Friends, I was going to write about yesterday's episode here, but as with all of you, my mood is also returning again and again to the awful spoiler that hit us all last night. For those who haven't seen the spoiler, let me sum it up in a few words, and talk about it before I go on to describing the episode.
There was a spoiler last night which appeared apparently on Tatasky's Telugu Jodha Akbar Serial Synopsis ... that after the kidnap is over and Khyber has been chained and put in prison by Jalal, Jodha develops a soft corner for Khyber and goes frequently to meet him. Meanwhile Jalal himself gets enamoured of a lady singer ... and thus there is a sort of emotional-separation-cum-jealousy track between them.
What makes this story worse is that apparently in history Jalal did get infatuated by the singing of the wife of one of his ministers - and he then forced that minister to divorce his wife and he married that lady. But although this was his fourth or fifth marriage, this new lady in his life did not get much importance and eventually it is said she went away with someone else. This is the broad gist I got from the various PMs, SMS messages, WhatsApp messages etc that came through to me last night.
There was an air of shock and perplexity among all my friends - and as Diksha subsequently wrote to me via SMS I too had to face this question she raised: "Now tell me who wants real history? HK was believed to be the fifth wedded wife of Akbar, but he may have treated her as his third special. He was believed to be married a total of 20 times and 12 of those were Rajput princesses."
Those of us who regularly curse the Creatives for their ridiculous "naatakiya roopanthars" being too far removed from history must be now praying seriously that the Creatives will give us nothing but "naatakiya roopanthar" for this bit of history around this subject of Jalal's infatuation and forced marriage to his minister's singing wife. Real history seems too unpalatable to bear!
For the sake of my friends, I want to lighten the sombre mood and bring back some interest in the show. This interest seems to have fallen flat since last night, even though TRPs rose to take the serial to the No. 2 slot.
Friends, for all of your sakes and mine, I hope Ekta will be sensitive enough to not show Jalal wooing and marrying yet another lady while his wife Jodha, his stated love, is pregnant with twins. It is so pukeworthy and distasteful for most of us to believe he was that kind of uncaring womanizing person that he could force another woman into marriage when Jodha was pregnant. I hope that for our sakes and also for the sake of the TRP aunties, Ekta will bypass this bit of repulsive history. If she has to show this track (which I hope she won't) maybe she can show us just a small "mutual jealousy" track where both Jodha and Jalal are affected by each other's "other interests" but do not carry things through to what real history was supposed to have been.
We have so often got other Tatasky synopsis bits that have gone wrong that I am praying it will all be wrong again and that the Creatives will not go ahead with this track that threatens. The English synopsis is not yet available on Tatasky so we live in fear of the Telugu synopsis meanwhile!
More than this small comfort of my own optimism, I cannot give you all anything more at this stage - for I am as much in the dark as all of you on what Ekta intends to do.
I am sure I will never crib about "naatakiya roopanthars" again - if only this unsavoury detail of Jalal's infatuation and marriage to this minister's wife is not brought into the story at a time when Jodha is pregnant. It is too ugly and unsavoury to contemplate ... and having said this much with a very heavy heart I am now going to focus on the analysis of yesterday's episode with as much enthusiasm I can muster in myself!
For those who want to know what all happened in yesterday's episode ...
The episode takes off from where Maham had a dream yesterday in the DEK. She imagined that Nigar had exposed her name to Jalal and that Jalal has punished her with jail for life, and Adham had risen in her favour against Jalal and threatened to behead Jalal ... but that was all Maham's dream that she woke up from in this episode.
Jalal was found at this point to be actually asking Nigar "Nigar Apa, tell me who is the one who told you that I have been incarcerating your mother?" Nigar then answers "No one told me but your enemies, Shahenshah, which I have later found to be untrue. But it's true that I found my mother on the pathway that leads from the jails. And it's clear she has been imprisoned for some specific purpose". Jalal then asked her "Do you know exactly where your mother is kept?" Nigar said in reply "I cannot be very sure about the place. Afterwards I tried a couple of times to find that place again but couldn't find it!"
Maham was listening to all of this with sheer relief. She had been too close to getting caught herself and Nigar's turn of the story away from Maham's role in it had spared Maham no end. "Shahenshah, I have just one request. Please save my mother for she was being kept in a worse condition than even animals are kept", Nigar further pleaded. Jalal rose to give Nigar an embrace. "Very soon your mother will be amongst us with her dignity intact" he assured her.
Later at night Jodha and Jalal were in bed together when he said to her "You were right Jodha Begum in saying that early morning dreams do come true. See how I dreamt that you would become the mother of my waaris and exactly that is now happening! You must be a jyotishi who can look into the future ... or a magician." Jodha replied coyly "You should not have been a Shahenshah, you should have been a poet!" Jalal was quick to reply "You've made me a poet. There used to be a time when we could not even stand looking at each other's faces, and now we can barely be away from each other."
Just then Jodha started again getting a bout of vomiting and Jalal got concerned and summoned Moti to bring the hakima. But Jodha asked Moti not to bother, and to go. She then helped herself to one of the khatta amlas that Hamida had brought for her. Her face was squeezed into a twist as she tasted its sourness. Jalal laughed at her. But then he tried the amla and when he put one into his mouth he too couldn't withstand the sharp sourness of it. They both had a good laugh when he said "How do you eat these things?"
Atga and Todarmal the next day decide to pay a visit to the kitchens preparing food for the jail inmates. They interrogated the in-charge about how the food is transported to the jails and whether any detour is made along the way or some food diverted. The in-charge doesn't know but promises to inform them the next time food goes to the jails so that they can also follow its path. Atga tells Todarmal, "It's strange because Nigar did mention that she hid in one of the baskets of food and it was being sent a different way than straight to the jails." Todarmal replied shrewdly "Yes, looks like one of the deliverers of the food is less than upright. We have to keep watch and see where the food goes exactly". They then depart the kitchens.
In her room Maham rushes towards the surang that adjoins, and using a mashal she spots Chand Begum within, sleeping huddled on the floor. "Is it morning?" asks Chand. "Not yet for you," says Maham "unless you tell me all I want to know, or you won't see your child alive."Just then footsteps are heard, and Maham gets concerned ... but it's only Adham. "I saw your shaken face at the DEK and thought you may be here. This lady here is a lost case, Ammijaan. She is raving mad and you can get nothing out of her," Adham told his mother. Maham replied "I am not trying to keep her here as my hobby. I am waiting for the medicines to work on her so her brains will return and she will tell me what I want to know."Adham looked frustrated. "If this lady gets out you are sure going to face the consequences. Believe me ... you should just let her off. Playing with fire burns only your own hands. If Nigar should say a word against you, your life will be very difficult." Maham cut in "But you forget Nigar doesn't know I have her mother here."Adham refuted that statement. "Nigar at least knows that you were supporting her only because you too hated Jalal. But yet she didn't give you away yesterday. And why was that? Could it be that she is working on some chaal or trying to use you in any way? Trust me, if you don't let go of this woman and this matter, we will not get the Delhi gaddi, we will get the Agra jails instead." Adham had got Maham's vulnerability, and he left his mother speechless as he walked out.
Later Nigar was in her room talking to Rahim and Salima when Maham came in to talk to her. Salima left with Rahim and Nigar bid Maham to sit on the bed beside her. "How are you? I've been trying to talk to you" said Maham to Nigar in a kindly tone. Both women were putting on a front of great friendliness. "I guess I know what you've come to talk about Mahamanga" said Nigar, "you have come to talk about my not telling Jalal that you were siding with me against him? But to be frank, I didn't see that as wrongdoing. I thought it was mighty helpful of you at a time when I was very low. I am thankful for that. And besides, I was the one who had the wrong impression that Jalal had incarcerated my mother and didn't want to give me my inheritance. You did not tell me all this. In fact you were eager that I should get justice. As my mother's old friend you tried to help me. Since I was in the wrong, how could I betray you to Jalal? You were not against Jalal, but you were on the side of justice." Maham drank all this in and then replied "You are truly a large-hearted princess. You make your parents proud and recognise my wafaadaari".
Jalal was later with Jodha in her room when the hakima came to check on Jodha. "How is everything?" Jalal asked her but she replied with a broad grin "The children are very well, Shahenshah." "What did you say? Children?" asked Jalal getting shaken by the plural. "Yes, you and Jodha Begum are going to have twins" the hakima replied and Jalal's mouth flew open in total surprise! "Twins are no easy job to look after. They are really going to run circles around Jodha Begum" said the hakima with a grin. After the hakima left, Jalal climbed closer on the bed to Jodha and caressed her face. "When you give me happiness, you are doubling it for me" he said to her. She was beaming with delight."Truly your hunar is incomparable" he said. "Thanks again for this double gift" ... and he kissed her fondly on the head!
Just outside Agra, Mahchuchak was lording it in her tent. "We better get ready for action, for we are at Agra" she said.
Ruq was sitting in her room, when Jalal suddenly visited her. They both greeted each other with a lot of formality and distance. "I didn't see you around today and so I thought I would visit you here" he said by way of explanation for his presence. "Are you keeping well?" "Yes I am fine" she replied and then very formally she offered him drinks for which he said it would be good if she took some drinks with him too. She asked him to sit down and poured out the drinks. Ruq then told Jalal as he stared at the ground "I am sorry for that day's outpourings. I had no idea you didn't know about Jodha Begum's pregnancy." "No problem" said Jalal, "a friend is allowed to pour out her heart. But I hope you will be part of the jashn preparations." "Jalal I have given instructions to the officers for the jashn" she said. Jalal then told her "Ruqaiaya, you have always been very competent in all this and I hope you will never change in this respect. Also I must tell you that in a very short while I seem to have lost the closeness of a lot of people who used to be close to me. I don't wish to lose you too." Ruq replied "I will never move away from you. But it's late now and Jodha needs you ... so you'd better go to her tonight. After all the waaris of the Mughal Sultanate is in her womb." "I will go to her" Jalal replied, "I can't always be with Jodha though, so I hope you will also start looking after her." Ruq replied with some asperity "Jodha may not like that". But Jalal replied "It would make me happy to see you both on friendly terms. And I also hope the child will address you as Ammijaan. I have to go now." And with that he left. Ruq was left with a bitter taste in her mouth. This was a conversation clearly to make her feel less alienated but in the end I guess it also showed her the actual place she would occupy in the future scheme of things.
In the encampment outside Agra, Mahchuchak sitting with Abul Mali and Faazal Beg gets a message that the next day there was going to be a big jashn at the Agra Palace of Jalal. Abul Mali sees this as a great opportunity to attack, but Faazal Beg says "This is not good news. Jalal usually has his jashns in the open with his people. This time its inside the Palace." Mahchuchak says "Maybe he is being cautious of his safety after being warned by Nigar. But never mind, we will attack the jashn directly tomorrow. It's going to be the best day of my life for we will win when they are least ready for us!"
Jalal is walking in the Palace with Bharmal and his sons. "Hope all the decorations for the jashn meet with your approval Bharmal Ji?" says Jalal. "For sure" replies Bharmal, "because you have given all religions equal place in the preparations. It speaks of your greatness." Jalal demurred in reply. "It's all the effect of your daughter and my wife on me" he said. "Many people just follow religious traditions for the sake of it, but your daughter knows exactly the principles behind each rasam and ritual, and that's why she follows them so well." Bharmal stops to tell Jalal "I am actually so happy you two got married even if it all started out as a marriage of convenience. Even now, every day, I think of the big and small fights and makeups Jodha and I had at home and I think of her constantly, even if she's married and gone." Jalal sensing the wistfullness in the father's voice feels proud of Jodha and presumably takes her father to meet her.
Elsewhere in the Palace, Ruq is trying to get ready for the jashn although her heart is not in it. Her teary face and swollen eyes are testimony to her having spent the night crying. But steeling herself she tells Hoshiyaar "Deck me up so beautifully today that no one will be able to see the pain in my heart as I sit in on this jashn." Hoshiyaar understands her need to hide her true countenance from the world and promises to do a spectacular job on her."As a khas begum I have to try and hide the truth from all eyes" says Ruqaiaya with a deep drop in her emotions and her voice.
In the precap, we see the awful sight of Khyber having entered the harem and swinging Jodha away on his shoulder as if she is a flimsy bit of nothing. Jalal and the other men in armour are aghast at the size and temerity of this man as he abducts Jodha in front of their very eyes!
My comments on this episode:
There are three important issues that come out of yesterday's episode for me:
The veneer of friendliness between Nigar and Maham looks like a definite chaal by Nigar!
The episode's most important point according to me was that scene between Nigar and Maham. Earlier we have seen (partially in the previous episode and partially in yesterday's episode) that Maham was dreaming of and dreading her exposure by Nigar in the DEK. Maham had, as we know, in the past abetted Nigar in her enmity against Jalal, and Nigar could have told Jalal that Maham had encouraged her to think of Jalal as the captor of her mother and as the reluctant-sharer of his inheritance with Nigar. But as it was shown in the yesterday episode, Nigar did not accuse Maham before Jalal in the DEK - and instead told Jalal that her wrong impressions about him were fostered by inimical public opinion that she had listened to.
In a slightly later scene, Maham is with Chand Begum in the surang adjoining her room, still trying to eke out information from the still mad Chand Begum, when Adham comes there to warn Maham to not go any further in this issue of hiding Chand and abetting her daughter against Jalal. "I saw your fearful pale face in the DEK when any minute you could have been exposed by Nigar. Don't, pray, dabble in this issue longer, for if Nigar should only spill one word, you and I will not get the Delhi takht, but we sure will get the Agra jail," Adham warns his mother. Maham however still nurses hopes of Chand recovering her mental faculties and spilling vital information. Adham however is insistent and throws a question at Maham. "Why do you think Nigar said nothing to Jalal about you? Ask yourself ... can it be a new chaal of hers to use you to her benefit?"
Those of us who know the spoiler news that Nigar will abet Khyber and betray Jalal again, must marvel at the sudden astuteness of Adham in thus raising a vital question for his mother to ponder. It later becomes very apparent to all of us that Adham was very right in suspecting Nigar of a big chaal embroiling Maham.
When Maham decides to clear the air with Nigar and goes to her room, Nigar says in an extremely suspiciously friendly way "Please do sit down. I know you've come to ask me why I did not tell Jalal that you helped me in going against him. But I did not do so because I realised that you were actually well-intentioned to help me. You did nothing wrong and helped me when I was feeling low. To be frank, it was I who nursed ill will against Jalal and believed him to be the captor of my mother and the one who hid the farman and khazana from me. You did not put this idea into my head. But as my mother's old friend you supported me for you wanted justice for me. It was all my fault. You cannot be mistaken as being against Jalal yourself just because you were on the side of righteous justice for me!"
How syrupy was that statement and how well Maham also knew that Nigar was letting her off the hook. Maham being very sharp must have instantly also understood that Nigar will never absolve her of her part in the blaming of Jalal unless Nigar wanted something more from Maham in the immediate future. So Maham also put a friendly face on and said "What a true princess you are, truly the daughter of Chand Begum and Humayun. Thanks for recognising my true wafaadaari!"
This whole scene was to me a masterclass in subtle sophisticated blackmail. And in one instant we could all see that Nigar was a far more accomplished "game player" than Maham, if she could have put Maham in a trice in this position of "recipient of dubious largesse'.
I am just waiting to see now how exactly Nigar plans to pull the ropes on Maham and how well Maham dances as a puppet during the Khyber kidnap incident. At Agra now, there are wheels within wheels, but even in the underworld of the villains and vamps power struggles are evident and some are rising and some are falling. The fall of Maham to Nigar seems to signal to me the failing powers of Maham. She is no longer the potent force she used to be ... unless she pulls another unexpected last-minute twist out of her bag on Nigar. Let's be prepared for anything!
Jalal's handling of Ruq is very revealing - he's shown her place and kept her there!
I also marvelled at the subtle way Jalal handled Ruq yesterday. She had previously shouted out at him for hiding Jodha's pregnancy from her, not knowing that he didn't himself know about it. But the very fact that she had unleashed that tirade against him told him more than he needed to know about Ruq. She was jealous of the waaris being born to Jodha, jealous of losing her audha as MUZ and jealous of the importance that Jodha would now get as the favoured wife of Jalal. If she was not already jealous of Jalal's love for Jodha she surely also now resented that he would have to spend more and more time with the pregnant and care-demanding Jodha?
We all noticed that when Jalal made the announcement to his family of Jodha's pregnancy, Ruq was not there. Jalal seems to have noticed that too, for he made a point of visiting her to ask if she was in good health because she was missing all of the previous day. Was it a subtle message from him to say "You can't afford to sulk away, you'd better put your face on show, even if you don't like the news."
The atmosphere in the room during Jalal's visit to Ruq was so thick you could have cut it with a knife. Both of them stared at the ground a lot, thought a lot before saying anything and wasted a lot of initial time on formal pleasantries. She asked if he wanted drinks and he replied "Yes, if you are drinking also." Then with drinks in hand, he said a few very pointed sentences at her after she made a formal apology for barking at him the previous day. He said "You know Ruqaiaya you have your own competence in jashn preparations and the like, and I don't want you to change at all in that respect. Just be who you are. In recent times many of my close ones have left my side and I hope you will not become one of them. " (Translation: You do what you are good at and don't stop doing it either, for its your duty. And don't do anything that will make me want to sideline you like I sidelined others who played dirty with me).
She then went on to tell him his place. "Go to Jodha now, it's late, she needs you as she's pregnant". To which he then said "Yes I will go to her. But I hope that when I can't take care of Jodha you will do the needful for her. I would prefer if you both stayed friends. And the child we have will call you also Ammijaan". (Translation: I know where to spend my time and with whom. As for you, it's now your turn to start looking after Jodha the way you made her look after you in the fake pregnancy. If you do what is your bounden duty as my wife, I will make sure you get the respect you deserve as my first wife by letting the child call you Ammijaan.)
How subtle were all these messages? When Jalal eventually walked away, Ruq sure knew what he had said outwardly was a whole lot different from what he said in-between the lines. It was very clear Jalal has not forgiven Ruq for her pregnancy faking and he was here with her to show her what her place was and that if she did what she ought to do, he would try to help her preserve her dignity.
It is possible that an alternative reading can be given to this whole meeting between them that Jalal was trying to make Ruq feel good for she was going through a low time and he was saying "You are not out of my life. I still care for you." But seeing the way he stared at the ground and did not meet her eyes and gave off his subtle but measured sentences, I am not able to put a more charitable construct on his behaviour.
Incidentally I've been asked by Rashmi to comment on whether I find the Ruq-Jalal scenes better directed than the Jodha-Jalal scenes, but frankly I don't think so. The thing is that Jodha-Jalal scenes are lighter nowadays on dialogue and action - as all is well between them. Whereas with Ruq and Jalal there are palpable undercurrents and double-meanings in dialogues - and outward words and actions bely the true meanings of what is being said and done. So there is a quality of "thickness" in these scenes, while there is a quality of "airiness" in Jodha-Jalal scenes. This not about direction or cinematic quality, it's about the atmospherics and friction being different in both relationships.
Jalal and Jodha's twins are unfortunately doomed to die, but at whose hands?
One of the problems of historical dramas is that a lot of the story gets known earlier even if there aren't specific spoilers. We all know, for instance, that the twins are born but both die within a month, and so this happiness at Jodha's pregnancy is already a bit tinged with sadness for many of us. But the question on my mind is: How did both of the twins die at the same time? Even if one had died earlier and the other a little later we could have said it was some illness. But for both to die almost simultaneously does smell fishy, doesn't it?
Since we've been told many times over that historically Ruq will be punished by Jalal for something horrible she does (and he then never talks to her for years and sidelines her) I can't help but wonder if Ekta may show Ruq as having a hand in the double deaths of the twins in very suspicious circumstances.
We'll have to wait and watch if this is going to be that crucial point at which Jalal completely sidelines Ruq from his life.
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