Friends, I won't labour the points on this post today because I know that almost everyone on the Forum is in a state of utter despondency about what was shown yesterday. Suffice it to say that the whole serial has gone to such a disappointing place - and the Creatives are eating up such large chunks of important time in the life of Akbar - that the story is not meaningful any more.
Yesterday, for about half the episode we had no clue what was about to happen to us ... we saw Jalal bury his dead baby Husein and then drench himself in the rain to shed his pent-up anger. When Jodha came up to him to say "Don't blame yourself for what happened to the baby!" he just turned around and blamed her solely instead. He said it was their mohabbat that did the child in! In fact he did not even directly accuse Jodha. He said "I told you to return to your bed and Husein but you didn't!" Jodha already racked by self-guilt, took it all on with the stoicism of an Ekta martyr!
And then a phase of Jalal shutting out Jodha from his life began. We saw them pass each other in corridors without any sort of communication between them.
In the meanwhile Ruq tried a major rant about the loss of her child and downright insulted Hamida and Salima for snatching Husein from her to hand over to Jodha. She called Jodha a lousy mother and a wife eager to bed her husband all the time. But thankfully Salima gave it right back to Ruq saying that since it was she who had hired Zeenat for the baby care, she was as much the cause of the babies' death for having hired a murderess. That sort of put paid to Ruq's wailing and it fell several decibels lower.
Even while all this was happening we looked like we were in the "present time " in the story. But then suddenly we were given a DEK scene, where Jalal out of the blue and furiously seemed to get tired of the Rajvanshis gnawing at his heels. He said "For the last three years they have been giving panaa to my enemies. I declare war on Chittor." And that was it folks. We all realised that suddenly the serial had undergone a leap of three years - because from when the twins died (1564) to when the Chittor war was fought (1567) there were three years!
In between we had the Akbar Ka Makabra scenes that were intended to give us a voiceover like effect of the encapsulation of the three years that had passed by in continued estrangement between Jalal and Jodha. Jodha's soul said "I lost everything in my life ... my children and my love ... in that one night!" and Jalal's soul replied "I was blaming our night together and our mohabbat for the death of our children." In between several shots were shown of Jalal gradually returning to his old barbarism - as he beheaded his own subjects mercilessly and tortured others - and his sword was his companion and no other human. Jodha's soul then said "You gradually turned back into that jallad", to which Jalal's soul replied "I knew it would hurt you but I had to vent the angst inside me somehow. I needed that outlet!"More scenes of his barbarism emanated to fill the screens.
It was in this context that the DEK declaration of war on Chittor happened, and so the implication for audiences was three things:
History has it that the Chittor War he fought was one of the most brutal when he slayed maybe even more than 30000 people and hung their severed heads on the walls of the forts, and caused the jauhar of women Rajvanshis en masse in thousands, apart from razing Chittor totally, and leaving not even the civilians intact.
I am no great history buff, but I get the picture that this was a black spot on his "greatness" and Ekta wanted to show us that it was the death of his babies and his subsequent self-deprecation that made him again such a jallad as to unleash such an unholy war. Okay, so she created a cause-and-effect of her own in this part of the story and I am prepared to put up with that in the name of naatakiya rupanthar. Fine. But what she additionally did to the story is unforgiveable.
But here I must say that I saw things a slight bit differently than most people did. I felt that it was because Jalal knew he was lying when he blamed Jodha alone for the night of the "mohabbbat" that he was covering up for his guilt at lying by deliberately sneering and snickering at Jodha more than before - especially when he was setting out for war and insisted that she and she alone should do the tilak puja and send him off.
Ruq tried to do a "buttinsky" by saying she would do the tilak puja if Jodha wouldn't, but Jalal bellowed at her so harshly that she zipped her mouth. Jodha, who knew that this war was being fought by Jalal to purge his anger more than any other principled reason, refused initially to be part of his tilak rasam, but then Hamida said it would make a difference to his life and safety and Jodha reluctantly acquiesced.
In that moment I thought I saw the "attachment" Jodha had to Jalal come through for she still valued his life and safety despite his despicable treatment of her. And Jodha then, instead of applying a kumkum tilak on Jalal and his sword, appled a tilak of her own blood after deliberately cutting her finger against his sword edge. "Let history know that my blood as a Rajvanshi was the first one spilled in this war" she said and he sneered and went off to war.
The questions I ask myself here are: Why did Jalal insist on Jodha doing the tilak ceremony? Was it just to belittle her as a Rajvanshi? Or was it to give expression to that "sentiment for her" that still burned somewhere deep inside him that wanted her blessing and good wishes before the outing? And why did he shout at Ruq in such a denigrating manner when she offered her services? Was it the disgust he felt now for Ruq manifesting itself?
In that tilak ceremony, I thought I saw the faint stirrings of heart in both Jodha and Jalal - so I am not going to join with all who whine and lament that everything looks gone between Jodha and Jalal and she is being disgracefully treated by her.
His outer behaviour is disgraceful indeed, I agree, but somewhere the flame of love has not quite been doused. It still burns bright dep within both, and I have no doubt that during the war the memories of Jodha are going to haunt his nights even as he spend his days in the wretched killing fields of Chittor.
I too am utterly despondent on this one because Ruq was not, and never ever will be, my favourite character and I have been itching for her to be roundly and soundly punished for all her misdeeds including the latest and most vile baby-snatching plot. My friends tell me that I should be satisfied with her at least being deprived of the MUZ audha by the death of the babies and that is punishment enough. And further, my friends tell me, if in these three years, Jalal has been shown estranged from Jodha, he has equally been shown as estranged from Ruq so she has gained nothing that Jodha hasn't.
But all this is very little to make me feel happy about Ruq roaming the countryside scot free.
But I am an incorrigible optimist. I want to say folks that as long as this serial exists on television for us to watch, and right up to the last day of the serial, I will continue to hope for the overt sidelining of Ruq by Jalal (not because the Zee man says so, but because history does say so).
Even in my darkest moments (as now) I am not one to give up on hope and optimism, so despite the pall of gloom all around me, and the skeptics all saying "Pooh, there goes Ruq scot free again!" I continue to keep my hope and confidence burning inside me like a little flame that can erupt at any time. Maybe things may not happen as I want them to very fast ... but at some point the story HAS TO SHOW that Ruq was sidelined, and even if that comes in the very last scene of the very last episode of the serial, I would welcome it and pat myself on the back for my staying power!
I wonder what will happen to the Sharif battle and Sujamal death tracks? Will we ever be shown that or with Salim's birth will the grand leap of 15 years take place by end November as all those "in the know" tell us? We have to wait and watch.
But the one thing that sustains me now is that I hope this war will be short (and Rajat willmreturn to shooting in a week) and then there will be a lot of focus on how Jodha and Jalal reconcile and renew their love and beget Salim after much mutual difficulty. I think that may be about the last patch of love we may see before the serial is due for its November leap to the Salim-Anarkali story. So I hope that the Salim birth phase will be good between Jodha and Jalal and will help us forget to some extent the days of deep anguish that we have gone through in the earlier 350+ episodes.
All that happened in the episode:
Jalal lifts and hugs the shroud of his baby Husein and takes it for burial with the men, as all the women watch . Ruq looks upset - but Jodha is totally broken. Later Jalal stands in the rain trying to drench his anger away as Jodha comes to him. She says "Don't blame yourself for the baby's death."
Jalal turns his anger against Jodha and says "That night I told you to be with Husein. You should have gone." He is holding Jodha's hand, but he lets go abruptly and goes away. Jodha tries to follow him but he distances from her by pulling a curtain between them and showing he wants not to get close to her.
Ruq is crying bitterly to Gulbadan at the loss of baby, when Hamida and Salima come there. Ruq insults them saying they forced Ruq to give Husein to Jodha who was a lousy mother. She says Jodha only cares to make love to her husband. Hamida says such hatred of Jodha is not good. Salima then says Ruq is also to blame for hiring Zeenat, a murderess.
Then they show the Akbar ka Makabra where souls of Jodha and Jalal talk - and act as voiceovers giving the history of three years of their life lived in virtual separation. Jodha says "I lost all that I had in that one night ... my baby and my love." Jalal's soul says "I felt as if our mohabbat had killed the babies. We lived under the same roof but as strangers". They show scenes of Jodha and Jalal just passing by each other in the corridors with no communication.
Jodha's soul in the Makabra says "You started losing your heart and became a total jallad". Jalal's soul says "i knew you were hurting but my inner anger needed an outlet." They then show lots of scenes of Jalal getting more and more barbaric with his own subjects as days passed. Hamida tells Jodha in concern that "Jalal has become horrendous. But his problem is that he is unable to cry out his pain".
One day in the DEK Jalal becomes fiendishly angry with the Rajvanshis for giving panaa to his enemies for last 3 years. He decides to unleash a barbaric war on them and to attack Chittor. Moti tells Jodha about this plan of Jalal. Jodha says she has to talk to him and stop this war ... because this war is more due to his inner anger and not really being fought for the right principles.
Jalal is getting dressed in armoury for war when Jodha comes to talk him out of it. But Mansingh stops Jodha from entering as per Jalal's orders. Jodha starts arguing with Mansingh which enrages Jalal and he comes outside. He refuses to listen to Jodha's pleas that his name and honour will get spoiled by this war . He insists that jodha should do the tilak rasam for him.
Jodha refuses to do the rasam for such an unprincipled barbaric war. But Hamida says she should do the rasam for Jalal's life safety. Ruq tries to butt in and says she will do the rasam, but Jalal shouts at her shutting her up with unleashed ferocity in his words - and says he wants only Jodha to do this rasam. Jodha agrees reluctantly, and takes the thali.
But instead of doing a kumkum tilak on him and his sword, Jodha deliberately cuts her own finger at the edge of Jalal's sword and applies a tilak on him and the sword of her own blood. She says "Let history know that the first blood of a Rajvanshi on this sword was mine." Jalal then sneeringly turns and goes to war.
In the precap, Jalal stands atop of a height and gives his soldiers the war cry of "Fateh" and they all chorus in unison. Jodha watches Jalal with dismay as he proceeds to vent out his barbarism.
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