Hi Radhika,
GM. Hope u had a wonderful Diwali. Missed ur posts and glad that you made it...
Loved ur post and the title. You have said it all and these questions are precisely the reason y I have stopped watching. Leaving aside chittoor which was intolerable jalal's behavior towards jo cut the magic, Jo's apology dent it further and finally ruq going once again free made me give up.
Just reading wu but enjoyed everyone's post here and the hilarious takes..
Sorry for deviating, but wished to share the episode I watched yesterday the dek scene before shivani's wedding . I have watched Benazir track only in bits and pieces so was pleasantly surprised to see this episode and in this present climate it looked even more beautiful.
It started with the reunion of sukany and jo after sukanyas wedding. It's always a pleasure to watch them both together and jo longingly told how she was missing those days and her and feel at times so lonely here. I guess jo though have salima , their relation has always been more on respectful terms and she should have really missed those banters with sukanya. Though we grew up we always seem to miss the innocence of childhood isn't it?
There was another cute scene of dadisa gifting all the Mughal begums and hb gifting jo with Mughal dress. The scene of the day was jo walking into dek in Mughal dress with that amazing bgm . and it was made more cute when Rahim joined the dancers . Jalal was so captivated with jo's smile that only an eyelock from jo made him remember he was in dek and that too in gringha mode . He so tried but failed to avoid seeing her. There was a reminiscence of sukanya's wedding too when jalal finds jo's nose ring loose and automatically tried to correct her .. But couldn't leave it there so called jo in the night for his famous jibe now, "Though you look beautiful in this ,Benazir would have looked better ,but it seems jo has grown wiser to his antics and hence replied .. I don't care anymore and would be happy to give it if you please and would be even better if you ask hb to do so..".. But Could our shehenshah leave it there ...You always seems to say onething and do another and hence I wonder what should be going on your mind whenever you insult me.A classic way of jalal's asking Do you have any feelings for me.. and poor jo has to duck the question and state she is leaving,But she stands there for a moment caught in a dilemma of wanting to spend some more time with him or leave the place before betraying herself.
Jalal notices this with smile and says her "Ah you have proved me right jodha begum by standing there and not leaving",now jo leaves and jalal stops her by giving back her fallen ankle and give it back to her with that special handhold ... How would he ever miss an opportunity like that ...
The episode also had maham,ruq and Benazir but it was not jarring at all and the overall tone of the episode was so positive that I was left wondering what has gone amiss between then and now...
The only thing I could see was back then though there were many villains the focus of the show was always on ja their pain,happiness etc.. as it should have been ..Sadly in the race for TRP's the overall focus has been changed and villains are glorified and left us in a disheartened state of once adored drama.
The shenshah who submitted himself before kalmia, the son in law who showed unconditional love and respect by gifting ratanpur to sukanya , the husband who fought for justice and honour of his wife punishing his own sister , the lover who took care his spouse as a precious doll and the father who stood bearing all the pain of a son's(hasan) death yet supporting his wife and giving her a reason to live all seems to be the distant memories of the past .The jo who was so dignified, full of self-respect who even showed that if needed she can live a life on her own rather living on mercy of someone also seems to be lost.
What we have now seems to be the fabrication of cvs and I could no longer connect them to ja I used to adore and only left with questions ...