Friends, many of us yesterday were waiting for the precap of the previous episode to happen. In that precap Ruq was talking to Hamida about wanting to separate Jodha and "her child" immediately so that no "mother-son bond" would form between them. Jalal was listening to this conversation and not liking it. So naturally, I too sat down for the show yesterday expecting fireworks to fly on this precap issue of separating Jodha from her baby.
Instead a totally different package hit us! The episode took off at a tangent and went into a different storyline entirely. It became all about the lady Shanti and her son who were trying to immolate themselves in their straw hut, and when Jodha and Mansingh saved them from death, their story opened a Pandora's box on another festering political issue entirely, that was racking the poor Hindus of the Kingdom.
But folks, as I watched this tangential storyline a couple of times, it hit me that perhaps this was not so tangential after all, and there was some bearing of this Hindus angst with the Ruqiaya and baby issue as well. It's very, very interesting that the episode yesterday opened up two different dilemmas that would have to be now solved. On the one side Shanti's issue was that Hindus in the kingdom were being made to pay a tax which the Muslims didn't have to. And if the Hindus couldn't afford the tax, they were either made into bandhis or else asked to convert to Islam. Now in reaction to this Jodha went back to the Palace after talking to Shanti and seeing that Jalal was not reacting fast enough to abolishing this unfair tax Jodha insisted she too as a Hindu would pay the tax. In the precap we see that Jodha went even one step further. She has insisted that not only she but her two newborn sons who are half-Hindus would also pay the tax. Now we have Ruq checkmated on this topic ... for she has no doubt suddenly realised that even if she adopts the son of Jodha wholesale, the child's parentage and religion can never be changed and thus the child will always be a half-Hindu!
Thus two moral dilemmas have now hit the story ... one political and one familial!
Should the Hindu tax be abolished when it is feeding so much money into the treasury and yet paining the Hindus? And if a child is born to a Hindu mother and a Muslim father, and later is adopted by a Muslim mother, does in any way the child's religion change from being that of half-Hindu? Both these questions now vex everyone concerned ...
To solve both these dilemmas, we have the good offices of Birbal who has taken it upon himself as his cherished goal to smoothen all dilemmas and give happiness back to all with a win-win situation every time. So we all now wait to see how Birbal will help Jalal solve this "Hindu tax" issue, and also how Birbal may use this "child tax" issue against Ruq as the first salvo fired against her plan to take one of Jodha's babies for herself for purely personal power.
After I saw the episode I asked myself, "Why have the Creatives taken this Shanti story into the track and devoted almost an entire episode to it? Why did they not show what was given in the previous precap, and why do we now have a different precap for yesterday's episode end? What is being achieved by this whole shift in focus?"
In answer to these questions I got the following answers, but if any of you have other ideas please do tell me, for I am eager to know what you all think about why the story's focus was shifted yesterday.
One, they wanted to give Birbal a political situation to solve in a very clever way, and thus prove his reliability and loyalty to Jalal and his trustworthiness as a solution-finder and troubleshooter for the Kingdom. Two, the Creatives also wanted to give Birbal a familial dilemma to solve as the first step towards the downfall of Ruq.
It is my feeling that (as per Diksha's prediction yesterday) it will be Birbal who will ultimately create the downfall of Ruq in the child issue. The Ruq bhandaphod is going to be engineered by the tedaness of Birbal helping Jalal and Jodha. In that pursuit, yesterday's precap perhaps offers opportunity for the first round of intervention by Birbal in the Ruq-child issue if he is shown as trying to help decide whether Ruq's child is half-Hindu and therefore should be paying taxes. With his solution to this familial dilemma, Birbal may fire his first shots at Ruq and show her that her ambition to get one kid all to herself on her own terms and purely for her own benefit is not as simple as separating the kid from its mother immediately and avoiding a bond forming between them.
I think in today evening's episode Ruq will see a combination of the previous two precap's operating. She will talk to Hamida about separating "her child from Jodha" immediately to prevent the "mother-son bond" from developing, but at the same time she will realise thanks to Jodha and Birbal that even preventing the "mother-son bond" will never erase the parentage and religion that the child was born with, which unmistakably makes him the son of Jalal and Jodha, a half-Muslim and a half-Hindu.
Isn't it tremendously interesting that Birbal has been put to the test on one political and one familial issue right at the start of his career as a Navaratna? I find it very intriguing now to see how he will solve both these issues.
The Birbal style of solutions has a distinct pattern ...
One of the most especial aspects of the Birbal style of solving issues seems to be to
a. Create a stir first and attract attention
b. Then express the crux of the issue to let people mull over it
c. Then deliver himself as the all-time great troubleshooter
d. And finally give his solution that people simply cannot refute. (But he makes people think they have found the solution, not he.)
Remember in his personal issue two days ago, before he joined the Mughal Court, he first created a stir in the sarai by trying in vain to hang himself by a rope in a jocular fashion. Having thus stirred things up, he then describes the crux of the issue to Jalal when he is asked what it's all about. He says "My wife and I hate you, Shahenshah, for I can never give my wife what you give her?" Having thus stated the issue for Jalal to mull, he then says he is the best man to deliver the solution ... in this case he says ""I can do many things you can't as a King, like making everyone laugh." Jalal then sees his value and hires him as a happiness-manager (which also gave Birbal a steady job!)!
In the same typical style Birbal yesterday has created the required stir in the Hindu tax issue, by bringing in front of Jalal thousands of Hindus ready to convert to Islam by majboor! He also showed Jalal how untenable the situation was and made Jalal mull it all over at the tarazu. Then at the tarazu he says "Leave me to give you the solution tomorrow at the DEK". And now we have to see what solution he gives - and how he makes Jalal feel as if it was his own solution that gives him total satisfaction!
In pretty much the same style, I have a feeling it is Birbal who may have given Jodha the idea to create a stir by saying both her sons will also pay the Hindu tax as they are both half-Hindus. Having thus articulated the problem through a stir, and made Ruq mull over the problem, let's see how he then "solves" this familial dilemma ... and eventually makes Ruq feel as if she has had to make a decision that gives no satisfaction to her.
The difference between the "Hindu tax" issue and the "child tax" issue is that in the former Birbal will make Jalal feel proud and satisfied with the solution. In the child tax issue, he may make Ruq suddenly see that she is never going to be getting the 100% satisfaction by adopting this child!
Four other smaller points in the episode I want to highlight ...
One, regarding Jodha getting involved in the Shanti case ...
I noticed people asking the question yesterday whether Jodha should be wasting time on the roadside solving Shanti's problem rather than running home to feed her children. I thought this was a very shortsighted assessment of Jodha. What makes people think she would have run to the Ambe temple without feeding her children? And what makes people think she won't know when the next feed is due and would not have timed her temple trip? Is Jodha not as capable of thinking as anybody else? And besides, when she stops to avert a suicide and gets to know of a political problem is she not a Queen as much as a mother with as much responsibility to the praja as to her own children? If the King had done the same kind of thing he would have been lauded for taking his Kingship seriously while also caring for his kids as appropriate. So why a different yardstick for the Queen? Both Jodha and Jalal have to do both - care for the praja and their own children. Both roles are important to the positions they hold!
And while on this matter I also want to say that I support Jodha's decision to insist on paying the tax though she was a Queen and didn't need to. Here she was using Birbal's own tactics ... creating a stir to get Jalal's attention on the topic and a just decision. If Birbal had done this it would have been seen as "smart tactic" but if Jodha does it will it become an "OTT act"?
Two, regarding Ruq's already thinking she is the MUZ ...
Didn't you all feel yesterday that the way Ruq butted in everytime when Jodha was explaining the Hindu tax issue to Jalal or Todarmal, that she already thinks she is the MUZ?
I found it very revealing that she was desperate to be part of a debate on the issue and forcing her opinion on Jalal. She can if she wants to, that's not the issue. Anyone can debate a point. But to try and butt into Jodha's conversations with others was, to me, looking like Ruq was sinking etiquette just to force her point on the matter. She desperately wanted to have her say in matters political, and she didn't care to wait till someone asked her opinion. Does she already think she is MUZ and at least on par with Jodha if not above her? Does she feel challenged to show her voice and edge Jodha out of the debate by pushing Jalal towards her own point? Ruq was way too aggressive but I am happy that Jodha soon got the drift and started giving back in good measure. Which one will make the better MUZ do you think?
Three, regarding the one-upmanship between Tansen and Birbal ...
I enjoyed that verbal sparring where both obviously had a "tu tu mein mein" going back to the days when they were both employed by Raja Ramachandra. So they kept downsizing each other by sarcastically calling each other by their old names "Ramtanu Pandey" and "Mahesh Das" and they both tried to show off that they were now indispensable to the Mughal court.
In the end Birbal said the right thing to end the altercation. He said "You go around lighting fires with your Raag Deepak, and I then go around dousing fires with my intellect!" But though Birbal has the last word on a verbal debate, I feel there will be moments when even Birbal's mouth will be zipped by the mesmerising melodies of Tansen's musical gift. So one will stir the soul, while the other will stir the mind. May they both be at loggerheads always because I am loving their Tom & Jerry act!
Four, I was a bit sad that Birbal came to the tarazu ...
Folks, I always thought the tarazu was exclusively Jodha and Jalal's place. It was their corner, their secret meeting place, their place of mutual succour ... I somehow didn't like Birbal intruding into the tarazu area, even if he was helping Jalal solve a dilemma. Maybe I am just possessive over things and places that "belong to Jodha and Jalal" and I feel intolerant of others invading this space. I wish that even if Birbal has to now help Jalal with his solutions he will not shatter that mutual helping hand that Jodha and Jalal used to exclusively give to each other - and he will not be a "buttinsky" in their moments of private uljhans.
Just my feeling that I want some things between Jodha and Jalal to not admit a third person!
What all happened in yesterday's episode:
When Shanti is burning herself and her son in her hut, Jodha sends Mansingh into the hut and he saves her. But when asked for her reason for suicide Shanti says she's a poor Hindu unable to pay Hindu tax levied by Mughals - or they force conversion to Islam which she doesn't want.
She says her husband has been made a bandhi for not paying tax. She has no money to pay tax and doesn't want to become a Muslim so suicide is the only way. Jodha tries to pacify her but she says "You Royals take our money and then give the same back to us as petty charity when your waaris is born. Keep your charity, i dont need it."
Meanwhile in the Palace garden Tansen and Birbal come face to face. They seem to have an old tu tu mein mein from their days in Raja Ramchandra's darbar. They sarcastically call each other Ramtanu Pandey and Mahesh Das. Birbal tells Tansen "You are her to light fires with your raag Deepak and I am here to help people be happy in spite of your inflagrations."
When Jodha returns she tells Jalal about the injustice of the Hindu tax and forced conversion to Islam but Ruq butts in and says the tax money is needed by the treasury. Jalal says he will think about it and give a decision after talking to Todarmal. But this conversation is fully heard by Birbal who is eavesdropping.
Seeing that Jalal is not deciding fast in favour of abolishing tax Jodha makes all Hindu bandhis and herself stand in line ready to pay tax. Todarmal sees this and summons Jalal. Ruq also lands there and again Jodha and Ruq argue against and for the tax. Jodha hands money to Jalal and asks him to accept the taxes of all Hindus there in the line.
Jalal then tells Jodha he can't accept tax from her or the praja will talk that King is collecting tax from his own wife. But Jodha insists. She says "Either take the tax from me or change the law." Ruq grabs the money from Jodha and takes it as her tax. Later Birbal sees Jodha and Moti discussing this issue and says he is planning to solve the problem and help bring happiness to all in this issue.
In the DEK Jalal is discussing about the enmity of Raja Udai Singh with Mansingh and says he should be tackled with both war and and talks. Birbal suddenly comes there and tells Jalal the Hindus have come in thousands to convert to Islam from majboor. Jalal sees the masses and says conversion against one's own will isn't okay in Islam.
Birbal tells Jalal it's easy to pacify Begums but harder to manage people if they want to go against a law they dislike. Later Jalal is in uljhan near the tarazu thinking of the consequences of tax abolition - on the one side, it means losses to treasury and on the other side it means pain to the Hindu praja. Birbal comes there and says tomorrow in the DEK he will give a win-win situation and all sides will be happy.
In the precap, Ruq is with Jalal and Jodha. Jodha seems to be insisting on paying taxes for herself and both her sons but Ruq says "One baby is mine and he need not pay tax."
Today, what will we see?
Maybe the two previous precaps together? Maybe Birbal's solutions for the "Hindu tax" and the "child tax" issues? Maybe Ruq feeling as if one of her teeth has been pulled out by Birbal on the child tax issue?
If the last point above happens, it will make my day!
Book Talk
Anupamaa
