Originally posted by: RadhikaS0
Cleo,Great post! Good to have you back 😊nice to be back...Thankfully, an easier day for me today.😊I have been observing Maham's behavior. I do not sympathize with her. She is a hypocrite who is always using emotional blackmail to manipulate people to her advantage.But what puzzles is that ever since her downfall started a few months ago, she seems to have contradictory feelings fighting with each other within her. I mean, I cannot dismiss her as a single-dimensional evil person. She seems like a complex, multi-layered personality with some issues.Most humans are known to have a multilayered personality. Good and evil exist within and beyond humanity. But we have the power to choose. MA also had this power. She chose greed and deceit over loyalty.Adolf Hitler was known to be a vegetarian and an animal lover. He adored his German Shepard. Banned animal experiments. But had no issues with subjecting humans to unimaginable cruelty for medical experiments. Can we still call him a multilayered personality with issues?...I dont think so...he defines evil. Please read his autobiography Mein Kampf if you get a chance. Interesting.I consider MA a borderline psychopath...But even psychopaths can be aware that their actions are wrong. They can also be occasionally bothered by their conscience.They use defence mechanisms to justify their thoughts, behavior and actions. MA knows that she is evil. She needs to tell herself that she is human...I think her "love" fr Jalal is nothing but an attempt to tell her conscience that she is right in doing what she is doing. It is easier for her to live with herself by thinking that she wants to spare the life of the child who loved her unconditionally.There is an interesting video on youtube...final interview of Ted Bundy...just hours before his execution. He expresses remorse for his actions and tries to blame po*n for turning him into a killer. He was known to be a charmer and it is easy to fall for his words. But, after watching the video, read what he actually did to his victims for sexual gratification. I can never call a person like him "grey"...he was evil personified.Bottomline...if voluntary actions are evil...the person is evil...period. I will not give them any respect by calling them complex, layered or grey.I do feel now that somewhere deep inside she has mixed feelings for Jalal. She may want to harm him and wrest the throne for her own son. Yet, she is also still strangely attached to him in ways that puzzle and upset her.She killed his kidsShe put his life in danger by allowing people like Sujamal and Nigar stay in the palace with easy access to him.She planned to dethrone him...what would hv happened after that? Jalal would hv been killed by the new emperor or put in jail for the rest of his life.I wont write about what she did to his loved ones...the list is too long.No one does this to people they love.She tries to fool her conscience by telling herself that she loves Jalal. This woman is not honest with anyone...including her own mind.And, I am sure that she realizes that she would look very bad ( in the eyes of the Awam she was planning to rule) by ordering the assassination of someone who treated her like a mother.Jalal too is still tied to her with an umbilical cord that he is unable to cut off, in spite of witnessing her treachery and understanding that she is a threat to not only him but also the greater interests of the empire.He needs to grow up.Even in reality, these two remained tied together by a strange relationship till her end. Akbar took personal care of her in her last days. And sh did tell him that he had done the right thing by killing Adham.we dont know how or why she said what she said. Was it a sarcastic statement? or was it something she said to save herself from his wrath? or was it remorse?It's easy to hate someone evil and want them to be punished and done away with at the earliest. It is a natural human wish to see good win over evil.I believe in taking the easy way out when it comes to MA...she is evil and she deserves to be punished.But life is not all black and white. It is a myriad shades of grey in between.If she is grey, then she is the darkest possible shade of grey...very close to being black. We wont need prisons if we punish people only if they charcoal black. Duryodhan loved his family...was loyal to his friend Karna...but Lord Krishna still considered him adharmi who deserved punishment for his kukarmas.I also do not like vamps to be glorified or hog screen space at the cost of the leads. But,. at the same time, I do feel the CVs have succeeded to a certain extent in showing the personality of this woman who rose to eminence on the dint of her personality and her shrewd, Machiavellian thinking. She could not have been much educated. The position of women was not all that good in those days, in the sense that men did not welcome women into politics or officialdom openly. So she must have had something in her (besides evil) to have risen to the level of wazir-e-aliya.Yes, she was shrewd. She played a gamble by protecting the heir to the throne. Later used it to her advantage. This does not make her great. It makes her an opportunist. Several politicians in modern India( including the most powerful woman politician in the last Govt...she isnt educated either) rose to power by sheer luck and shrewdness.We can say she used Jalal to do so. But even using someone to rise is not an easy task or everyone else would have done so too. I am not supporting what she did or condoning her acts. But as a woman, I am trying to understand where this woman comes from and what exactly is her relationship with Jalal.I dont see her as a woman...I see her as a psychopath...a criminalIf she had merely used Jalal, he was not a fool to feel pained by her behavior to such an extent. He would have simply dismissed her from his service without a second thought.If we do see her telling Jalal that he had done the right thing, it will not be a case of CVs redeeming her character. It will only be a case of CVs showing history as it happened. We have to accept history in its entirety and not choose to ignore things that we do not agree with.Ok...I will accept history in entirety if they do justice to it. They cant pick and choose things to glorify the character THEY like...why not show her death after 4 months as per history?There can be no redemption for her character now. Because she has fallen from the grace of the one person who she regarded as the most important in her life - whether out of love or out of what she could get from (proximity to) him. She can never be redeemed in his eyes again.But by still giving her the respect that Jalal reserves for people who have served him since his childhood, he is being infinitely redeemed, if he requires to be redeemed.It is the sign of eternal greatness that great people forgive and move on. They continue to remain grateful to those who have served them, in spite of knowing their motive in doing so.Even if Jalal is shown to forgive her and continue to care for her, esp after the death of her son at his hands, that act should be seen as a sign of his greatness and not hers.I dont have a problem if they show Jalal care for her. After all she is an elderly woman who took care of him. I just dont want her to hog the screen space. Have long self talks...or talk with Resham or Ruk taking up 15mins of screen time in each epi...She got her share of attention and glory. NOW LET HER GO.Here, forgiving her does not mean that Jalal has or will forget whatever bad deeds she did. It just means that he will remember those acts but without pain. And he will care for her but not give her back her position or ease her comeback to a position where she can again harm someone.I dont have a problem if Jalal forgives her provided1. the suggestion does not come from Jodha. I dont have the patience to watch it.2. He acts sensibly to make sure that she does not plot again.I know lots of people will hate this post, but I had to express what I felt about this woman, who is nearing her end.😊I didn't hate the post at all...Infact, it charged my grey cells and encouraged a discussion. Hope you dont hate my frank reply😉😊