Friends, let me open this analysis by saying that last night I was bombarded by many opinions on the mega episode by my forum friends. Some people hated the characterisation of Jodha and said her character was butchered beyond recognition. Some said it sounded like Jodha was living in the 21st century and not in the 16th century judging by her dialogues in favour of modern feminism. Some others momentarily carried even me away by suspecting that Jodha and Jalal may together have planned to take opposite sides of the argument in this Shehnaaz rape case just to make Shehnaaz cough up the truth by some clever cross-examining. Some others said the episode was a disaster because it had again caused an MU between Jalal and Jodha.
After a whole night's reflection of all these points - and after myself favouring one or more of these points through the night - I saw the whole episode from start to finish this early morning again. And I saw something so different from last night, that I wanted to share my point of view today with you all. It is not at all what you may expect from me if you all think I too am going to join you all in condemning the episode as "bad".
On the contrary, I think we have been given a very good episode, and if we touch our hearts and the truth is told, I think we got a beautiful 360-degree view of the case by making both the leads take up opposite sides of the issue and argue out all the points for and against the case without any rancour or anger or bad blood or MU between Jodha and Jalal!
I stress this point again. See the episode without prejudice and note down every single argument for and against the case as spoken by Jalal, Jodha, Shehnaaz and Todarmal and you will see a beautiful 360-degree exposition of the case. So then what was the reason why many of us missed seeing the goodness of the episode and saw only the bad? Why did so many opinions take only the negatives from this episode and not see the positives in it?
I think the cardinal mistake was that this was a long one hour episode which Zee had decided to devote exclusively to the theme of "Nari Shakti". So normally if we had just had half an hour of episode time, we may just have had half the dialogues of Jodha and half the dialogues of Jalal and the matter would have culminated in Jodha and Jalal agreeing that the faisla would be given the next day. If the arguments were less in the shorter time, Jodha would have looked less argumentative and Jalal would have looked less weary of Jodha. They would have exchanged opposite points of view, it may all have lasted half the episode and the rest of the episode would have wrapped up with Jalal saying "Leave me to give the faisla tomorrow."
We all know the end result of this faisla anyway. Shehnaaz is going to get caught and the Zee Channel has been real quick to release even a new promo showing a desparete Shehnaaz who has lost the DEK case holding a knife to Jodha's throat and giving dhamkis to Jalal. So obviously the whole original idea of the Balaji team and the Zee team was to create one episode with some arguments for and against the case and then to quickly take things to the point of Shehnaaz losing and holding Jodha at knife point.
What gave the episode a negative colour seems to be that for some reasons of marketing strategy Zee decided to label this Saturday as "Nari Shakti Day" for three of its serials. Therefore each of those three serials was given the task of highlighting this theme of Nari Shakti as best as it could, given its current storyline.The episode was also given a one-hour time frame instead of the usual half an hour. The Jodha Akbar team therefore had the task of finding some opportunity to showcase Zee's overarching themeof "Nari Shakti" for one full hour.
What they seem to have therefore done is to elongate the arguments for and against the case. Jodha was made to champion Nari Shakti as the female lead of the show. Notice how even in the DEK, Shehnaaz spoke less, but deliberately Jodha was allowed to represent her and present all the Nari Shakti arguments with high heroinegiri!
Jalal on the other hand was given the task of believing in Todarmal and asking all the counter questions that "victimised naris" are asked ... so that he could be a counter the exposition of Nari Shakti arguments of Jodha and thus create help present the 360-degree debate. What should have been just a half hour episode of a non-acrimonious and a short debate between Jodha and Jalal started getting overtones of near-MU simply because of the elongation of the episode and the need to make Jodha espouse the cause of Nari Shakti vehemently.
Thus I won't say Jodha's character got butchered, because this was not the usual Jodha we were seeing. It was a special one-off episode on a specially chosen theme, and Jodha was made to retro-fit into that theme - and thus a lot of what she said was to take forward the theme rather than Shehnaaz's case.
Similarly a lot of what Jalal said was to create the counter-debate so that Jodha could shine in her theme. The result of the episode thus being artificially elongated to fit a theme led to audiences feeling that a full-fledged MU was developing between Jodha and Jalal ...
... but thankfully this did not happen and I saw no signs of acrimony, antipathy or even mutual hatred or anger between the two. The Creatives kept things to the level of a good debate in good spirit, even if they showed a bit of frustration of Jodha and Jalal with each other at times, which is natural in a heated debate.
But the one positive we got in all this elongation of the "Nari Shakti" theme was that we got so many arguments for and against the Shehnaaz case from all the protagonists that we ended up with a nicely rounded 360-degree view of rape cases (a la a good Perry Mason novel court scene).
It was neither a fault of the actors nor characters that happened yesterday, nor even a fault of their characterisation by the Creatives. To me it looks like the Creatives were being asked to force fit the serial to the theme of "Nari Shakti" that Zee had chosen as common to all its three serials yesterday. So the Creatives had to find that opportunity to display "Nari Shakti" in full colour yesterday and they found in Shehnaaz the victim and in Jodha the activist, and they played it all out for one long hour giving Jodha's character an unnecessary vehemence and making Jalal the bouncing board to test Jodha's arguments against.
We all should have got the idea from the very way the episode started and ended with a huge dialogue in favour of "Nari Shakti" by Jodha! When I saw the episode again this morning I saw what I missed yesterday ... I could see that the start and end of the episode was the real storyline (extolling Nari Shakti) and the episode itself had been sandwiched in-between carrying the continuity of the theme set out at the beginning and ending of the episode!
Now that this "themed weekend" hungama is over, on Monday no doubt we will go back to the story we know. Jodha will probably discover that Shehnaaz is acting mad, but she will probably discover it a bit too late by which time Shehnaaz after getting exposed will hold the knife to her throat and thus prove to all that Todarmal was bang on, Jalal was right to believe him, Zakira was not at fault, and what Jodha did (to defend a poor helpless girl in earnest) went awry because this was no poor helpless girl at all. Even Jalal will be made to say Jodha did right to defend the helpless, except that she herself had been hoodwinked by Shehnaaz. All will thus end well with Jalal praising Jodha for taking a principled stand even if the one being stood for turned out to be a bad egg!
Now let's go back and examine all those opinions people gave me after seeing the show last night. Were they all wrong or were they all right? As I said earlier some people hated the characterisation of Jodha and said her character was butchered beyond recognition. Some said it sounded like Jodha was living in the 21st century and not in the 16th century judging by her dialogues in favour of feminism. These people were all correct, because this was not the Jodha in the story who was talking for one hour, this was Jodha the "Nari Shakti" activist force-fitted into the episode for the sake of the the Channel's theme-based marketing!
Some others said they suspect that Jodha and Jalal may together have planned to take opposite sides of the argument in this Shehnaaz rape case just to make Shehnaaz cough up the truth by some clever cross-examining. These people could also be right and maybe that's how on Monday Jodha may actually corner Shehnaaz to let out her non-mad persona in the DEK and expose herself!
Some others said the episode was a disaster because it had again caused an MU between Jalal and Jodha. To this group I would say, "Look at the whole episode again and show me one place where you think an MU was there!". The thing is if you see the serial the first time it looks like Jodha and Jalal are antagonists, but if you see it again and again there are absolutely no indications of anger between them. There is a heated debate but no "misunderstanding". Even while Jalal was expounding his points, here and there he acknowldeged the truth of what Jodha was saying. And even when Jodha was expounding her points her eyes were showing recognition of the value of the points Jalal was making. They saw each other's point of view even as they held their own ground. I wouldn't call that a "misunderstanding". I think that's what a healthy debate is all about ... holding your case while acknowledging the opinions of the other!
It would be extremely silly to say there was an argument or extraordinary rudeness by Jodha when she said "I will hold my position even if I have to oppose you Shahenshah!". I think on Monday Jalal will applaud her for this far from being angry with her for this!
Okay, so much for my position on the overall evaluation of the episode. Since I have said all I want to right above, and coloured my text green, I won't do my usual "green thoughts" at the end of this post. Instead I just want to put down the full list of "for and against" arguments that were spoken today by Jodha, Jalal, Todarmal and Shehnaaz because as a 360-degree debate it was interesting to see every side of it!
I'll take it up from the point where Shehnaaz has been crying and has brought Jalal and Jodha out of their bedroom - and Jodha is comforting Shehnaaz while Jalal is talking to Todarmal ... (watch the dialogues carefully and you will see how even Jodha and Jalal keep see-sawing in their position. So that shows they were seeing the other side of the arguments also all the time.)
The scene where Jodha comforts Shehnaaz and Jalal talks to Todarmal ...
Hearing Shehnaaz crying and wailing loudly in the middle of the night, Jalal and Jodha who were ready to go to bed rush out to see her with her torn blouse looking dishevelled and distraught. Jodha asks for a shawl for Shehnaaz and covers her while Jalal asks "What happened to you, Shehnaaz?"
Shehnaaz then says, sobbing, "He tore my clothes, he molested me, he has shattered me, I am in pain ... its was that tall man who always goes with you ..."
Jalal then summons all the men in the middle of the night and asks Shehnaaz to point out the man. Jalal points to each one of them, one by one, while Shehnaaz says those were not the culprits ... and as he passes Adham and Shehnaaz says it was not Adham either, a huge sigh of relief escapes Maham who could never trust her son to be above this kind of female abuse.
Then suddenly Shehnaaz points to Todarmal and says "It was him!" Jalal is shocked and wanting to disbelieve his ears. He pointedly asks again "Was it really him, it can't be him surely?" But Shehnaaz insists it was Todarmal. "She's bluffing," says Todarmal but Maham butts in "Why should she? She is not your enemy?"
Shehnaaz then lays it on thick "This is a very bad man. He tore my clothes, he's a bad man, please punish him." In cold tones Jalal then asks Atga to bring Todarmal round to his room for a guftagoo! Jalal then looks at Jodha hugging the distraught Shehnaaz and says "Don't fear, you will get justice!"
In her room Jodha gives Shehnaaz some water to drink, while Shehnaaz says she is in a lot of pain! Jodha tells Moti "I can't believe it, how can a decent man like Todarmal do this to her?" There is disbelief in her voice but also dispiritedness that it has happened!
Jalal pacing his room with Todarmal there, says outright "I have no doubt on you, none at all. But why did you not tell me about this issue before?" Todarmal says "Because I had no proof ... without proof we have already jailed Zakira, I could not again do the same thing with Shehnaaz! I saw she had a wound on her hand like mine and so I started getting doubts about her possibly poisoning the crown. When I followed her I saw she was not mad at all ... she acts childish and mad in front of others but becomes normal when alone! I saw and followed her into your room tonight. She was searching for something when I got the idea she may be part of some plot. I was coming to tell you but she pre-empted me with all this ..."
Jalal replied "I am not sure now what to do because before we get to everything else on the crown poisoning, she has laid this rape ilzam on you. How will you prove her wrong?" Todarmal then replies "You have to find out Shahenshah what is behind all this, why she did it ...". Jalal then says sombrely, "But till then I am sorry Todarmal Ji you have to be nazarband and only in the DEK I can give some faisla ..."
The scene where Jalal vists Jodha in her hojra to tell her about his talks with Todarmal
Jodha completes her early morning prayers to Kanha, and then asks Moti " How is Shehnaaz now?" Moti replies that she is still sleeping. Just then Jalal walks into the room and Moti silently leaves. "Pranaam Shahenshah" Jodha begins. But Jalal gets to the point almost immediately.
"I came to talk about Shehnaaz. Todarmal says he was investigating the crown poisoning affair. He suspects Shehnaaz and further he thinks Shehnaaz is not really mad but only acting mad." Jodha replies "Shahenshah, I respect Todarmal Ji a lot, but he can't just say what he likes about other people. Hedoes this to Shehnaaz and then blames her as apraadhi?" Jalal counters that by saying "He also says he caught Shehnaaz red-handed and to save herself she has cast this molestation charge on him." Jodha recoils at this, saying "Are you saying that this childish Shehnaaz will tell lies of her own indignity?" Jalal says wearily "I was just telling you what Todarmal said ..."
Jodha then says "But you're saying something which I am not able to believe. He is today blaming Shehnaaz of crown poisoning, but till yesterday he blamed Zakira? What if then says tomorrow that it was me who put the poison in the crown? I saw him with my own eyes going behind Shehnaaz. I saw him holding her dupatta and he had no answers to give when I asked. And he said yesterday he went for lagaan vasuli ... what lagaan was to be collected from Shehnaaz?"
Jalal then says "He also says he wanted to do his investigation first and so did not share all this with me, so that our enemy doesn't flee." Jodha counters "Did he tell you earlier that he was doing this investigation? No, right? ... " Jalal admitted "No, he didn't ... " Then Jodha adds "He tells you after you have found out all this so you won't blame him of this molestation?"
Jalal does not let go his side of the argument "I just want to tell you, Jodha Begum, that Shehnaaz is not mad really!" Jodha replies "That is what you have heard Shahenshah, but I know her from the days at the Mathura Ashram and then Amer and then now at Agra, I cannot believe shes faking madness."
Jalal still is not able to digest her words "But I believe Todarmal " he says. Jodha replies "I trust my own eyes. Even after seeing her plight is it that you don't feel for her?" Jalal finds himself saying "I am not against Shehnaaz, but I cannot ignore Todarmal Ji's words either". Jodha then says to him "But you cannot ignore his appraadh either!"
Jalal then acquiesces "I will investigate if he's the culprit or not." Jodha says in haste to him "But by then Shehnaaz will have to suffer the open questioning and all the indignity of the discussion of this issue in the DEK? I too want a fast investigation done by you yourself." Jalal says wearily "Jodha Begum,this is a political issue so don't push me on this one!" Jodha quickly replies "No, this is a stree-related issue. I know Todarmal Ji has done lots of good things for Sultanate, but if it was me, or Ruq or Bakshi or Salima in Shehnaaz's position would you be so accepting? I am worried about Shehnaaz, about the dignity of women ... and I believe she's telling the truth. I cannot let go supporting a hurt woman ... even if I have to go against you!"
Jalal looks at the uncompromising tone of Jodha's words and his own face holds an implacable look of both conviction in his own case for Todarmal and an understanding that she too is talking from conviction! It seems like an impasse!
The scene at the DEK whgere arguments for and against the issue are exchanged ...
At DEK, Todarmal comes in first - with his wife in the assemblage along with all the royals in their places. Jalal is then announced in, and from the outset looks very disturbed. Atga then asks Jalal's permission to start the case that Jodha Begum has initiated as a complaint of molestation and rape against the helpless Shehnaaz by Todarmal Ji. Jalal gives his consent for the case to proceed.
"Shehnaaz what do you have to say for your case?" Jalal asks her. At that point Jodha rises from her seat and joins the hesistating Shehnaaz and says to Jalal "As she is "vikshipth" may I please speak for her?" Jalal gives his consent. Jodha then begins her arguments "I know Todarmal Ji has helped us both by giving us shelter in his house when we needed it, he has then again helped us at Mathura and now he is ably and conscientiously handling our accounts at Agra. But that doesn't give him the right to do this crime to a helpless woman." Atga then asks Shehnaaz "Did this man molest you?" Childishly Shehnaaz replies "He is a bad man, he tore my clothes and manhandled me."
Jalal then asks Todarmal "Do you have anything to say in your defence?" Todarmal replies "She is lying Shahenshah. I never molested her, nor ever intended to." Jalal then asks both Shehnaaz and Jodha "Does she have any proof against Todarmal Ji?" Jodha replies "I saw him following her and yesterday he even had her dupatta in his hand which Moti Bai also saw." Todarmal then counters "But I was not taking the dupatta from her I was returning it to her."
At this point a khwaja sera interrupts and saysto Jalal "I saw him go into your room behind Shehnaaz by climbing in through your room window." Jodha then adds"Earlier he even came into harem behind Shehnaaz where men shouldn't come. Resham is witness to this fact." Todarmal just capitulates for this point and says "Yes, I am sorry for having entered the harem."
Jodha then starts gathering steam on her arguments asking for justice. She says "What justice is this? What kind of investigation is this he is supposed to be doing? Shehnaaz is first assumed guilty, then proof is tried to be found to fit, and then she is suspected of crown poisoning. Can a woman unable to even speak well or have a proper mind do such a plot against the King? This blame of Shehnaaz sounds self-defeating ... and even if it were true, why did Todarmal Ji not tell you all this before, or at least tell Atga Ji?"
Todarmal counters " I didn't want to alert the real culprit Shehnaaz by exposing this information to all. I wanted to catch her red-handed with the proof." Jodha then says "Does proof need to be found in the middle of the night?" She then turned to Jalal and says "Ask him why he went last night to Shehnaaz's room, and when asked by sipahi he said he was there for room for repairs?"
Todarmal then again counters "As I said before, I wanted not to tell anyone about this investigation I was doing." But Jodha was not buying it. She says "Hiding things is not right Todarmal Ji. And will a mad girl tell lies?" Todarmal protests "No, a mad girl won't - but Shehnaaz is not really mad." Jodha then says "But Todarmal Ji she has been living with me for a long while now and I know her well. To exonerate yourself you can't blame Shehnaaz?"
Jalal seemed at this point to have had enough of this crossfire. He shouts across the room "Khamosh!" he then says to Todarmal "Do you have any proof that Shehnaaz went into my room to search for something? Do you have any proof that she's acting mad? Do you have proof she poisoned my crown?" There was no answer from Todarmal and for a moment Jodha looks glad that Jalal was being fair-handed.
Jalal then asks Todarmal pointedly "Do you accept your fault?" But Todarmal simply says "No ... I did no wrong from my point of view. I was doing only my duty." Jalal continues his grilling "Despite so many witnesses who testify against you, you still maintain this stand?" Todarmal replies"You are King, and if you feel I was wrong I will not contest that. But I am again reiterating that all accusations against me are wrong." Jalal again asksTodarmal "So you say you never did any molestation of Shehnaaz?" Again Todarmal counters "No Shahenshah, in this matter I am not an apraadhi. But yes, I am a doshi for having suspected Zakira as a doshi earlier."
Jodha at this point interjects "Shahehnshah when he suspected Moti or Zakira, he took your permission to investigate, but why not when he suspected Shehnaaz?" By this time Jalal too had not many answers to Jodha's pointed questions. His frustration starts showing when he tells Jodha with asperity "Jodha Begum, I am talking to Todarmal Ji, am I not?" Jalal then turns again to Todarmal and asks "Any reason for your suspicion on Shehnaaz as the crown poisoner?" Todarmal says "Her hands are scarred just like mine after my touching the crown ... " But Jodha rounds on Todarmal with haste "That happened from touching hot water ..." Todarmal doesn't give in. He continues "Hot water gives blisters, but her hand resembles mine after poison. You can test this, Shahenshah!" Jalal then calls a hakim who looks at Shehnaaz's hand closely. Shehnaaz herself looks very scared of this examination but Maham is looking triumphant as the hakim says"This looks like blisters from touching hot water". (No doubt Maham fiexd the hakim before the DEK!)
Jodha then sums up saying "Todarmal Ji's lies are exposed and there's nothing more for me to say. I just request you Shahenshah, to do nyaya. Even if this girl is "vikshipth" we have a duty to protect her dignity. No one has the right to do apmaan to any stree!" Jalal resigns himself to his unpleasant duty. "I will take all opinions and declare my faisla at the DEK tomorrow" he says.
What will happen on Monday ...
... well, the "Nari Shakti Celebration at Zee" will no longer be there ... so after Shehnaaz exposes herself by some means and is seen as the culprit, Jalal will probably applaud Jodha and say "Even if you supported the wrong person, I applaud your conviction with which you did so. You have always espoused strong causes even in the face of risk, and this is about the Queen of a Sultanate fighting about the rights of every woman in the Sultanate. So no matter what the end result, I can't help but praising your hunar as a women's activist!"
Thanks a lot Zee, for stuffing your Nari Shakti celebrations down our throats via a one-episode convenient elongation of debating scenes and twisting of characterisations. On Monday please go back to your old story and let us have the sudden and unrealistic catapulting of events by which Shehnaaz exposes herself, so that you can return with a bang from your "nari activism".
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