Posted:
My dear Donjas,
Coming here for a look see after ages, I was interested to read this post of yours.
I agree completely with you re: @blue. The "something else in the mix" was Akbar's trust in the Ameris, both for their loyalty and their courage. This is clearly shown in the serial as well, at every stage.
I do not think any kind of nasty tweet by any of the cast members of Jodha Akbar will make people desert the JA love story for the Salim-Anarkali love story, which bids fair to be dismal. How come the PH tolerates such rank indiscipline, seeing that the tweeter can surely be identified?
In fact, I think that it is precisely to prevent an exodus, not towards SA but away from the serial altogether, because of the sidelining of Jodha and Akbar, that we are having a series of chunky Jodha-Jalal scenes these days, showcasing their comfortable and yet lively romance, with a lot of coquetry from Jodha's side and teasing from Jalal's. I do not remember seeing so many of such scenes even in the old days.
And the scene between Jalal and Ruqaiya on Tuesday was a tour de force of acting from Rajat. He got a very good opportunity and made the most of it. The voice control, always impeccable, the suppressed tears, the movements of the face to match the cadences of the voice as he laments about all that he had endured to have this child, everything was amazingly effective.
The companion scene between Ruqaiya and Hoshiyaar was also very unusual and extremely good, with Hoshiyaar's acting being a revelation.
It is really not my business, but it might be better not to discuss historical issues outside the designated thread. The DT seems to be very strict about that. I also fail to understand this constant urge to drag historical figures, about whom not much is known in hard terms, into discussions of this natakiya rupantar ridden show. Unless we use a planchette and raise the spirits of the three of them, Akbar, Jodha and Ruqaiya, we are hardly going to get anywhere, so let us leave them to sleep in peace!😉
Finally, I find the sweeping comment that
"Akbar and Ruqaiya were closely related cousins, a friendship is more likely between the two than any love affair. A love affair between close family members would not have been natural, in any era, and if anything we know about Akbar it was that he was remarkably normal."
historically unsound. Marriage between the children of a brother and a sister was very common in south India till very recently (but not between those of 2 brothers, because, having the same gotra, they would be considered brother and sister). Here of course it was between the children of 2 brothers, which I understand is permissible in Islam. King Philip II of Spain, in the 16th century, married his own niece, his sister's daughter, for reasons of state, and no one found that shocking.
So, how can one say that for 2 such young people of that era, raised in that cultural matrix and married to each other , to fall in love would have been unnatural? It is a good thing that the serial itself, whatever the ahistorical distortions it constantly introduces, does not touch on this aspect, and does not try to import one more 21st century taboo into the 16th century.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Coming here for a look see after ages, I was interested to read this post of yours.
I agree completely with you re: @blue. The "something else in the mix" was Akbar's trust in the Ameris, both for their loyalty and their courage. This is clearly shown in the serial as well, at every stage.
I do not think any kind of nasty tweet by any of the cast members of Jodha Akbar will make people desert the JA love story for the Salim-Anarkali love story, which bids fair to be dismal. How come the PH tolerates such rank indiscipline, seeing that the tweeter can surely be identified?
In fact, I think that it is precisely to prevent an exodus, not towards SA but away from the serial altogether, because of the sidelining of Jodha and Akbar, that we are having a series of chunky Jodha-Jalal scenes these days, showcasing their comfortable and yet lively romance, with a lot of coquetry from Jodha's side and teasing from Jalal's. I do not remember seeing so many of such scenes even in the old days.
And the scene between Jalal and Ruqaiya on Tuesday was a tour de force of acting from Rajat. He got a very good opportunity and made the most of it. The voice control, always impeccable, the suppressed tears, the movements of the face to match the cadences of the voice as he laments about all that he had endured to have this child, everything was amazingly effective.
The companion scene between Ruqaiya and Hoshiyaar was also very unusual and extremely good, with Hoshiyaar's acting being a revelation.
It is really not my business, but it might be better not to discuss historical issues outside the designated thread. The DT seems to be very strict about that. I also fail to understand this constant urge to drag historical figures, about whom not much is known in hard terms, into discussions of this natakiya rupantar ridden show. Unless we use a planchette and raise the spirits of the three of them, Akbar, Jodha and Ruqaiya, we are hardly going to get anywhere, so let us leave them to sleep in peace!😉
Finally, I find the sweeping comment that
"Akbar and Ruqaiya were closely related cousins, a friendship is more likely between the two than any love affair. A love affair between close family members would not have been natural, in any era, and if anything we know about Akbar it was that he was remarkably normal."
historically unsound. Marriage between the children of a brother and a sister was very common in south India till very recently (but not between those of 2 brothers, because, having the same gotra, they would be considered brother and sister). Here of course it was between the children of 2 brothers, which I understand is permissible in Islam. King Philip II of Spain, in the 16th century, married his own niece, his sister's daughter, for reasons of state, and no one found that shocking.
So, how can one say that for 2 such young people of that era, raised in that cultural matrix and married to each other , to fall in love would have been unnatural? It is a good thing that the serial itself, whatever the ahistorical distortions it constantly introduces, does not touch on this aspect, and does not try to import one more 21st century taboo into the 16th century.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
One of the cast members has made a disparaging tweet about the Jodha Akbar love story.
This tweet shows the utter frustration of the cast members. Ratings are falling drastically and the producers are unable to attract fans of the Jodha Akbar love story to their Salim Anarkali theme.If this viewer apathy goes on like this, they could lose their jobs. That is why this tirade, to debase the Jodha Akbar love story so people desert it and migrate to Salim Anarkali.As far as history goes, there is no mention of Anarkali in any historical record. There is nothing else to say on the subject.Ruqaiya was one of the chief wives of Akbar, there is no doubt about it, that fact is reiterated both in Abul Fazl's records and the Tuzk e Jahangiri, but in his memoirs Jahangir makes only a passing reference to Ruqaiya but spends a lot of time praising Salima Sultan and the respect he had for his mother Marium Uz Zamani.The fact that Ruqaiya chose to be buried in Kabul near her grandfather and not near her husband in Agra is suggestive. Also suggestive is the fact that Akbar and Ruqaiya were closely related cousins, a friendship is more likely between the two than any love affair. A love affair between close family members would not have been natural, in any era, and if anything we know about Akbar it was that he was remarkably normal.The fact that MUZ was buried so close to Akbar's own burial place in in Sikandra is suggestive. Also very suggestive is the huge importance that representatives of Amer got in Akbar's regime.Of Akbar's top Rajput nobles, nearly half were from Amer. Also suggestive is the guard duty of Harem entrusted to Raja Bhagwan Das in times of war. Such trust is indicative of the special relation of the Mughal empire with Amer. And the fact that Daniel was entrusted to be taken care of by Raja Bhagwan Das's wife is another indication. All this just because MUZ was mother of Salim does not seem plausible. There was something else in the mix.Abhay has given several other pieces of information about the special relationship between MUZ and Akbar. He has explained how evidence of it exists at Fatehpuri Sikri and abounds in folk lore and stories.One has to read between the lines to decipher mughal relations, to me it is obvious.
367