and I am dismayed that you did not say a word about the criminal irresponsibility of Jalal investigating nothing on his own, and pronouncing the irreversible death sentence the very next day, and this on a man who had saved his life, and the charges against whom Jalal himself did not believe.
Well, here is my take on it.
Shyamala Aunty
Jodha Akbar 274: The depths of folly Well, my friends, your feeble hopes, and mine, have now been dashed beyond any recall.
As I had predicted (on Elas mahaepisode thread) , Jodha was not part of any plan. She was absolutely and genuinely self-righteous and chuffed up with a sense of virtue even after Todar Mal's execution was announced by Jalal. Her face was hard and devoid of even an iota of either sympathy or regret at such a harsh punishment. I felt like hitting her with a blunt instrument.
Agreed- I did say in my take that Jodha has shown she can also misjudge character completely
The amazing thing was that contrary to my expectations, Jalal too was absolutely sincere, and had no stratagem to save a man who had just a little while ago saved his life . He was willing to let him be blown up for, if one comes down to brass tacks, attempt at rape, not rape, and this when he is not convinced of his guilt. This is exactly like the Tasleem track, when he had NO plan B, only worse, for he is ready to take the life of a man who has saved his, just as Sujamal had. .
While I still have some hope this is Jalal's plan to get Shehnaaz out of guard ... It is likely he has no plan B
I would say there is one difference with the Tasleem track- there it was Jalal's plan and his action of creating the law without considering the repercussions so he was responsible for the mishaps that followed ... Here he is expected to solve the mistakes of Todarmal (yes even as a fan he has made mistakes here)
Is Jalal expected to be the superhero and cover for everyone's mistake? Why was Todarmal silent and didn't ask to question Zakira who he had confided to before the fact?
But Sujamal, who had entered the harem and killed dozens of Mughal soldiers while escaping, got off scot free because he had had the good luck to save Jalal's life, while Todar Mal's saving the same life apparently counted for nothing.
Then again, Sharifuddin and Abul Mali, who rebelled against Jalal in what was also a gunaah-e-azeem, and a far worse one, were merely imprisoned, as was Zakira for another terrible gunaah-e-azeem, of trying (as was believed) to assassinate the emperor.
Bakshi Banu and Mahaam could both have got Jodha killed for supposed infidelity, and all they got was ostracism in the first case and even less in the second. It is all cockeyed, and utter nonsense.
Sharifuddin was then released because his wife was pregnant. So it is all Todar Mal's wife's mistake, she should have had a nadaan, paak, nirdosh balak on the way!😉
Aunty, these examples feel different for me for one major reason:
In all the above cases, either he or Jodha were the primary victim and hence, they had the right to forgive the criminal ; Jalal cannot forgive Shehnaaz's supposed criminal for saving his life
The soldiers were acting as representatives of Jalal, so I do not think they can complain against Sujamal.
I had written that I would have liked her to dress Jodha down, and she did, but in far too lukewarm a manner. As Minnie noted, we expected a Draupadi style outburst. She should have given Jodha a shraap.
Not that even a shraap would have disconcerted this Jodha. Her face retained its expression of sulky righteouness and self satisfaction right thru that segment; it was a rigid, very poor performance. It needed Kanha and the bujhe diye to give her at least a jolt.
I loved TM's wife for not being OTT- she turned what Jodha was so proud about into TM's sacrifice in duty
The only one who survived in this episode was Ruqaiya, who stood up for Todar Mal citing his services to the Mughal sultanate. I felt like giving her a standing ovation.
Yes, but she could do nothing to prove it as well ... Even Jalal said the same in the mahaepisode. Jalal cannot say even with evidences I will not punish TM because of his services to the Mughal Sultanate.
Now my last lingering hope is that Todar Mal will quit Agra after Shehnaaz is exposed, and betake himself to Mathura, preferably after delivering a sharp alvida to Jodha: Nari ka hi sammaan nahin hota hai, Jodha Begum, purush ka bhi sammaan hota hai. Aapne mere atmasammaan k0 asahaniya chot pahunchayi hai, aur ab main yahan ek kshan bhi nahin rukh sakta hoon.
Yes, leaving is one way to show self-respect but another is to win amidst your own enemies and detractors. I still appreciate how after the false MC accusation Bhagavan Das had shown a lot of graciousness in understanding Jalal's situation.
The evidence was again circumstantial ... The only difference was Jalal truly believed in it then and here he is torn.
Jodha AND Jalal deserve nothing less for their ingratitude, their propensity to bend the rules to suit themselves, and their criminally faulty sense of judgment, plus his despicable catering to her whims and fancies. Yeh joru ka ghulam to aadmi hi nahin hai, Shahenshah to door ki baat hai.
It was not like there was no evidence against Todarmal. But Jalal is always at fault- whether it was accusing Jodha for Ruq's MC or in the Jodha-Sujamal track. He is expected to be the superhero who goes beyond evidence and realizes everything can be planted and how.
Today's precap was sickening in the degree of despicable weakness sand pusillanimity shown by Jalal. The Shahenshah-e-Hind sentences a loyal minister on charges that he himself does not believe, because Jodha Begum kabhi galat thi hi nahin. And when he has been specifically told by the ulema that he has the final word regarding the sentence, he still pronounces the death sentence. He never even thinks of investigating the case himself.
Did he only listen to Jodha- did he not ask HB and the ulemas for advice?
What would he investigate? He is expected to be judge, lawyer, evidence collector, everything?
He probably wanted to burnish his own credentials as an impartial judge at the expense of Todar Mal's life. Would he have sentenced Mirza Hakim to death on a similar charge? No.
I have only seen him, so far, forgive criminals when he was the primary victim / in the case of Adham Khan, Ruqaiyya chose to forgive him
Then he stands on the terrace feeling sorry for HIMSELF, and his aching dil, that one of his azeez is going to be blown to bits on the morrow, and,get this, he can do NOTHING about it. Can anything be more disgusting?
And his beloved wife,the one who upheld nari sammaan by railroading the man who saved her husband's life to his own death, stands there with nothing to say. I wished that the storm had blown both of them off the battlements. They could then have gone to heaven (presumably) and left us in peace.
I am not saying that either what Jodha or Jalal did is right; Jodha has shown misjudgment of character; Jalal has not found proof ... But how can he miraculously find proof?
Once the truth comes out, donon ko chullu bhar pani mein doob kar marna chahiye.
This is the pits. There is no hope for this serial any more. I am glad I did not watch the mahaepisode. Today's muck was as much as I could take.
As for Todar Mal's benighted idiocy in forewarning Shehnaaz, in great detail, about exactly how he planned to expose her to Jalal the next day, it was exactly like such scenes of the hero boasting to the villain in the bad Hindi films of the 1970s and 1980s. I could not believe it as I watched him blabbering out his plans for the morrow to her.
perhaps, the only thing we agree on ... I also say this is Todarmal's fatal flaw in my take
Finally, far more than all my other gripes about this track, what got my goat is the trivialisation of a very serious crime against women, rape.
What on earth did they think they were doing, having Jodha unleash all this sound and fury (I am not even going into the question of such behaviour being impossible in a 16th century context) for the benefit of a woman making a false rape charge? What sort of nari shakti promotion is this?
In my mahaepisode take, I criticize the very same thing
It is precisly the sort of thing about which the Supreme Court has warned now, though in a slightly different context.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
PS: They were copying from Mughal-e-Azam at one point (Jalal's fantasy before the dhakka scene) as against from Jodha Akbar the film all the time. Now it seems they have gone back to Mughal-e-Azam, with Todar Mal being sentenced (I was sure, wrongly as it turned out, that Jalal had cooked it up with Todar Mal) to be blown up by a cannon, just as Salim was almost blown up in K.Asif's classic.
I am sure it will be full on dramatic for sure
At this rate, how would they deal with a serial molester like Adham Khan? He can hardly be blown up repeatedly!😉
The day they have proof against him let us see
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