Jodha Akbar 65: Revelations - Page 2

Awesome post once again, Shyamala Aunty. 👏⭐️

YET ANOTHER AMAZING POST AUNTY. I REALLY LIKED IT. BUT I HAVE A QUESTION WHICH I AM HOPING YOU WILL ANSWER

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Folks,

Here is the second part of my marathon post, the analysis of Episode 65.

You will surely wonder: Why the plural, when there was only one Grand Revelation, that Maham Anga had dunnit? Oh, but you see, that is not the only one I shall be referring to. There were many other revelations in this episoder, major and minor, from the opening shot to the precap. Let us try and identify them all.

Maham Anga: Mistress of deception: That she was finally self-revealed to be the Dibbi Lady came not as a thunderclap, but as an anticlimax. In 2013, even I, who started out with her as the most likely suspect, was taken in by that conversation of hers with her Girl Friday Resham, and I switched to believing that it could not be Maham as she sounded so sincere there. But in hindsight, the matter is so very dangerous that she would never have trusted anyone else, no matter how close to her, with this incendiary truth, not Resham, and definitely not her uncontrollable, drunken braggart of a son.

Now, it is like those traditional English country house murder mysteries, where one starts out with the butler - the butler did it! - goes the round of suspects, and finally ends up with the selfsame butler!😉

But for me, this was not the real McCoy. That was the revelation of what could be called the Real Maham Anga. In a terrifying scene, she herself strips away every layer of her persona, one by one, to finally reveal a weak and helpless woman, crippled by her overweening love for her worthless son, and driven by the desire to prove, not to him, but to herself, and beyond all doubt, that he is the dearest to her in the whole world .

Hamara saaya bhi nahin jaanta ki haqeeqat kya hai, par yeh haqeeqat hai, Adham, ki duniya mein sabse zyada hum aapse mohabbat karte hain! Sabse zyada!!

To prove this to herself, she betrays everything she not just professes to hold dear, but what she does hold dear. Her affection for her foster son, her loyalty to the sultanat-e-mughaliya, her fealty to the royal family and to the Shahenshah.

Listening to her proclaim that not even her saaya knows the truth (in this, she resembles no one so much as the master thief Aryan in Dhoom 2), I was struck by the folly of my initial conclusion, based on her apparently candid conversation with Resham, that she had not done it.

For this is a dissembler par excellence, who can dissolve into real tears on cue, and berate Adham, her voice nearly suspended in deep distress, for even daring to think that she could have done it (Adham's expression as he leaves seems dubious and unconvinced, however, maybe he knows his mother too well to be convinced by all her nautanki😉) . No one else, listening to her then, could have failed to be convinced that she was innocent. I was so convinced, all over again.

A split personality: Then comes the unveiling of the truth. With it, there was something else that sets Maham and her crime apart from the common, garden variety of poisoners down the ages. It is as if she has a split personality, and that now, looking at herself in the mirror of her soul, she would like to forget that she had done it. As Alakh put it so well on my old thread, a part of her doesn't want to accept what she did, for she is always torn between Adham and Jalal.

It is true that Maham loves Adham more than Jalal, but it is probably also true that Jalal is the son she would have wanted to have had. Adham must, the blood tie apart, have always been a sad disappointment for her, but she loves him beyond reason still, and she cannot change that or let him go to his fate. This is her tragedy.

The wailing, the fresh tears in her solitude after Adham has left, the breast-beating, none of it was necessary. These are not for show, for there is no one there who needs to be hoodwinked. This is all for herself, for what she has lost for the sake of Adham.

Like Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray, who remains eternally pure and ageless and beautiful to behold, but whose portrait, kept hidden, shows every ugly wart and scar on his steadily rotting soul, Maham Anga sees her soul as black and ugly as that portrait, and she cannot stand it. That is her real punishment.

This revelation scene was so magisterial that I am still of two minds whether it was a tour de force on the part of the CVs, or just a serendipitous happening. It looked rather too intelligent even for the set who guide the destinies of our serial! 😉

A major reservation: I do not think a woman as intelligent as Maham Anga would believe that a daayima's son, without a drop of royal blood in him, could ever become the Shahenshah. She might have, in some early phase when Adham was being more difficult than usual, have held that out as a carrot for his reasonably good behaviour and then ended up with it like a millstone round her neck, but what she really thinks is what she tells him immediately after the Malwa encounter with Jalal, when she saves him by a whisker. That a sipahi like Jalal comes but once in centuries, and if Adham dared to stand up to him, he would blow Adham away in no time.

But her love for Adham, coupled with an ever present sense of guilt for having neglected him in his childhood, is so all-powering that it overrides both her intelligence and her commonsense.

Jalal: Admirable sensitivity: What revelation here, you might well ask. Patience, my gentle readers!

First, to those who feel that he was foolish to trust his Badiammi blindly and show her his trump card, the dibbi, I would only say No, that is not so.

For Jalal that very rare kind of king, a grateful one. At times grateful beyond what is called for, but that is a generous fault. He has had only 3 people in his life he could trust with that life, and Maham is one of them. I would think badly of him if he did not trust her till it becomes impossible.

Then it will be a crushing blow that will cripple him for a while. Remember how much it affected him when he thought that his new found trust in Jodha had been a bad mistake? How much harder would it be for him to learn that the loyalty and care of a lifetime had been corroded by baser emotions ?

But this is familiar ground. The real revelation about him last night concerned Salima. In the scene with her, Jalal (and Rajat) was throughout superbly subtle, magisterially manipulative, till he got at what he sought, the certitude that Salima was innocent as well. And then, he makes it up to her with such trusting candour, such delicacy, such admirable sensitivity for her feelings, that I was blown away. When he picks up her dupatta and drapes it round her, and assures her that for him she will always be his Khan Baba's amaanat, I was mentally standing up and applauding.

Only a man with a heart gentle enough, and perceptive enough, to feel what Salima feels then - and that would be a very rare sort of man - would have been able to do what he did to reassure and comfort her. This was a revelation.

As for what he promises himself - that he will never repeat the mistake he committed with Jodha, and will get at the real culprit - that was probably meant to be repeated to Jodha by Salima, and pretty soon at that.

Jodha: Unseemly behaviour: She is now revealing herself as a spoilt brat, with all the royal breeding, with its emphasis on total self-control under all circumstances, dignity and self-possession, that she presumably received in Amer , gone out of the nearest window of the palace at Agra the minute her patidev enters the scene. Instead, in the precap, she resembles no one so much as Scarlett O'Hara, deliberately smashing a vase at Jalal's feet. Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind throws a vase at Ashley Wilkes, so I suppose Jalal should be grateful for small mercies, that it was not hurled at his head!

It was exactly like the time when she burnt the shaadi ka joda. I don't know about you folks, but I do not appreciate this kind of fishwife like behaviour. She should be grateful that Jalal is not a Petruchio, for he, whether he was badly in the wrong or not, would have given such an impertinent wife the thrashing of her life😉.

When there was criticism of Jodha, at her last confrontation with Jalal, for her relentless outpouring of resentment and fury against him, especially the chale jayiye part, I did not agree with it. I felt she was justified in doing what she did, because she was then uncontrollably angry with him, and rightly so. It was not just what he had done in terms of accusing her and her brothers. It was more his subsequent treatment of her, literally going berserk, losing all his judgment and his sense of justice, and descending to emotional cruelty amounting to sadism.

But I would not say the same now. I did not like the smashing of the vase, and I did not like the high pitched sermon Jodha launches into immediately thereafter. Jalal deserved to be told off, not just once but many times. But this is not about him. It is about a princess, now a queen, who behaves like an ill-mannered virago, when she should have been cool, dignified, collected, and aloof, while still being as off putting as she wanted to be.

Besides, the whole scene is contemporary in its tone: no 16^th century queen would ever have dared to talk to the king as Jodha does to Jalal! Remember her father's admonition to Jodha before the tilak ceremony? Wo tumhare pati hai, aur unke nirnayon par sada unse sehmat rahna tumhara kartavya hai! It is rather the Ekta Kapoor version of nari shakti that is repeated in serial after serial.

Jodha-Jalal: Fatiguing confrontations: Jodha, when with Jalal, is beginning to sound monotonous. I am already bored stiff with the variations on their bitter confrontations of the last 2 weeks. Not even such a handsome pair can make that kind of stuff palatable!

As my last post would have shown, Paridhi had grown on me, both visually and in terms of her acting, and I had come to appreciate her a great deal in both these respects.

I cannot say the same of Jodha, who is, in many ways, a mirror image of Jalal, not his complementary other half. Both are arrogant , hot-headed, quarrelsome with each other, opinionated and prone to snap judgments while disregarding inconvenient facts, biased, tenacious in their prejudices that often cloud their good sense, and almost always convinced that they, and they alone, are in the right.

But of the two, Jalal is, despite being an autocratic monarch, more ready to admit his failings and mistakes, to himself and at times to others, to accept sound advice and act on it. Not so Jodha.

She routinely disregards her mother's advice, even in the most serious of situations, as when the shaadi ka joda arrives. She says whatever comes into her head when she is in a rage, and worse, she has no ability to judge a person or a situation objectively.

A provincial at heart: Plus Jodha has, strangely enough in a well educated princess, no perception of the pressures of ruling an empire, which Mansingh has even at such a young age.

It is also curious that she has no more understanding of sensitive matters of state than Motibai, and actually expects that she would be told who the real culprit is! It is left to Ruqaiya to give Jodha a lesson in confidentiality and affairs of state, along with a very sharp dressing down to this choti moti begum.Yeh siyaasi maamle hain, jinhein samajhne ki na hi aapki taab hai, aur jisme padne ki na hi aapko ijaazat!

Which, incidentally, Jodha swallows without attempting even a weak retort. Her fulminations are reserved for her patidev!

A dangerous blank cheque: Given all this, I was alarmed when Jodha's cheerleader-in-chief, Hamida Banu, stated, in the previous episode, that Jodha could do no wrong. For this will remove any remaining faint reservations our Amer ki mirchi might have had about the wisdom of her ways. Motibai has far more sense, common and otherwise, than Jodha!

It reminded me irresistibly of Archana in Pavitra Rishta, and her junior edition, Purvi (that is the only Ekta serial I watched for more than 2 months), both of whom brought disaster on all the men unlucky enough to fall for them, while swanning around with 24 carat haloes firmly in place.

In fact, I suspect the reason why the saas and the bahu here get along so well is that they are both convinced that they are faultless and always a pattern card for others, and so everything that goes wrong is inevitably someone else's fault. Usually Jalal's.

Thus Jodha never remembers the times when she insulted Jalal, nor that when she now claims that she and her family were accused and humiliated despite sakshya ka abhaav, she is being, what else, economical with the truth, given the whopper of a clue in the poisoned kesar. Again, not so Mansingh.

Similarly. Hamida Banu never remembers all the times when she was not there for her son when he needed emotional support, most recently when he had learnt that his child was no more. It was Maham who held him close then and comforted him. Where was Hamida all that while?

The Hamida-Jodha duo thus constitutes the perfect mutual admiration society. One that is, contrary to every hallowed canon of the saas-bahu code, directed against the son/husband!😉

But in contrast with the likes of the hapless Manav and Arjun, Jalal has one trump card. It is the ace of spades: History, where his place is secure. Not even Ekta can tamper with that to his disadvantage!

OK, so this is it for a week or so, my luck holding. Meanwhile, Jodha can smash that glass vase at Jalal's feet, then join the tafteesh brigade, and do a botched Miss Marple act with Rahim, Jalal, and Maham, in that order, while the tiger and the narnaal beckon from the distance in spoilers!

Enjoy the episodes, folks, and one fine day next week, you will find me among you all again. When that happens, I hope none of you will groan: Oh no, not so soon! 😉😉

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

I honestly feel jodha is right in her current behaviour - no human will accept someone falsely accusing them and their family of murder and arresting and humiliating them. I mean jalal was shouting in DEA he wants to burn jodha and her brothers alive. Burning was not a method of punishment then also, so how can he say that it was his hatred of jodha making him say that. So she is very right in her anger. Jalal even misbehaved with Salima- i mean is that how you behave with your khan baba's wife? No matter she is jalal wife but salima is 3-4 years elder to jalal, she is humayun's sisters daughter, she is Bairam Khan his khan baba his foster fathers wife. There is a limit in all these relations. Just because he married her he cannot go and behave as he behaved to find culprit. How could he even suspect Humayun's sisters daughter shall want to kill his baby to make Rahim, her step son and BKs son as emperor.

Dear Shyamala DI!
Very, very interesting!
I already wrote that when I was watch a show the first time, all my sympathies were only on the side Jodha. Even I had no idea that she might not be right. I do not because I'm from another century, another country - but my dad never put my life on the gaming table.
And Shyamala DI, when I was 20 years old, I'm afraid I wouldn't be pleasant to you. I was very quick-tempered. 😊 I'm from the south republic, we have a quick temper, irascibility (fervor) and very high notion of honor is part of the genetic code. 😉
My mommy always advised me too: "to be smarter, more restrained, to be higher." In 20 years - it is very difficult to perform.
I don't know how brought up Rajput Princess? Probably subject to all the restrictions for women? Where starts and ends tolerance Jodha? Yes, she treated Moti, as an equal. And with the others? If the Mughals were considered for development as barbarians (well, as the Athenians belonged to the Spartans)?
And Jodha got a real reason to hate during the attack on the temple. Her attitude towards Moguls got an excuse.
Now Jalal. Constantly repeating the words of the "code of honor and etiquette of Moguls," but it does not perform the etiquette towards the Jodha.
He didn't climb up a commoner,he was born in royal family, he also received a royal upbringing. But what we see? Physical violence (broken bracelets, bruises on the hands), psychological abuse, attempted rape?
In the scene before the arrival of the parents hamam there is no romance or eroticism (for me), or the fact that Jalal "is trying to show her, he was just a man." This special humiliation ("My maids has not finished me wash") and psychological violence. As a woman and as a Hindu Jodha has no rights in Agra and Jalal he can do everything. She should be on her knees only because he was her husband?
If Jodha and start a better attitude to Jalal, then the charges abortion destroyed little sympathy that appeared when she saw Jalal relationship to children.
Another thing is that You are right, Jodha doesn't do attempts to understand her husband. If he was a Rajput, she'd have to obey?! Jodha is very lucky that her husband was Jalal, and not Adham or Sharifuddin.
I agree with many of your words about Jodha, but I still can justify her. 😊
Because of what Jalal so rages? What he will do if Jodha came as a spy, and he'd suspected her? He would have not sent her a sword??
I apologize for the confusion, very tired after work.
Dear Shyamala DI! I wish you health and strength, and will look forward to your future reviews. 👏

Lavanya my dear,

I was checking my mail at a friend's place and I have to wind up quickly, so I will keep this short.

The reason why Jalal and Ruqaiya believe that dibbi maker's account lets Jodha and her brothers out is very simple. It was originally believed the they brought the dature ka ark from Amer. If so, they would have had their own containers for it, given by the pahunche hue hakim attached to the Amer royal family, as stated by the Khwaja when she is telling Jalal about the source of the ark. Without it , how would they have brought it to Agra?

They would thus not have needed to go looking for a dibbi in Agra.

Secondly, they would not have known about this kaarigar in Agra. How could they? It needed expert local knowledge.

Thirdly, by no stretch of the imagination could anyone have imagined Jodha stealing out of the palace at the dead of the night in a burqa, well equpped with asharfis to pay for the dibbi. Even less any of the Amer quartet!

I could say more, but this suffices, methinks!

I am very pleased that you enjoyed this one. Still, I begin to think that this is a pointless exercise, rehashing all these old episodes, without any of the fun of speculation that one had the first time around. I don't know about you, but I am beginning to get bored of it already.

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: Sabdabhala

YET ANOTHER AMAZING POST AUNTY. I REALLY LIKED IT. BUT I HAVE A QUESTION WHICH I AM HOPING YOU WILL ANSWER

WHILE WRITING MY RESPONSE TO YOUR POST REGARDING THE MISCARRIAGE AND ITS AFTERMATH, I HAD PUT FORTH A VIEW THAT JALAL, WHO HAD STARTED LIKING AND ADMIRING JODHA AND HER HUNARS, HAD FELT BETRAYED BY JODHA WHEN IT WAS MADE CLEAR TO HIM THAT THE DHATURE KA ARK IN THE KESAR WAS THE CAUSE OF THE DELIBERATE MISCARRIAGE. IN THE HEAT OF THE MOMENT HE BELIEVED COMPLETELY IN THE FACT THAT JODHA AND HER BROTHERS WERE GUILTY. HE REFUSED TO GIVE THE AMERIS A CHANCE TO EVEN ARGUE THEIR CASE (NOT THAT IT WOULD HAVE DONE ANY GOOD) THERE WAS NO TRIAL AND HE PRONOUNCED THEM GUILTY. HE WAS ONLY TOO WILLING TO HAVE THEM EXECUTED IMMEDIATELY, BIT DUE TO HAMIDA'S AND THE QAAZI'S INTERVENTION, HE GAVE THEM 10 DAYS TIME AND PUT THEM UNDER HOUSE ARREST. AND THIS TIME PERIOD WAS FOR THEM TO PROVE THEMSELVES INNOCENT, WHILE BEING UNDER ARREST, AND NOT FOR HIM TO TRY AND FIND AN ALTERNATIVE.

MY QUESTION IS WHY DOES THE PRESENCE OF THE DIBBI ALTER THE CASE SO MUCH THAT NOW BOTH RUKKAIAH AND JALAL ARE CONVINCED OF JODHA BEING BLAMELESS?

YES THAT KAARIGAR HAD SPECIALLY SOUHT A MEETING AND HE HAD MENTIONED TO RUKKAIAH THAT SOMEONE HAD BOUGHT A DIBBI FROM HIM. DOES HIS COMING OVER AND GIVING THIS INFO HOLD SO MUCH VALUE?

YES THAT DIBBI COULD STORE SPECIAL LIQUIDS WITHOUT LETTING THEM BECOME SPOILT FOR SEVERAL DAYS

YES WHEN HAKIMA SMELT THE DIBBI IN SALIMA'S DRAWERS, IT REEKED OF THE DHATURE KA ARK

BUT WHEN THE AMERIS WERE BELIEVED TO BE CRUEL ENOUGH TO POISON AN UNBORN INFANT, THEN WHY COULD THEY NOT HAVE BOUGHT THAT VERY DIBBI TO STORE THE ARK?

OR WHY COULD THEY NOT HAVE TRANSFERRED THE ARK TO THAT DIBBI AND ASKED SOMEONE TO PLACE IT ELSEWHERE?

OR WHY IS IT SUDDENLY ASSUMED THAT SINCE THE DIBBI WAS FOUND SOMEWHERE ELSE THEY ARE ALL INNOCENT?

I AM REALLY MISSING SOMETHING HERE.

SINCE BHAGWAN DAS SAVED JALAL'S LIFE, DOES IT AUTOMATICALLY MEAN THAT HE CANNOT BE A CONSPIRATOR IN THE KILLING?

I THINK ASWINEE GAVE A BRILLIANT PERFORMANCE IN HER SELF REVELATION. AND EVEN THOUGH SHE RUBBISHED ADHAM'S CLAIM OF HER GUILT, THERE WAS A DISTINCT LOOK IN ADHAM'S EYES WHICH REVEALED THAT HE DOES NOT BELIEVE HER. I THINK A PART OF HIM REALLY WANTED TO BELIEVE THAT SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRIME AND THAT SHE HAD DONE IT FOR HIM AND HIM ALONE. BECAUSE THAT WOULD MEAN THAT SHE HAD ACTUALLY FORSAKEN JALAL FOR HIM. EVEN WITH A SMALLISH SCENE, CHETAN WAS QUITE CONVINCING TOO.

JALAL AND SALIMA SCENE WAS BRILLAINT, MOSTLY DUE TO RAJAT. BUT I WAS QUITE SURPRISED WITH THE LINE OF QUESTIONS THAT JALAL WAS POSING TO SALIMA. MY OPINION IS THAT FOR JALAL, THERE WAS A DUAL TEST FOR SALIMA. THE TEST OF HOW SHE REACTS TO THE DIBBI, AND TO SEE HOW SHE REACTS TO HIS ORDER OF SPENDING THE NIGHT WITH HER. WITH HIS MEMORY THAT KHAN BABA WAS IN LOVE WITH HER TILL DEEWANGI KI HADH, HE WANTED TO SEE HOW SHE WOULD REACT WHEN CONFRONTED BY HER NEW SHAUHAR, AND THAT TOO WHEN HE REMINDS HER OF HER RESPONSIBILITIES AND HIS HAQ. IT WAS ALMOST LIKE HER SEEMING OBLIVION TO THE DIBBI AND ITS CONTENTS WAS ALMOST AS IMPORTANT AS HAVING HER MOHABBAT FOR KHAN BABA INTACT.

BUT THE OVERALL VISUAL APPEAL OF THE SCENE WAS JUST TOO GOOD. RAJAT WAS JUST TOO BRILLIANT

JODHA RUKKAIAH SCENE WAS AS UNNECESSARY AS IT WAS PREDICTABLE. NOW THAT RUKKAIAH BELIEVES IN JODHA'S INNOCENCE, SHE IS BACK TO HER OLD WAYS - BELITTLING JODHA AS A CHHOTI MOTI BEGUM, WARNING JODHA TO STEER CLEAR OF JALAL AND DRILLING INTO HER THAT SHE, AND ONLY SHE, HAS TOTAL AND COMPLETE HOLD ON HIS DIMAAG. YOU HAVE RIGHTLY POINTED OUT THAT JODHA NEVER CHOOSES TO RESPOND TO RUKKAIAH'S INSULTS. ALL BARBS ARE JUST MEANT FOR POOR JALAL. BUT RHEN AGAIN, SHE DOES NOT DESPISE RUKKAIAH, CERTAINLY NOT AS MUCH AS SHE DESPISES JALAL. AND ALSO, HER VISITS TO RUKKAIAH ARE FOR A SPECIFIC PURPOSE. LIKE LAST TIME SHE HAD GONE THERE RO GIVE HER BADHAAI FOR THE BABY, ANS THIS TIME SHE HAD GONE THERE TO THANK HER AND TO FIND OUT THE REAL CULPRIT. AND WHATEVER WE KNOW OF JODHA, SHE DOES NOT LET SMALL INCIDENTS LIKE INSULTS COME IN THE WAY OF HER PURPOSES 😆

WELL THATS IT FROM ME. HOPE YOU ARE FEELING BETTER. AND ALSO HOPE THAT YOUR LAPPIE IS BACK SOON

I was checking my mail at a friend's place, and I do not have too much time, but I wanted to reply to this one, even if only in brief. My comments are in blue italics.

Shyamala

Originally posted by: myviewprem

Maham Anga: Mistress of deception:

Maham anga is the lady macbeth or the lady aurangzeb closer home. She is deception personified. Everyone has gone blinders on her except to some extent Jodha, Ruqaiah and adham khan. Bairam Khan recognized her so well balaiyan leke zeher kilane wali aurat he called her. Maham is more dangerous than BK or anyone can think off. In world you must be careful of the extra nice people in life and not once who get angry, shout etc. Psychopaths have the personality that Maham has. I refuse to believe Maham loves Jalal at all. For her Jalal is her ego booster, her own son does not respect her and doubts her love. But Jalal her foster son loves her unconditional and does not doubt her. So Jalal is her ego buster the truimph card to fulfill all her ambitions. She has kept a stranglehold on Jalal reminding him that he drank her milk and saved him from top of fort in kabul.

Hamara saaya bhi nahin jaanta ki haqeeqat kya hai, par yeh haqeeqat hai, Adham, ki duniya mein sabse zyada hum aapse mohabbat karte hain! Sabse zyada!!

What truly has happened is this Maham in order to be the person the only important person in Akbars life has ignored Adham and her duties as his mother. She has not brought him up with correct values and love. So adham is insecure that maham does not love her and wants her to prove it by ensuring jalal and his heir does not live happily or live at all. Maham has taken her act of loving jalal in front of jalal and the world too far and now cannot suddenly return back or change to her true self. She is caught between the actual v/s the virtual. Virtual has become real now but in her mind that is not the real, only she knows it not adham not jalal not anyone. She is the crocodile stting on bank shore shedding tears to attract prey to it.

I do not believe adham is a worthless man or son - he is a great warrior and does work wise fine, he has anger issues but that stems out of his deep hatred of feeling neglected by his mother. Also maham herself has always compared adham to jalal in every sentence. When that happens a child unconciously wants to become like the other child do he gets love from parent(mother). That is where adhams ambition to become emperor stems from. Maham has always said look at jalal the better son and that has fueled this anger and hatred in adham. What adham does not know is that his mother is acting in front of him and world saying jalal is my son i love him and backside she is going around killing his progeny(and also attempted on akbars life in history when he was 17yrs). Which mother or even a maid will go around killing their son(owner) child? when they profess love to the foster son(emperor). So it goes on to prove maham never loved jalal she was using him as ladder to climb up in society to gain power and status. She herself harbours the desire to be Marium Makhani or Marium uz Zamani by making adham the emperor hence she is killing akbars kids right and left. Her behaviour is of a psycho path. If you read the story of serial killers their character is very similar to a Maham anga all good all great outside but deadly to potential threats and enemies or their preys.

Look, Adham may be a great warrior, but he is also a very brutal thug and a conscienceless killer. One cannot, like modern psychiatrists, attribute his thuggishness and the rest to his feelings of neglect as a child; it is all in his genes.

As for your very interesting psychoanalysis of Maham, I would agree with large parts of it. Again, provided we are talking of THIS Maham, not of the one who allegedly had an attempt made on Jalal's life when he was 17, so that bit does not enter into this analysis at all.

A split personality:

It is true that Maham loves Adham more than Jalal, but it is probably also true that Jalal is the son she would have wanted to have had.

Its like Maham wishing a fruit from a cactus. A cactus can only give thrones not a fruit. Maham is that cactus that has confused her son with her act of loving jalal and her nature has rubbed off on adham. But adham is not as dangerous as maham as he reveals his inner self to all openly, you can see his anger and hatred on his face. Jalal knows adham does not like him or love him and he also knows the reason but he cannot really do anything about it. Jalal knows that adham is hot headed. Jalal is cautious of adham although he may not show it outside.

Jodha-Jalal: Fatiguing confrontations:

I cannot say the same of Jodha, who is, in many ways, a mirror image of Jalal, not his complementary other half. Both are arrogant , hot-headed, quarrelsome with each other, opinionated and prone to snap judgments while disregarding inconvenient facts, biased, tenacious in their prejudices that often cloud their good sense, and almost always convinced that they, and they alone, are in the right.

But of the two, Jalal is, despite being an autocratic monarch, more ready to admit his failings and mistakes, to himself and at times to others, to accept sound advice and act on it. Not so Jodha.

There is a lot of difference in jodha and jalal

Jalal s a king and has seen tough life, he is more practical, he sometimes bends to please others, if his sorry makes someone happy he bends down if he loves them or if he knows he is wrong. Look at how he said sorry to that child whose mother had become a slave, he said sorry to jodha many times, to ruqaiah etc he was not wrong always yet he said sorry so if he is wrong or he loves someone he says sorry even if he is not wrong. That is difference between jalal and jodha.

But what you are saying here is exactly the same as what I have noted @ blue bold above!

I honestly feel jodha is right in her current behaviour - no human will accept someone falsely accusing them and their family of murder and arresting and humiliating them. I mean jalal was shouting in DEA he wants to burn jodha and her brothers alive. Burning was not a method of punishment then also, so how can he say that it was his hatred of jodha making him say that. So she is very right in her anger.

Jalal even misbehaved with Salima- i mean is that how you behave with your khan baba's wife? No matter she is jalal wife but salima is 3-4 years elder to jalal, she is humayun's sisters daughter, she is Bairam Khan his khan baba his foster fathers wife. There is a limit in all these relations. Just because he married her he cannot go and behave as he behaved to find culprit. How could he even suspect Humayun's sisters daughter shall want to kill his baby to make Rahim, her step son and BKs son as emperor.

I am afraid I do not see where any of these points is relevant here.

What if Salima is a bit older than Jalal is, and what if she is his phuphi's daughter? Ruqaiya is his chacha's daughter, and she is his wife too! Yes, the point about her having been his Khan Baba's wife could be a mental reservation, but it hardly some sort of cast iron barrier to their having perfectly legal marital relations if both are ok with it.

After all, Salima did agree to marry Jalal, did she not? And surely he did not give her some sort of written agreement that he would not touch her, like that apocrypal zubaan of his to Jodha? 😉

And as for the last point, when Humayun's brother could want to kill Jalal, why could his sister's daughter not plot on these lines?

My dear Zhanna,

I have to be very brief, for I am at a friend's place checking my mail. So, do bear with me if I sound abrupt and impatient.

Look, unlike Jodha as shown here,when one is watching a historical, one has to have the imagination to put oneself in that day and age and judge the actions of the characters in that light. One cannot judge this Jodha by the standards of the 21st century. You should try and read up a bit about Rajput traditions and what was expected then of Rajput royal women. Or else you can watch the early episodes of Maharana Pratap online, which will give you a very good idea of the real thing. NOT Jodha Akbar!

Ok, for the rest.

When Jalal breaks Jodha's bangles, he is drunk and very angry. If he had been the brute she thinks he is he would have beaten her black and blue. And this even if he had been a Rajput husband.

In the hamaam, he is flirting with her. I do not at all agree with your interpretation of that delightful scene. Nor would 99% of the others here.

As for your attempted rape, I have NO idea what you are talking about. There was NO such thing anywhere in the whole show, and certainly not in the bangle breaking scene.

Finally, if Jodha had come as a Rajput spy, Jalal would have executed her on the spot, and rightly so. Exactly like Bharmal wants to do to Abdul. Her being a queen would have made it far worse. And Maharana Udai Singh of Mewar would have done exactly the same in a similar situation. He sentences his favorite queen to indefinite solitary confinement for a foolish mistake of hers that could have endangered the security of Mewar and his own life.

Shyamala Di

Originally posted by: alffim

Dear Shyamala DI!
Very, very interesting!
I already wrote that when I was watch a show the first time, all my sympathies were only on the side Jodha. Even I had no idea that she might not be right. I do not because I'm from another century, another country - but my dad never put my life on the gaming table.
And Shyamala DI, when I was 20 years old, I'm afraid I wouldn't be pleasant to you. I was very quick-tempered. 😊 I'm from the south republic, we have a quick temper, irascibility (fervor) and very high notion of honor is part of the genetic code. 😉
My mommy always advised me too: "to be smarter, more restrained, to be higher." In 20 years - it is very difficult to perform.
I don't know how brought up Rajput Princess? Probably subject to all the restrictions for women? Where starts and ends tolerance Jodha? Yes, she treated Moti, as an equal. And with the others? If the Mughals were considered for development as barbarians (well, as the Athenians belonged to the Spartans)?
And Jodha got a real reason to hate during the attack on the temple. Her attitude towards Moguls got an excuse.
Now Jalal. Constantly repeating the words of the "code of honor and etiquette of Moguls," but it does not perform the etiquette towards the Jodha.
He didn't climb up a commoner,he was born in royal family, he also received a royal upbringing. But what we see? Physical violence (broken bracelets, bruises on the hands), psychological abuse, attempted rape?
In the scene before the arrival of the parents hamam there is no romance or eroticism (for me), or the fact that Jalal "is trying to show her, he was just a man." This special humiliation ("My maids has not finished me wash") and psychological violence. As a woman and as a Hindu Jodha has no rights in Agra and Jalal he can do everything. She should be on her knees only because he was her husband?
If Jodha and start a better attitude to Jalal, then the charges abortion destroyed little sympathy that appeared when she saw Jalal relationship to children.
Another thing is that You are right, Jodha doesn't do attempts to understand her husband. If he was a Rajput, she'd have to obey?! Jodha is very lucky that her husband was Jalal, and not Adham or Sharifuddin.
I agree with many of your words about Jodha, but I still can justify her. 😊
Because of what Jalal so rages? What he will do if Jodha came as a spy, and he'd suspected her? He would have not sent her a sword??
I apologize for the confusion, very tired after work.
Dear Shyamala DI! I wish you health and strength, and will look forward to your future reviews. 👏

I hope I find you in this festive season in good spirits. I also hope that the pain is under control and medication and yoga is being effective.

Originally posted by: alffim

Dear Shyamala DI!
Very, very interesting!
I already wrote that when I was watch a show the first time, all my sympathies were only on the side Jodha. Even I had no idea that she might not be right. I do not because I'm from another century, another country - but my dad never put my life on the gaming table.
And Shyamala DI, when I was 20 years old, I'm afraid I wouldn't be pleasant to you. I was very quick-tempered. 😊 I'm from the south republic, we have a quick temper, irascibility (fervor) and very high notion of honor is part of the genetic code. 😉
My mommy always advised me too: "to be smarter, more restrained, to be higher." In 20 years - it is very difficult to perform.
I don't know how brought up Rajput Princess? Probably subject to all the restrictions for women? Where starts and ends tolerance Jodha? Yes, she treated Moti, as an equal. And with the others? If the Mughals were considered for development as barbarians (well, as the Athenians belonged to the Spartans)?
And Jodha got a real reason to hate during the attack on the temple. Her attitude towards Moguls got an excuse.
Now Jalal. Constantly repeating the words of the "code of honor and etiquette of Moguls," but it does not perform the etiquette towards the Jodha.
He didn't climb up a commoner,he was born in royal family, he also received a royal upbringing. But what we see? Physical violence (broken bracelets, bruises on the hands), psychological abuse, attempted rape?
In the scene before the arrival of the parents hamam there is no romance or eroticism (for me), or the fact that Jalal "is trying to show her, he was just a man." This special humiliation ("My maids has not finished me wash") and psychological violence. As a woman and as a Hindu Jodha has no rights in Agra and Jalal he can do everything. She should be on her knees only because he was her husband?
If Jodha and start a better attitude to Jalal, then the charges abortion destroyed little sympathy that appeared when she saw Jalal relationship to children.
Another thing is that You are right, Jodha doesn't do attempts to understand her husband. If he was a Rajput, she'd have to obey?! Jodha is very lucky that her husband was Jalal, and not Adham or Sharifuddin.
I agree with many of your words about Jodha, but I still can justify her. 😊
Because of what Jalal so rages? What he will do if Jodha came as a spy, and he'd suspected her? He would have not sent her a sword??
I apologize for the confusion, very tired after work.
Dear Shyamala DI! I wish you health and strength, and will look forward to your future reviews. 👏