Friends, first of all a big thanks to all those who have flooded me with posts and PMs and messages for my birthday yesterday! I was overwhelmed because I had no idea so many people thought of me as their friend! There were lovely messages from those whom I know and cherish, but there were so many from my "silent readers" that I was completely taken aback. Thanks again for your lovely and inspiring messages. The PMs kept rolling in till late into the night, and I was so moved to read them all. You are all the very best, but you already know that!
Accha, now let's get to the episode yesterday. I thought it was a beautiful episode because it suddenly lost all that choppy editing and acquired a very elegant flow and was full of sentiments that stirred the heart. I want to break up the episode into two parts for my analysis ... the first part was the continuing "back story" that Jalal told all at the wedding assembly that completed the nailing of Maham. Those of us who thought she would surely be caught for this Atifa fiasco had no idea that the Chand Begum mystery too would break out and Maham would be nailed twice over! That was a bonus! The second part of the episode was sensational because it was all about the Jodha and Jalal reconciliation. It was tender, beautiful and just right, I thought. Not overdone, nor underdone. So here goes my analysis of these two parts ...
Jalal completes the denouement of Maham in full style
In continuation of his explanations of exactly how Jalal came to reach the ultimate culprit of the whole saazish, Jalal not only spoke of what he did, but this time he was supported by some good flashbacks that enhanced what he was saying. He talked of how during the shikar trip he grilled Atifa on how she had got into the Shahi Hamam which would have been out of bounds for her, and her replies were inadequate. She said she was working in the kitchen, some masalas fell on her and she had to clean herself. She still didn't say why she then had to go to the Shahi Hamam to clean up instead of the nearest well that kitchen hands are supposed to use.
Jalal also explained that during the shikar trip he had to insult Tansen pretty badly by asking him not to sing when Atifa was singing - and how Tansen very nearly decided to pack up and go away ... but thankfully Jalal got to him just in time and explained that as a King he was on a secret mission and needed to play-act as if he was insulting Tansen ... and Tansen being the experienced hand that he was in court politics got the drift immediately.
Both of these explanations above were well intercut with flashbacks - and so Jalal's explanations of his doings were well supported with interesting interruptions of the monologue with actual scenes and dialogues.
It was also interesting to know that Jalal had been deliberately provoking and engineering a face-off with the Qazis ... and that he and Atga were in together in eavesdropping on conversations between Atifa, her husband and the bunch of Kabul refugees who were their accomplices. Jalal explained the point that it was during this sequence that he realised that someone - the mastermind - had asked these pawns merely to dethrone him, but the Atifa gang had actually decided to kill him instead of merely dethroning him, because Amanullah explained to them that while the mastermind may go scot free later they may all get caught and killed themselves as they were just the pawns in the game. To insure their own lives they had to go for the kill, since the mastermind was not just ruthless but also a "Class A Unreliable". I thought this piece of decision-making by Amanullah showed how well he had judged Maham!
At this point, seeing she was nailed on the "nikaah-death" issue, Maham said to Jalal that she had done all this for the sake of the praja she loved, because Jalal had long forsaken the praja to run after his beloved Jodha whom he was obsessing over. Jalal then turned the tables on her on an entirely different issue. He said "If you love this praja so much, how do you explain your years of incarceration of Chand Begum?". That came as a shock to me that Jalal then produced Chand with Nigar beside her. Chand was still in a mental fog and rather fearful of Maham, but she made a strong impression on all those present of how she may have been tortured at the hands of Maham. Nigar gave Maham a few passing abuses as Jalal explained that he had chanced upon Chand by accident in that surang. With this double whammy Maham was silenced.
Jalal then asked her what punishment she thought she should be given - surely her years of administrative experience would help her decide that? Jalal was dripping with sarcasm, as Maham said "Kill me" but Jalal instead decided she need a punishment worse than death ... and he said "Off with you to the Kaala Kotri, from where you will be unable to do anything more to anybody!"
In all this part of the episode I thought Jalal was vehement but well in control of himself. The pace of the dialogues and the scenes was so good that one could enjoy Jalal's explanations and mull over them well - unlike the previous episode where everything went off in such a rush. I also thought the expressions of those in the assembly, watching and hearing, were well matched to the dialogues going on - and especially the proud look on Jodha's face at Jalal's smartness was good to see.
One other thing that impressed me was that Jalal didn't crow at his superiority and the trouncing of Maham. He was as kingly as ever in laying out the facts but he never let his latent anger taint the scenes with any sign of vindictiveness or pride at the fall of his enemy. If anything he pulled off a beautiful balance of being inwardly full of ire and yet outwardly displaying a regal sense of handing out justice.
I have no cribs about this part of the episode as I had in the previous episode. It was all well-orchestrated, embellished with just the right amount of flashbacks, well edited and well collated. Even the Chand Begum revelation was just about right in its length and its shock value.
The Jalal-Jodha reconciliation scene was really good
I didn't get to read all the comments posted on the Forum regarding this scene but I did hear from some friends that there were a lot of opinions online comparing whether Jalal was more sincere than Jodha in his explanations and words and feelings - or whether Jodha was doing and saying all she should be saying to Jalal with conviction and genuine remorse.
I did sort of expect this kind of divide on the Forum, that members may all express themselves, finding one or the other character less convincing (depending on whether you were a Jalal-supporter or a Jodha-supporter). The good thing is that most people had an opinion one way or another and were expressing it, which showed that everyone was affected deeply by the Jodha-Jalal reconciliation scene, and that is good news to the Creatives, Director and actors that the audiences have gotten all involved into the scene.
I personally was not looking to see how well Jodha compared with Jalal in her sincerity and expectations of the reconciliation, or how Jalal compared with Jodha. I was more keen to see if they both eventually achieved a wavelength of "mutual satisfaction". After all Jodha didn't need convince me or us that her feelings and words were right, she had to convince Jalal. And likewise Jalal didn't need to convince me or us that he was saying and doing the right things by Jodha, he needed to convince Jodha. Whether they both found their mutual explanation sufficient, palatable and to be of the right depth of sincerity and feeling is all that matters.
When I look at this scene, the first thing that strikes me is the way they scripted its flow. They first made Jodha and Jalal just pull each other into a tight hug that gave the impression that they couldn't stay apart much longer. They simply had to close the distance between them without words. That was a beautiful starter to the scene, because it was a non-verbal bridging of the divide, and that spoke volumes even before the words began. Jalal then embellished it with words saying "I was so yearning to pull you to me all this while!". That was icing on the cake.
We then had Jodha asking the three questions that most plagued her. "You were not really angry with me, were you? You didn't really feel as harshly about me as the words you were using, right? And even about Khyber you were not all that upset, isn't it?" This is where honesty from Jalal played a beautiful part. He said "No" to the first two questions but then on the third question he said openly "I was a bit angry on the Khyber issue - but again, it was because you risked your life and for no other reason!" That was a splendid piece of doubt-dispelment! He told her what exactly he was really angry about and what was the naatak part ... and he also explained the reason for the angry part in exact terms so as to completely clear the air.
She then got a chance to air her sorrow to him which he accepted without interruption. She said "I felt so bad as if you hated me most of all in this world". He held her close again and said "I did it all to keep you and the babies away from danger. I had to give a strong impression to the enemies that our relationship was at break point!"
She then asked the next natural question "But why didn't you let me in on the whole plan?" And he had the perfect answer for that - which also showed his perfect understanding of her. He said "It's because I knew that you would try to get between me and the enemies if you sensed I was endangering my life ... just like you did in the Benazir issue." This was not just an explanation but also an indirect compliment to her for he acknowledged that she loved him enough to worry about his life over her own life any day!
Up until this point, folks, the questions asked all had appropriate answers. But then there came the phase of the scene where the questions asked by both had no answers, and here's how they handled that!
They were both on the bed when he said it was time for his own question. He said "If you had so much faith I was still alive when Abul Mali showed you my blood-stained armour and declared me dead, what made you lose faith that my drama-acting of lovelessness was true - and I really had no love for you? I was hurt by your not showing enough faith in me!" She didn't have an adequate answer. But then he didn't really wait for her answer either. In the case of his question he answered it himself by saying "Jodha Begum I want to tell you that I will love you till we both shall live!" It was not a question that needed an answer really, it was obvious there was need for reassurance, which he gave her with great sensitivity .
She then came to her last question "How could you let me withstand that naatak as if you had really died?" He had no real answer to that one either, except to say "I know you died a thousand times in those moments and I died a thousand times feeling your feelings. But I promise, for every tear I have made you shed, I will make it all up with a huge amount of love. I will shower love on you to help you forget this whole thing!" Reassurance again.
Thus, if you see folks, it was a beautifully phased out dialogue where each time Jodha airs her deeper and deeper angst on the whole issue, and he finds the a right answers to give her ... by right answers I mean answers that felt right to her! And then came his and her questions which didn't need answers but did need a whole load of reassurance, which he gave her! The important thing is that she told him all that she felt and he told her that he knew very well what she felt.
In this whole dialogue one may ask "But why was Jalal giving all the explanations and answers to her questions and even to his own question - while she never had to account for her doubting him or being one of less faith in him?" I thought that was a masterstroke by the Creatives that they made him palliate her feelings more than she had to palliate his.
He was after all in this whole issue the one who had taken the initiative to hurt her faith in him in a bid to explode the saazish. It therefore was but right and natural for him to be the one to also take the initiative in making her feel secure of him again. The crux of the whole issue between them looked like a "rupture of faith" rather than a "genuine trust deficit". And he took it on himself to repair that ruptured faith, because he knew he had caused her suffering, albeit with good intention. He repaired her faith therefore by doing three wonderful things: he reminded her of her faith in past times, he told her why he had needed to rupture her faith and he also told her that he would never stop loving her and so her faith can rear its head again safely!
I personally have no corner of disappointment in either of them after this scene. I thought the one that caused the disturbance in their equation had done the right thing to restore the equation and he even took it to a new level! The one that had lost faith and got hurt also got a chance to air that grievance without accusations and she too was gracious enough to not indulge in lingering resentment. The remarkable thing is that neither of them made much of the Khyber incident in this dialogue. The reason for that I think is because Jalal has already understood why she did what she did for Khyber when he explainsed to mansingh "I don''t know which is her greater fault - her ziddi or her naram dil". I don't think Jalal sees both her ziddi and naram dil as unforgiveable faults!
Again I reiterate... it's not whether we audiences think he was righter than she was or she was righter than he was. The question is whether they both felt right after the talks. They both did, so we had better reconcile ourselves to that, whatever may be our feelings in favour of one or the other!
I see in both of them a great deal of maturity in the way they handled their "equation breakdown" this time, and I was really glad to see this evolution in both of them. Thank God the Creatives didn't fast forward this scene and gave it just enough time for all misgivings to be more than aired and for all answers to be more than given!
A lot of people wrote to me to give more emphasis to the Jodha-Jalal scene in my round up of what all happened in yesterday's episode ... so here it is:
Jalal continues his tirade against Maham saying "I pretended to fall for Atifa to give you the feeling that I was falling for your plan. When I took Atifa to the jungle I checked with her on how she entered the Shahi Hamam. She said she was working in the kitchen and masala fell on her so she had to clean up but it was not a good excuse and I was sure she was bluffing."
"Then I insulted Tansen's singing so badly, that he was ready to leave. But I explained to Tansen that I was on a secret mission and therefore saying rude things to him as a pretence, which he fortunately understood."
"I also had to make the qazis angry with me as part of my plan. And then I further overheard Atifa and her husband talking to the Kabul refugees that stripping me of my takht is not enough, they have to kill me."
"I still didn't know who was instigating Atifa until you, Maham, yourself gave the game away." Maham then says "You were a bad ruler running after your wife's love. I had to dethrone you for the sake of the praja I love." Jalal says"If you love the praja so much can you explain why you incarcerated Chand Begum for so many years inhumanly?"
Maham is shocked as Jalal produces Chand Begum with Nigar. Chand is still looking a bit crazed with fear of Maham and looks very weak. Jalal says "I came across her by accident in the surang to your room and saved her." Nigar also shouts abusively at Maham. Thus Maham looks squarely caught on all sides.
Jalal then says "Atga also heard all talks between Atifa and her husband dressed as a khwaja sera. We had the complete information with us to precipitate matters at the wedding. Now you are caught. You with your great experience in administrative matters, you tell me yourself what punishment to give you?" Maham says "Kill me", but Jalal says that it is not enough. He banishes her to Kaala Kotri from where she can never again harm anybody. Jodha feels very proud of Jalal.
In Hamida's room later Jalal apologises separately to his mother, Ruq and Salima for all the rudeness and hurt he caused them ... but before he can come to Jodha she gets emotional and cries and leaves the room. She goes to her Kanha to say thanks and ask for forgiveness for not having enough faith in God.
Jalal comes to her room and calls her name. She turns to look at him. Her eyes are so expectant to hear of his love but his eyes are narrowed in contriteness. Then after a spell of just staring at each other, Jalal pulls her to himself and gives her a tight hug, as if he cannot withstand the distance between them. "You have no idea" he says, "how much I was longing and yearning to pull you to myself. May I never have to stay away from my love like this again!"
Jodha then asks "You weren't really angry with me, were you?" He nods to say "No". She again asks "All those harsh words ... you didn't mean them from the heart, did you?" He again nods a "No". Then she asks again "Regarding Khyber too you were not angry with me, were you?" Jalal says "That time I was a bit angry, Jodha Begum, because you put your life at risk. That was the only reason, and God knows, there was no other reason!"
Jodha with tears in her eyes then says "But you scolded me so much as if I was the thing you hated most in this world." Jalal replies "But what else could I do, Jodha Begum, I had to make everyone believe that we had grown apart and our relationship was at breaking point. I thought that I shouldn't let our enemies make you their target. I didn't want you or our babies to be in danger from them."
Jodha then says "Whatever the reason, I will never forgive you for hiding this whole dangerous issue from me. You should have told me everything you were doing was a naatak with a reason behind it!" Jalal explains to her "I know you too well Jodha Begum. I knew that if I told you I was putting my own life in danger to unmask the culprits you would not stand for it for a moment and you would immediately try to put yourself between me and the enemies - just like you did during that Benazir issue to save my life. I didn't want the enemies alerted to my plan, and I absolutely had to get to the bottom of Atifa's plan."
Jodha leans against Jalal as if she is still at breaking point. "Shahenshah," she says "You have no idea how I have been dying a thousand deaths in all this time, because you kept me out of the picture and I knew not what to make of it all." Jalal replies "Seeing you in distress, I too died a thousand deaths every minute. You know I can never bear to see tears in your eyes and yet I had to act harsh towards you and make you cry. Believe me, it was such a difficult thing for me to do. I broke inside me every time I had to be rude with you. You'll never know how often I just felt like coming and telling you everything - and then letting things happen as they may. Last night again I almost told you everything and God alone knows how I managed not to! I want to see no more tears in your eyes, Jodha Begum. Now I am going to pay the price for every tear of yours with more and more love. I will love you so much that I will make you forget this sad chapter." They hug again, but this time not in a desperate hurry but with a slow and deeply-felt embrace!
Meanwhile among the praja there is happiness again and people marvel at the way Jalal has come up trumps again versus the enemies. Hamida is back to distributing Eid sweets and clothes to the praja and remarks to Todarmal about how happy the mood has become again. Mansingh and Atga hug each other for Eid. Atga says he knows how Mansingh chose wafaadaari over betrayal to Jalal and praises his decision.
In the bedroom Jalal and Jodha are in bed together sleeping in a tight embrace. Jodha rises to get off the bed when Jalal says "Where are you going away?" Jodha replies "Shahenshah, today is Eid, we have to be among the people distributing wishes and goodies. And if we both stay in here like this, God knows what the people may think?" Jalal replies languidly "Let those who want think whatever they like, but you are going nowhere! And by the way, your time for complaints is over, now it's my turn. Tell me, during that war when Abul Mali showed you my blood stained armour and said I was dead, you then did not believe him at all. You even felt and sensed inside yourself that I was alive. When you could have belief in me then, what happened to your belief in me this time? When I pretended not to love you how did you believe all that? You should have had some faith in me ... this lack of faith has really hurt me! I am sorry that you have not understood me well at all. I want to reassure you Jodha Begum, that my love for you will never die till I die."
They both smile at that - but Jodha again acts as if she isn't placated. "But where was the need to jolt me with a drama acting of death?" she says. Jalal replies "That's just it, Jodha Begum, you should have never believed I was dead. I'll tell you again ... that for as long as your life exists, so will I and my love."
Jodha smiles and says "I never thought you would learn to speak all these sweet nothings!" "Oh," Jalal says with a wicked grin, "I learnt all this while wooing Atifa!" Jodha acts mock angry. Jalal laughs at her chagrin and says "Forgive me, I was joking! But now that everything is okay, our enemies are behind bars, and the smile is back on your face, the only sad part is that Mahamanga was behind all this. I suspected a lot of people but I always kept hoping not to hear that Mahamanga was the hand behind all this!" A tear drop escapes his eye betraying his deep sense of personal disappointment in Maham turning out to be this treacherous. Jodha wipes his errant tear and nods to him not to feel sad. He then wipes his eyes and collects himself, and then turns to her to give her a big smile, as if putting it all behind him.
In the precap, sipahis are holding back Adham at the DEK where he is cursing Jalal for his punishment to his mother. Jalal is furious with him.
So what do we hope for next week folks?
Poor Atga's demise, maybe immediately followed also by Adham's demise? And then Maham's demise out of sorrow over Adham's demise? Will Maham too die so soon?
In order for Adham to want to kill Atga a lot of the accounting muck he has created has to come to light, so I suspect next week we'll have full play between Todarmal, Jalal, Adham and Atga.
I wonder if meanwhile Atga's son's marriage issue and that Jodha paigam misunderstanding will also come forth and be resolved, because I feel that after Atga's death, his son (and his new wife) will become important in Jalal's court - at least more visible.
I feel very sad for Atga, folks, because I have kind of grown to like him a lot. In yesterday's episode every word he said to Mansingh about wafaadari seemed to underline his own unbending principles and values. He's been a Dad to Jalal, and a brick throughout! Can't remember a single time he was tasked with something that he failed to give his hundred percent to. Poor guy!
Before I start crying let me wind up this post!
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