Friends, after the previous episode where we had so much of physical action, anger, destruction and eventual death, yesterday's episode was full of the pathos that envelops one and all after the real pain of death hits. The episode was full of emotion, desolation and poignancy. It was a slow-paced episode as one would expect it to be, but every single moment of the 22 minutes was gripping in its desperate sadness.
I want to break down the episode yesterday into two of its high points ...
One dead man had everyone on his side ... the other one had his formidable mother!
There were two dead bodies at the Agra Palace, but the two were mourned entirely differently.
One dead body lying in state inside the Palace was that of Atga, whose death was bemoaned with the appreciation that he had left this world a hero. The other dead body was that of Adham, who was left to lie in the outer gardens, with only his shattered wife and her khwaja sera there to cry for his departed and decried soul. The contrast in the way the two dead people were being venerated or shunned was palpable! No one was deliberately making the distinction between the two men after they were dead, but actions speak louder than words, and the way people showed natural respect for Atga's valour and their pity for Adham's worthlessness spoke volumes.
Jalal found himself first in the hall where Atga's body lay. He with his mother and wives and other ladies and a whole troop of maulvis prayed for Atga's soul to be taken to heaven - and Jodha even recited a beautiful Sanskrit sloka as her prayer. Jalal then sat beside Atga and his body started shaking with sobs as he mourned the loss of a dear man who was almost a father. He had the support of his mother at this moment, and everyone in that hall seemed to be part of a venerational atmosphere with only grateful thoughts for the life of Atga.
On the other hand, lay the body of Adham in the outer grounds, covered just simply in a white blood-soaked sheet with no one to pray for his soul. His wife cried over him, although God knows he never gave this bubbly girl much of a life to cry for. But what Adham lacked in the form of public sympathy was more than made up by the way his imposing mother mourned him. That in fact was the high point of the whole episode.
The acting was so fabulous by Ashwini Kalsekar that by the end of the episode we were all one with this fierce but piteous mother who went from total and outright denial of her son's death, to talking to her son's inanimate body for a long time as if he was still alive, to finally reconciling to the fact that she's lost him forever!
What a harrowing journey Maham took from repudiation of her son's death to finally reconciling to it ... and she carried with her on this roller coaster everyone who was watching her with choked emotions. In the end even if people did not mourn Adham as reverentially as they did Atga, they certainly mourned for the mother of a son who was herself crazed with disbelief and then rent to pieces by the stark truth hitting her in the face.
When Maham got racked with sobs and finally broke down over Adham, a huge lump formed itself in my throat and I couldn't help feeling deep compassion for her. I had never liked her and yet I could feel her intense pain. So could Jalal and Jodha, I suspect. In that moment of such deep maternal agony, no one could have continued to hate Maham.
Just imagine ... she had just started out in life as a bandhi and clawed her way up into becoming the Wazir-e-Aliyah of the Sultanate and then dreamt big dreams for her own son who unfortunately was always in the shadow of that other boy she had nursed and brought up to be a King. Her own son could never rise above his basal instincts to grab the opportunities she wanted to create for him. In the end his very ambition, dinned into him by his doting mother, was the sword on which he died. Now his mother was seeing him draped in the plain white blood-stained sheets of ultimate oblivion in history.
She not only had to contend with the fact that her son had not died a hero, but she had to bear the ignominy that he had hit the dregs of disgrace before dying. With Adham's going the reasons and ambitions that had shaped her own life were in tatters and she was as much dead inside as he was.
I thought it was simply sensational the way Maham grieved for Adham. I thought it was spectacular that for a long time when she did not come to terms with his death, she kept saying "He won't even be lightly wounded, he is a pahaad' my beautiful son!" What faith this mother had in her flesh and blood and his invincibility - and how different and how vulnerable was he actually, for he didn't have in him the self-possession that his mother so wanted for him .
The episode ends on the bent head of Jalal as he realises he has killed not only Adham but he has killed the insides of Adham's mother and left a shell . But then in the precap, that same shell takes a new life - one of reprisal and avengement! Maham shouts with all her might "You have killed my son. Now I will wait for the day when you and Jodha will hold the dead bodies of your own sons and stand where I am standing today to repine your loss. I give you my bad dua'. You will feel everything I feel today and more!"
That change in Maham was dramatic and staggering! The resilience of this woman to go from a high to the low - and then back again to a high, in the space of fifteen minutes, is phenomenal. She isn't any ordinary woman and she could never have remained a mere bandhi for life. She is way too remarkable for ordinary subservience! Her goals, her sorrow and even her anger are all larger than life! What an amazing character!
Jodha recoils from Jalal in fear ... but he understands her when he sees himself in the mirror!
I want to touch upon that much talked about scene at the very beginning of the episode, when Jalal enters Jodha's hojra and she is seen recoiling in fear from him. Just minutes before he entered the hojra, Jodha was seen shuddering at the thought of all the barbaric killing she had witnessed that morning. She thought of Adham first brutally killing Atga and then Jalal savagely killing Adham.
When Jalal entered her hojra, covered from head to toe in sticky blood, her thoughts were thus already revolting against the manner of killing that both men had employed. She probably would have normally taken it better, but in her present condition of pregnancy I guess even her Rajvanshi roots and familiarity with death were insufficient for her to countenance this degree of demoniac behaviour from the two men she knew, and more so from Jalal. She moved away from Jalal almost in self-defence, as if expecting him to be still very charged with unbridled anger and the thirst for blood!
Seeing her reaction however seemed to be just the thing to send Jalal back into a semblance of reality. Till then I suspect he was in another world of hatred, brutality and barbarism. He looked down at his own hands as if seeing them for the first time through her eyes, and he saw copious blood on them. He stared down at his own clothes ... and then he stood before her mirror taking in the sight of himself as she must have seen him. The dreadfulness of his bloodied body must have sunk in ... and I think in that moment Jalal lost a bit of that unreal feeling that had enveloped him and he began to come down to earth.
Without a word to Jodha he then marched out of the room. Jodha's first thought then was "Oh my God! He is so angry still ... I hope he doesn't harm himself or anyone!" So it was plain that she thought of him as still angry - whereas the look in the mirror had probably stripped him of that hard edge of anger and let him get back into the starkness of reality. Jodha followed Jalal at a discreet distance for I suppose she did not want to intrude on his anger and she wanted to give him enough space to burst if he had to. He headed straight for the hamam, however.
I thought it was a beautiful scene at the hamam, where Jalal stood for a moment at the water's edge, stripped his clothes off and contemplated whether to stain the whole water with the blood that was on him. Jodha was behind the curtains watching him, half with trepidation and half with curiosity. What was he going to do? Jalal then walked into the tub of water and washed himself of all that blood and then when he saw the way that blood had coloured all the water in that tub, something hit him hard inside and jolted him back to the real world. He screamed at the top of his lungs to give voice to the pent up distress that was in him about Atga's dreadful death. Jodha still watched like a silent sentinel from behind the curtain, and I thought that was the beauty of this whole moment.
There are some times in life when even a close couple need to give each other space ad privacy to let their hellish sides out. Jodha made sure she was around but she also made sure she was not intruding into his very private, very bitter, very distressing moment that he would not have liked even her to see. She gave him the space and freedom to scream and open his heart, without having someone fussing over him and trying to suppress the expressions of his distress that were bursting out of him in unseemly ways. What a nice thing Jodha did for Jalal, I thought.
People who are so filled with hurt and are about to burst don't always have the control to burst out elegantly. They would rather not have anyone watching them as they wash their inner ugliness out. No matter even if a person is very close to you , you don't want them seeing you purge your inner repulsiveness. And all of us have sides of us we are not proud of. Jalal must have at that moment felt alone enough to throw the muck out of his inner self without feeling spectated upon ... and yet Jodha was there, hidden, to see that he was not really alone in distress and she was there if he should need her.
It's no wonder that in subsequent scenes there was no acrimony between Jalal and Jodha at all, as most people thought there would be after she recoiled on looking at him in her room. In fact when they both were at Maham's room and Maham was begging Jalal to be able to see Adham just once, it was Jodha's soft touch on Jalal's shoulder that gave him the courage to assent to Maham's request.
I learnt a lesson from this whole scene. I learnt that even if two people are really close and always there for one another, there are times when you need to be there in spirit for your partner but not really reveal that you are there ... because you know that the other person wants to cleanse himself of the inner gunk that he doesn't want even you to see!
For those who want it, here's what all happened in yesterday's episode:
The episode starts with Aziz Koka having heard that Adham Khan has killed his father. Aziz, in a furious temper, decides to ride back to the Palace to take revenge on both Adham and Maham. Others with him warn him against the superior strength of Adham, but it's clear that neither Aziz nor his cohorts have any idea that Jalal has already killed Adham.
Jodha is in her hojra thinking over the events of the day. shudders to think of Adham first murdering Atga brutally ... and then Jalal subsequently murdering Adham. That is just when Jalal, totally blood-soaked enters Jodha's hojra and she gets an immediate fright and moves away from him fearfully. He looks down at his bloodied hands and then only realises how ghastly he looks as he sees himself in her mirror. Without a word in reaction to her recoiling from him, he goes straight out of her room. She thinks "Oh my God, what have i done? He is so angry he may do himself or others more harm." She follows him but finds that he heads straight for the hamam.
There he sheds his clothes and for a moment seems to hesitate before entering the waters, in case he soils the water with all the blood on himself. Jodha watches him from behind a curtain half in fear and half in compassion. But she does not interfere at a moment she senses is very private and very agonising for him. He gets into the water and he gets clean - but the water around him turns blood red. Then with pent up emotions and in the privacy of that space, he screams his utter agony at the loss of Atga. Jodha watches and feels his pain but does not try to intrude for he needs to give vent to that pain in him.
A bandhi then arrives there to say Atga's body is ready for burial.
At the room where Atga's body is kept JiJiAnga screams and cries bitterly. All the women and men are around in sorrow as Jalal enters solemnly ... and he has flashbacks of Atga ready to sacrifice his life for him. Jalal stands still for a long moment, and then prays - and others join. Jodha then is moved to recite a beautiful sanskrit sloka. Only Sharif looks apathetic and bored. After the prayers are over, Jalal goes to sit beside Atga, and then unable to control himself, he cries bitterly over Atga's body. Hamida comes to sit beside him and console him.
In sharp contrast, the body of Adham lies in the garden with only Javeeda crying there ... and only Resham is there with her.
Meanwhile Maham in her room is in major denial state. She refuses to believe Adham is dead. Hamida, Salima, Jalal, Jodha and Ruq come there and Maham starts begging them that she desperately wants to meet Adham. Hamida says "I think it's better you don't see him, Maham" but Maham begs and begs for one meeting. She says "i don't think he's even badly wounded. My son is a pahaad. Nothing can happen to him".
Then she sees Jalal and falls at his feet begging him for one meeting with Adham. Jalal's face is in twisted agony. Gently Jodha touches Jalal's shoulder and then he nods his assent to Maham. She says "Where is Adham?" Jalal points to the garden . Maham profusely thanks him and runs to see her son - as all others in the room, including Jalal, choke with emotion.
Meanwhile Aziz Koka runs into the Palace with sword ready to kill Maham and Adham. Seeing maham heading towards the garden, he swings his sword blade at her, but Todarmal is just in time to parry that sword thrust and save Maham. Todarmal stops Aziz from from his revenge attacks by showing him where Maham is heading - and thenAziz sees Maham is actually going to Adham's dead body. He calms down.
Javeeda is crying beside Adham as Maham reaches there ... but she then leaves Maham alone with Adham. Maham caresses Adham's head and says "Why are you dressed in white my boy? You have to dress according to your audha. You are the doodh bhai of the Shahenshah!"
Then she changes her mood saying "Your ziddi and greed for Jalal's takht was not right. You didn't use your brain properly. You should have just been a powerful subehdaar. You should not aimed for more."
She then laughs hysterically and says "See everybody thought you were a gaddar and enemy ... " and at that point in her long talk with her mute son Maham realises that he has not even replied. "Wwhy are you not talking? Get up and talk to me!" she says to the lifeless Adham. And then the truth hits her that he is truly dead. She breaks down and cries in heart-rending and racking sobs. And then she screams Adham's name over and over. Jalal, watching all this, with his womenfolk, is in agony and jodha is in tears.
In the precap, Maham is in a frenzied rage. She curses Jalal and Jodha "You have killed my son. Now you will one day soon hold in your hands the dead bodies of your own sons. I give you my bad dua and wait for you to suffer exactly as i now do!" Jodha is alarmed and Jalal is agitated.
What will happen today, I wonder? The precap scene is sure to happen. Maham will be casting her bad dua' on Jodha and Jalal, saying she wishes their sons would similarly die in their hands. I suspect all the pity we felt for Maham will vanish and we will all begin to curse her roundly and soundly again. But that is life!
I don't know if the Creatives will try to extract still more TRP juice by showing the sentimentality of the burials of the two men. If they do that it may become too much of a muchness, I feel. And besides they are already at the top of the TRP charts and don't need to overdo death to that extent by spending half an episode on the burials.
Perhaps it would be better to use this Friday episode to open another track ... but which one? What do you all think we'll get to see today?
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
