Friends, yesterday's episode was not much better than the previous one. We continued to have that same immoral behaviour from Jalal and we got two more hugs between Jalal and Atifa (which is nowadays looking like the daily rations supplied to us by the Creatives!)
The important overall points to note from the episode are that Jodha finally got to know and accept that Jalal was in love with Atifa and was now having a glorious affair with her after throwing over Jodha. The person who seemed to have a strong hand in furthering the Jalal-Atifa nexus seemed to be Ruq who was clearly pushing the two of them together. And it was again Ruq who was making all known to Jodha about the affair and deriving great enjoyment from seeing Jodha squirm. Ruq admitted that she too felt bad to see Jalal with Atifa - but the satisfaction of seeing Jodha dropped like a hot brick by Jalal was greater!
Four important sentences were said yesterday that still keeps my hopes alive that Jalal may be faking the whole Atifa act.
So I am going to cling onto those small signs and clues as if my whole life depended on it, which it does ...
The first such clue was when Atifa took the towels on a tray to Jalal when he was sword fighting and said "Ruq sent these for you through me." For a second Jalal turned to her and asked pointedly "So Ruq sent you here, did she?" There was just that hint of a pause in Jalal and a calculative look in his eyes, before he then proceeded to tell Atifa to mop up his sweat for him!
The second clue comes when later Jodha cries bitterly before Kanha and then again on Salima's shoulders about the way Jalal has thrown her love away and started an affair with Atifa. But Salima says something very deep and insightful to Jodha. She says. "Don't upset yourself. If it's true love it can never go away, and if it goes away it isn't true love. I personally do not believe in these rumours that are floating around that Jalal is in an affair with Atifa!"
The third clue appears before us when there is an open and all-out war between Jalal and the husband of Atifa. Having caught Jalal and Atifa hugging, the husband lets fly a volley of abuse at his wife for her lax morals and then accosts Jalal as an adulterer touching his wife against religious sanction. Jalal brazenly tells the husband to go climb a tree. The husband then says he will escalate the matter to the Qazis and challenge Jalal through Shariat Law. Jalal at this point tells the husband to try everything he wishes, but his wife is not his anymore and he has lost all huq on her. The audacious way in which Jalal tells the husband to go to the Qazi seemed to me to imply some extraordinary confidence visible in Jalal ... this could be due to two reasons. One, maybe Jalal thinks the Qazis will not dare go against the Shahenshah and will force the man to divorce his wife. Two, it could also be that Jalal knows this man is just a khwaja-sera-hakim in disguise as a husband - and is not really a husband - and he (Jalal) has not really committed any gunah by touching Atifa for Atifa is not really married to this man!
The fourth clue, if we should see it as a sanket, is when Moti tells Jodha as she prays to Kanha, that Kanha never lets down his devotees. So there we have it ... the Divine Providence surety angle to the satisfactory solution of the whole issue for Jodha in the end!
The other important point to note in yesterday's episode is that Sharif has now taken the map of the surang from Khyber's handler and said to himself "Now no one but me knows that there is this surang between that jail cell and Jodha's room". I suspect in the second kidnap of Jodha this map is going to come handy! And Sharif forgets that Khyber also knows of that surang even if he doesn't always articulate his knowledge.
Also one more thing strikes me. You see, Khyber has now been dumped down a very deep well from where it will be difficult for him to clamber up at all without someone else's help! There are no footholds to depend on or ropes to grasp at. Sharif has killed the handler. So if at all later this Khyber does manage to come out of the well to kidnap Jodha a second time, can we assume that he must have done so with Sharif's own help? Will Sharif use Khyber to effect the second kidnap? Will Sharif find some valid reason to tell Jalal that Khyber must be relocated to his old jail cell, so that Khyber can again use that surang to reach Jodha's room and walk out with her? Now that Sharif has killed the handler, I have a feeling Sharif will himself become the handler of Khyber and the orchestration of the second kidnap may be all Sharif's work done through Khyber ...
Accha, for those who want the gist of what happened yesterday, here it is in brief ...
Sipahis of Jalal take Khyber to a deep dry well and push him down. There's no way for him to ever climb up. When the sipahis go, Khyber's handler comes stealthily and shouts to Khyber that he will try to get him out. But suddenly Sharif and his sipahis surround the handler and get info that he works for MC and Sharif kills him. Sharif then takes the map from of the surang from the handler's pocket and says "Now only I know of this secret surang between that jail cell and Jodha's room".
Jalal is meanwhile practising his sword fight when Atifa brings a tray of towels for him. She says Ruq sent her. Jalal is surprised to hear that Ruq sent her. Jalal says "I don't need towels, I need you ". (Ye Gods!) Meanwhile Ruq has called Jodha to her room. Jodha comes with aarti and prasad, but Ruq says "Go give it to Jalal, I don't want it." Jodha takes that aarti for Jalal.
Jalal meanwhile tells Atifa to mop his sweat and they both are very close ... and she is mopping his sweat by caressing his face when Jodha sees them. She gets very upset and quietly goes away. Ruq sees Jodha going and calls her to ask what happened. When Jodha tells all, Ruq acts surprised that Jodha did not know of the new affair between Jalal and Atifa. Ruq says Jalal took Atifa for shikar also which shocks Jodha.
Ruq tells Jodha that he never stays more than one week with any one woman so it's not surprising he has left Jodha for Atifa. Ruq says "You were too busy about Khyber so you lost track of Jalal. You have now become khas to aam!" Jodha goes away tearfully. Ruq then self-talks "I also hate what Jalal is doing with Atifa, but if he is insulting Jodha, that is good."
Jodha cries bitterly to Kanha "Why did you do this to me? Why has his love gone from me when my whole life was based on his love?" Salima comes there and Jodha cries to Salima and tells all. Salima says "Keep up your hopes - for true love never really goes away, and if it does, it was not true love. Go talk to Jalal and clear the air. Remember you have done nothing wrong. I somehow don't believe the rumours of him and Atifa".
Jalal and Todu are walking together when Todu says Sharif has killed Khyber's henchman and he was actually sent by MC. Todu also tells Jalal that Atifa and her husband have planned to leave after Eid. Jalal gets worked up to hear this. Jalal then goes to Atifa's room where she cries that she doesn't want to leave Jalal and go ...and they both hug tight. Jalal says he too wants her to stay and they hug again.
Atifa suddenly looks up to see her husband watching. The husband abuses Atifa for her loose morals but Jalal says to him "Speak to her decently. She is not going with you. She is not yours anymore." The husband says "She is my wife and my huq - and you are an adulterer. I will take the matter up with the Qazis and challenge you via Shariat Laws." Jalal says "Try whatever you wish". He seems unshaken by the husband's threats.
In the precap, Jodha is very tearful as Jalal rudely tells her "Yes I have mohabbat for Atifa".
My comments on the episode:
As episodes go yesterday's was rather lack-lustre. I didn't see any pace in the episode and eventually not much happened except that Jodha came to know of the extent of Jalal's involvement now with Atifa. I suspect the next episode this evening will again pass without much progress except that Jodha may accost Jalal about his affair and gain the dubious satisfaction of hearing from his own lips that he is in love with Atifa.
Are we all anywhere closer to knowing whether Jalal is faking it or not? I, for one, did feel yesterday as if the hugs between Jalal and Atifa had cooled down somewhat. I don't know it was intentionally shown as such - or it was just that the actors were tired and didn't put too much into the shots. Or maybe by now we have gotten used to seeing the clinch and it looks less passionate and more mundane and lukewarm than before.
But to arrive at a conclusion that just because the passion between Jalal and Atifa looks cooler, it's a sign that Jalal is faking it all, may be a bit too hasty. The Creatives are quite capable of showing us eleven weeks of "cool" hugs if they have to keep giving this impression of Jalal in love with Atifa, for they are sadists!
As I said in my preliminary remarks, the Sharif angle to the uksao-ing of Khyber to perform the second kidnap is now a distinct possibility. Sharif looks like he has Khyber exactly where he wants him, and he can get his dirty work done by Khyber. But once the kidnap is done, I don't know if Sharif will be able to continue to control Khyber, because this Khyber looks like a man-mountain with an agenda of his own. So we have to wait and watch the dynamics of the Sharif-Khyber connection!
Ruq is fast appearing to be an overt manipulator of the Jalal-Atifa love affair and the translator for Jodha of what is happening between Atifa and Jalal. Till now the Ruq hand was hidden, but now it has come into the open. Maham has had a hand in telling Ruq to play her hand. So now we have to watch the Maham-Ruq conection also very carefully. If Ruq overplays her hand and gets caught eventually by Jalal (if he is faking and is shrewd enough to locate Ruq at the centre of the whole Atifa saga), then we have to see if Maham tries to betray Ruq.
All said and done, the progress in the story now seems very slow suddenly with just some small step by step developments and not much action happening all at once. How much of this is due to the rains curtailing outdoor shots is anybody's guess. Paridhi had said in her SBS/SBB interview that the rains were hampering progress with the kidnap and action sequences outdoors, and so they were now just left with a two-episode bank. Does this mean that that this Jalal-Atifa romance will be kheecho-fied till the rains quieten and the kidnap scene can be swiftly shot and canned...? God help us, if that happens!
I have just realised that I am now not looking forward to today's episode not because I fear seeing Jalal and Atifa so much (they have become yawn-worthy to me already!) ... but because I suspect there will again be little or no progress at all in the story, beyond the husband of Atifa trying to work the Qazis and maybe being asked to divorce his wife, Jalal admitting his love of Atifa to Jodha, and maybe Sharif beginning his planning to use to Khyber as his pawn in the abduction of Jodha, perhaps.
None of this is even remotely worthy of being called edge-of-the-seat stuff, so looks like today evening's episode will again be a washout for me.
Why don't they all just pack up the serial since its done 300 episodes, and why don't they let us go off in peace? How much further do we audiences need to live through to reach rock bottom and to give up our addiction to the serial? When philosophical questions like this start hitting my mind I sense a readiness beginning to build in me to quit the serial. Unless the Creatives do something fast and dramatic and highly Jalal-redeeming, I am afraid they are losing me!
Kabhi Neem Neem Kabhi Shahad Shahad
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