Posted:
Friends, the episode yesterday was a fairly good one considering that we have hit the lowest of lows last week with the repeated drugging of Salim. There was none of that yesterday - thank God - and in fact the best part of the episode I thought was the fact that Salim was fully in his senses and was chipper enough to save his mother from the dakus!
What all was good about the episode? Let's try to be positive ...
* No Ruq ...except for one silly chess scene, where she was playing against a random begum and winning ... and had about 2 minutes to give an evil look and say her "maksad" was to separate Jodha and Salim! If the Creatives do not include these two precious minutes with her saying the same thing in every episode, it looks like the Creatives' atma will not be in shanti!
* There was no scene of Ruq drugging Salim ... if there was such a scene I was planning to write to the Broadcast Standards Authority!
* I thought Jalal was spectacular because they are now showing his "tedaness" as a feature of how he brings up his son and teaches him about the art of kingship. Earlier in the last week's episodes we had Jalal teaching Salim to value the shamsheer over the ghungroo by organising a dance event simultaneously with a swordfight to help Salim see where his attention should always be. Yesterday, Jalal the father staged a full daku-assault act after taking Salim and Jodha to a forest camp, and thereby checked to see Salim's protective instincts of his mother! Having seen that Salim rose to the occasion remarkably well, slashing his own father's arm with his sword in a show of valorous triumph over the dakus, Jalal then went on to use the occasion to deliver his other teda message: "You protected your mother my boy, but yesterday when Ruq wrongfully punished Rashid Khan by stripping him of his job why did you say nothing? You knew you had lied about how Nadira fell into the water ... you boys had tripped her up. Yet when Ruq chastised the girl's parents and rendered her father jobless, why did you not stand up to protect your praja? That family will have nothing to eat if there is no job. Your praja is your larger family and you have a duty to protect them!"
* I loved the way Jalal got to know from both Salim and then Jodha about the ugly incident whereby Ruq sacked Rashid Khan. Salim had only told him that Nadira fell into the water, but Jodha supplied the reasons why she fell into the water, so I am glad Jalal got the whole story before making it an object lesson for his son. I also loved the precap where Ruq is cornered and offering now to resign from her positions of power if Jalal felt she had overdone the Rashid Khan sacking. Hope Jalal says "Thank you for your services, but you are forthwith relieved of your duties!" I know he won't say that but I hope one day soon he will.
* I loved one thing which I want to point out ... I think it's a really good thing that as soon as Ruq stuffs Salim's ears with advice like "The praja should be afraid of your guroor and give you respect as a walihaad", Jalal is almost in the very next episode giving Salim the opposite advice to honour the praja. No wonder Jodha's eyes glazed over in happiness. The Creatives had tweeted that Ruq will try but not be successful in her chaals. So I hope they are going to maintain this pattern whereby even if Ruq tres to spoil Salim, Jodha and Jalal unravel her saazishes almost immediately.
* I loved the Akbar Ka Makabra scene idea to show that Jodha was impressed with the way Jalal taught Salim his daku-lesson. But Jalal also says one ominous sentence: "Yes Salim learnt a lot but we both didn't know that life would teach us a very big lesson very soon". Oh gosh, another big blowup to be expected soon? Is it about the precap and Ruq trying to throw a blackmail on Jalal and Jodha ... or is it going to be something else? Will they find out about the drugging of Salim?
* Finally, I loved the starting scene of Jodha singing the bhajan for Kanha and doing the aarti, and the way little Salim was attending the prayer with his hands folded, and how later Jalal also came to join the prayers. Although I am heartily sick of the song "hey man mohan" still the scene was cute and very heartwarming! What a happy family they would be if there was no other wicked witch in the story! Sigh!
Folks, thanks for all those who wrote good wishes for the members of my family who are down with virus. My Mom's okay, and I am okay ... but my daughter is still a bit down. Meanwhile our dog is jealous of the attention my daughter is getting and is behaving like Ruq! That's the latest medical bulletin!
Jhanak
