Jodha Akbar 13-15: The Ruqaiya enigma - Page 7

Not you, my dear Preeti, it was Devki. She wrote, as you would remember, I did like LT's Rukaiyya on the whole. She had an innocence, almost a foolishness (no joothis please!!) to her. She was reduced to nothing more than smirking towards the end but that is not her fault.

As for your characteristically interesting comments on page 4, I have now read them and marked them with a Like, but not responded to them as yet. I had been answering from the beginning since the morning, of course with many and long interruptions, and have only now got to the end of page 3 with Vinita27. Yours is at the top of page 4. In the meantime, I got sidetracked by this thing of Devki's and your comments on it, and my response was so long that it is now past 1 am! I am off to bed, but I will write to you first thing tomorrow morning.

Shyamala

Originally posted by: Coolpree

Innocent??? when did I call Ruk II innocent? Dear Shyamala I have been Ruk 2 fiercest opponent for a very long time including for many shameful acts including the Afeem episode.

BTW my comments were on page 4. you have not pressed the like button or replied so I assume you have not read it 😭. would have loved your to hear views on the Jalal / Hamida kheer interaction. Anyways Cheers! frankly neither Ruk 1 nor Ruk 2 mean much to me.

Originally posted by: Kalgi22

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear Devki and Preeti,

I am not one who claims that Smiley's Ruqaiya was a Sarah Bernhardt character. She is not as goodlooking as Ruqaiya II, she has a voice like a corncrake, and her diction is as flat as a pancake. Nor is she any great shakes as an actress. But she looked like the Padshahi Begum, she had dignity and grace, she never raised either her voice or her hand with those below her. In she was a lady who was every inch a queen.

@bold. Look, Devki my dear, all this is tea leaves reading a with vengeance. One cannot possibly have any idea what Smiley's Ruqaiya, had she continued, would have been like. That would have been in the hands of the CVs.

Plus she had far less telecast time to flesh out her character. The other one had far too much time; I could have done with about 1/10th of it!

My belief if that the change was made because the director did not think that Smiley could play the banshee like, insufferably and crudely arrogant (just look back to her first meeting with Jodha,where she is so obnoxious, and for no reason at all ) and terminally stupid Ruqaiya II, whose plots against Jodha and then Salim, and thus by extension against Jalal, grew worse and worse as the tale progressed and could not possibly be balanced by her all too infrequent flashes of decency.

The change in the portrayal of Ruqaiya was not only due to the change of circumstances. It was because the CVs decided they had made a mistake with the layered Smiley's Ruqaiya, the agony in whose face when Hamida declares that those without mohabbat cannot have aulad seared the screen( that was a ludicrous statement if ever there was one, but that is not the point here) . They wanted a scheming nanad to supplement Maham's vicious saas, that is all. Smiley would not have filled the bill.

Innocent? Who? Ruqaiya II? How, and when ? Have you forgotten that she deliberately fed opium to her 9 year old nephew, and poisoned his mind against his parents? The former is a vicious, unforgiveable crime. And that later she systematically fomented strife between Jalal and Salim, and finally, nearly got Jalal killed thru her criminal folly ?

Foolish, yes, even terminally stupid too. But since when has that become a virtue, or even a palliative to those disgusted by her other qualities? I HATE those who are so rude to their servants and slap them around, besides screaming all time and breaking furniture.

Plus, she was like a plastic harem superintendent, devoid of any of the dignity and grace that should characterise a Padshahi Begum.

Note that I am not talking of her plotting against Jodha, but of her general behaviour, In fact, she is very much like Maham in this respect: bully all those below you and suck up to those above you, in this case Jalal. Ruqaiya II is abominably rude to Jodha at first sight not because she is insecure about her. It is because she is nasty to others as a rule, and pleasant only as an exception.

The sense of easy camaraderie with Jalal that is shown in these episodes with Ruqaiya I is gone as soon as Ruqaiya II turns up.

Both are endemically insecure.

In Ruqaiya I's case it because of the lack of a child, and because for all her talk of ruling Jalal's dimaag ( her constant repetition of this mantra is enough of a hint about her insecurity), she wants Jalal's mohabbat too, as a kind of insurance against future sidelining, whereas in this period he detests the very word. The second reason is is of course linked to the first, her childlessness. She is no fool like Ruqaiya II, and she knows that the day will come when another begum will give Jalal an heir, and will then neatly supplant her as the favourite. So this insecurity is ever present, whatever her public show of confidence that she is Jalal's sabse chaheti begum.

In Ruqaiya II's case it is because of Jodha, and thus more acute.

This kind of insecurity is bound to lead to self-centredness, it is just the survival instinct!

But this does not mean that Ruqaiya I has no affection for Jalal. She was very likely an aggressive tomboy and thus not demonstrative, and there is no touchy feely romantic affection between them on either side. She scolds him, tries to feel equal with him by keeping him waiting for her and defeating him in chess, but at times there is a sudden switch to wifeliness as she says, about the soiled chadar, Rehne do, hum sambhal lenge! or Aapki har cheez humein keemti hai.

I do not know how one can conclude that Ruqaiya II had any real affection for Jalal either. Even when she is expecting a baby, she is talking only about becoming the Mariam-uz-Zamani, not of his joy in becoming a father at last. And if she had cared for him, she would never have made the son he loves so much an opium addict at 9, and then poisoned Salim's mind against his parents and fomented every instance of discord between Jalal and Salim. No one can possibly forgive her role in the afeem affair. It was every bit as ugly as anything Maham did.

I am glad Smiley left when she did. At least she did not have to corrupt a 9 year old!

None of the above, my dear young ladies, is to get you to like Ruqaiya I better than Ruqaiya II. Not to do so is your inalienable right! And the greatest minds have made nothing of being in a minority, even of one or two. Only, please do not argue that Ruqaiya II is innocent!

Shyamala/Aunty

Another anmol rattan post Aunty.👏


The version 1 of Ruqu was intriguing and truly said she was an enigma to us viewers and to the other ladies in the harem. Although she was less pretty and less elegant than the others, there was a sense of aristocracy and an sense of possessiveness over Jalal.
Jalal of course was most comfortable with her due to his childhood friendship and did not know or ponder on love etc. until ... along came Jodhu the fiery woman who cared less for material things and more for immaterial things.

She showed overconfidence over Jalal's feelings & his thoughts and ignored all advises that Jalal is distancing from her slowly. Rugu 1 showed an air of aloofness, that she didn't care of anything or anyone.
But we need to give Smiley hats off for the amazing chemistry she shared with Jalal in some of the scenes. Especially, the ones you mentioned, where Jalal's eyes showcased the 'Bedroom Eyes', she was comfortably toying with her arms and herself in his proximity.
But hidden behind that face and eyes were a bountiful basket of insecurity and the emotion ' I dont know what to do'. I think she took refuge in Harem administration and some satisfaction that Jalal did consider her as one of the chief queens.

But Ruqu 2 Lavina was a bit loud and showcased the vamp avatar. Loud, gaudy, rash, brimming with lies & conspiracies against Jodha. Lavina might have portrayed per her script, but NR team over did a lot of plots. Viewers almost wanted to slap her and boot her out of the show. She could have been shown a little less of a vamp and more like a conspirator.
Surely for a queen who was the real Akbar's fav, could have been shown in a different way.

I agree with some of the comments, that Ruqu 2 towards the end was so insecure and lonely that she stooped so low as to feed drugs to the heir and not to forget the meddling with spice trade. She left no stone unturned to get rid of Jodha in every situation possible.
Ruqu ended up as character who wanted to do something to buy Akbar's attention, but she did not know how to do it without a drama or a scene that was not obscene. She was his childhood friend who was his mate, but seemed like she never grew up or rather never matured with respect to her feelings for Akbar as a husband.

But she was required as an ice cube to make a drink cool. But as the ice melted away, she was not needed at times.

Obviously, no drama is complete with other characters like Ruqu.
She will remain as an engima for me the initial version.

I remembered this line from wind in the willows book to Ruqu's harkat in messing about Jo Ja relationship.

'There's nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as messing about in boats."

But my dear Devki, Ruqaiya II was nasty and crudely arrogant even when there was no challenge to her. She was abominably rude to Jodha when she runs into her first, for no reason at all. She then goes to Jodha and threatens her in her own hoojra that she should acknowledge her suzerainty, so to speak, if she is not to suffer total neglect. At that time she believes that Jalal hates Jodha, so this is not due to insecurity. It is her innate nature. Crudeness and a total lack of sophistication.

I cannot see Ruqaiya I doing any of the above. The two are just too different.

There is no way one can rationally explain the transition from Ruqaiya I to Ruqaiya II. But I must say you have made a very brave and very clever effort to do so. I will also concede that till the afeem affair, Ruqaiya II was not evil like Maham.

I personally never liked Ruqaiya II. Not because she was scheming or trying to stay on top any which way - and even Ruqaiya I was never as secure about that as you seem to assume, almost entirely because she was childless. Such scheming and oneupmanship was par for the course in such a set up. I disliked her because she lacked class totally. I like a queen to be queenly.

But since I disliked Jodha's 24 carat halo and the "she can never be/do wrong" certificate even more, I used to find excuses for Ruqaiya II and fight her case from time to time. But it was all sophistry. I did feel sorry for her occasionally.She was in such a bind.

I do not know about the others, but when you say that It seems like most are saying that Ruk 1 was so queenly, so graceful, loving, confident, I am not to be included among the "most"!

I thought she was graceful and queenly, but confident, not at all, as I have discussed in my response to you and Preetii.

Loving, maybe, to Jalal. There was a broad hint of that in her last scene with him, after the Farida affair and Hamida's lecture about the need for mohabbat for a couple to have children. She is deeply disturbed, as is Jalal, but she is more so because at that stage, he equates love with weakness and will have nothing to do with it. He affirms that what he likes best about Ruqaiya (I) is that she too does not want to have any truck with mohabbat. The desolation on her face at that moment, tears welling up in her eyes that she hid at once, seared the screen. It was absolutely clear that she loved Jalal, but dared not say so for fear of driving him away from her.It was intensely pathetic.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: devkidmd

Aunty, when I said Rukaiyya 2 is innocent I did not mean innocent as in a child, more as in being gullible. I feel like many times she just does not get it. Like falling prey to MA instigations, open dislike and hatred for Jodha. It seems like she has no filter. At least not in front of MA and Jodha. She lays everything out in the open. I am talking only about Rukaiyya before Salim, after that it is a whole another story.

I am not comparing the looks of the Ruk 1 and Ruk 2 at all. I am just trying to understand the transition from the seemingly poised, confident Rukaiyya1 to the openly insecure, screeching, scheming, throwing furniture around Rukaiyya 2.

The change in Rukaiyya maybe due to the CVs as you said but I was trying to see it from another POV. Just purely as a real person not the one made by CVs for TV. Maybe she is one of those people whose confidence and poise and grace are fragile and fall apart in the face of real competition and challenge?

Rukaiyya 1 and 2 have all the right to be insecure for whatever reason but that does not give her the right to degrade other begums and rub the fact that she is the favorite in their face. Rukaiyya 1 for all her queenliness does that too. Did she not slap Pinaz begum in the Harem in front of everyone? How Queenly is that? Yes Pinaz stole the ring but there is a better way of dealing with it especially when it involves the Shahenshah's other begum.

I did not compare the love and affection that the 2 Rukaiyyas have for Jalal it is just that for all the superfical differences they are the same underneath. Both insecure and self centered with a great sense of superiority. Both want to gain and maintain power through Jalal.

It is just that Smiley's was more subtle and soft and LT was more brash and in your face. Another thing to consider (a little later) is that Smiley's Rukaiyya did not face a miscarriage and Jodha as a strong contender for Jalal's non existent dil.

I have said this before, I liked Smiley's Rukaiyya and LT's Rukaiyya.

It seems like most are saying that Ruk 1 was so queenly, so graceful, loving, confident and Ruk 2 came and spoilt the party and I just do not agree with that.

Devki

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear Devki and Preeti,

I am not one who claims that Smiley's Ruqaiya was a Sarah Bernhardt character. She is not as goodlooking as Ruqaiya II, she has a voice like a corncrake, and her diction is as flat as a pancake. Nor is she any great shakes as an actress. But she looked like the Padshahi Begum, she had dignity and grace, she never raised either her voice or her hand with those below her. In she was a lady who was every inch a queen.

@bold. Look, Devki my dear, all this is tea leaves reading a with vengeance. One cannot possibly have any idea what Smiley's Ruqaiya, had she continued, would have been like. That would have been in the hands of the CVs.

Plus she had far less telecast time to flesh out her character. The other one had far too much time; I could have done with about 1/10th of it!

My belief if that the change was made because the director did not think that Smiley could play the banshee like, insufferably and crudely arrogant (just look back to her first meeting with Jodha,where she is so obnoxious, and for no reason at all ) and terminally stupid Ruqaiya II, whose plots against Jodha and then Salim, and thus by extension against Jalal, grew worse and worse as the tale progressed and could not possibly be balanced by her all too infrequent flashes of decency.

The change in the portrayal of Ruqaiya was not only due to the change of circumstances. It was because the CVs decided they had made a mistake with the layered Smiley's Ruqaiya, the agony in whose face when Hamida declares that those without mohabbat cannot have aulad seared the screen( that was a ludicrous statement if ever there was one, but that is not the point here) . They wanted a scheming nanad to supplement Maham's vicious saas, that is all. Smiley would not have filled the bill.

Innocent? Who? Ruqaiya II? How, and when ? Have you forgotten that she deliberately fed opium to her 9 year old nephew, and poisoned his mind against his parents? The former is a vicious, unforgiveable crime. And that later she systematically fomented strife between Jalal and Salim, and finally, nearly got Jalal killed thru her criminal folly ?

Foolish, yes, even terminally stupid too. But since when has that become a virtue, or even a palliative to those disgusted by her other qualities? I HATE those who are so rude to their servants and slap them around, besides screaming all time and breaking furniture.

Plus, she was like a plastic harem superintendent, devoid of any of the dignity and grace that should characterise a Padshahi Begum.

Note that I am not talking of her plotting against Jodha, but of her general behaviour, In fact, she is very much like Maham in this respect: bully all those below you and suck up to those above you, in this case Jalal. Ruqaiya II is abominably rude to Jodha at first sight not because she is insecure about her. It is because she is nasty to others as a rule, and pleasant only as an exception.

The sense of easy camaraderie with Jalal that is shown in these episodes with Ruqaiya I is gone as soon as Ruqaiya II turns up.

Both are endemically insecure.

In Ruqaiya I's case it because of the lack of a child, and because for all her talk of ruling Jalal's dimaag ( her constant repetition of this mantra is enough of a hint about her insecurity), she wants Jalal's mohabbat too, as a kind of insurance against future sidelining, whereas in this period he detests the very word. The second reason is is of course linked to the first, her childlessness. She is no fool like Ruqaiya II, and she knows that the day will come when another begum will give Jalal an heir, and will then neatly supplant her as the favourite. So this insecurity is ever present, whatever her public show of confidence that she is Jalal's sabse chaheti begum.

In Ruqaiya II's case it is because of Jodha, and thus more acute.

This kind of insecurity is bound to lead to self-centredness, it is just the survival instinct!

But this does not mean that Ruqaiya I has no affection for Jalal. She was very likely an aggressive tomboy and thus not demonstrative, and there is no touchy feely romantic affection between them on either side. She scolds him, tries to feel equal with him by keeping him waiting for her and defeating him in chess, but at times there is a sudden switch to wifeliness as she says, about the soiled chadar, Rehne do, hum sambhal lenge! or Aapki har cheez humein keemti hai.

I do not know how one can conclude that Ruqaiya II had any real affection for Jalal either. Even when she is expecting a baby, she is talking only about becoming the Mariam-uz-Zamani, not of his joy in becoming a father at last. And if she had cared for him, she would never have made the son he loves so much an opium addict at 9, and then poisoned Salim's mind against his parents and fomented every instance of discord between Jalal and Salim. No one can possibly forgive her role in the afeem affair. It was every bit as ugly as anything Maham did.

I am glad Smiley left when she did. At least she did not have to corrupt a 9 year old!

None of the above, my dear young ladies, is to get you to like Ruqaiya I better than Ruqaiya II. Not to do so is your inalienable right! And the greatest minds have made nothing of being in a minority, even of one or two. Only, please do not argue that Ruqaiya II is innocent!

Shyamala/Aunty

My dear Preeti,

Beauty, they say, lies in the beholder's eyes. I think that is the case here!

First of all, I would concede all of your opening critique of Smiley's Ruqaiya. As I had noted in my response to you and Devki, I am not one who claims that Smiley's Ruqaiya was a Sarah Bernhardt character. She is not as goodlooking as Ruqaiya II, she has a voice like a corncrake, and her diction is as flat as a pancake. Nor is she any great shakes as an actress.

But she looks like the Padshahi Begum, she has dignity and grace, she never raises either her voice or her hand with those below her. In she is a lady who is every inch a queen.

As for your @blue, I am afraid I do not agree with it. I would grant that 80% of the load in their bedroom scene is carried by Rajat, but the balance is carried by Smiley. Moreover, it is clear that
she must have been an aggressive playmate for Jalal, very likely a tomboy and thus not demonstrative.

Besides there is no touchy feely romantic affection between them on either side. As I had noted in the post, there is no demonstrative tenderness between them, they are too used to sparring with each other, like siblings, so they have never seen the need for it. She does not, for example, take his head in her lap, caress his hair and his forehead, or hold him to her. Neither does he. If either or both had done those things, that would have been an additional bonding element.

There seems to be no yearning to be with each other, no sort of passion, no deewangee, on either side. This is Mira Nair's old shoe love from A Monsoon Wedding, or at least old shoe camaraderie.

But this does not mean that there is no affection.Why, it was there even when they were kids, when Ruqaiya assures Jalal that even if he cannot read and write, she will always be there to do it for him.

Now, she scolds him for being a bachcha, tries to feel equal with him by keeping him waiting for her and defeating him in chess, but at times there is a sudden switch to wifeliness as she says, about the soiled chadar, Rehne do, hum sambhal lenge! or Aapki har cheez humein keemti hai.

Between a husband and wife of longstanding, there is a kind of comfort level with each other that makes verbal assurances of affection unnecessary. They can take these for granted. Ruqaiya and Jalal are at that stage.

The sevaiyyan controversy that was not!: There was no outcry, my dear, because all that the forum cared about was (a) Jodha and (b) Jalal, and Hamida was simply an irritating aside.

I agree that Jalal should, after the tasting, have taken the sevaiyaan from Hamida Bano. But at this stage, he behaves like that with her in private or in public, it seems to make no difference to him. After Bairam Khan's departure, Hamida moves towards Jalal to try and say something but he simply ignores her and walks off. Even at Shalpur, he snubs her and says very sarcastic things to her in the presence of Sharifuddin, who is after all just a subedar.

In fact, after the deep bitterness he displays at Shalpur, the sevaiyaan affair did not come as a surprise to me. After the formal Salaam aleikum, he hardly looks at her. It is not at all nice, but that is the way it is, and from his point of view, that she had dumped him with Maham and gone off to safety, it might seem quite appropriate.

But when she offers him the sevaiyyan, he would have taken it but for Maham.

The funny thing is that Maham herself must not have been expecting this windfall!😉 Jalal is so overwhelmed by gratitude ( an overdeveloped quality of his) at her having risked her life to keep him safe that he feels this special gesture is called for.

The other odd thing is that Hamida & Co clearly have not got the sevaiyaan tasted by the cook. If they had, why did Jijianga not say so and spike Maham's guns? Complaining that it amounted to questioning Hamida Bano's intent was nonsense. It was no such thing. It is a rule that everything eaten by the Shahenshah must be tasted by the cook, or by someone else, and that is all that Maham did.

All in all, it was an unnecessary scene meant to raise the blood pressures of (a ) Hamida and (b) Bairam Khan!

Shyamala

Originally posted by: Coolpree

Hi Shyamala, At last the much awaited and talked about post on Smiley's Ruqaiya. I for one could not remember her interactions in the detail you have described so I actually did go back and watch her interactions with Jalal in all 3 episodes you have covered. Thank you Anjali for the Links!

I am afraid Shyamala, I may have to deviate a bit from your take on Smiley and her Ruqaiya. I do feel your powerful writing and outstanding understanding of human relationships have elevated the Jalal and Ruqaiya bond to a far loftier level than depicted in the show. Especially in the case of Smiley's Ruqaiya

Smiley Suri as Ruqaiya: I agree with Donjas in that Smiley does not really impress me as an actress. Her Dialogue delivery is terrible. She was given some very powerful dialogues:

"Ruqaiya ke dil aur Sultanat-e-Agra mein aapka istaqbaal hai Shahenshah!"

" Ek to aurat, doosri jawaan, teesri Mughaliya Sultanat ke Shahenshah ki dil-o-jaan.. Zid hamara haq hai. "

Both very outstanding dialogues delivered with a Punjabi accent and all the wrong inflections!! I agree with Donjas in that assessment. Perhaps it easier for me as punjabi to pick this up. Lavinia is a Punjabi too however we never got that impression when she spoke.

Smiley's Ruqaiyya: The Queen of Heads/ Dimaag:

"Rare Avis" - rare bird what a wonderful way to describe Ruqaiya Begum. However the key word you have used for her is "self absorbed". Both Adiana and Devki have aptly put it. there was something amiss in their relationship. For me it was the complete lack of affection shown by Smiley's Ruqaiya. Any affection, indulgence, childhood bond or comfort level shown between the two was demonstrated by Jalal alone. Rajat's jalal was absolutely brilliant in his interactions with Ruqaiyya. It is because of the apparent one sided nature of this relationship , that I cannot agree that "What Ruqaiya has right now with Jalal is perhaps, in one sense, stronger than romantic love.".

I do agree that Smiley's Rukaiyya was enigmatic and Ekta deserves kudos for this character sketch.

Lavinia's Ruqaiya ( early rendition) had many flaws but her affection and loyalty to Jalal came through. To me she was the more humane and a more endearing version of Ruqaiyya even through the fake pregnancy track.

Absolutely loved the scene between Smiley and Jalal in bed . BTW where oh where did his blue Jama go. He looks smashing in it😳😳

The Amer escapade: Loved your take on his " sanitized, Jodha-free account of why he had gone to Amer" - Ha ha . A small but significant snippet as a harbinger of things to come.

Unbelievable impertinence: : What can one say about this ongoing violation of the Shehanshah's private moments by all and sundry 😲😲 This continued till the very end

BTW loved your comment on an earlier post about the lack of doors in Agra except for the solid, double doors provided to the assassins Zeenat and her husband 😆😆

Mahaam Anga and Hamida Banu Begum: The analogy of the hare and the tortoise was brilliant. Sweet and gentle Hamida Banu puts Mahaam Anga in her place effectively when she pointedly refers to her as Jalal's daimaa.

Shyamala I absolutely hated the way Jalal behaved in public with the queen mother of Hindustan Mariyam Makani. It was totally unbecoming of a Mughal Emperor. In Eastern tradition the queen mother's darja is paramount and utmost respect was given to the Emperor's mother. The Mughals were no exception. It is inconceivable for any Emperor to breach this protocol and give deference to his Dai maa at the expense of the Queen mother IN PUBLIC. For Jalal to turn away from her and and tell his Dai maa " Hum ab sirf aap ke hi haath se kheer khayenge" was rude, churlish and totally unacceptable. I am surprised that there has been no outcry about this scene.

I wait in anticipation of the upcoming Shaadi Saptah whith the turbulent entry of "Mhari Jodha" into Jalal's life.😊

Thank you once again Shyamala for all the efforts you put into this

My dear Deepa,

Thank you for liking this one so much. What a delightful choice of words anmol rattan!
And what an absolutely hatke ending quote you have unearthed! 👏

As for the rest, I agree with you. I particularly loved the lines: But she was required as an ice cube to make a drink cool. But as the ice melted away, she was not needed at times. Lovely.

Ruqaiya I does love Jalal, for all her squabbling with him, her oneupmanship, and her showing off that she is his sabse chaheti begum. There was a broad hint of that in her last scene with him, after the Farida affair and Hamida's lecture about the need for mohabbat for a couple to have children. She is deeply disturbed, as is Jalal, but she is more so because at that stage, he equates love with weakness and will have nothing to do with it. He affirms that what he likes best about Ruqaiya (I) is that she too does not want to have any truck with mohabbat. The desolation on her face at that moment, tears welling up in her eyes that she hid at once, seared the screen. It was absolutely clear that she loved Jalal, but dared not say so for fear of driving him away from her.It was intensely pathetic.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: Deepasub

Another anmol rattan post Aunty.👏


The version 1 of Ruqu was intriguing and truly said she was an enigma to us viewers and to the other ladies in the harem. Although she was less pretty and less elegant than the others, there was a sense of aristocracy and an sense of possessiveness over Jalal.
Jalal of course was most comfortable with her due to his childhood friendship and did not know or ponder on love etc. until ... along came Jodhu the fiery woman who cared less for material things and more for immaterial things.

She showed overconfidence over Jalal's feelings & his thoughts and ignored all advises that Jalal is distancing from her slowly. Rugu 1 showed an air of aloofness, that she didn't care of anything or anyone.
But we need to give Smiley hats off for the amazing chemistry she shared with Jalal in some of the scenes. Especially, the ones you mentioned, where Jalal's eyes showcased the 'Bedroom Eyes', she was comfortably toying with her arms and herself in his proximity.
But hidden behind that face and eyes were a bountiful basket of insecurity and the emotion ' I dont know what to do'. I think she took refuge in Harem administration and some satisfaction that Jalal did consider her as one of the chief queens.

But Ruqu 2 Lavina was a bit loud and showcased the vamp avatar. Loud, gaudy, rash, brimming with lies & conspiracies against Jodha. Lavina might have portrayed per her script, but NR team over did a lot of plots. Viewers almost wanted to slap her and boot her out of the show. She could have been shown a little less of a vamp and more like a conspirator.
Surely for a queen who was the real Akbar's fav, could have been shown in a different way.

I agree with some of the comments, that Ruqu 2 towards the end was so insecure and lonely that she stooped so low as to feed drugs to the heir and not to forget the meddling with spice trade. She left no stone unturned to get rid of Jodha in every situation possible.
Ruqu ended up as character who wanted to do something to buy Akbar's attention, but she did not know how to do it without a drama or a scene that was not obscene. She was his childhood friend who was his mate, but seemed like she never grew up or rather never matured with respect to her feelings for Akbar as a husband.

But she was required as an ice cube to make a drink cool. But as the ice melted away, she was not needed at times.

Obviously, no drama is complete with other characters like Ruqu.
She will remain as an engima for me the initial version.

I remembered this line from wind in the willows book to Ruqu's harkat in messing about Jo Ja relationship.

'There's nothing--absolutely nothing--half so much worth doing as messing about in boats."

My dear Zhanna,

And I had assumed all along that you were a woman! 😉Well, there are very few men in this forum, but there are two very knowledgeable ones, Donjas and Myviewprem.

I agree with your comments on Ruqaiya I, as I call Smiley's Ruqaiya. Yes, they did not want her character to compete with or overshadow Jodha's so they reduced Ruqaiya II to an out and out negative character and brought is a different actress to play her that way. Smiley would not have suited their revised concept of Ruqaiya.

I like Solzhenitsyn best in A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch and Cancer Ward.

Shyamala Di

Originally posted by: alffim

Dear Shyamala Di!

You very rightly wrote that:
'"Ruqaiya I, by contrast, is a real lady, who never has to raise her voice to be obeyed. If she had been retained, the confrontation between her and Jodha at their first meeting could never have been doneWink in that crudely offensive way"

It is so a pity, that show that started with such high notes and a terrific actors, screenwriter and director for some reason, at this height could not stay. On force of transfer of a subtlety of shades and nuance Smiley Suri correspond Rajat Tokas. Perhaps they understood that if will be Smiley Suri will be very difficult to explain what Jodha better? That is will be more difficult for a screenwriter and director ?
I am very impressed by what you've read Solzhenitsyn. For me it is - a feat! As I was young man I admired his fate, before reading his novels. Afterwards I read them a lot. Very heavy literary language, writing style. And I can not agree with him in many ways. Once opened the archives for me more reliable Shalamov, Efron, Ginsburg and many others whose fate is much worse than that of Solzhenitsyn. And they have no nationalism. I do not know how well able to translate Mayakovsky, poet it is very difficult to translate, but he was a very talented and beautiful person. And the poet and playwright and artist. His life ended tragically.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear Zhanna,

Your description of Smiley's Ruqaiya and Lavina's Ruqaiya is completely correct.

Harshu27 has described Ruqaiya II very well as being like boiling water 365 days, 24x7, and she was like that to a T, that and shrewish, screechy, crudely arrogant, and abusive to those under her.

Ruqaiya I, by contrast, is a real lady, who never has to raise her voice to be obeyed. If she had been retained, the confrontation between her and Jodha at their first meeting could never have been done😉 in that crudely offensive way.

I think that is why the change of actress was made. They were getting set to reduce Ruqaiya to a commonplace, mean, quarrelsome, abusive vamp, and I am sure this Ruqaiya could never have been squeezed into that mould. The writer and the director did not want a grey Ruqaiya, they wanted her to be the scheming nanad to match Maham's evil saas for Jodha, the real one, Hamida, being a creature of sugar and spice and a lot of sticky honey as well! 😉

Interesting grey characters, well rounded off, in Indian TV do not for high TRPs make, alas! The majority of the audience, which consists of bored housewives, likes things kept simple and the characters black and white.

I found your references to Madame de Pompadour and Mayakovsky's beloved very interesting. Louis XIV's second and highly influential wife, the rigidly Catholic Madame de Maintenon, was no great looker either. I have not read anything of Mayakovsky's, but I have read all of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's great novels, from A day in the life of Ivan Denisovitch to August 1914. This last was too detailed for me and bored me, to I stopped with that.

Shyamala Di

I cannot quite believe it myself, but this time, my dear Prem, I agree with you in toto. And all at once was said. So there is nothing for me to comment about!

Shyamala

[QUOTE=myviewprem]

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Folks,

The Queen of Heads: Or to be precise, one head, or dimaag, that of Jalal.

For Ruqaiya Begum is that rara avis, a woman who can hold not just a man, but an emperor, effortlessly. Not by her beauty, for that is no more than passable, but by her intelligence, her political shrewdness, and her total self-possession. Plus the fact that thanks to a lifetime of knowing him, she can read his mind like an open book. Jalal must be having a lot of affection for her, as much as he can have for anyone, but as he says, the vital point is not that she is his wife, but that she is his friend. And he has very few friends.

She literally overflows with self-confidence. She does not yell at the baandis. When she tosses a necklet to a baandi as a gift for giving her the good news that the Shahenshah has reached Agra at long last, it is with queenly condescension. She does not, like the other begums, run around like a chicken with its head cut off just because the Shahenshah has come home after a long time.She does not even rise till he reaches the palace. Then she sweeps thru the corridors with long, confident, almost mannish strides.

NB: I saw some complaints about Ruqaiya's simple dressing style as not befitting the Padshahi Begum. My take on this is the exact opposite. She is so confident of her allure and her hold on Jalal, plus she wants to show the rest that she does not need to do any sajna savarna, or to look like a decorated Christmas tree to gain and retain the emperor's attention and regard. It is a deliberate put down of the rest.

And no, she is not going to the balcony to greet the Shahenshah and try and catch his eye, for she does not have to try for anything. Instead, she goes first to set up a live chessboard in her hoojra, arranging the pieces in exactly the same positions in which they were when Jalal had last departed leaving a game unfinished. She wants to win that unfinished game, and also she wants to show him, without saying so, that she remembers every tiny detail of their time together.

NB: I am a Harry Potter aficionada, and as soon as I spotted her chessboard, I thought of The Chamber of Secrets and the board there, but the exact parallel is the chessboard in the palace at Fatehpur Sikri, where too the game was played with live pieces. I should think that it would be more difficult than normal chess, as one cannot get an overall look at the board before making a move.

Then, and then alone, is it time to show herself in the balcony. Just when the other begums have finished squabbling for positions, Ruqaiya Sultan Begum makes her grand entry, like the star model in a fashion show today.

There is the arrogant gliding walk - like a model on the catwalk - with which she slides past all the simpering females who line the upper terrace for a glimpse of their lord and master. Her enigmatic smile would have delighted Leonardo da Vinci, and it is reflected in Jalal's own responding half smile, amused and eager at the same time.

He stands still, and it is telling that regardless of all those begums of his lining the balcony wall, many of them far better looking than she is, Ruqaiya still ensures that Jalal's eye not only catches hers, but stays with her right until she glides back and out. It is a delightful display of silken control, and no wonder the other aspirants to imperial attention turn a delicate shade of pea green!

Zid hamara haq hai: When Jalal, having shaken off the importunate attentions of his desperate begums, appears in her chambers, it is characteristic of Ruqaiya that she does not run to him and fawn over him. She stays where she is for one long minute, leaning back against the bolster, her left arm negligently outstretched. Clearly the lady has Attitude with a capital A. Especially when she is smoking a hukkah, with ease and elegance.

But when she rises to greet him , her words are calculated to rob this delay of any offence: Ruqaiya ke dil aur Sultanat-e-Agra mein aapka istaqbaal hai Shahenshah!

She makes Jalal resume the game of chess that he had left unfinished the last time , declaring, when he teases her about being ziddi, Ek to aurat, doosri jawaan, teesri Mughaliya Sultanat ke Shahenshah ki dil-o-jaan.. Zid hamara haq hai. This not said with pretty coquetry, but with unhesitating certainty. He knows her very well, so he is not riled, plus he is a natural, self-assured dominator who, as he says, hates to lose.

I loved the little story he narrated at this point, about how his Khan Baba, when he first got him, as a child, to hold the shamsheer, had asked ki hum sabse pehle kise maarenge. His response was entirely in character: Humari shikast ko, taki wo phir humein dobara na mile. Now he adds, his eyes aglow with determination: Kyonki humein haarna bilkul pasand nahin!

A fine balancing act: Ruqaiya is not one to let this pass unchallenged, for she must be used to fighting with him since childhood to try and stay on top! So she retorts:: Par humein jeet pasand hai.. But as Jalal regards her quizzically, she delivers a tour de force that maintains her stand and yet does not hurt his ego: Hamein jeet pasand hai, isiliye to dil har kar aapko jeet liya hai. The lady is clearly a natural at fine-tuned repartee.

When Jalal makes a good move, her acknowledgement, Yeh to kamaal ki chaal thi, refers as much to his disappearing act, about which she has already found out, as to the chess game. Her unfailing instinct where he is concerned tells her that there is something new in the air.

The Amer escapade: When Jalal finally reveals to her - Aapse kya chupana? Kyonki hum ek shauhar aur begum se zyada achche dost hain - that he had gone to Amer, her eyes narrow as she looks into the distance, and their expression is hard to read. He is leaning forward, fastening her eyes with his own. Can he read them? She listens to his sanitized, Jodha-free account of why he had gone to Amer - to bait the enemy in his own camp aur dushman ki aankhon mein apni shamsheer se soorma lagane - with a curious little smile. What does she suspect? Perhaps she herself does not know.

Unbelievable impertinence: Meanwhile, Ruqaiya has won the chess game, and has dismissed the baandis. Jalal, for all his junoon for winning, does not seem to mind losing to Ruqaiya. Perhaps he Is used to it! He approaches her with obvious intent, but at this potentially romantic point, Hoshiyaar barges in, with an incoherent account of the infighting in the harem for which this was neither the time nor the place.

Photo courtesy munnirony (Shreya)

Sandhya was pleased that Jalal scorches him with a sideways look for referring to Pinaaz Begum without the suffix, but I for one could not understand how Hoshiyaar had the gall to barge in on the Shahenshah and his sabse chaheti begum when they are tanha. It was the most colossal impertinence, and clearly he dares to do it because he knows that Ruqaiya will not mind. And it seems that Jalal did not mind it too much either, once Pinaaz was properly referred to as a Begum. This I found unsettling, for it is good neither for Ruqaiya, nor for Jalal, to allow such free and easy ways to be adopted towards him even by a khwaja sera.

Jalal on Ruqaiya: What he goes on to say seems calculated to boost Ruqaiya's already sizeable ego even further. That he had ignored all the other harem inmates clustering around him and had instead come to Ruqaiya jaan boojhkar, kyonki tum in sab se alag ho.. Ruqaiya's chin goes up and she smiles with evident pleasure.. Jalal continues with unconscious arrogance : Unka jism, unki khoobsoorti, humein khush to kar sakti hai, par humein samajh nahin sakti.. Ek tum hi ho jo humein bachpan se jaanti ho aur samajhti ho.. a crooked, mischievous smile twists his mouth.. hamari sabse chaheti begum...

Photo courtesy munnirony (Shreya)

Ruqaiya looks pleased, but also conveys the impression that this is no more than her due!

Aur humein tum par aitbaar hai.. which is truly a compliment. But she hardly heeds it, focussing instead on offering him his favourite scent.

Now come a kind of rapid fire round that showcases Ruqaiya's resources of intelligence, quick-wittedness and sheer articulateness.

Jalal: Hamari har pasand ki khabar hai na tumhein?

Ruqaiya: Wo to hona hi hai.. Aap dost bhi ho, shauhar bhi, aur Shahenshah bhi.

Now Jalal's ever present desire - common to kings and millionaires 😉- to be cared for for himself alone surfaces. His eyes are lambent with both a question and hope: Par hum sab se zyada kya hain?

He has, however, reckoned without Ruqaiya's genius for verbal sleight of hand. She evades a direct answer thru as silken web of words: Dosti kam zyada ho hi nahin sakti. Rahi baat shauhar aur Shahenshah ki, so agar aap shauhar to hum aapki begum, aur agar aap Shahenshah to hum aapki praja ( presumably Ruqaiya knows Hindustani as well, for she should normally have said awaam) .

Jalal is stumped, but will not let go. So he makes another try: Hmm.. Aur tum kya banna chahti ho?

Which gives Ruqaiya her finest opening. Her proud little chin goes up,and her reply is one for the record books: Ek aisi ladki, jiske saamne dost apna dil, shauhar apna imaan, aur Shahenshah apna sar jhuka de!

NB: That this is a straight lift of what the sculptor Sangtarash says (of the plaster of Paris coated Anarkali) in Mughal-e-Azam: Tum ek aaisa buth ho ... jiske kadmo mein sipahi apni talwar, shahenshah apna taj, aur insaan apna dil nikaal ke rakh de, does not lessen any of its impact on us.

Disturbing signs : No wonder Jalal is floored! He says aloud: Subhanallah! His eyes are awash with sensual delight, and moving up to Ruqaiya, he is clearly about to kiss her when Bingo ! Up bobs Hoshiyaar again, bent over double, and this time he beckons to Ruqaiya, who actually leaves to settle a harem dispute! To make matters worse, Ruqaiya, probably feeling that the harem affair might take a while, kindly informs Jalal that they could deal with the unfinished Amer affair at night!

I was floored too, but by this casual attitude towards the Shahenshah-e-Hind displayed by mistress and servant alike. If not the first time, at least the second time Bairam Khan's shagird should have had Hoshiyaar whipped, if not sar kalamofied for his gross impertinence in intruding on the emperor's privacy.

To my great dismay, Jalal does not even react to the second barging in. The glance that he casts at Hoshiyaar would have frozen red hot lava, but he says nothing, not then, nor when Ruqaiya, in effect, dismisses the Shahenshah till the night.

No wonder that when night arrives, Jalal is left twiddling his thumbs for what looks like ages. For us the viewers, it helps that Rajat looks splendid in that new blue outfit, hand behind his back, sleek and loose-limbed. So we do not mind waiting even if he does! 😉

Ruqaiya clearly thinks nothing of keeping the Shahenshah waiting for her for ages, which is not surprising seeing that he does not do what any normal husband or boyfriend would have done, walked off. Jalal's excessive indulgence to those close to him was visible this early. Aazaar achche nazar nahin aate,,,

Crackling chemistry: When she does arrive at long last, what follows is a curious mix.

Of great familiarity, as when he chucks her under the chin and calls her by her childhood nickname,Gatti, which she clearly detests, for she grabs the front of his choga and says: Tum bahut bure ho! , whereupon he grins in delight : Ab yeh hai na hamari bachpan ki dost, hamari Ruqaiya!

Childish squabbles, rooted in the same deep familiarity with each other since childhood, over his not having taken off his jootis. In the end he deliberately rubs the soles of his jootis on the coverlet just to rile her, while she first exclaims in exasperation: Theek hi kehte hain, ki badshah, baaja aur bandar kabhi nahin sudharte..and then finally, Bachche ke bachche hi rahe! Mana karne ke bavazood bhi dekho kya kar diya!

Between her and Jalal, it is not really either check or checkmate, for as of now, they are both playing on the same side- Jalal's. I for one found it wonderful that someone like Jalal could relate so well to a woman, treating her as a confidante and an equal.

I am continually amazed at the degree of indulgence he has for her. Imagine an emperor being kept waiting by his begum, and then being scolded for wearing his joothis in bed and soiling her chadar! That was so much like a wife nagging her husband about leaving wet towels on the bed that I was in stitches. 😉

But there is no demonstrative tenderness between them, they are too used to sparring with each other, like siblings, so they have never seen the need for it. She does not, for example, take his head in her lap, caress his hair and his forehead, or hold him to her. That kind of touchy feely affection is not there. If it had, that would have been an additional bonding element. There seems to be no yearning to be with each other, no sort of passion, no deewangee. At least this seems right now to be there to some limited extent on his side; there is none on hers.

So when Ruqaiya says she is the Shahenshah's dil-o-jaan, she means his attention, his mind, his thoughts. She is probably not used to thinking of him in purely romantic terms, that is in any case tough to do with someone to whom you have given black eyes, pulled his hair, and kicked him in the legs as kids together. She must have been a spitfire then, all overt aggression, not subtle as it is now.

The commentator also says that Ruqaiya is Jalal ki mohabbat. Too much hair-splitting would be pointless here, but the fact is that he is very, very close to her, he trusts her judgement even on political matters (which means an awful lot with such a self-assured man who is also an emperor), plus she keeps him entertained and on his toes. That is a great way of holding a man, even such a powerful one.

To revert, underneath all of the childish nok jhok and the ease born of closeness since their childhood, there is a crackling, lambent, yet easy sensuality between them as she stretches out with her head on his arm, with no shyness or reserve. Who said that friends cannot be lovers as well?

Photos courtesy munnirony (Shreya)

But not necessarily in love. However I must add that true romantic love, between two who are halves of a whole, is far rarer than it is made out to be, and also less important for the strength of a relationship than loyalty, affection, caring and trust. For one thing, contrary to popular fiction, it almost never lasts very long at the original level. What Ruqaiya has right now with Jalal is perhaps, in one sense, stronger than romantic love.

Ruqaiya's folly: However, even such a strong bond needs maintenance, and methinks she is far too careless about this aspect, and takes her imperial husband too much for granted. He might not react to this now, but one fine day, he will not only jib at it, but he will bolt. That day, the fascinating and self-assured Ruqaiya Sultan Begum will realise that when the sun disappears, darkness engulfs the world.

Marvellous jugalbandi: Rajat's Jalal and Smiley's Ruqaiya, in a series of scenes spread over all the three episodes, play off each other to perfection.

For me, the open sensuality in Jalal's eyes - what I would call bedroom eyes - came as a surprise, and a pleasant change from the cold menace that was the staple in the opening episodes. The sheer mischief and chutzpah so much in display during the Amer escapade popped up but rarely, but to replace it was a cat at a mouse hole look, when he is assessing how much to tell Ruqaiya about Amer, that would have done Rhett Butler proud.

Ruqaiya might be no great beauty, her voice might resember crackling sandpaper, and her dialogue delivery might be flat, but her assured, astute body language, her speaking eyes, and her intelligence make up for that.

Little wonder then, that their scenes together were a rare treat, to be savoured at leisure.

All in all, Smiley's Ruqaiya is the most fascinating woman I have seen on TV in a long, long time, and Ekta's initial writing team should be felicitated for having portrayed her as such an enigmatic, astute and intellectually superior individual. She is clearly an original, and she is an unfailing delight to watch.

Agra and the imperial harem: I felt that the whole purpose of the display of grandeur, the parade thru Agra, the women in the harem fighting for the Shahenshah's nazar-e-inaayat, is to show us where Jalal is coming from and what his real power and status are. The scenes in the Mughal camp at Shalpur, and in Amer, far were relatively simple and unostentatious, but this is the opposite.

The ambience was rich and colourful, whether on the streets of Agra or in the zenankhana. Ruqaiya's chamber was beautiful.

There was a sense of outrage in parts of this forum about what looked like hundreds of assorted females in the harem. It is uncalled for. It is not appropriate to import contemporary sensibilities into 16^th century India. I am sure they would be just as shocked by same-sex marriages, or the divorce rates in, say, the US!

The fact is that not just emperors but maharajas as well had hundreds of women in their harems - wives, concubines and lesser mortals - and this till the 19^th century. Most of these were political unions, others the result of a passing fancy. The king/emperor, who would be an infrequent visitor to the harem - being often out fighting a war, or surveying his domains - would probably not be able to recognize half of them, if not more!😉 The way Jalal deals with their importunities was funny and revealing.

Either way, there would be only a small number of senior queens, all of royal lineage, and here I suppose it would be three: Ruqaiya, Salima, and then Jodha. No one minded it, neither the princesses concerned, nor their families. It was the norm, that was all.

It is true that to see so many women have no other aim in life but to catch one man's passing attention is depressing, indeed sad, but this is true even today of the girlfriends or trophy wives of rich and powerful men. 😡

Jodha and Amer: I am passing over the whole of Mainavati's little plot and the unintended Jodha-Suryabhan night boat-ride, except to note that Jodha is no ice-maiden. It was not only their earlier tete a tete scene, the boatride too showed a Jodha ready to exchange all sorts of little hints to love with Suryabhan, right down to handholding.

This apart, I really liked Jodha's eager face and her enthusiasm when she dismisses her sisters-in-law's gloomy preparations for a jauhar, asserting instead Humein yahi sochna chahiye ki hamara vijay hoga..Aur hamari yahi soch hamare yoddhaon ke talwar ki dhaar banegi! And again when she wants to rush and convey the good news about the baby on the way to her elder brother.

NB:The funny thing was her saying that her parents would be so delighted at the prospect of having a pota! It seems to not even occur to her to consider the prospect of it being a poti!😉

Sheh par mat nahin: There were at least 2 separate instances where an ongoing power game between two protagonists was suspended at a point.

1) The one between Mahaam Anga and Bairam Khan. After the last round, which the lady won hands down, the stage has shifted from Rajasthan to Agra, and the two are busy keeping pace with the brisk Jalal, each jealously taking care not to be left behind the other. It should have done their cardiac condition some good! 😉

The Malika-e -Azam Hamida Banu Begum tries to get closer to her aloof, even cold son with an affectionate welcome and a bowl of sevaiyyaan. As Bairam Khan, the old khiladi, watches in dismay, Mahaam Anga steals a march on both Hamida Banu and the Khan Baba with her spiel of making herself the food taster, thus gaining Jalal's unstinting appreciation and affection. It is a very clever move, but her adversary has not been knocked out as yet . So check, but not yet checkmate.

It is to be noted that contrary to Bairam Khan's unfortunate tendency to overreach himself, Mahaam Anga is always very careful to pretend, quite ostentatiously, to stay within the role of Jalal's Daimaa. For example, before complying with Jalal's desire to drink the sevaiyyaan only from her hand, she looks across at Hamida Banu Begum for her assent. It is here that her superior tactics stand out, for Jalal would be convinced that she is being all that is proper, besides being apparently ready to die for him, and that is all that counts!

2)The one between Mahaam Anga and Hamida Banu Begum: This is going to end up like the fable of the hare and the tortoise, but the hare, obviously Mahaam Anga, is lengths ahead at this point of time. Nonetheless , Hamida Banu gets a quick rapier thrust in under Mahaam Anga's guard when, while assenting to her giving Jalal the sweet, she notes Agar main uski ma hoon to aap bhi to uski daimaa hain, thus neatly relegating Mahaam Anga to the status of a nursemaid! No lasting damage would have been caused to the target, but it must have provided some temporary satisfaction to the unhappy Hamida Banu. Again, check but not checkmate, not for a while yet.

I am sure you do not want to discuss that ugly scene between the Hindu-hating fanatic, Maham Anga, and that poor cowering cleaner woman wanting to retrieve her Kali Maa amulet. It was clearly meant to flesh out a further aspect of Maham's black heart and soul.

Ok, folks, this is it till Sunday next! Adios!!

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

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