Friends, I am very pushed for time this morning due to a series of meetings. But still I couldn't hold myself back from this short-ish (?) update.
There are some ten points I want to make in an overall way about the whole of yesterday's episode and so I am going to put these down one after another in no particular order. These are just my very own personal thoughts which may or may not align with the feelings of others. So I welcome debate if you feel differently!
One: The whole episode was devoted to the final hours of Maham which I don't grudge.
During the whole of last week we were given to understand from the Zee man and many other spoilers that the death of Maham would be shown on Thursday. However, somewhere along the way I think the decision was changed and it was planned to give Maham a truly big and exclusive send -off by devoting one whole episode to her death on Friday.
Consequently some scenes in the previous episode found more room and turned out to be very good because they had more time given to them. For example, the scenes in the previous episode of Jodha with Maham in the jail, and then the scene of Jodha with Jalal in Maham's hojra (during the clean-out) benefited from having more time for long and interesting dialogues and for showcasing actor skills.
But the Friday episode of the death of Maham lost out in the whole planning. The episode, I am afraid, seemed like a huge drag to me. I don't know how many of you found it to be the same. There was too much elaboration on the palki being carried here and there and on Maham doing a bit too much talking and acting considering that she was but a few breaths away from death.
People who are that close to death don't actually have this much energy to spend in elaborate dialogues and neither do they occasionally suddenly sit up in their beds as Maham did. The end result was that though the episode looked clearly to be about Maham's death, she did not look as broken or as beaten as she should have been if she was that close to death. That's my feeling. The whole thing could have been more polished and the death could have been grander by restraint.
But I don't grudge the actress Ashwini Kalsekar this last hurrah in the serial. She has been a fine actress and one of the pillars of the storyline so I suppose it was okay to give her one whole last episode to herself. But then the end of someone's life can be shot with great sensitivity or in a ham-handed filmi style. I thought the latter style prevailed and marred the episode!
Two: The episode was over hyped and under done. It was quite a disappointment.
In about 300 episodes we have seen of Jodha Akbbar, very very seldom have the CVs and Directors allowed the media to show spoilers of what the storyline was going to be in the upcoming episodes. In fact, the media were always in a constant cry about not getting admittance to the sets and not getting enough masala. Now suddenly, there are a spate of SBB and SBS segments on the Jodha Akbar serial, and among them was the hype and hoopla created about this Maham death scene. For close to one week we've been told that the scene was very emotional and it would be very sentimental and heart-breaking with Jalal and Maham really doing some soul-stirring reunion scenes.
Unfortunately the episode when it aired yesterday didn't live up to that overhype. I feel, if we had not had these over-expectations, we might have found the episode a little more palatable. But the drama sought to be created by the SBB segments etc. was belied by the actual scene being nowhere as sentimental or soul-stirring.
I thought to myself, "All this time over 300 episodes there was a media gag on the shooting of the serial, but trust the Creatives to have finally opened the curtains to the media on the one episode they were gearing up to spoil with too much badly-directed drama!"
Three: It was not about a contrite Maham. It was more about Maham and Jalal.
The death of Maham I thought would be a time for her to truly make amends for all the saazishes and cruelties she had meted out to so many people in her life. For that matter she had even ruined Ruq's womb and rendered it useless with some acidic ark and ruined the future of this girl.
But when the last episode of Maham's life came, it was again all just about herself and Jalal and their mutual closeness in childhood. The Creatives made it look like Maham was more interested in regression to her early life and that she wanted to pass away with just those memories, whereas she was not interested in all of the long years spent after Jalal became grown up when her life was spent on one saazish after another, including against him.
In death, she was not seeming to make amends to all the people she had ruined and Jalal alone was the centrepiece of her thoughts - and even then she glossed over the bad she had done to him and spent almost 15 of the 22 minutes of airtime reminiscing only about his childhood. Was this some kind of selective amnesia in the waning hours of her life? The script should have done something to make Maham also acknowledge all the bad she had done! The sense of closure to so many people, including us, did not come.
Four: The scenes of Jalal on his throne living his memories of Maham in flashback were good.
I must acknowledge what was good about the episode even as I recount what was not so good. I thought the scene where Jalal was sitting on his throne and his memories were playing in the foreground at his feet were very artistically done. It was good to see the interplay of the present Jalal, soaked in feeling and memories, sitting and watching his own little self in the happy haze of childhood playing pranks with his Badi Ammi.
That juxtaposition of the present and past was really poignant, I thought. It was also very interestingly picturised and the camera angles were very good and Rajat's face had just that perfect touch of the right emotions. He neither succumbed to his present melodrama in those scenes nor did he over-react to the past visions he was seeing. There was just a hint of nostalgia and a longing to go back into the past where the days were happier and the relationship with Maham was good.
Jalal was thinking and watching with some gentle sentiments playing on his face, but he was thankfully not crying his eyes out. He looked like a man trying to assess what was the best thing to do, the right thing to do ... to remain the King on the throne or to become that little boy once again!
Five: The salute to Jodha was brought in as an afterthought on seeing the Hindu bandhi.
I pondered over this point a lot yesterday. I was wondering if in the delight of seeing Jalal again and having him say "Badi Ammi" whether Maham would give Jodha her due. When I saw the SBS segment there was a fleeting shot showing Maham saying "This Rajvanshi Begum, I now salute in front of everybody". So then I thought, "Okay, so Maham is making amends with Jodha at the end and shedding her hatred of her and wishing Jodha well genuinely."
But in the actual episode yesterday I was disappointed that not only had Maham not made amends with anyone else she had ruined in her heydays as a manipulator, but even that salute to Jodha was for seemingly wrong reasons. She says to Jodha first "I thank you for bringing Jalal to me which nobody else could have done" which was again a praise with a self-interest angle.
Then the camera showed us fleetingly that hindu bandhi who had once cursed Maham that she would bow to a Hindu Queen one day, and it looked like after Maham saw her, she got the idea of saluting Jodha in front of everyone. Okay, so she did find the grace to salute Jodha ... but I wish she didn't need to see the Hindu bandhi to be reminded that she needed to salute Jodha! If it had been a more spontaneous a gesture it would have meant more to me. I didn't like the salute to Jodha being an afterthought after spotting the hindu bandhi in the crowd.
Six: Rajat's face is not made for crying loudly and his lori singing was a howler.
Okay, this is a touchy point I am sure, and I may hurt the feelings of all Rajat fans (including myself!) as I say this. But I'll say it anyway.
I thought his entire scene with Maham would have been loads better if we had seen the sentimental - but stoically sentimental - and controlled Jalal (who usually looks very handsome when he is biting back his feelings and steeling himself) than to to see this Jalal we saw yesterday blubbering like a baby with an awkwardly scrunched up face.
Rajat has a fabulous face and his acting skills in many types of emotion are simply stupendous, but crying out aloud is not his forte. I just could not stand the complete absence of economy of emotion on his face, and I positively hated that way his face looks when he is hollering and crying. He was awful to me to watch and I longed for the "Rajat face" that makes us all have goosebumps.
To add to my misery, the lori singing was a complete no-no. It was a horrendous howler. Why did the Creatives make Rajat do what was clearly not his forte. Did we want to see a King in this avatar of a bawling baby singing a song loudly and badly through a bunch of body-rattling sobs?
Sorry, in a few seconds the CVs reduced my heart's hero into a lesser actor than he is by showing me his less elegant profile! CVs, have a care, we love our actors and don't want to see their worst sides! If you don't know how to cut out the parts of our heroes that are not so good, then please hereafter just show their hands and not their faces!
And whose silly idea was it to make Rajat sing this lori like that? Hereafter either you make him sing or you make him sob. Both together was a disaster!
Seven: The sum and substance of the episode was the retraction of Maham's "bad duas"
If anyone's wondering what we achieved from this yesterday's episode other than the Ashwini send-off, I suppose the greatest take-away is the retraction of the "bad duas" of Maham. That she did quasi-graciously as a return favour to Jodha for bringing Jalal to her. That gesture too had a bit of non-generosity about it and seemed more like a tit-for-tat to me, because if Maham truly was that thankful to Jodha for bringing Jalal she should have magnanimously said "To everyone I hurt throughout my life, including my most recent bad duas to Jodha and Jalal, I want to retract and repent for everything". That would have been gracious and it would have been closure. She didn't do that which will always be my angst.
But anyway, there's another thought that now strikes me. That retraction of bad duas was followed by the precap's Shaguni prophecy that something ominous and ugly is to happen soon and all of Jodha's goodness cannot avert the diktats of God and Nature. So ultimately what is the significance of the retraction of the bad duas if the twins are to die anyway?
It's just that if the twins had died without Maham retracting the bad duas, Maham would have been blamed for their death. Now that Maham has retracted the bad duas, does that mean that another scapegoat will be found for the death of the twins? Ruq perhaps? Or Sharif? Hope it's one of the characters I love to hate!
Eight: A lot of the dialogue was unintelligible with Maham gasping for air and Jalal crying
I want to highlight a couple of points now about the direction of the episode and the technical quality of it. The first thing here I want to say is that I found a very huge part of Maham's and Jalal's dialogues during that sentimental scene very unintelligible.
I remember Richard Burton, the actor, once saying that it is especially in very sentimental scenes where there is a lot of gasping for air and sobbing and other sound effects, the diction of the actor has to be so pure even if its undertone so that his key dialogues in that scene are not lost. The Director here has not read Richard Burton on this subject because as Maham was gasping for air and Jalal was sobbing, a lot of what they said to each other had to be imagined by us rather than heard accurately.
In Western TV dramas I have seen more emphasis given to small technicalities like this which elevate the quality of shots and acting. I guess our Hindi serials need some techniques to be learnt from the big screen and the better actors. Voices and words should not be lost in the expressiveness of the emotions, because dialogues are a huge part of any scene.
Nine: The direction of the episode was pathetic and we had poor quality camera angles.
This one is for the camera angles. The cinematographer in this case got a bit miserly on the camera angles in that serious scene between Jalal and Maham. There was just the one steady angle he got from where the bulk of the scene was shot. That was where we saw both Rajat and Ashwini in the frame and could see them emoting with each other. But if you all notice that was the only one angle being maintained for the bulk of the scene.
Otherwise there were smaller intercuts of just their faces, and sometimes we had angles where all we could see was a tangle of hands. Now to add to this confusion when Maham called up Jodha to speak to her, Jodha came right bang in the middle of this single angle shot they had of Rajat and Maham in the frame, so we got to see Jodha's back occupying the centre of the screen with a bit of Rajat on one side and bit of Maham on the other side. It was bad.
I thought the cameraman should have explored and kept ready at least two or three good angles from which to shoot the Rajat-Ashwini scene, so that Jodha's entry into the shot would enhance and not sunder the shot. These are small things that need special care!
We too would not have noticed all this if the pace of the episode was brisk. But we had so much time and so less action that every small blunder looked a bit bigger than usual!
Ten: The CVs aren't good with pathos scripts and should steer clear of too much sentimentality.
This is not the first time we are noticing this ... but our CVs are not so hot with showing or scripting pathos. Many a time they have made Mainavati look like a caricature, and on occasion Hamida too.
Our CVs are great with intense anger, fiery characters, action and war scenes, and to an extent even with love scenes ( I am thinking of the suhaag raath scene here, which I heard was done specially by a different director who is big on romantic shots!) ...
... but pathos, crying, sentimentality and heartbreak? Sorry, that doesn't seem to be our CV team's forte.
When we have scenes that our CVs are good at ... like hot anger or war action etc. the whole serial gets elevated to a higher level. But when we get scenes with pathos , we are worse than the saas-bahu soap standard.
I think we should tell Ekta that she needs different horses for different courses (i.e. she needs to change her creative teams and bring in those whose forte is pathos) and thus give us consistently good quality of fare. She did that with the suhaag raath scene and see how we all still love the way it was handled. That change of director and team made all the difference. Next time we have so much crying we need "Crying Specialists" on the CV team!
These are all just my own thoughts, folks, so feel free to accept or reject them according to your tastes!
What all happened in the episode yesterday:
Mansingh is leading the troops carrying the palki of Maham and slowly leaving the place for Delhi. Jalal is sitting inside the palace on his throne and having numerous flashbacks of what all Jodha told him in Maham's hojra, and also lots of childhood memories of Maham. Jalal even remembers Maham saying one day he would sit on the throne.
As Jalal is still inside with his memories Maham's palki passes Hamida and all the ladies standing with respect in a group. Maham salutes Hamida. Then as they pass the place where Adham's body had been kept in state in the garden of the Palace, Maham says she wants to go there. Resham asks Mansingh to take Maham there.
There Maham touches the ground stretching from her palki ... and cries over Adham's death. Her palki is also kept in the same place so she can see everybody. Maham tells Resham she is very sad Jalal has not come to see her. Hamida comes to see Maham, but Maham asks her to call Jodha.
Jodha is inside her own room praying to Kanha, asking why he is not granting Maham's dying wish to be with Jalal. Then a bandhi enters and says Maham wants to see Jodha and so Jodha goes to Maham. There she tries to apologise to Maham that she was not able to bring Jalal, but Maham spots Jalal standing behind Jodha and calls his name... "Jalal".
As Jalal starts walking towards Maham, she imagines little Jalal running towards her. She smiles at him and Jodha and Salima and Hamida are also very happy. Jalal and Maham spend long moments hugging and crying. It is all a very emotional moment, and Jalal and Maham sob openly.
Then Maham looks at Jalal as he kisses her and calls her "Badi Ammi" and she is overjoyed. She looks at Jodha and thanks her for making this reunion with her son possible. Without Jodha nobody else could gave brought Jalal here, says Maham.
Then she says she wants to talk to Jodha and Jodha comes forward. Maham says "I hated you but today for bringing my son I am grateful. But I also owe you a return gift. So I take back my bad duas on your children. Allah will give Jalal a waaris through you only." Maham also says Jodha will surely become the MUZ and she can guarantee that as Wazir-e-Aliyah. Ruq looks miffed.
Jalal kisses Maham a lot on her head and hands. Then Maham sees among the crowds that hindu bandhi who once cursed her that one day she will salute a hindu queen. Maham remembers that episode and says to jodha "Today I salute this Rajvanshi Begum in front of all." Jodha and Jalal are very gratified and crying a lot.
By now Maham has become very weak. She tells Jalal to touch her head and sing the lori she used to sing to him as a child. In a flashback scene we are shown how Maham used to sing this lori to make him sleep as a child. Tearfully Jalal barely manages to sing it - as Maham breathes her last. Jalal falls on her crying. Hamida starts praying and Resham wails in agony. Jalal and Jodha both cry with racking sobs. Jalal says "Badi Ammi" one more time as he holds her limp and lifeless hand. Episode ends.
In the precap Shaguni Bai is seen prophecying to Dadisa. She says something ominous is to happen to Jodha and no one can stop the force of God, not even Jodha's goodness. Meanwhile the segment seen on SBB is shown, where a heavily pregnant Jodha is returning in the rain in a palki after a hakima visit done on Ruq's insistence, and on the return journey she gets labour pains.
Okay, from the precap we now get the picture that on Monday we are to have a mini-leap directly to the stage when Jodha is in labour and about to give birth. But just a word or two here on the precap (which we also saw last afternoon as the SBB segment).
Can anyone tell me:
Why is the Queen of the Sultanate visiting a hakima in the lashing rain when hakimas are supposed to come to the palace to attend on the Queen?
Since when did Ruq become an authority on pregnancy and its care such that she has ordered this adventure in the rains for Jodha?
Where is Jalal in all this scene? Is Ruq being given such a free hand with Jodha that Jalal stands aside and Jodha kowtows to Ruq readily for this hakima-visit plan?
God forbid if Maddy's prediction comes right and Jodha gives birth under some tree in the woodlands in the rain! Is that what's going to happen?
What is it about Production Houses and childbirth scenes? Why is there such huge drama associated with childbirth in Hindi serials? Can no child be born peacefully? Do babies and births have to spike the TRPs?
How about Shaguni telling us whether Ruq is going to get one baby or she is going to get caught and exposed before that?
Many have called the Zee Man who steadfastly says, I believe, that Ruq will not get a baby at all and her bhandaphod is imminent! Should we arrange a face-to-face between the Zee Man and Shaguni? The Zee Man with his blithe prophecies needs to be challenged by some authority!
Shiv Shakti
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