I am glad you liked this one. My responses to your comments are given in blue italics.
Shyamala
Originally posted by: fanjarajat
Folks,
The title is from a Swedish term for a buffet, or a spread of various hors d'oeuvres, but nothing substantial. It was a perfect fit for what was dished out to us from Monday to Wednesday last. There were various bits and pieces, but no standout scenes, no telling lines, nothing that was very impressive in any way.
And in fact a good bit that was tiresome and irritating, beginning with the time-honoured device beloved of soaps, of hiding something from one's near and dear ones. But let us get started with Episode 43.
Episode 43: Spice-crossed!
Why such a lack of concern? : I was also taken aback by Jodha's totally ignoring the hurt Jalal has suffered, not offering at least a sliver of sympathy, and not insisting on the incident be investigated at once by him. Or even rushing back to taste the uneaten food on his plate or in the kitchen (Maham could hardly have made both of these vanish so soon!)Because she hates everything about him. I can perhaps understand when ur vision is colored you see all red. A mature person perhaps does not but not our Jodha
I do not think this is the reason. She is blinkered, and does not even notice that even after she has entered the room, he is downing a whole jugful of water. That alone should have made her realise that something is really wrong. But Jodha, who does not even look at Jalal when he is eating, not even out of curiosity, will not see anything she does not want to see.
The way she behaves, harping on what she would not do while her parents were in Agra, would, even in an unconcerned bystander, only reinforce the conviction that she-dun-it.
It all goes to prove that if there is one thing Begum Jodha does not have, it is sound practical sense, plus some understanding even of 'the other', her interlocutor, and why he behaves this way.
If Jodha had, immediately after issuing a firm and unequivocal denial instead of such a roundabout one, rushed to Jalal's side and done something to ease the burning, not out of fear but out of sheer compassion, only would her character have gone up several notches and become truly admirable, but the show would have been cut short, at a rough estimate,by 200 episodes.
True!
Both would have manna from Heaven for us, especially the latter😉, for we would then not have had to endure 200 episodes or more of yo yoing till the amar premis finally come round to hanging on each other's neck instead of seeking to get hold of it and squeezing hard, real hard!👏Jodha is a perfect Scarlett O'Hara to Jalal's Rhett Butler, and their interactions have the same sharp edge, and the same, unfailing ability to get the other's back up, and to maul whatever it is that is budding between them. The only difference is that here, unlike the muted tragedy of Gone with the Wind, not even Ekta Kapoor can change the happy ending!
I wish they had kept up her fiery image with others too whenever her pride was called upon but no her anger was only for Jalal ka sar..exactly how we are angels with hterest of the world and our dear hubby's get to see both Jekyyl and Hide.
Yeah Ekta Kapoor cannot keep Scarlett true to the novel. Have not seen much of Ekta, but based on what's written here she is a Feminist and Nari ki Mahantaa rolled into one. 😆
You ain't seen nothing yet! Wait till you watch apni Jodha stand up when Maham comes into her rooms without so much as a by your leave, shooes away Jodha's servants without Jodha's permission, and then delivers one of the most vicious tirades I have seen Maham address to anyone. Jodha does not utter a single retort, or boot the old witch out of her rooms. Instead she ask her why she is giving her, Jodha, so much peedha! 😡
Thought for the day: It seems to be generally felt that by conferring the 5000 level Mansabdarion Bharmal, Jalal has gained a substantial politico-military advantage, by co-opting the Ameris to fight for the Mughals instead of against them. This might well be true for the long term vis a vis the Rajputs, for after all Akbar reigned for all of 49 years. But right now, seeing the way the Amer forces, reinforced by Suryabhan's troops, fared against Sharifuddin (and this one the open battlefield, without any access for the Mughal forces, courtesy Sujamal, to the secret passages into the Amer fort), it seems likely Jalal will be paying out 30000 asharfis a month for less than dependable military support!
NB: What follows is not relevant to this post, but is my take on the above question: whether Jalal had gained a lot when he gave the paanch hazari Mansabdari to Raja Bharmal, and whether Bharmal had lost a lot by accepting it. This is from my response to a question posed to me in 2013, when I was analyzing this episode for the first time. It is reproduced below for those who might be interested in these politico-military aspects. The others can heave a sigh of relief at this point, and move on to the next episode!
"I do not see how and why Jalal can be said to be devilish in this context. He is astute and wily, that is all. So were all the emperors of India, beginning from Chandragupta Maurya, and elsewhere as well; it was dangerous to get in their way. Nobility has never had much to do with the needs of an empire, not even under Marcus Aurelius.
As for what Jalal gained from giving Bharmal the Mansabdari, it should not be overestimated, for one has to take into account that getting Amer on his side does not solve the problem of Rajputana for Jalal, far from it.
Amer is a minor kingdom, as Maham Anga points out, and as Dadisa notes, it is surrounded by bigger, more powerful kingdoms who covet it and might have conquered it at any time. These kingdoms have not as yet been coopted by Agra, not to speak of the ferociously independent Mewar of Maharana Udai Singh and his successor, Maharana Pratap.
So Jalal does not gain very much from the alliance with Amer, except for starting off a trend, both of the roti-beti ka rishta with the Mughals, which was soon extended to Jodhpur, Jaipur and many others, both for Akbar and for Salim, and of the politico-military alliance with the Mughals which made the Rajputs fight Akbar's battles for him in the farflung corners of the empire.
In fact, Amer's biggest contribution to the Mughal Empire was Mansingh, who was a pillar of strength and loyalty for Akbar right till the end.
Nor does Amer lose anything except some nominal independence, and as the Dadisa points out, that might have been lost at any time to one of its predatory Rajput neighbours.Now Amer is safe from all of them, and Bharmal can sleep in peace.
In fact it is Jalal who should be concerned, for when he sends Bharmal or his sons into battle against other Rajputs, the odds are that they will all be taken hostage again, only this time it is Jalal who will have to pay their ransom or go to war to liberate them!Again, when it is said that that Jalal had extracted a much higher price from Bharmal than he would have paid had Jalal just conquered his land by force, one has to take into account that if Sharifuddin or Adham Khan had been left to wage a mukammal jung against Amer, there would not have been much left of Amer to salvage. So the kind of security Bharmal gained, from the Mughals as well as from his covetous Rajput neighbours, was not to be sneezed at!
Sending a Daughter Away to an untrustworthy Sasural has its own PAIN that cannot be put a value on.Yes, but in those days, daughters in royal families were a dispensable commodity, to be bartered away in political alliances. They then became parayi in every sense of the term. There was no consideration given to how a daughter would fare in her new home; it was her business to adjust to the set up there.
Here it is an alien set up, but even in a Rajput alliance, the sasural could sometimes be very unpleasant, and there was no point in the daughter complaining about that to her parents. For one thing, no mother would have been welcomed by a true blue saas, who would, unlike Hamida Bano, have asked her, ironically, if she thought her daughter was not being treated well.
Jalal pays an high price for the Amer alliance as it is an icebreaker with the Rajputs, like the first strawberries of the season, which are always expensive. Plus of course he wants Jodha.
There was nothing underhand about it, and he kept his end of all his bargains all his life, and so did Jahangir. So in a way it was win-win, or else it would never have lasted so long".
Now on to Episode 44
Episode 44: Round and round the mulberry bush!
...
But the real heart (no, not dil!) of the episode lies not in these OTT passages, but elsewhere.Jodha ke zeher ki aadat dal rahe hain: It was there when Jalal picked up a green mirchi from a bowl full of them (what on earth for? This is Mughal Agra, not Bangkok, where such a bowlful isde rigueur for Thai guests) and bit into it, to the consternation of Ruqaiya. And he relates the story of the emperor who was made immune to poison by being fed a little of it every day from his childhood, so that, ek waqt aisa aaya jab uske jism par kisi bhi tarah ke zeher ka koyi asar nahin hua.
I wondered why she does have those Mirchi's in her Hojra. To punish Hoshiyar maybe.😳😉
Now that is an imaginative solution to the question I had posed!😉
He then ends with Aadat daal raha hoon...Jodha ke zeher ki aadat daal raha hoon, and the sudden bitterness in his voice sears the screen.
My thoughts went back to that other scene in one of the very early episodes, where Jalal, meeting his mother Hamida Banu, reveals how deep is his sense of being abandoned by her as a baby, and the corrosive bitterness that has never left him for the whole of his life.
And I realized anew how right Sangeeta (smiletherapy) was when she wrote on my old thread for the last episode:
"I think also the spice thing further enrages Jalal as it opens up that wound of abandonment/not being cared for, because after all food is nourishment and a source of comfort. That he wanted her to feed him, I think on a deeper level, he wants her to care about him; and feeding someone is one way to do that. So, that he thinks she mirched it up is not just an insult for him, but another rejection. "
This is a wound that runs deep and festers, unknown even to him. But the chilli incident rubs it raw again. What he hears Jodha say to Motibai (as she assumes, though it is Jalal standing there) rubs it even rawer.
Somewhere you wrote that what he wants is not to own her physically or legally but want to want him is I think an apt anaylysis.
...That is it, folks. I am fagged out. Alvida till next Monday, my hands willing!
Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di
A fun read indeed, better than the episodes.More of a book reader than watcher. But I am a JA fan, not other serial has ever held my interest and IF and its extremely talented writers.
Thank you!
Hindi TV Shows
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
29