Jodha Akbar 37-40: Turbulent beginnings

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Posted: 9 years ago
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Folks,

I did not post anything yesterday for two reasons. One, my hands were not up to typing much, and two, it would have been illogical to stop at Episode 39, right at the beginning of the jashn. Today, we can cover the stormy goings on there, which would be more sensible, right?

These 4 episodes fall neatly into two halves, the first two and the next two, which, incidentally, is the way they were shown in the original telecast in 2013, as the last 2 episodes of the Shahi Shaadi Saptah. So here goes with Episodes 37 & 38.

Episodes 37-38: Cat and mouse

The title more or less sums up these episodes. But before we get into that, one has to applaud the CVs, or rather the editors who decide the precaps, for bowling such a sly googly at first time viewers on Saturday night. It must have had them clean bowled, as it slithered thru their guard and uprooted the leg stump!😉

They would have been breathless over that precap, interpreting it as Jodha rebuffing Jalal, and speculating feverishly as to how harshly he would react.

The first time around, in 2013, even I was bamboozled into taking it at face value, as an attempt by Jalal to get up close and personal with his lawfully wedded wife, and I was moved to assert that he would never force himself on any woman, even a wife he wanted to tame.

When the telecast came, we were all caught flat footed . Alas for all our agonies of apprehension! It turned out that it was

- an attack by Jodha with that khanjar, yes, but on what she took to be an intruder, not on her patidev, and

- Jalal was there not to make amorous advances to her, but to berate for not presenting herself when he had summoned her to sing for him, with his entourage present,

- Jalal did hurt his hand on that khanjar, but thereby hangs yet another tale.

Unalloyed delight: The scene itself was sheer viewing pleasure.

There was Jalal, fuming at having been stood up by his newly minted wife in front of his courtiers, barging into her khema, prepared to haul her over the coals for disrespecting her husband and not fulfilling her marital vows (though one has to note that as he approaches her bed, his face changes and is already a bit gentler!😉) .

Agni ki jwala ke aage kitni badi badi baatein ki thi aapne, itne bade bade vachan diye ki apne shauhar ki har baat maanengi, ek biwi ka har farz nibhayengi aap. To abhi se wo sab baatein hawa ho gayin?

Two minutes later, though she is trembling with nervousness and her breath is ragged in her throat, Jodha has managed to put her lord and master on the defensive, moving him to concede Bahut khoob! Hum to aapke pas apni shikayat lekar aaye the, par aapne to humein hi mujrim tehra diya!

She does this by lecturing him fluently on the need to put his patni's maan aur sammaan ahead of his rights on her, and about how no vow that she had taken permitted him to ask her to appear in front of outsiders, to treat a wife like a daasi or to use force on her.

Humein apne sab vachan yaad hain. Yeh bhi yaad hai ki aap hamare pati ban chuke hain -- Jalal smiles in wolfish satisfaction--- Lekin shaayad aap bhool rahe hain ki hum aapki patni bankar yahan aaye hain.Aur koyi bhi vachan ek patni ko daasi samajhne ka, uske saath bal prayog karne ka adhikaar kisi ko nahin deta hai. Hamare saptapadi ke vachan bhi aapko humein is prakar bhari sabha mein bulane ka adhikar nahin dete. Kisi bhi pati ke kiye, uske adhikaron se pehle, uski patni ka maan sammaan aana chahiye.

Whew! And she does all this with Jalal barely one foot away, leaning over her in a manner that would intimidate the most courageous of women. Atta girl, I said to myself, you deserve a standing ovation!👏

NB: As for Jalal, though he does not realise it at this point, this mini-bhashan from Jodha Begum is but a foretaste of all the far longer and far more sanctimonious bhashans to come during his married life wth her. Jalal ki to khair nahin, and he would do well to invest in a pair of good ear plugs!😉

To revert, it is to Jalal's credit that, despite being very angry with Jodha as he enters, he does not rage at her mindlessly but seeks to argue his case by reminding her of her marriage vows. Later, he accepts Jodha's lecture and admonition in good part, and does not try to bully her. This says much for his sense of fairness, even towards a woman against whom he harbours several grudges. This innate sense of justice bodes well for the rest of his reign.

Probably it was also a novel experience for him to have a woman conquering her obvious fear of him, and then arguing her case against him with all the coherent logic of a lawyer, and winning it too. That he does not resent it, as most men would have, but is moved to reluctant admiration, also says a lot about him as he is now, even without having had the benefit of Jodha's haivaan se insaan magic that we have been promised from Day 1!

But of course there is the male ego, and this one is an imperial ego. So, he gets back at her by commenting, approvingly, with a sneer in his eyes, on the all too evident fear in her eyes about what he might do next.

Yeh jo khauff hai aap ki nazaron mein humein lekar, ki ab kya hoga, hum kaise pesh aayenge, humein pasand hai.. Jodha closes her eyes and shudders.. Yeh khauff hamesha kayam rahe..

And while leaving, after reassuring her that she need fear no one and nothing as he is there to protect her from every danger, he adds, with a wolfish grin of malicious delight, Par humse aapko bachane ke liye - a deliberate pause, and then, with a wide smile, Koi nahin!


It hits bullseye, as we can see from Jodha's ashen face as she sits up in bed. She looks even better when she is frightened, by the way!

As as Jalal strides out of Jodha's khema, he is clearly delighted with his very effective exit line, for he is grinning and wiping his injured hand. To the bewilderment of Sharifuddin and the rest!

NB: Initially, Jalal seems taken aback by Jodha's having a khema of her own, for he queries Apna khema? , to Maham when told where Jodha is. He does not realise it as yet, but his new begum is going to assiduously keep him as far from herself as she can for a long, long while,and a separate khema for her will be the rule henceforth, not the exception!

Chicken con trick: This one was side splitting, that is if you were not Jodha.

Having felt obliged, as a dutiful wife (after some prompting from Moti) , to feed Jalal a chicken leg with her own hand - which he promptly holds firmly with his sound (!?!) one- not to speak of then washing his fingers afterwards and wiping them, Jodha emerges to find out that it was all a con trick, which Jalal makes sure she does not miss.

Rajat's Jalal was superb in his foxiness in this sequence: the veiled sideways glances at Mahaam Anga (for her to make sure that Jodha sits next to him on the dais), at the servants, and at Jodha herself, pointedly not seeking her help, by word or gesture, as he apparently struggles to pick up the chicken leg.

Then, out front, the deliberate brashness with which he cuts thru the fake bandage, and then hefts his shamsheer with the practiced ease of an expert swordsman.

It is pure mischief, free of malice, of the kind a naughty boy would play, and Jalal obviously no longer holds her refusal of the previous evening against her. As he goes off, he is very pleased with himself, while Jodha must be promising herself that never again will she be so taken in.

Famous last words, for the next time, it will be something entirely different and unexpected. Till, of course, they reach a stage when he does not have to trick her into holding his hand!

Arrival in Agra: Jodha has found a true blue guardian angel in Hamida Banu Begum, which was of course expected. This is preceded by a flashback to Umarkot when Jalal was born, with an adorable baby Jalal, and a prediction that he would one day unite the Mughals and the Hindus. So for Hamida Banu, Jodha is a good omen, like the comets in old times!

She is in ecstasies over Jodha's loveliness - Jalal smiles with proprietary pride at this point, while Maham Anga looks as if she has bitten a particularly sour lemon , especially when Bakshi Banu, in a welcoming ritual for the new bride, sweetly washes her bhabhijaan's feet in milk.

The lemon seems to grow even more sour when the Hindu daasis, mobilized by the Malika-e-Azam's Girl Friday Jiji Anga, sing a Rajasthani welcome song fo Jodha. .A moment later, one can practically smell the smoke coming out of Maham Anga's ears when Hamida Banu informs her that she need only prepare Jodha's rooms (in the harem) and she will personally escort her bahu over the palace and show her the harem as well.

The harem: culture shock!: This is just as well, for even with Hamida Banu's sympathetic and reassuring introduction to the harem, including a little paean of praise for Jalal's sense of responsibility in having all the women in the harem looked after well - Yahan par jitni bhi auratein hain, unki izzat aur unki zarooraton ko har tarah se poora karta hai Jalal.. Apna farz nibhata hai - the set up there was bound to come as a major shock for Jodha.

She is so taken aback by the hordes of assorted, squabbling females, whose varied origins and status are explained by Hamida Bani with the insouciance of one used to such things, that when asked why she did not want to marry Jalal, she blurts out : Jisme daya na ho, hriday na ho, us se vivah karne ke liye koyi tayyar ho kaise sakta hai? A dubious assertion, for any number of females would do anything to get a hard-hearted, heartless emperor, but apni Jodha is not one of them😉.

The no hriday reference sets Hamida Banu off on her pet theme of saving Jalal's soul, and she voices her hope that Jodha, now that she is here, will help Jalal find his lost dil, while Jodha looks politely incredulous. She however recollects her manners, and refrains from voicing her firm conviction that Jalal has not lost his dil, as he never had one to lose!😉

Over-confidence: Ruqaiya, as brashly confident as ever about being able to manage both Jalal and his new 'toy', of which she is certain that he will tire soon, affects indifference towards the new arrival. Meanwhile, Maham Anga, rattled by the special treatment given to the Hindu Begum, is sure to try and recruit Ruqaiya for a stymie-Jodha operation.

Pratap-Sujamal set to: I will pass over that pointless scene of the middle-aged looking Kunwar Pratap of Mewar berating the hapless Sujamal for his treachery, while lauding Jodha for having become a human sacrifice to Jalal the Jallad.

And also over the overlong bidaayi scene, a proper weepfest, or the even weepier doli uthana one, with Sujamal in position just before Bhagwan Das, still apparently unnoticed! The Ameri lot must be truly blind!😉

So the only thing left is to pat myself on the back for having, for once, correctly predicted that the nek that Jalal would give young Mansingh would be to take him with himself to Agra and make him a great warrior: Badle mein hum bhi aapse waada karte hain ki taariq mein yeh bahut hi bade sipahi ki taur par jaane jaayenge!

Mansingh, who has apparently not yet learned to smile😉, responds in a dampening fashion to this flattering invitation, making it clear that he is ready to come to Agra only to protect his buasa (it is not clear from whom, especially when she has the Mughal Emperor and half the Mughal army to do this job!). He seems to be a gravely impertinent child, who is unaware of his impertinence and not in the least in awe of the Emperor, which is probably while the latter is so taken with him.

Jalal is going to have his hands full handling not only affairs of state but, and far more difficult, his recalcitrant Begum, and her pocket edition, Mansingh, as well . One wishes him luck, for he is going to need it! It might be a rather far fetched comparison, but if one took this as a Tom and Jerry affair, no prizes for guessing who would be Tom !😉

Lastly, when Bharmal wished to send Bhagwan Das with Mansingh (it is not clear whether this is to be permanently or only for the journey to Agra, especially seeing that Bhagwan Das is Bharmal's designated successor), the funniest sight of the day was Mahaam Anga's face. She was obviously appalled at the prospect of still more Amervasis invading the Agra palace 😉!

By the way, where are Bhagwan Das and Mansingh in Jalal's entourage at the halt on the way to Agra? Nowhere that I could see.

Now for Episodes 39 & 40.

Episodes 39-40: Storms brewing

I never thought to see the day when I would be glad to see Shakuni Bai grace the TV screen. But so it was in Episode 39, and not just for me, but for the Cassandra of Amer, Rani Mynavati, as well. She is greatly reassured by Shakuni Bai's umpteenth affirmation that Jodha will, despite some initial hiccups, have a wonderful life and that her name would go down in history and be remembered for ages to come.

I do not know about the latter part, for only those who seem, of late, to have remembered Jodha are, in chronological order: K.Asif, who made Mughal-e-Azam (1960) , Ashutosh Gowarikar, who made Jodhaa Akbar the film (2008), and now Ekta Kapoor.

Still, taking all this for ages business as literary/cinematic licence, I was very pleased with Shakuni Bai's unshakeably optimistic predictions, for these days one badly needs some good news for Jodha. Even if the good times are, like a post-dated cheque, not going to get to her (and us) for a while yet!

Melodrama galore: The Shahi Shaadi series of episodes has been a great success so far, with each episode topping the previous one. This could obviously not continue indefinitely, and besides, Newton's law of gravity has it that what goes up must come down. He deduced it from a falling apple, and he surely never dreamt of applying it to TV serials, but it does work for them as well😉 .

So, I was waiting for these last couple of episodes to stumble, if not to fall outright, and sure enough, that is what happens with these two, with the melodrama content being upped and the dialogues becoming flat and banal, without a single, memorable punch line.

As for the melodramatic excesses, there are quite a few examples.

There is Ruqaiya who - after running, literally, into Jodha once again, and being put down by Jodha with quiet grace and firmness - informs her sidekick Hoshiyaar that Jodha would be her slave just as she was Ruqaiya's , and would wear Hoshiyaar's utaran ( hand me downs) just as Hoshiyar wears Ruqaiya's (this boggles the imagination, seeing that Hoshiyaar is about a foot taller than the petite Ruqaiya, and broad shouldered to match, and could not possibly have fitted into Ruqaiya's cast offs! 😉Or perhaps she means only her jewellery) .

There is Maham Anga glowering at Jodha when Hamida Banu Begum is looking elsewhere, and piling on the snide comments about Jodha until her speech seems likely to buckle under their weight!

The first is about Jodha's shartein- where she is brought up short by Hamida waxing eloquent on her now favourite topic, Jalal and Jodha: Jalal hai hi aisa. Tumhein apne mazhab mein rehne ki ijaazat dekar une phir sabko chaunka diya.. Uske dil ko samajhna bahut mushkil hai. Par humein ummeed hai, balki pura yakeen hai ki tum Jalal ke dil ko bahut jald samajh jaogi Jodha! ( the discrepancy between this and her earlier statement does not seem to have struck Hamida, for she speaks now as if Jalal has a dil!)

Unfazed, Maham mentions Jodha's fiery (literally ) reception of the shaadi ka joda that Jalal had gifted her, but this too is brushed aside by Hamida as something best forgotten. Poor Maham!

There is Ruqaiya again, doing full scale kaan bharofying about Jodha to Jalal. So kaan ka kachcha is he, that whereas the day before, he was able, despite his initial fury, to appreciate the reasons for Jodha's refusal to heed his summons to her , today, his temper rises visibly when Ruqaiya tells him that his shaan and rutba are being eroded by Jodha's excessive guroor,as shown by her studied indifference to her imperial shauhar at the jashn held in their honour.

Jodha's mistake: Which is true to a considerable extent, for at the jashn to celebrate her marriage to Jalal, Jodha does not make the slightest concession to public impressions, or even to the disappointment her very standoffish behaviour would cause her incredibly kind mother-in-law.

She is transformed into a marble statue of disdain as soon as Jalal appears, and the way in which she offers him the sweet is exactly like the way in which she held the chicken leg out to him at breakfast, making me wonder whether she was going to shove it up his nose. He salvages the situation by catching hold of her hand and guiding it to his mouth, but the impression conveyed is one of extreme indifference and coldness from her side, whereas earlier, she is very polite and pleasant to all the guests, and handles even the catty Ruqaiya with grace and calm evasiveness.

The contrast is so marked that a great deal of gossip was guaranteed, and this could not have reflected well on the Shahenshah. If Jodha had continued to be pleasant and proper, even if not at all forthcoming, to Jalal as well, he would not have been so receptive to the poison that Ruqaiya pours into his ears.

The upshot of this rising spiral of anger is that Jalal makes a highly undesirable move by forcing his wife to sing at the jashn, something normally unheard of for highborn ladies of the court. The ode to Rajput chivalry and their code of honour that she sings only makes matters worse.

Jalal is roaming around the hall like a caged panther, and when he comes near her, Ruqaiya adds the last earful of poison, by interpreting the song as a slur on the Mughals. That does it. He shuts the jashn, and Jodha's song, down in an instant with a stentorian Bas!!, and leaves. As the hall empties swiftly in the Emperor's wake, Jodha is left standing alone, humiliated, and not even Hamida Banu comes up to speak to her and comfort her.

NB: The funny thing about Jodha's paean to Rajput valour and their sar kataa sakte hain par jhuka sakte nahin mantra was that she is the living rebuttal of all that she lauded in her song. She has, to put it bluntly, been traded by her family to save their backsides and cover up their military incompetence. Even the boastful Suryabhan was defeated fair and square by Sujamal, and in a real battle, would have been killed on the spot; there would have been no need for Sharifuddin to spear him from the back.

So what dauntless valor was Jodha singing about? If Jalal had not been the Emperor, he could have brought her down to earth by pointing that out publicly. I don't blame her for trying to salvage something out of that fiasco he had created, and to turn the tables on him, but what she was singing did not apply to her family at least! I wonder if she realises that.

Another point. I am almost sure that to begin with, Jalal did not plan to ask Jodha to sing, When Ruqaiya complains that Jodha nearly turned down her tohfa, he grins in amusement at a women's squabble, he does not side with Ruqaiya against Jodha. She sees that at once, and immediately shifts tack to the sole, ultra touchy point,his pride as am emperor. That hits home, and it is then, I feel, that he decides to make Jodha sing in public.

Jalal's OTT behavior: This does not end here. He then drinks himself into a state of mounting and self-reinforcing anger, dredging up every bitter memory of Jodha to deepen his resentment even further. When he sets off to get his inteqam, one assumes he is going to Jodha's room, and one shudders at the thought of what he might do in an alcoholic stupor.

Now, by all TV norms, the scene of him setting out for his inteqam should have been in a precap, with no hint as to its final shape and form. Then the audience coul d have agonized over the rest of the evening and the next day about Jodha's likely fate at the hands of Jalal the Jallad.

However this tempting scenario was not to be, though there was nail-biting suspense for quite a while thanks to Jodha's highly realistic and misleading nightmare - in which Jalal roars at her from six inches away: Inteqam lene aaye hain hum. Apni ruswaayi ka.. Tumhari naafarmaani ka.. Hamari tauheen ka.. Tumne hamari tauheen ki? HAMARI?? ( Jodha has clearly been taught Persian, for she is able to supply the correct words for Jalal even in a nightmare!😉)

But Jalal was a no show in the end. We were treated instead to a longish monologue by Ruqaiya, who had invited herself to Jodha's rooms, and had, inadvertently, rescued her from the nightmare.

Paridhi does exceptionally well in this scene; as she wipes the beads of sweat off her forehead, her face is a study in residual, blind panic. She is, for all her courage, really afraid of Jalal. Which makes her handling him so well the day before all the more worthy of admiration.

Ruqaiya's monologue at the very end of Episode 40 was obviously tailored to alarm and dishearten Jodha by stressing the fickle nature of the Shahenshah's obsessions. What Ruqaiya does not know is that the very basis of her peroration is mistaken, for Jodha is not waiting for Jalal. She is praying hard for him not to come at all, and so she says not a word in reply to Ruqaiya.

In a related matter, the Ruqaiya-Mahaam Anga combo has been stitched together solely be their common hostility towards Jodha. Their shared determination to teach Jodha a lesson is voiced in lurid terms, and their coming together sounds pretty much like the Stalin- Hitler pact during World War II, and is likely to be just as short lived!

Bright spots: Young Mansingh restraining his father Bhagwan Das from flying at Adham Khan's throat when the latter speaks insultingly about Amer and about the Jodha-Jalal marriage. It shows that he has a great deal of maturity despite being so very young, in fact more than his normally placid father.

-Mansingh again, who, on being quizzed by Jalal about what had happened, does not babble idealistically and hide the truth, in the time-honoured manner of TV serial good guys. Instead, just as Adham Khan is opening his mouth to utter an omnibus denial, Mansingh recites, fluently and accurately, the whole list of his insulting words. He has Adham Khan's whole para down pat, without a single slip up of any kind. The kid must have been the star pupil of his guru, the shruti, or oral tradition being still strong in the 16th century !

-Equally admirable was the way in which Jalal handled this little contretemps. He did not berate Adham in so many words, but simply told him to take Bhagwan Das and Mansingh to their aaramgah,and to ensure that there was no khalal ya kami in the khatirdari for them. The clincher is a simple sentence: Inki beadabi matlab hamari beadabi.. It was a stellar display of silken control, and an understated but unmistakable reproof.

Incidentally, did you all note that everything Adham Khan says about the Amer royal family is literally true? They have bartered their daughter for the security of Amer. It was pure hypocrisy for Bhagwandas to complain about it, but if you can get away with it, why not?

- Jodha's handling of Ruqaiya, both after the collision and later at the jashn She maintains a calm, unruffled mien throughout, and never loses an iota of her dignity, even when faced with Ruqaiya's hectoring or her sly, sneering remarks. It is only in the last bedroom encounter that Jodha, worn out by the fear that produces the nightmare, does not react at all.

-Hamida Banu Begum's warmth and great kindness to Jodha, to whom she transfers all her earlier affection for and gratitude to the Rajputs of Umarkot, who had sheltered her whole family when Humayun was being hunted all over north India by Sher Shah Suri, and had thus saved their lives. Besides, she sees Jodha as the catalyst who can really understand her son, and thaw Jalal's frozen dil, and she says so yet again.

Storms brewing:Ah, yes, the storms of the title. There are quite a few of them in the works: between Jodha and Jalal, between Jodha, Mahaam Anga and Ruqaiya, between Adham Khan and the Amer duo, and finally between Jalal and himself.

The mirror image interpretation: For Jalal's ominous lines to Jodha, that he likes to see the fear of him always there in her eyes, and that there was no one to save her from him, can be best interpreted by turning them around and applying them to Jalal instead of to Jodha. It would then be as follows: He hates that fear of him in her eyes, and no one can save him from her.

That mirror image take on what Jalal said to Jodha - originally offered in my 2013 post on that episode by Mansi (skanda12) - is, methinks, exactly what is going to happen some time in the future.

This is because, in Jalal's reaction to Jodha, apart from the overt anger, there is one thing on the surface - his being attracted to her because of her beauty and because she does not fawn on him - and there is a different undercurrent as well, of which he is not conscious as of now. That is the strange pull that dragged him on a very dangerous mission into Amer, and this when he had not even seen her.

He will be more and more angry with her in the immediate future, a process that has already begun at and after the jashn. What we should be waiting for is to see when it dawns on him that what he wants is not her. Not the possession of her, legally or physically even. What he will want is for her to want him, in the sense of caring for him, even if the idea of love is very long in coming.

Now he can, soon enough, command her dutiful obedience in all acceptable things, but not her respect and her caring. This will gnaw at him, and we shall see how he handles that entirely unfamiliar situation.

This is exactly where the mirror image of what Jalal said to Jodha comes in. No one can protect him from that sense of deprivation that will eat away at him from within. It is going to be very interesting.

Flawed tactics: I am not a romantic, but in my far off youth, I would any day have liked a Rhett Butler or a Jalal to tame better than a soft chap blindly in love with me. And I would have managed it too. A woman should know how to handle any man, no matter how tough he seems.

Jodha seems to me singularly lacking in any feminine finesse in the way she handles sticky situations. Burning that shaadi ka joda was more like a fishwife than like a dignified princess. Now she behaves like an ice maiden in public. It was atrocious of Jalal to drag her into the middle of the hall and force her to sing, but she provokes it to some extent, and provides the fertile soil in which Ruqaiya plants her poisonous seeds.

The problem with Jodha is that, when it comes to Jalal, she insists on behaving like a martyr, and does not try in the least to handle the situation she has been landed with practically. It is not that she does not know how to do this, for she does just fine with everyone else, from Hamida Banu to Ruqaiya.

But when it comes to Jalal, she inexplicably loses all that finesse. Why is this so? Even if she hates Jalal's guts. need she show it so openly? What possible purpose can it serve? She seems to think she owes him nothing, not even a modicum of good behaviour in public. It is most emphatically not so.

And what is it about people saying that she owes this is marriage nothing? She damn well owes it an awful lot, starting with lives of her 3 brothers and going on the survival of Amer as a whole. That Jalal does if for his own reasons changes nothing about what the Amer royals owe him. Talk of ingratitude!

What I would have expected is a coolly dignified princess who could perhaps, just perhaps, have made even Jalal feel like a caterpillar. She can detest him all she wants, but she has to be dignified about it . It is first thing royalty if taught, to be dignified under any and all circumstances. Alas, no one seems to have taught Jodha this! Mainavati would have done better to have added a little lecture on this to all her sentimentalsing about the mementoes of Amer that Jodha will take with her to Agra.

Jokes of the day: Hamida Banu Begum is as fixated on Jalal's (lost) dil as her new bahu used to be on Jalal ka sar, while for Ruqaiya it is his brain. The women in Jalal's life seem to have a curious obsession with his assorted body parts!😉

-Jodha wondering kya is utsav (that Hamida was referring to) ka hona sahi hai? Aur sabse bada prashna yeh hai ki kya hamara is utsav mein hona sahi hai? This after she has listened to her saas telling her how important the jashn in honour of her marriage with Jalal was, and instructing Maham to make sure that all the arrangments had been made properly!😉

Bye then, folks, till Sunday or Monday next!

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

Edited by sashashyam - 9 years ago

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Posted: 9 years ago
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Hi Shymala, I was a bit worried when your post did not come on Thursday, reassured to see it today. Hope you are feeling better.

Normally I am as awed as all others by your fantastic posts and not able to respond till I have absorbed the material with deliberate slowness. But today I see an opening to argue, and so I will present my case. I present this in an exercise of intellectual discussion and not 'I am right, you are wrong' kind of games. So no hurt feelings, anyone.

As you might have guessed, I strongly disagree with your assessment of Jodha.

Let us first look at the relative positions of our combatants, Jalal and Jodha. I concede that Jalal is in a stronger position because of his military victory over Amer, but the discerning Rajputs Kings would also have wondered why he was so keen on the alliance(let us leave the romantic angle aside for a moment). Not a single King in the 2000 years prior to Akbar managed the kind of pan India conquests, that he did and certainly never a Muslim King. By conquests, I mean holding on to the conquests too, not just winning. I recently watched a very interesting lecture, on the contrast of Turkic conquests in India and Turkey. In Turkey, the barbarian Turkic invaders from the Steppes, assimilated an entire population in Anatolia. In contrast, in India, the Turkic invaders remained just that, invaders and soon others replaced them. In India, they failed because they could not win over the people.

If Jalal mistreats his Hindu wife and the Rajputs get to know of it, his grand scheme of a coalition with the Rajputs goes up in smoke and so does any dreams of a pan India empire. For Rajputs these things are of tremendous importance. Even with all the advantages of wealth and power, Aurangzeb is a good example of what happens when the local population goes against you.

O.K, after making my point that Jodha is not so powerless, let us get to other point. In none of the interactions with Jalal till now has Jodha discarded dignity. She was an epitome of dignity when Jalal was playing that ridiculous feeding chicken game(though admittedly very cute and enjoyable scene). His right hand was hurt, but what about his left hand. Do people who hurt one hand stop eating, and yet Jodha maintained dignity in the scene, though Jalal did not.

The next interaction of the two was at the Jashn. Agreed she was not showing great joy and was decidedly cold in her behavior, but so what. The harem is full of women, who did not come there by choice. Agreed that Jalal does not mistreat and they lead a well provided life in the harem, but does that mean they were smiling ear to ear, when they first came to the harem, and gave picture perfect smiling faces in front of the Emperor.

Jodha is one more sullen face, but so what, everyone in the audience must have seen a lot more.

Another point that I want to stress strongly, ballads are not all about winning, they are also about valor and honour. Prithviraj Chauhan lost a decisive battle to Ghori, but ballads of his valorous deeds live on and inspire so many others down the ages.

In this specific case of Amer, I agree Rajput valor lost some of it's sheen, but even here they did not give in without a ferocious fight. They gave in only when the total destruction of Amer loomed, and even then in a marriage that Jalal participated in, with respect. So, should we in retrospect blame Rajput honour, for a situation where there was either mass suicide and death on one hand, or agreeing to a marriage alliance with Jalal. As I have already pointed out in a historical post, this was always a two way street for Akbar, he wanted two way marriage alliance with the Rajput kings, I.e Mughal princesses with Rajput kings too.

In conclusion, I believe Jodha conducted herself with dignity in all her scenes, whereas Jalal discarded it in some instances. But since, Jalal is the Emperor, who cares. Besides I throughly enjoyed, Jalal the bad boy.

I think for simple minded folk like me it will be better if you give detailed description of how you would have liked those scenes to play out.

Your wonderful description about the knife scene, and the chicken scene deserve a separate post.
Edited by Donjas - 9 years ago
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Posted: 9 years ago
#3
EK's Jodha is the epitome of confrontation when the requirement is for diplomacy (I won't say conciliation as that is not needed here). I do expect that when a tale that is set in a specific time- here the 16th century - the women especially the heroine is shown with the wisdom of the period. Jodha didn't have to be shown as a doormat - but with a combination of courage and common sense and the learning of managing a home and man learnt from the wise old women of her family - unfortunately EK's Jodha is a hollow doll, lacking the substance that characterizes such women.
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Posted: 9 years ago
#4
Hello Shyamalaji
Sorry for not replying to ur earlier posts but it was return filing time here n absolute madness in our office with deadline approaching. I can now finally breathe a sigh of relief.
As for the episodes u mentioned. I loved jalal in his initial stage where he was shown as strong, fearless and not ready to bow down to anyone. He indulged ruqqaiya but did not let her rule over him. I agree he was a lil kaan ka kachcha n ruqqaiya knew howo manipulate him but still he had boundaries she couldn't cross. I think most of the time he let her believe that she ruled him just to make her happy. As for Jodha I agree that she was not as graceful to jalal as to others but I guess when u r mad at the whole world it's easier to find one person as a target for ur hate n blame him. In her heart she knew what her parents did was wrong to her but it was easier n more bearable for her to blame jalal completely as a catalyst for everything going wrong in her life. Maybe that's why she found it harder to be civil to him coz he constantly was a reminder of her life turning upside down.
Mahamanga I believe was the only one who could sense the change n Impact jodha could bring in jalal's life n nature . She was a foresighted woman who knew that her importance n position in the emperors life n Kingdom was dependent on his whims n transitory that could change with a single mistake made by her. Something which ruqqaiya refused to believe for a very long time.

As for jalal u r right, he seems more like a child who wants jodha to care for him n be enamoured by Him like all the other women in his life and since she is not doing that he gets irritated n hides his feelings by convincing himself that he hates her n wants to break her pride. He reminds me of those lil boys who tease n trouble the girls they like to draw attention. Also ruqqaiya statement that as a king he wants to possess what is difficult to possess but once it's done he forgets abt them is true. His main fascination with jodha is not only her beauty or her courage as told to him by others but the fact that he doesn't seem to be able to get her to see how 'great' he is and how lucky she is to be noticed by him. It almost feels like there is already a bond with her from his side which makes him feel her pain and stops him from crossing a line when it comes to troubling her or as an almighty ruler he could have gone to any lengths to hurt her.

Well I hope I will be able to watch the serial from today onwards. The one person I m waiting to see is rahim as he always managed to bring joy in his scenes.
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Posted: 9 years ago
#5

Originally posted by: vinitaj27

Hello Shyamalaji

Sorry for not replying to ur earlier posts but it was return filing time here n absolute madness in our office with deadline approaching. I can now finally breathe a sigh of relief.
As for the episodes u mentioned. I loved jalal in his initial stage where he was shown as strong, fearless and not ready to bow down to anyone. He indulged ruqqaiya but did not let her rule over him. I agree he was a lil kaan ka kachcha n ruqqaiya knew howo manipulate him but still he had boundaries she couldn't cross. I think most of the time he let her believe that she ruled him just to make her happy. As for Jodha I agree that she was not as graceful to jalal as to others but I guess when u r mad at the whole world it's easier to find one person as a target for ur hate n blame him. In her heart she knew what her parents did was wrong to her but it was easier n more bearable for her to blame jalal completely as a catalyst for everything going wrong in her life. Maybe that's why she found it harder to be civil to him coz he constantly was a reminder of her life turning upside down.
Mahamanga I believe was the only one who could sense the change n Impact jodha could bring in jalal's life n nature . She was a foresighted woman who knew that her importance n position in the emperors life n Kingdom was dependent on his whims n transitory that could change with a single mistake made by her. Something which ruqqaiya refused to believe for a very long time.

As for jalal u r right, he seems more like a child who wants jodha to care for him n be enamoured by Him like all the other women in his life and since she is not doing that he gets irritated n hides his feelings by convincing himself that he hates her n wants to break her pride. He reminds me of those lil boys who tease n trouble the girls they like to draw attention. Also ruqqaiya statement that as a king he wants to possess what is difficult to possess but once it's done he forgets abt them is true. His main fascination with jodha is not only her beauty or her courage as told to him by others but the fact that he doesn't seem to be able to get her to see how 'great' he is and how lucky she is to be noticed by him. It almost feels like there is already a bond with her from his side which makes him feel her pain and stops him from crossing a line when it comes to troubling her or as an almighty ruler he could have gone to any lengths to hurt her.

Well I hope I will be able to watch the serial from today onwards. The one person I m waiting to see is rahim as he always managed to bring joy in his scenes.



This is a fantastic post. You have analyzed the feelings of both Jalal and Jodha in a masterly fashion. The "hate the world" example for Jodha and "little boys" for Jalal explains much better the situation than my own one page ramblings.

One request for you, please have a look at Shymala's wonderful post "The Emperor Strikes Back". If you like what you read, please press the "Like" button. It is on 49 "likes" at present.
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Posted: 9 years ago
#6
What a lovely post Aunty!
Back later with my feedback.
Devki
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Posted: 9 years ago
#7


Jodha Akbar Episode -37

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apCaJ_T3XMs[/YOUTUBE]



Jodha Akbar Episode -38

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mBtSb2nObk[/YOUTUBE]



Jodha Akbar Episode -39

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zggzx2BwX9U[/YOUTUBE]
Edited by harrybird - 9 years ago
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Posted: 9 years ago
#8

UNRES...😃

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Folks,

I did not post anything yesterday for two reasons. One, my hands were not up to typing much,

😲 😲 😲

and two, it would have been illogical to stop at Episode 39, right at the beginning of the jashn.

Nope...Nothing is more important than your health Aunty !

These 4 episodes fall neatly into two halves, the first two and the next two, which, incidentally, is the way they were shown in the original telecast in 2013, as the last 2 episodes of the Shahi Shaadi Saptah. So here goes with Episodes 37 & 38.

Episodes 37-38: Cat and mouse

I love this title ! 😛 😛 😛


Started like this 😃


But, ended this way 😭

The title more or less sums up these episodes. But before we get into that, one has to applaud the CVs, or rather the editors who decide the precaps, for bowling such a sly googly at first time viewers on Saturday night. It must have had them clean bowled, as it slithered thru their guard and uprooted the leg stump!😉

They would have been breathless over that precap, interpreting it as Jodha rebuffing Jalal, and speculating feverishly as to how harshly he would react.

Unalloyed delight: The scene itself was sheer viewing pleasure.

There was Jalal, fuming at having been stood up by his newly minted wife in front of his courtiers, barging into her khema, prepared to haul her over the coals for disrespecting her husband and not fulfilling her marital vows (though one has to note that as he approaches her bed, his face changes and is already a bit gentler!😉) .






Agni ki jwala ke aage kitni badi badi baatein ki thi aapne, itne bade bade vachan diye ki apne shauhar ki har baat maanengi, ek biwi ka har farz nibhayengi aap. To abhi se wo sab baatein hawa ho gayin?

Two minutes later, though she is trembling with nervousness and her breath is ragged in her throat, Jodha has managed to put her lord and master on the defensive, moving him to concede Bahut khoob! Hum to aapke pas apni shikayat lekar aaye the, par aapne to humein hi mujrim tehra diya!

She does this by lecturing him fluently on the need to put his patni's maan aur sammaan ahead of his rights on her, and about how no vow that she had taken permitted him to ask her to appear in front of outsiders, to treat a wife like a daasi or to use force on her.

Humein apne sab vachan yaad hain. Yeh bhi yaad hai ki aap hamare pati ban chuke hain -- Jalal smiles in wolfish satisfaction--- Lekin shaayad aap bhool rahe hain ki hum aapki patni bankar yahan aaye hain.Aur koyi bhi vachan ek patni ko daasi samajhne ka, uske saath bal prayog karne ka adhikaar kisi ko nahin deta hai. Hamare saptapadi ke vachan bhi aapko humein is prakar bhari sabha mein bulane ka adhikar nahin dete. Kisi bhi pati ke kiye, uske adhikaron se pehle, uski patni ka maan sammaan aana chahiye.

Whew! And she does all this with Jalal barely one foot away, leaning over her in a manner that would intimidate the most courageous of women. Atta girl, I said to myself, you deserve a standing ovation!👏



NB: As for Jalal, though he does not realise it at this point, this mini-bhashan from Jodha Begum is but a foretaste of all the far longer and far more sanctimonious bhashans to come during his married life wth her. Jalal ki to khair nahin, and he would do well to invest in a pair of good ear plugs!😉


🤣 🤣 🤣

To revert, it is to Jalal's credit that, despite being very angry with Jodha as he enters, he does not rage at her mindlessly but seeks to argue his case by reminding her of her marriage vows. Later, he accepts Jodha's lecture and admonition in good part, and does not try to bully her. This says much for his sense of fairness, even towards a woman against whom he harbours several grudges. This innate sense of justice bodes well for the rest of his reign.

Probably it was also a novel experience for him to have a woman conquering her obvious fear of him, and then arguing her case against him with all the coherent logic of a lawyer, and winning it too. That he does not resent it, as most men would have, but is moved to reluctant admiration, also says a lot about him as he is now, even without having had the benefit of Jodha's haivaan se insaan magic that we have been promised from Day 1!

But of course there is the male ego, and this one is an imperial ego. So, he gets back at her by commenting, approvingly, with a sneer in his eyes, on the all too evident fear in her eyes about what he might do next.

Yeh jo khauff hai aap ki nazaron mein humein lekar, ki ab kya hoga, hum kaise pesh aayenge, humein pasand hai.. Jodha closes her eyes and shudders.. Yeh khauff hamesha kayam rahe..

And while leaving, after reassuring her that she need fear no one and nothing as he is there to protect her from every danger, he adds, with a wolfish grin of malicious delight, Par humse aapko bachane ke liye - a deliberate pause, and then, with a wide smile, Koi nahin!


Uff ! Uff ! Uff !

Chicken con trick: This one was side splitting, that is if you were not Jodha.

Having felt obliged, as a dutiful wife (after some prompting from Moti) , to feed Jalal a chicken leg with her own hand - which he promptly holds firmly with his sound (!?!) one- not to speak of then washing his fingers afterwards and wiping them, Jodha emerges to find out that it was all a con trick, which Jalal makes sure she does not miss.

Rajat's Jalal was superb in his foxiness in this sequence: the veiled sideways glances at Mahaam Anga (for her to make sure that Jodha sits next to him on the dais), at the servants, and at Jodha herself, pointedly not seeking her help, by word or gesture, as he apparently struggles to pick up the chicken leg.

How come our Billu...sorry Jallu is chubby with this diet ? 😕 😕 😕

Then, out front, the deliberate brashness with which he cuts thru the fake bandage, and then hefts hisshamsheer with the practiced ease of an expert swordsman.

It is pure mischief, free of malice, of the kind a naughty boy would play, and Jalal obviously no longer holds her refusal of the previous evening against her. As he goes off, he is very pleased with himself, while Jodha must be promising herself that never again will she be so taken in.

Jalal is going to have his hands full handling not only affairs of state but, and far more difficult, his recalcitrant Begum, and her pocket edition, Mansingh, as well . One wishes him luck, for he is going to need it! It might be a rather far fetched comparison, but if one took this as a Tom and Jerry affair, no prizes for guessing who would be Tom !😉


Melodrama galore: The Shahi Shaadi series of episodes has been a great success so far, with each episode topping the previous one. This could obviously not continue indefinitely, and besides, Newton's law of gravity has it that what goes up must come down. He deduced it from a falling apple, and he surely never dreamt of applying it to TV serials, but it does work for them as well😉 .

So, I was waiting for these last couple of episodes to stumble, if not to fall outright, and sure enough, that is what happens with these two, with the melodrama content being upped and the dialogues becoming flat and banal, without a single, memorable punch line.


Jalal's OTT behavior: This does not end here. He then drinks himself into a state of mounting and self-reinforcing anger, dredging up every bitter memory of Jodha to deepen his resentment even further. When he sets off to get his inteqam, one assumes he is going to Jodha's room, and one shudders at the thought of what he might do in an alcoholic stupor.

Now We know why he is ...😉



Its Beer Belly ! 😆 😆 😆

Now, by all TV norms, the scene of him setting out for his inteqam should have been in a precap, with no hint as to its final shape and form. Then the audience coul d have agonized over the rest of the evening and the next day about Jodha's likely fate at the hands of Jalal the Jallad.

However this tempting scenario was not to be, though there was nail-biting suspense for quite a while thanks to Jodha's highly realistic and misleading nightmare - in which Jalal roars at her from six inches away: Inteqam lene aaye hain hum. Apni ruswaayi ka.. Tumhari naafarmaani ka.. Hamari tauheen ka.. Tumne hamari tauheen ki? HAMARI?? ( Jodha has clearly been taught Persian, for she is able to supply the correct words for Jalal even in a nightmare!😉)

Just a glimpse of Hunar ki mallika ! 😃

Jokes of the day: Hamida Banu Begum is as fixated on Jalal's (lost) dil as her new bahu used to be on Jalal ka sar, while for Ruqaiya it is his brain. The women in Jalal's life seem to have a curious obsession with his assorted body parts!😉

We too are obsessed ! 😳 😳 😳


Bye then, folks, till Sunday or Monday next!

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

WONDERFUL POST AUNTY !!!

TAKE CARE OF YOUR HEALTH !!!

Edited by harrybird - 9 years ago
sashashyam thumbnail
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Posted: 9 years ago
#9
My dear Donjas,

You simple-minded? Now this I have got to see! I cannot think of anyone here who is less simple-minded than you are!

Now for your spirited defence of Jodha. I can see that you and I are going to have a lot of fun arguing back and forth as we proceed, for I have not, as the later episodes came up, been at all kind to Jodha, who used to get on my nerves more and more as we moved along,

I shall try and respond to your points ad seriatim, and in blue. Let me see if I can carry conviction with you and others here!

Shyamala

Originally posted by: Donjas

Hi Shymala, I was a bit worried when your post did not come on Thursday, reassured to see it today. Hope you are feeling better. It was kind of you to be concerned about me. I have my good days and my bad days. Yesterday was very bad, so I did not even think of posting anything.


Normally I am as awed as all others by your fantastic posts and not able to respond till I have absorbed the material with deliberate slowness. But today I see an opening to argue, and so I will present my case. I present this in an exercise of intellectual discussion and not 'I am right, you are wrong' kind of games. So no hurt feelings, anyone. I do not want anyone, least of all you, to be awed by my posts, which are as open to discussion and correction as anyone else's. And there is no question of hurt feelings in an honest debate!

As you might have guessed, I strongly disagree with your assessment of Jodha. You are of course perfectly within your rights to do so, as I am to disagree with your disagreement!

Let us first look at the relative positions of our combatants, Jalal and Jodha. I concede that Jalal is in a stronger position because of his military victory over Amer, but the discerning Rajputs Kings would also have wondered why he was so keen on the alliance(let us leave the romantic angle aside for a moment). Not a single King in the 2000 years prior to Akbar managed the kind of pan India conquests, that he did and certainly never a Muslim King. By conquests, I mean holding on to the conquests too, not just winning. I recently watched a very interesting lecture, on the contrast of Turkic conquests in India and Turkey. In Turkey, the barbarian Turkic invaders from the Steppes, assimilated an entire population in Anatolia. In contrast, in India, the Turkic invaders remained just that, invaders and soon others replaced them. In India, they failed because they could not win over the people. This is precisely the point Jalal makes in the film, when he decides to accept the offer to marry Jodha.

If Jalal mistreats his Hindu wife and the Rajputs get to know of it, his grand scheme of a coalition with the Rajputs goes up in smoke and so does any dreams of a pan India empire. For Rajputs these things are of tremendous importance. Even with all the advantages of wealth and power, Aurangzeb is a good example of what happens when the local population goes against you.

But where does this come up, their relative power equations, that is, in a discussion of whether Jodha behaved as she should have or not? In fact Jodha has a major weapon against Jalal that is far more powerful than the indirect ones you have discussed above. Which is that deep down, Jalal wants her to care for him. Which is what I have discussed in the mirror image para.


O.K, after making my point that Jodha is not so powerless, let us get to other point. In none of the interactions with Jalal till now has Jodha discarded dignity. She was an epitome of dignity when Jalal was playing that ridiculous feeding chicken game(though admittedly very cute and enjoyable scene). His right hand was hurt, but what about his left hand. Do people who hurt one hand stop eating, and yet Jodha maintained dignity in the scene, though Jalal did not.

The chicken con trick was harmless mischief. Jalal was trying to con her into feeding him with her own hands, so why would he use the left hand? I do not see where the question of his maintaining his dignity comes up in what was a mischievous boy's trick. Nor have I said anywhere that Jodha was undignified there.

The next interaction of the two was at the Jashn. Agreed she was not showing great joy and was decidedly cold in her behavior, but so what. The harem is full of women, who did not come there by choice. Agreed that Jalal does not mistreat and they lead a well provided life in the harem, but does that mean they were smiling ear to ear, when they first came to the harem, and gave picture perfect smiling faces in front of the Emperor.

Jodha is one more sullen face, but so what, everyone in the audience must have seen a lot more.

No, no, Donjas, the harem being full of women who might not be happy with the Shahenshah does not enter into this at all. There might be any number of sulking faces in the harem, but those are not on public display. Jodha's face is.

The jashn is in honour of both Jodha and Jalal. Her very kind mother in law tells her how important an event it is, and how many important guests will be there. As one of the two guests of honour, and if only so as not to disappoint Hamida Bano Begum, it was incumbent on Jodha to at least look pleasant, show some appreciation of the music and so on. It is not expected of a well bred princess to look as cold and unpleasant as she does as soon as Jalal appears. It was childish (not childike) and undignified. If nothing else, she lets her saas down big time. Which is why Hamida leaves without coming anywhere near Jodha at the end, something that one would have expected her to do.


Another point that I want to stress strongly, ballads are not all about winning, they are also about valor and honour. Prithviraj Chauhan lost a decisive battle to Ghori, but ballads of his valorous deeds live on and inspire so many others down the ages.

There is not the least doubt about his. I have strong reservations against Prithviraj having let Ghori off the first time, in 1191, when he had defeated him. But no one can question Prithviraj Chauhan's bravery. But again, this does not have relevance to the present discussion.


In this specific case of Amer, I agree Rajput valor lost some of it's sheen, but even here they did not give in without a ferocious fight. They gave in only when the total destruction of Amer loomed, and even then in a marriage that Jalal participated in, with respect. So, should we in retrospect blame Rajput honour, for a situation where there was either mass suicide and death on one hand, or agreeing to a marriage alliance with Jalal. As I have already pointed out in a historical post, this was always a two way street for Akbar, he wanted two way marriage alliance with the Rajput kings, I.e Mughal princesses with Rajput kings too.

I did not see any ferocious fight at that battle. As soon as Suryabhan was killed, the 3 Amer princes crowded around him and let themselves be taken prisoner like sitting ducks, along with the rest of their army. There was no fight to the finish at all. \

And then I am not questioning Rajput valour per se, which would be ridiculous. I am only questioning how this tradition of valour is valid in this case, for Amer. It is not. So Jodha, as I noted, was singing in praise of a tradition which was not applicable to her own family. What Adham Khan says is no more than the truth. Which is why Kunwar Pratap, who does represent the Rajput tradition of unyielding valour in its pure form, condemns Bharmal out of hand.


In conclusion, I believe Jodha conducted herself with dignity in all her scenes, whereas Jalal discarded it in some instances. But since, Jalal is the Emperor, who cares. Besides I throughly enjoyed, Jalal the bad boy.

Jodha sulked like a schoolgirl at the jashn. Look, she is married to Jalal, like it or not. She is now going to spend the rest of her life in the harem. She has surely been trained all her life about the need for a wife to adjust to her husband's family. Jalal jaisa bhi ho, at least she has a wonderful mother in law, a rarity that she should be thankful for. Given all this, for her to behave as if she hated everything at the jashn, making it clear to all those present that she was there only under compulsion, was distinctly lacking in grace.

You have asked me what alternative scenario I would want for that scene. I would have liked Jodha to have fed Jalal that sweet normally and then retreated, without exchanging glances with him at all. She should have smiled occasionally when the performance was going on, to express her appreciation of it as a part of Mughal culture. She could have smiled at Hamida during the performance. That would have been enough to please her saas and would also have prevented any gossip among the guests about her marriage being a case of force majeure. Her retreating vis a vis Jalal would have been interpreted as shyness, nor displeasure, aur ghar ki baat ghar mein hi rehti!


I think for simple minded folk like me it will be better if you give detailed description of how you would have liked those scenes to play out.

Your wonderful description about the knife scene, and the chicken scene deserve a separate post.

Edited by sashashyam - 9 years ago
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Posted: 9 years ago
#10
Spot on, Adiana! That is exactly what I have said she needs, the finesse required for managing a man, any man, even Jalal.

Unfortunately, as the tale progresses, Jodha's lack of this very quality is touted as a great virtue, as she becomes more and more self-righteous. When any character is described as wo galat ho hi nahin sakti, that is the end of that character!😉

I agree with you completely about the need for a historical to conform to the norms of the period represented in this and other matters, and not import 21st century feminist ideas into a 16th century tale.

Shyamala

Originally posted by: adiana12

EK's Jodha is the epitome of confrontation when the requirement is for diplomacy (I won't say conciliation as that is not needed here). I do expect that when a tale that is set in a specific time- here the 16th century - the women especially the heroine is shown with the wisdom of the period. Jodha didn't have to be shown as a doormat - but with a combination of courage and common sense and the learning of managing a home and man learnt from the wise old women of her family - unfortunately EK's Jodha is a hollow doll, lacking the substance that characterizes such women.

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Install this web app on your iPhone for the best experience. It's easy, just tap and then "Add to Home Screen".