Friends, I must admit that I loved the episode yesterday. It was such a refreshing change from the over-the-top events of the previous episode characterised by men brutalising other men with violent and barbarous animal energy. Yesterday's episode was instead less ferocious, but no less powerful, because it was imbued with the more finely tuned sheer force of woman power. The episode was a kind of beautiful contrast to the episode before it, simply because of the two distinctive kinds of intensities of energy that men and women emanate when they are ready to unleash their most dominant selves.
There were three things I liked immensely about the episode ...
I liked the idea that the Creatives introduced of showing Shaguni Bai as a sudden and unexpected intercut among the events at Agra.
Back in Amer, at the temple of Ma Kaali, Shaguni was shown throwing the cowrie shells for her daily prophecies. The shells seemed to fall into a reading that spelt some kind of seismic upheaval. She raised her eyes in alarm at the murthy of Maa Kaali and said "What is this? This is not how it all falls every day? The forces of Nature are to be unleashed it seems, and it will leave many fallen and a few chosen ones standing. The ones imbued with the inner fire of Kaali will vanquish the others. And a whole lot of blood is to be shed, a whole lot of blood indeed".
I thought it was a nice creative touch to interrupt the events of the building storms at Agra with the shot of Shaguni and especially Maa Kaali. Because this scene, which came quite upfront in the episode seemed to give off sankets of woman power about to rear its mighty head . In the last scene of the episode Jodha is heard telling the women "Nari shakti sustains the world. But when the time demands it, the same nari shakti can vanquish the world and demolish the asuras that dare to stand against it." And as Jodha then picked up the talwar of Jalal and held it high above her head in a signal that she was ready to fight to the death in the cause of the right, the loop that was opened with the sceneo f Shaguni Bai and the Kaali temple was closed as chants of "Ma Kaali", "Ma Kaali" accompanied the background music that was dramatic and daring!
Overall it was a good creative symbolism opened at the start of the episode and closed by the end of the episode, reinforcing the image of woman power at its most frightful and fiery. I am told that Ekta loves this aspect of Kaali and makes most of her heroines depict that intimidating force of Kaali at some point in all her serials. In Jodha Akbar I guess Ekta found that the time was now to unleash that side in her Jodha.
I loved the way the Creatives made Jodha come to the realisation that Jalal was alive and well and could not be dead as Mali claimed.
When I saw the precap of the previous episode, they showed Abul Mali hurtling the blood soaked bundle containing Jalal's armour and shamsheer at the ladies of the harem and jolting them with the lie that Jalal was dead. It never occurred to me then that Jodha would be shown doing some quick deduction that Abul Mali would be lying. But when that scene actually happened in yesterday's episode, I quite enjoyed seeing exactly how Jodha arrived at the truth despite the lies that Mali was trundling out at the women.
In fact Abul Mali, I thought, condemned himself by his own mouth. In an act of overdone bravado, he set his men on all four sides of the harem khema of the women and threw inside the bundle of Jalal's blood-drenched sword and armour. He then said Jalal was dead. But in what turned out to be his "overdone" shot, he decided to tell the ladies exactly how Jalal died. He said "Do you know how your great Shahenshah died? He went down on his knees, and then he fell at my feet and begged and pleaded for mercy. His last words were that of a coward as he said Please take everything I have but please spare me'".
Suddenly,as it were, the lights went on inside Jodha's head. This man was lying and she knew it, simply because of a last conversation that she and Jalal had had just before he left for war. Jalal had told her "I will either return a shaheed or return successful. If I was ever to become a shaheed I promise you, I will never go down on my knees before anyone nor beg for mercy, and the last words on my lips will be the name of Allah!'". Jodha's mind rang with the words of Jalal, and she knew that whatever happened, especially in death, Jalal would never become the coward that Abul Mali was making him out to be.
Further Jodha asked Hamida and the other women "Where is the body? If Jalal was dead, would his body not be paraded before us as a sign of triumph? We have his armour here but not his body. We have his shamsheer here but not his hands. We have his helmet here but not his head! Where is his body?"
Folks, I simply loved that one piece of dialogue that Jodha said to the other women that seemed to give some of them something to think about in the midst of their anguish! Some of the women thought Jodha was in "sadma" and unable to cope with the realisation that Jalal was dead. But one look at Jodha's eyes and the light of conviction was there for all to see. "I am in my senses" said Jodha, "and I know, I can guarantee, Jalal is alive and well with them, although he is being kept hidden from us. I know he's okay and this man is lying".
Maybe it was a combination of the baby in her stomach helping her senses to be sharper than usual about Jalal, or maybe it was Mali's obvious lies that alerted her. When once the light of reason is lit in one mind it soon catches on in other minds as well ... and we saw how the group of previously beaten women began to entertain hope in their own hearts. It happened slowly but soon it caught on like wild fire.
I loved the inspiring and uplifting speech of Jodha right at the end of the episode as she exhorts the women to eschew poison and take up the shamsheer instead.
Abul Mali was drinking heavily outside the harem khema surrounded by his soldiers. He had apparently given time to the harem ladies to get ready for his own entry with his men, and was telling his men to be patient for the rewards of patience are sweet. He hallucinated about treating the Begums in chains with disdain and spewing dramatic sentences at them like "Today I have got everything, Jalal's Sultanate and his harem. Where can these women go and who can save them? They are ours for the taking."
Inside the khema, however, the women seemed to be debating on what to do. Many of them sank in the face of the inevitability of the situation and said they would prefer drinking poison to getting caught by this "animal" outside. Prime among these "poison is best" advocates was Ruqaiaya. But Jodha stopped her short saying poison was no answer. The surprising thing was that even the normally brave Maham seemed to have given up on getting any better ideas. "Begum Jodha, we don't have too many choices with all these men around us and with no prospect of Jalal returning", she said.
But Jodha's eyes by now had turned to steel and the fire of an unbroken spirit seemed to emanate from them. Jodha's words cut through the air with their crispness. "Our spirits are not yet broken, Mahamanga Ji," she said, "and I just know that the Shahenshah is alive and well. He will come himself to save us. But we've got work to do before the Shahenshah can reach us." The women in the room started looking at Jodha with hope in their eyes hearing her courage and determination. Jodha then continued with her uplifting speech "How can a lesser animal like Abul Mali stand before a lioness? And we are all lionesses ... me with my Rajvanshi lineage and all of you from the lineage of Vir Shiromani Shahenshah Babur."
It was almost palpable when defeat started giving way to hope and confidence in the room among the women gathered there. Hamida started wearing a more queenly look as she raised her head in the first sign of assertiveness. Ruqaiaya continued to wail but less defeatedly than before "But how can we protect ourselves, Jodha Begum, they are better armed than us.?" Jodha replied "We have to give a good fight with whatever is at our command. Let us allow history to judge us by our actions. One thing is for sure, we cannot afford to lose the battle even before it begins by drinking poison. We cannot let the enemies break our resolve. We will have to fight to the death. We are women and considered weaker for sure, but don't forget that inside every woman is Durga and she is not weak. She can demolish the wildest of asuras. A nari's strength is what sustains the world. But when the time demands it, a nari's strength can also vanquish the world. Today the time has come for the hands that wear bangles to start wielding talwars. The hands that apply tilaks to their husbands' foreheads are needed to behead the enemies. Till today I believe no Shahenshah has ever taken his harem to war as our Shahenshah has done. Surely that is our sanket that we have to now fight for ourselves and for him?"
The room quietened as the women drank in every word that Jodha said. One begum alone was still in a questioning state. "It's so tough wielding a shamsheer ... "she trailed off. "No" Jodha said," we cannot accept loss. We will not bend to our knees."
And saying that Jodha picked up Jalal's blood-marked shamsheer and held it high above her head in a signal of lalkaar to the men outside. The reverberating chants of "Maa Kaali" seemed to ring in the air around her as Jodha began to emanate the fire of the unquenchable goddess herself. In that moment Hamida looked proudly at her daughter in law as she stood there holding aloft the sword of her invincible son. The determination in Jodha's eyes started lighting up other pairs of eyes around her. In a moment of revelation, the women in that room collectively realised that there was something they could do to save themselves! What a sensational speech by Jodha ... what a sensational moment that was as she held Jalal's sword in her uplifted hand ... and what sensational self-belief she showed. She was beckoning the women to continue the fight from where Jalal had left off - with the unshakeable conviction that he was alive and would soon join them!
These then were my three top picks for the episode yesterday.
For those who want it, here's what all happened in yesterday's episode ...
Jodha and Moti are sitting beside the Kanha murthy when Jodha says she can feel the presence of the Shahenshah somewhere nearby. Moti gives Jodha a lot of reassurance that she believes her and Jalal will soon return to her. Jodha gets sentimental and says the baby inside her is an ansh of the Shahenshah and connects her up with the Shahenshah. If something had really happened to the Shahenshah she would have sensed it inside herself. Jodha then prays to Kanha "Why do you time and again put me in such difficulties Kanha?" Salima who comes there just at that moment says it's because problems make Jodha stronger. "I have belief in your faith, Jodha Begum, and the Shahenshah will surely come back safe," Salima says "for our prayers and that of the entire awaam are with him. Just stay patient and trust your Kanha" Salima adds. Jodha and Salima embrace each other in solidarity - but just then a baandhi enters and announces that the enemy sena is approaching their khema. Jodha, Moti and Salima are shocked.
Back in Amer Shaguni Bai at the Maa Kaali temple is casting her cowrie shells with a sudden vigour. She is suddenly alarmed by what the cast cowries are telling her! "What is this?" she exclaims, "why are these shells telling me such a strange message today? It's not as smooth a life as every day.There is some danger in the air. Your fearful roop Maa has given a challenge to these inimical forces. What is happening is however the need of the hour, but blood will be shed. A lot of blood will be shed. Many will die but those who survie will be those handpicked by fate."
In a forested area Todarmal meets with the head sipahi who had been given charge of looking after Jalal. "There is no news of the Shahenshah's whereabouts" the sipahi tells Todarmal, "in fact I last saw the Shahenshah here exactly, talking and fighting with Abul Mali. Mali seemed to have said something to the Shahenshah that he suddenly left behind a lot of enemy sipahi bodies and went missing himself." "I have bad news" said Todarmal, "The Shahenshah has been captured". The sipahi got submerged in guilt that it was all his fault. "Let's not let any of our men know the Shahenshah is captured or their morale will sink" said Todarmal, and then he decided to go in search for Jalal himself.
At the harem khema, Hamida and all the ladies ran out to get further confirmation from their sipahi that the fauj of Abul Mali was heading their way. Shock and apprehension gripped the ladies, including Maham and Resham. We saw scenes of Mali's men in large numbers closing in on the harem khema."This is a difficult moment and not in our favour" said Hamida to her sipahi and women, "but still we have to be alert and be disciplined". And with that she and the other ladies hastened back inside the khema for refuge. Meanwhile the armies of Abul Mali had encircled their khema, and Abul Mali stood at the head of his forces facing the entrance of the khema.
Abul Mali raised his hand in a sign of new power. "Hear how your Shahenshah tried to attack me and was put down", he shouted loudly. "Here take this and see how he died." And with that he threw a blood soaked bundle containing the armour suit and shamsheer of Jalal towards the ladies. "Get ready to welcome your new Shahenshah" he added menacingly. As the bundle was unwrapped inside the khema, the ladies all stood stupefied, unable to believe that this was all that remained of Jalal. Jodha saw flashbacks in her mind of the way she had sent Jalal to war with an aarti. "I will return to you successful" he had promised her.
Ruq collapsed in hysteria seeing the bundle of blood soaked remains of Jalal, while Hamida tried hard to console and control herself. The inevitability of the sight before them made the hearts of the women sink. Salima tried to give Ruq some support but the rest of the women started collapsing one after another in shock. "After you have mourned your losses get ready to surrender to me" shouted Mali, "or go and drink poison." He then added "If you surrender to me you will be taken care of. I am your new owner whether you like it or not. You are all my property now."
Little Rahim came there and took in the sight of the crying ladies and Jalal's armour and asked innocently why all this was happening, and he had to be led away before he too was overcome by the truth of what had happened.
Mali went on shouting relentlessly. "If you hear how disgracefully the Shahenshah died, you too will spit" he said and demonstrated it. "He went down on his knees, begged for mercy and said as his last words Please take everything I have, but spare my life'". The ladies were further aghast to hear this, but something in Jodha stirred at those words and a new life dawned in her eyes. She started smiling and laughing in happiness "Nothing has happened to the Shahenshah, he is alive and well and Mali is lying" she said. Hamida started feeling concerned for Jodha, that perhaps she was unable to take in the spectre of Jalal's death and was hallucinating. "You are in sadma, my child, "said Hamida, but Jodha was quick to reassure her that she was fully in her senses. "See this blood stained armour suit ... why is only this here and where is the Shahenshah's body? His shamsheer is here but not his hand. His helmet is here but not his head. Where is the body if he has died and why is his body not brought to us as proof of his death?" Jodha asked the ladies. "He is with them and safe but being kept hidden from us. And all this truth Abul Mali is himself giving us through his words that the Shahenshah is actually alive."
Jodha then remembered clearly her last conversation with Jalal where he had told her he would either become a shaheed or return from the war successful. But if he were to become a shaheed, he would never go down on his knees and beg, and his last words would be "Allah". Jodha said over and over again to the women "He is alive, he is well, I know that for sure. These were his parting words to me that he would never go down on his knees and beg and his last words would be Allah'. Do you all think he is such a coward? " Salima, normally more controlled herself, gave in to her sadness and told Jodha to wake up from her trance, but Jodha again reiterated that she was fully in her senses and knew what she was saying. "Jalal will never die a coward's death", said Jodha full of an inner faith that she was finding difficult to convey to the other women.
By this time Abul Mali, still outside the khema and at the head of his ringed men was drinking heavily. He started having hallucinations as if he had all of Jalal's begums in chains and he was rough-handing Ruq's hair as she had the temerity to tell him that she was Ruqaiaya Begum, the Begum-e-Khas of Jalal. "I will break your guroor" Abul Mali imagined himself saying as the wives of Jalal seemed to plead for his mercy in his own imagination."Leave Ruqaiaya,your ghrinit prani" he imagined Jodha shouting, as Salima then took a different tack with him saying "We are all relatives, why behave like this?" Mali imagined that he shouted at her "Relatives don't tear each others' eyes out, do they? Look what Jalal did to my eye! What mercy do you crave?" And with that, in his own mind, Mali found himself ending with some dramatic sentences like "Today I have got everything, Jalal's Sultanate and his harem".
Then reality dawned on Mali. He was drinking heavily. "I have given these ladies time to get ready for me. Let's wait for where they can they go, they are ringed from all sides by our men, and with no one to save them" he said with aplomb to one of his men.
Inside the khema, however, the women seemed to be giving up hope one by one as they bemoaned their circumstances. Ruqaiaya took her bottle of poison almost to her mouth as she said bitterly, "Better than to fall into this animal's hands is to drink this poison." But Jodha in the nick of time bade her do nothing of the sort. "Begum Jodha" what choices do we now have with all these men around us and with no prospect of Jalal returning?" Maham said to Jodha. But Jodha's eyes had turned steely and her words sliced through the air. "Mahamanga Ji, our spirits are not yet broken. And I guarantee that the Shahenshah is alive and well. And he will come himself to save us." All the women started looking at Jodha with a small glimmer of hope in their eyes hearing her confidence. "But we've got work to do before the Shahenshah can reach us" Jodha continued, "we have to start defending ourselves. How can a lesser animal like Abul Mali stand before lionesses? And we are all lionesses ... me with my Rajvanshi lineage and all of you from the lineage of Vir Shiromani Shahenshah Babur."
Hope started being born in the women as Jodha spoke. Hamida started wearing a prouder look as she raised her chin in self-affirmation. Ruqaiaya said "But how can we protect ourselves, Jodha Begum, they are better armed than us.?" "We have to give a good fight with whatever is at our command and let history judge us by our actions, we cannot afford to lose the battle by drinking poison. We will fight to the death but not let the enemies break our resolve. We are women and weaker for sure but don't forget that inside every woman is Durga and she is not a "nirbal". She can break the biggest of asuras. Nari Shakti is what sustains the world. But when the time demands it, Nari Shakti can also vanquish the world. Today the time has come for the hands that wear bangles to start wielding talwars. The hands that apply tilaks to their husbands' foreheads are needed to behead the enemies. Till today I believe no Shahenshah has ever taken his harem to war as our Shahenshah has done. Maybe that is our signal that we have to now fight for ourselves and for him."
One lone Begum was still in trepidation. "It's so tough wielding a shamsheer, so isn't it better we drink the poison" she said with a voice dwindling before the sheer force of conviction that Jodha beamed at her. "No" said Jodha, "we cannot accept defeat. We will not go down on our knees." And with that Jodha picked up Jalal's blood soaked talwar and held it high above her head in a signal of ferocity. The chants of "Maa Kaali" rang in the air around her for she emanated the strength of the fiery goddess. Hamida looked proudly at her daughter in law as she stood there like a beacon of hope and strength. The fire in Jodha's eyes started lighting several other pairs of eyes around her as the women realised that there was something they could do to save themselves!
In the precap, Ruqaiaya dressed for war was twanging the strings of her bow as she held an arrow straight at an enemy soldier and then despatched it to fell him to the ground. "The Begums of Jalaluddin Mohamed don't bow before anyone" she said triumphantly. Meanwhile Jodha had Abul Mali on the ground at her feet. "What did you say? That the women of Jalal would beg at your feet for mercy? Here's what we do with your tongue that spoke those words" she said as she slashed Abul Mali viciously in the middle of his back with her brandished sword!
My comments on this episode:
Folks, we all already know how deep is Ekta's love of this concept of Maa Kaali and that she likes to see her heroines as avatars of Kaali. Naturally then the whole Creative Team seems to have been in its element executing the exposition of Jodha as Kaali. Nobody could have done this better, no other production house, because in Ekta's team this is "favourite territory" and they've all "been there and done that" several times in their many serials.
But even if it is hackneyed as a theme, I particularly liked this yesterday's rendition of Jodha as Kaali because it was not just mindless ferocity being displayed by Jodha. She was shown as a deep thinking person who first "deduced" that Mali was telling lies from his own words. Once she was filled with the surety that Mali was being economical with the truth, she then leapt at the clothes and sword of Jalal and said "Where is the body?". That then led her to the practicalities of what needed to be done. If Jalal was alive he would surely rush to help them as soon as he could, but meanwhile they all had to be prepared to fight for themselves, was her line of logic.
Jodha then started weaning the rest of the women steadily away from the easy option of drinking the poison and winning them over to the side of physically wielding talwars and getting into military action. And then with the aplomb of a Commander-in-Chief she gave the lalkaar to the opposition by rallying around her troops as she held aloft "Jalal's own sword".
In all this display of Jodha, Ekta and her team took the trouble of showing Jodha's mental leaps, step by step ... and in the end when she was at her fieriest as that Kaali Mata herself, we could see both beings in her ... the human and the goddess. That made it credible and convincing. I have seen other serials of other Ekta heroines abruptly becoming Kaali avatars like "suddenly awoken fireballs" that made it all look illogical, but here there was the satisfaction of seeing the human-to-Goddess transformation in Jodha moment to moment.
I also think the whole harem situation was handled with just the right amount of lamentation by some and levels of readiness shown by others. On the side of the lamenting few we had Ruqaiaya and one of the other begums who were shown as initially defeatist. Some like Hamida and Salima were shown as rattled but not yet broken in spirit. And some like Maham and Resham were shown to be strong but yet idea-less. Thus there was a motley crowd of women at all stages of evolution from the beaten and broken to the more practical and pragmatic. That was a nice way to show the group than to show Jodha as the undisputed and lone-standing leader among all the cowering others. I thought it was nice to be able to see all the different personalities of the women and their individual strengths well displayed even if they were all part of the crowd.
That other little touch of Rahim entering the room and asking his innocent but poignant questions about Jalal's clothes and the general unhappy mood in the room was lovely too. We needed someone to show us the desolation of the moment and rather than showing us the frequent weeping and wailing and wringing of hands of women, it relieved the atmosphere to have a small child walk in amidst the sadness and ask why. That was drama without melodrama!
Jalal was never there in the episode at all, but I didn't miss him because of that blood-splattered armour and shamsheer right there at the centre of the room. Just as if we too were one of the ladies feeling the presence of Jalal in that scene, that armour suit seemed somehow to be him there. Jalal was visible to us in three places ... in those blood-marked personal belongings, in the deep conviction in Jodha's heart and in the patent and overdone lies of Abul Mali. That was a nice way to make him very felt but not visible.
I think we are now headed for a lovely episode today full of female warriors in action. The promo was tantalising enough and the precap yesterday showed Mali lying at Jodha's feet and getting slashed even more with her sword.I liked that image ... it has stayed on in my mind as a motif for today's episode. I am also eagerly waiting to see the mirchi powder shot - no matter how many times you've seen that before there is something so earthy in some hot mirchi hitting the villains' bulging eyes in a demonstration of "tadka power".
All in all after the previous episode I was fearing that the over-melodramatic streak demonstrated in the previous episode may remain withthe Creative team, and they may get ham-handed with this Jodha speech and Jodha power episode as well ... but the Creatives eventually played a very restrained hand and made the episode actually gel together wonderfully well. Everything seemed just enough ... the acting, the level and pitch of the sentiments, the camera work and editing that never left us feeling as if the harem khema shots were too long and the quick intercuts back and forth from Abul Mali that never let us have too much of his overacting.
In passing there is a beautiful quote on woman power that I thought I should share, because yesterday's episode seemed to echo this very same idea powerfully. Roseanne Brar has a quote that says "Sometimes it take a woman but a fleeting minute to realise that nobody gives you power, you just take it". That's exactly what happened to Jodha isn't it?
Cricket
Anupamaa
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