeal to read your post...i would love you to write a book if haven't written one already...you wonderfully pen your thoughts.

My only sorrow is that after this visit to Heaven I hopeI don't have to return to Earth too fast via a sheer drop in today's episode quality!