Folks,
If there is one thing any of you would say about me, without any hesitation, it would be that I am never at a loss for words, right?😉
Wrong. Last night, after (re)watching Rajat's Shahenshah Jalaluddin Mohammed in full flow, not once, not twice, but four times back to back, I find myself once more searching for words adequate to describe, judge and appreciate him as he should be appreciated, and praise him as he should be praised .
It was an infinitely subtle, layered, and controlled performance, not only by the actor, but by the character himself. One would say a superbly choreographed and directed drama, except that it was a solo triumph. For the lead actor was all in one: writer, director and performer. The kind of bravura act that deserved any number of curtain calls. It was like a tennis match : serve, volley, retrieval, smash, set point, match point, game and match to the Emperor.
Let us take it from the beginning. It is a given that Jalal wants Jodha, come what may. Why he wants her is not relevant for the moment, merely that he does, and what Jalal wants, Jalal gets. But for that, he has to force her bull-headed, obstinate, and impractical father to agree to their marriage, for Jalal never visualizes anything else, for reasons both his own and those of state. Not being a fool like Bharmal, and having spent his early years with the Rajputs, he knows their psyche, and realizes how tough the going will be, given that this idea will be seen as a grave transgression of the Rajput code of honour, of their aan, baan and shaan.
The art of negotiating: So what is the way out?
The first thing obviously is to give not the slightest inkling that this is what he wants. He does not give any. Next, to box Bharmal into a situation from which there would be only one vikalp (alternative) : the one that leads to this alliance. Jalal does this as well, and it is how he accomplishes this that makes this a true humdinger of an episode, perhaps the best so far.
As a young diplomat, I was taught the art of negotiating, and one of the first lessons was that with a hostile interlocutor, it is vital to keep him off balance and, secondly, that one should never lose one's cool. These rules apply in any age. So Jalal, Bairam Khan's star pupil, plays the game of siyasat by these very rules.
So he first brushes aside Bharmal's gauche reference to him as the Sultan of Agra with a gracious Qubool kiya! , adding that he would have been happier to have been addressed as the Hindustan ke badshah, and offers Bharmal a seat. Bharmal sits down and begins with his litany of complaints, while Jalal starts looking down and smiling. It is not even clear if he is listening to Bharmal.
He then looks up and proceeds to disconcert Bharmal by interrupting him, and offering him refreshments. He is in fact checking whether Bharmal would be ready to accept food and drink on enemy territory, and when Bharmal dodges the offer politely, the covert smile on Jalal's face shows that he has got his answer.
Lowering the boom: It is now time to turn the screws on Bharmal, who is going on an on about yuddh ki sandhi and the need for Sharifuddin to observe those rules and return the Amer princes and other hostages. So Jalal now remarks, with smooth, hard sarcasm : Seedhi si baat hai, Raja Saheb. Jab Amer ka takht aapka tha, tab Amer par, uski jaydaad par, uski har ek cheez par aapka haq tha..
He holds Bharmal's eyes with his own, in a level, steady, slightly amused gaze. Bharmal is now visibly getting hot under the collar, wondering what is coming next.
Jalal goes on: Ab jab ki humne Amer jeet liya hai, to sab kuch kanoonan hamara hua. Hua ki nahin? And he turns to smile at Chugtai Khan.
Bharmal being Bharmal, he walks straight into the trap set for him. Ek chota sa yudh jeet jaane ka yeh matlab nahin, he harrumphs, ki Amer paraadheen ho gaya. That does it. Jalal, still seated, turns to face Bharmal, his eyes, as hard as agates and openly hostile now, widening in disbelief at such ill-timed arrogance.
He is on his feet in an instant, as agile as a panther, offering to settle the matter in one fell swoop. To theek hai, aar paar ki jung kar kete hain, Amer par poori tarah se kabza kar lete hain. And then, with sharp irony: Phir to aapko koyi shikayat nahin honi chahiye! Though he never raises his voice, the overt aggression in his manner is like a whiplash.
Bharmal's dilemma: Bharmal is thus forced to reveal his Achilles heel - that he cannot afford to go to war, for that would mean the total destruction of Amer. He is not afraid of war or of death, he huffs, but he does not want the blood of the brave to flow needlessly.
Jalal's expression, as he mocks Bharmal's dilemma, is a throwback to his terrifying mirthless smiles of old, but it is not quite the same, for he is not quite the same Jalal of old. Ufff! Nahi aap chahte hain ki Amer ke liye koyi harjana bhara jai ( note that he does not say a word of this harjana being excessive; and no wonder, for he must have decided it himself!😉), aur nahi ki yeh chahte hain ki ek muqammal jung se Amer jeet liya jai..
He motions Bharmal, now clearly on the back foot, to his seat and asks: To phir kya chahte hain aap? Batayiye!
Bharmal, by now, has been softened up, and his voice is hesitant and pleading as he seeks a third path, a way out of his dilemma.
Boxing in the opponent: Jalal rules this out - Ab ya to aapka aan hoga ya phir Mughalon ki shaan - then once again looks down and starts twirling his moustache in apparent unconcern.
Bharmal, by now desperate, looks at Chughtai Khan for support, and the Khan gets the opening that he, and his Shahenshah as well, have been looking for. But still, as he looks consideringly across at Chugtai and says Batayiye, Jalal's eyes look incurious, detached. It would never do to look too eager, would it?
It is only when Chugtai utter the word rishta that Jalal begins to smile again, but secretly, head down. Note that unlike Bharmal, he seeks no clarification as to the kind of rishta Chugtai has in mind, and for a perfectly good reason. If one had been unsure that this was a carefully choreographed exercise, Jalal's wide smile snd his lack of curiosity offer clinching corroboration that it was indeed such a stratagem.
What follows is pure, kneejerk stupidity from Bharmal, which is par for the course, and silken, sledgehammer brutality from Jalal.
When Bharmal bounces out of his seat with an overloud Bas! to Chugtai Khan, Jalal swivels round.His eyes slowly rise to Bharmal's face. They are expressionless, cold as icicles and as sharp, unreadable, calculating. If I had been at the receiving end of that look, I would have been really scared. Rajat, always very good, was superb in that instant.
As for Bharmal, one cannot blame him for being shocked and dismayed, but surely a more measured and diplomatic reaction would have been both graceful and pragmatic?
His voice breaking and his throat constricted by helplessness, he rages that no alliance is possible between him and the Mughals, as Chughtai Khan watches in an agony of apprehension. Jalal sits unmoving, his chin in his hand and his dark eyes veiled and unfathomable. His thumb rubbing against his closed fist is the only sign that he is there and listening.
The ultimate put down: It is when Bharmal has run out of steam that Jalal finally moves, and how!
Theek hi to keh rahe hain Raja Saheb. Aur waise bhi is rishte ki zaroorat hi kya hai? he declares as he moves to stand near Bharmal, but still looking down, his eyes veiled . Hope flickers in Bharmal's eyes, for he has no idea what is to come next.
When it does, the level monotone contrasting with the harshness of the words, one's breath is caught in one's throat in sheer shock. Jalal turns finally to look at Bharmal, his eyes hostile, sneering. And his words sting like a whiplash. Jab Amer hi hamara hai, to Amer ki har ek cheez hamari hai - Bharmal's eyes show dawning fear - Phir chahe wo uski shehzadi ho ya uski baandi. The cold smile returns. Aur hum jise chahein apni harem ki shaan bana sakte hain. The lips are drawn back in a smile that is almost a snarl.
As the full import of Jalal's words dawns on him, Bharmal's face crumples in helpless dismay.
Chughtai Khan, predictably, moves to fill the breach, seeking permission for a private heart to heart with Bharmal. It is then that Jalal, unconsciously following the dictum of Chanakya, delivers the coup de grace.
Behatar hai.. Agar yeh hamare numayindon se hi baat karein to behatar hoga. He sits down and looks up at the standing Bharmal, his eyes sharp, bright, and arrogant. Kyonki ek badshah doosre badshah se baat kar sakta hai.Aur shayad inhein is baat ke ehsaas ho gya hai ki yeh ab ek raja nahin rahe.. Nothing more crushing could have been imagined, and as Bharmal looks into Jalal's mocking eyes , his heart must have plummeted into his mojvis.
As Chugtai Khan and Bharmal leave the audience chamber, there is the same secret, smug smile on Jalal's face.
A diplomat par excellence: The discussion that follows is a triumph for Chughtai Khan's powers of persuasion. He would have made an excellent diplomat. He uses every argument in the book to convince the by now almost tearful Bharmal that his duty as a king should take precedence over the fears of a father, and that Jodha's marriage to Jalal is the sole way out of total and inevitable disaster for Amer and its citizens.
He counters each of the by now desperate Bharmal's objections - about his losing face in front of the other Rajput royals, about his own place in history likely to be that of a coward who saved himself by sending his daughter to the the Mughals, about how could he enter into a rishta with the Mughals, about how he would confess this to his daughter - with impeccable, if at time specious logic, and a calm, soothing stream of roseate visions.
Agar Hindustan ke Shahenshah aapke damaad ban gaye, to aapse kaun nazarein milayega? ...Amer aur zyada phalega, phoolega, aur zyada taaqatwar hoga.. Jodha, kahan ek choti si riyasat ki Rajkumari, aur kahan Mughal Sultanat ki Malika! ( like Ashutosh Gowarikar, Chugtai Khan too makes both Ruqaiya Sultan Begum and Salima Sultan Begum vanish into thin air!😉).. Dosti sab se paak rishta hai. Agar aap mujhse, ek Mughal se, yeh rishta bana sakte hain to Shahenshah se kyon nahin?..In mushkilon ka hal aap ek baap bankar nikalna chahte hain.. Raja bankar sochiye, hal khud ba khud nikal aayega.
And Bharmal, driven to point non plus, finally caves in, probably, in his heart of hearts, passing the blame for this to Maa Bhavani!😉
Superb orchestration: Incidentally, if Chugtai Khan had broached this idea to Bharmal earlier, it would have died on the spot. It needed to be launched just the way it was, in a situation of extreme pressure from Jalal, for Bharmal to be convinced, even if only after a superb sales talk from Chugtai Khan, that he really has no other way to save Amer and his subjects from utter ruin, and that the end result would be hugely beneficial to Amer.
In fact,Jalal and Chugtai Khan play it like two seasoned artistes, so smoothly dovetailing their lines and their reactions that by the end, one is left in no doubt that that it was all a pre-planned affair.
A new attitude for a new rishta: Jalal has, during this interval, been listening impassively to his Ministers who oppose this marriage, vouchsafing them no response. He is waiting.
When Bharmal and Chugtai Khan trek back into the audience room, he has changed tack dramatically, for he knows that what he wants is now in the bag, and he can afford to be generous. So he silences the Minister who wants to snub Bharmal, and asks the latter to be seated.
He pulls Bharmal's leg a bit, first pointedly mentioning , with every appearance of candour, the opposition from his ministers :Bahut takleef huyi is baat ki humein yeh rishta jodna chahiye ya nahin.. Bharmal looks worried and even Chugtai Khan looks bemused and confused, as well he might!
Jalal goes on Par hum ne tay kiya hai ki hum Jodha se nikaah ka inkaar.. and pauses there. It is proof of how drastically things have changed that Bharmal's face falls visibly at this point. He only recovers when Jalal concludes, grinning like a mischievous schoolboy,... nahin kar sakte. Hum is rishte se razaamand hain.
When Bharmal tries to retrieve some face by asserting that he did this not out of fear but to save Amer and its populace, Jalal shows how subtle and effective a tactician he has become by praising him for being a good king.
He goes on to reduce Bharmal almost to tears by affirming Ab hum aapko ek achche rishtedaar hone ka sabot denge. He passes orders restoring Amer to Bharmal, and assures him of the freedom of the 3 princes, now to be brought to meet him. He reassures Bharmal: Ghabrayiye mat, Raja Saheb, quaidi bankar nahin, hamare mehmaan bankar.
No wonder that as Bharmal folds his hands in a namaskar to the Shahenshah, his eyes are moist with relief and unfamiliar emotions.
That smile!: As for Jalal, he watches the duo leave with the same inscrutable, secret smile. It is a a cross between the look of a cat at a mouse hole, and that of a cat that had swallowed all the cream!😉😉
NB: Chughtai Khan's revelation about a newly puffed up Sharifuddin having evil intentions towards Jodha was a surprise. It was renewed proof of Lord Acton's maxim that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Perhaps Sharifuddin had concluded that as he had not heard from the Emperor about Jodha for a couple of months or more after the defeat of Amer, Jalal was no longer interested in her and he could thus try his luck.
But what shocked me even more was the look of helplessness on Bharmal's face when he heard of this. It was most disappointing, this inability to rustle up even a bit of aggressiveness.
A strategist and a tactician: For us, Jalal's bravura act does not end with Bharmal's departure. Jalal the strategist still has some surprises up his sleeve.
The smoothness and plausibility of the three (entirely correct) reasons he gives for agreeing to this marriage - that it would avoid a lifetime of enmity with the Rajputs if Jodha was carried off to his harem by force (he carefully avoids explaining why he wants to bother with this obscure princess from a small riyasat at all!😉), that it would help increase the Mughal sultanate's trade and commerce, and lastly, that it would provide new shoor veer sainik ( not bahadur sipahi) for the Mughal army: Wo humse ladein is se behatar hai ki wo hamare liye ladein - are such that his initially disapproving Ministers are not just convinced, but turned into his cheerleaders.
As the praises of his wazirat fill the air - Ab humein yakeen ho gaya hai ki aapne bahut soch samajhkar yeh faisla liya hai.. Bade door ki sochi hai, Huzoor! - the Shahenshah's face is still and inscrutable, but his eyes gleam with some secret triumph. We , the viewers, know, even better than he himself does right now, the reason for that, for we know why he wants what he wants, and he does not.
The reasons why: A brief analysis of why Jalal feels obliged to produce all these political reasons might be of interest to some of you.
Jalal is a ruler, first and foremost, and even more important, he is a fledgling Shahenshah, just emerging from the overpowering shadow of his lifelong mentor, Bairam Khan. He has yet to make a name and gain a reputation of his own, a reputation for wise leadership that keeps the interests of the Mughal Sultanate first and foremost. If he is unable to do this, he will soon progressively lose their unquestioning backing. That will then lead to plots against him by those spreading rumours that he is a weak, wayward ruler, easily swayed by sudden obsessions, and thus not worthy to head a mighty empire.
So there is NO way he can justify his pathbreaking, indeed shocking decision to marry a kafir (infidel), thus giving her the status of his Shahi Begum, and not just add her to his harem. by telling his advisers that he is obsessed with her. The latter option would have been perfectly acceptable to his advisers, the former is, to begin with, an absolute no no.
He thus has to dress the decision up in reasons that would go down perfectly with the council of Ministers, and enhance their admiration for his sagacity, his ability to strategise for the long term, and thus for his abilities as a wise ruler of the Mughal empire.
The other thing is that every reason he lists out is absolutely correct, and totally relevant. These are the beginnings of the Akbar who prized inclusiveness and shared progress over mindless visceral animosities and the frittering away of men and resources in endless wars. If you think of what happened in Akbar's empire on each of the 3 points Jalal makes yesterday, you will see that each of them came true. By dampening the hostility between the two races, and harnessing their joint energies for the greater glory of the Mughal Raj that benefited them both, Akbar proved Jalal right all the way.
None of this is to deny that Jalal wants Jodha above all for reasons of the heart, but he himself does not understand that at this point.
A hosanna to Rajat's Jalal: Throughout the 11:52 minutes of the Bharmal-Jalal segment, it was a superlative display by Rajat as Jalal, with a mastery of facial nuance that I have rarely seen in nearly 50 years of movie viewing, He just chewed up the screen. The boy must have been really enjoying himself!
Plus, as my mother, who has grown to love him too, noted, his eyes are his major asset - they are deep set in a face with strong, well marked features, and they gleam from the depths even when he keeps them lowered, as when he was listening to Bharmal babbling about the Mughals' breaching assorted maryadas. The silent menace in them at times is terrifying. And when he wants, they are smooth and as unreadable as the still waters in a lake just before dawn.
Remarkable, this young man. He is a constant delight.
Yesternight , he was fully backed by the script and the director, and showcased to perfection, and he delivered more than 100%. It is not often that an actor can manage to go beyond the script and make it say more that it does on paper. Rajat did just that here, for without the terpischorean range he brought to those scenes, they would not have been anything like what they were.
In this tour de force of a performance, what impressed me most of all was the tehraav, the deliberate controlled take on every line Jalal spoke, every body movement, every glance from his eyes. He never raised his voice, even for the harshest threats he uttered, whereas Bharmal's voice became shrill and cracked under the strain.
In fact, what I loved the most was Jalal's absolute self control regardless of how infuriating Bharmal was. Not once did that self control slip, and when he was brutal in his putdown of Bharmal, it was deliberate, and the pitch was just right. This is how a Shahenshah should be, always in control, of himself and of others.
Take the way he sits, hand in chin, as Bharmal rants about Mughal perfidy, his eyes downcast and yet gleaming with mounting anger. But when he rises, the face and the voice are so even and bland that the harsh content of his words comes as an even greater shock. It is the same a little earlier, when he swivels around to look at Bharmal when the latter shouts Bas!! His eyes are expressionless, unreadable, calculating. Superb renditions, both of them.
Jalal's little exercise in diplomacy vis a vis Bharmal too was spot on. He did it with such offhand grace that it did not sound insincere, which is of course what it was, and so one was amused to see Bharmal smile weakly in grateful relief.
Jalal is learning the ropes of being a ruler very fast, and then he has always had it in him, it was only a matter of having the chance to use those innate skills. Now he will be so kind and condescending to Jodha's brother and cousins that they too will be singing his praises.
Jalal at Ajmer: In the rest of the episode, apart from the beautifully alternated scenes of Jalal and Jodha praying, what stood out was Jalal's somber and somewhat troubled face as he prays at the Ajmer dargah and speaks to the Baba there (this Baba is not Sheikh Salim Chisti, for he is far more goodlooking than that gentleman!) . His assertions that he can mould his own destiny and that of Hindustan are brushed aside by the mystic, who repeats the by now familiar prediction that Jalal is on the threshold of momentous change, for himself and for the Mughal empire. Jalal listens in puzzled silence, and no wonder, but there is no scepticism in his face.
As for me. I was thankful that his melancholy Ammijaan was not around to repeat the Shaikh's prophecy in her trademark whining tones😉s .
Jodha: As for Jodha, I loved her bubbling happiness at the prospect of her brothers returning home safe and sound, the warmth of her regard for her (undeserving) Bapusa, and the innocence with which she assures her Kanha that Phir kabhi hum aapki pareeksha lene ki baat nahin karenge.. and her voice suddenly drops a notch as she repeats: Kabhi nahin! And she looks lovely doing all this.
So we came to the end of an episode that would rate 9.5 out of 10, the half mark lost being for the apparently mandatory scenes of Jodha's Mamma dearest, and the rest of the Amer lot, as they bleat about the absence of their portly pater familias.
There was some compensation in the (original) precap, as the shellshocked Rani slid gracefully to the ground on hearing the fell news that Shakuni Bai had hit a sixer😉 and she, Mynavati,was to end up with Jalal the Jallad as her javaisa😉 .
Question of the day: Whatever happened to Chugtai Khan after this episode? It was as if the earth had opened up and swallowed him (like Abdul), for he was not seen even at the shahi shaadi for which he was a main enabler. It seems that Ekta's folks have a positive yen for dropping their best character actors: Abdul, Motibai I, and now Chugtai Khan😡.
So this is alvida till Sunday next, folks. Enjoy the break (from me), for I will turn up again, never fear! 😉
Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di
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