Posted:
Friends, when I saw yesterday's episode I had very mixed feelings. I knew that Khyber was going to die and that would be the end of the whole "darinda track". But I was actually finding myself wishing he would live a little longer, because I knew that if he died, I would then have to face the disgusting prospect of the Atifa track for the whole of Friday's episode as well as all of next week - till Atifa is unmasked.
Who know what horrors await us on that track? There is surely a nikaah threat that we know of, but there could well be some other nasty twists we have not yet heard of, because obviously the Creatives are going to have to fill the week with a lot of something that builds the tension towards a bhandaphod on the mega episode (now pushed for the next Saturday)!
On top of the Jalal-Atifa-nikaah issue, there is also the prospect of the Jodha-Jalal MU bursting out in all directions ... he is going to be frightfully angry with her for the Khyber incidents, and she is probably also going to be frightfully dismayed and torn by the Atifa issue. I can also see that Ruq and Maham will have a lot to say on everything wrong that Jodha has done (especially on her selling her virtue in public), while they fan the already alarming flames of the Jalal-Atifa nikaah plans! I foresee a very rocky week ahead for all of us - and I can't help but wish we had something else to look forward to instead of all this misery.
The only thing that is slightly mitigating all this unpleasant anticipation for me is the curiosity of how exactly Jalal will reveal that he was "teda" all along - and had factored in all the little clues of the Atifa saazish. I am keen to see how exactly he will unmask Atifa and who will emerge as the faces of evil behind the Atifa saazish. My bets are on Mahchuchak, Maham and Ruq as the "teen deviyaan" who are due for some crushing punishment anyway.
I wonder how the Creatives will handle the forthcoming week.
How I wish this coming week would be about the "unravelling of the saazish" rather than the "buildup of the tension" before the bhandaphod! We have had more than our share of stomach-clenching with the Khyber episodes. How much more "tension build up" can we take with Atifa? Instead how nice it would be if this coming week was all about the "unravelling threads of the Atifa mystery". At least we could enjoy seeing all the pieces of the saazish coming apart day after day this week, and we could enjoy seeing the real cunning of Jalal, if that is how the Creatives are going to redeem his character for us.
Since today is a Friday I think the episode today is going to start with the blazing row between Jalal and Jodha followed by the announcement of his nikaah to Atifa ... so that we can all hang over the weekend in agony. We have to try and live through today's episode as best as we can, and see if Monday onwards the clues to the Atifa case start coming out one by one.
What all can we expect next week? I think in addition to Jalal pushing the nikaah idea with Atifa, and his unravelling of Atifa-related clues, these five things may also be on the menu ...
I think Ruq will start belittling Jodha for the stay in the hut with the darinda and for the "badnaam" she has brought onto the Mughal Sultanate and Jalal, but to our surprise Jalal may take Jodha's side and vehemently argue with Ruq against her Jodha rants. (I think privately Jalal will be miffed with Jodha and her Khyber antics and her carelessness about her reputation, but in public Jalal will stand up for Jodha.) This may enrage Ruq and cause her to overplay her hand in the Atifa saazish (if she isn't already elbow deep in the issue) and thus the week's end may see Ruq in the queue for an expose! I think in some way Ruq will enlist the help of Maham in some of her heavy-handed anti-Jodha and pro-Atifa machinations which will prove to be her downfall.
I also think the husband of Atifa will try to progress his case against Jalal with a witness and subooth, but things may turn sour with the Qazi and a divorce may become necessary. It's a little difficult to guess how exactly this Amanullah Khan will then go on to sport a khwaja sera dress, so I'll leave this part of the puzzle to play out on screen without trying to second-guess this using my imagination. I am getting nowhere with my trying to figure this one out. I just have a hunch that somehow the husband of Atifa may be exposed and that may be a vital lead to the unmasking of Atifa herself!
I further think that from Monday onwards the surang mystery and the Chand Begum issue will start opening up with Mansingh beginning his inspection of the jail walls and the surangs in the palace. His discovery of the surang from Khyber's jail cell to Jodha's room will prompt the search for other unknown surangs in the palace and the Maham surang with Chand Begum in it may be discovered. I think we will find that Chand Begum was not mad after all, and has been a very clever woman and she will expose Maham thoroughly. As the Zee guy said, the exposure of Maham may then rattle Maham to also bring down Ruq on the Atifa issue .
To add to all this , I think the Adham Khan financial fraud issue will see the "beginning of the end". Todarmal and Atga may actually discover something hugely suspicious in the accounts and start cornering Adham, and since Adham won't have the hovering presence of Maham to help him (seeing as how she herself will be cornered on the surang issue), Adham may compound his errors with some undue belligerence at Atga. The situation looks ready for a few skirmishes this week between Adham and Atga.
And finally, I think the relationship between Bakshi Bano and Sharif will start to deteriorate especially if Sharif is a bit unguarded in his speeches to his wife about Jodha and her "easy availability" (as exemplified by her running away with Khyber). Many of our forum members have been calling Zee to ask how much longer Bakshi will be pregnant - as she may already have passed the tenth month of pregnancy by now, and her womb thus looks like it is made of iron! The Zee man has covered up this issue by laughing along with our forum members at the silliness of the Creatives ... but he has also promised that Bakshi will soon deliver. History has it that Bakshi delivered a still-born child. So I have feeling that some altercation may be shown between Bakshi and Sharif on the issue of his leching behind Jodha, and this acute agitation of Bakshi's feelings will be shown as the reason why she has an unsuccessful delivery.
So there you have it ... these are my five predictions for the coming week? Does anyone else have more ideas?
For those who want it, here's what all happened in the episode yesterday:
The episode starts with the dakus circling Jodha and trying to touch her. There is no escape. Jodha is disgusted and desperate to save herself, and she tries rolling on the ground to get out of the daku group's reach. Suddenly and miraculously Khyber appears there again to her rescue and starts bodily throwing all dakus into the nearby river one by one ... and saves Jodha. She thanks him but he acts angry that she is always running from him. He starts walking away from her - and she runs to him and promises not to run away again.
At the Agra Palace, Atifa going for music practise asks Ruq why Jalal is taking so long to come back. Ruq gives her a piece of her mind. She says "You are just a few days wonder here and will soon be a discard of Jalal in the harem ... so you'd better know your place. Don't dream for more. And don't step out of harem without my permission."
Jalal's group stops at a clearing among the trees, to rest and eat ... but Jalal is just holding Jodha's dupatta and looking at it wistfully and thoughtfully. Mansingh and Munim Khan are worried that he has been refusing to eat for the last two days. Suddenly unable to bear more delay Jalal starts riding again and his troop follows. Meanwhile, Khyber holding Jodha's hand walks here and there in the jungle seemingly without direction.
Suddenly, as it were, Jodha seems to hear village sounds and needs food. When she expresses this to Khyber he gets uptight that she may be trying a ploy to run away again. Khyber doesn't trust her and so he ties her with a creeper plant to a tree and then goes to the nearby village in search of food.
At the village they are preparing prasad for the Krishna Janmashtami Puja and Khyber just walks in and walks away with the whole huge vessel of prasad, much to the villagers' fear and consternation. Meanwhile a small boy passing by sees Jodha tied to the tree, and after she requests his help, he frees her - but he then runs back to the village to tell everybody about this lady he has just freed from being tied to a tree. The villagers decide that this must be the begum and darinda with inam on their heads, and they decide to try and maim the darinda as they do not believe they can otherwise catch him.
The villagers thus start stoning Khyber as he takes the prasad away. Meanwhile Jodha finds her way to the same village and seeing Khyber being mercilessly stoned and bleeding, she tries in vain to stop the villagers. Seeing no abatement of the stone-throwing, she then exhorts Khyber to flee the scene. A little later, Jalal reaches that village and hears all about the begum and the darinda having visited the village. Further questioning elicits the information that the darinda ran with the begum up the hill. Jalal rides out for a bit with the villagers all in tow, and when he reaches the base of the hill, he looks up and sees Jodha and Khyber at the very top. The hill is high with a very steep rock face on one side.
Jalal shouts to Jodha that he will save her and hearing his voice, Jodha is very happy that help is here at last ... but Khyber refuses to let Jodha go. And this is the moment when Jodha realises all that Khyber has done for her so far must be out of some love and possessiveness he's developed for her. Despite pleas from Jodha to let her go to her husband, Khyber refuses to let go of her hand. Jalal meanwhile climbs the hill almost reaching Jodha, when with a jerk she pulls free of Khyber, but loses her balance. She then starts dangerously and uncontrollably slipping down the sheer rock face of the hill!
Jalal is aghast at this and his men immediately tie ropes for him to swing down the hill to reach where Jodha is hanging precariously holding onto a ledge of rock. Meanwhile Khyber also reaches another ledge near Jodha. Both men then stretch their hands to Jodha and it looks like a moment of suspense when Khyber doesn't know whose hand she will reach for - Jalal's or his own. To Khyber's utter despair, Jodha chooses Jalal's hand and putting her hand in his, Jodha clambers up to reach the embrace of Jalall. Khyber is distraught to see that Jodha has made her choice. He looks balefully at the two of them - Jalal and Jodha - in a tight hug , and loses his morale.
But then suddenly in another catastrophe, Jodha slips off from Jalal again and starts slipping down the rock face a second time. This time again both men offer their hands to her, and for a moment, Khyber is able to clasp Jodha's outstretched hand. But she then pulls her hand out of Khyber's and gives her hand again to Jalal, and clambers back to hold Jalal tightly. Husband and wife keep looking at each other in shock and awe and relief, as Khyber takes in the scene. Jodha has clearly expressed her preference and he is unable to live with the idea that she has chosen Jalal.
Suddenly then, losing all motivation to live, Khyber lets go his hold on the ledge he was hanging to and allows his body to make a free fall to the ground far below. He chooses to die ... and both Jodha and Jalal realise what he has done and why as they let our shrieks of alarm and then stare at his lifeless body on the ground! Jodha and Jalal then stare at each other in a mixture of disbelief and perhaps relief that the ordeal is over, but they look as if they will have a lot to say to each other at a more appropriate moment.
In the precap, Jodha and Jalal are seen in a tent - perhaps an encampment they have set up in the jungle. Jodha apologises to Jalal for her whole behaviour ... but Jalal is very angry that she has let herself become the subject of public gossip. Also he asks Jodha "Khyber killed so many villagers in this whole fracas, can you make amends to all the grieving families?"
Just one last thought folks. Many of you stopped watching the serial because the tracks were very disturbing. But it's my serious suggestion that you should start watching again from today.
Of course it's going to be a lot of Jalal and Atifa ... but it's also likely to be much more than that! And you may miss seeing how "teda" the Creatives are going to show Jalal, if you stop seeing the episodes. Word updates cannot do full justice to the scenes where tiny clues like people's expressions or body language can provide insights into what they are up to.
While the going will be rocky and we will need iron stomachs to withstand more of the Jalal-Atifa closeness scenes through the week, I think there will be also something very absorbing in the "clues" to the saazish being thrown up every day in little ways.
There may be also something interesting in the way Jalal deciphers the Atifa mystery and presents the denouement scene. The TRPs are badly down so I think some care will now go into how the whole track comes to a head and erupts spectacularly.
So overall my persuasion to all would be to watch the show and not miss the little details that lead to the showdown. Turn your face away if you don't want to see Atifa, but don't miss the fine points of the Jalal "tehkeekaat"!
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
