Jodha Akbar 76-78: Clarity and confusion - Page 5

A Freudian explanation: Secondly, what does one make of Jodha's near obsession with the physical side of marriage? And for no reason that one can think of? A psychologist would have an unpleasant explanation for such a young girl's fixation with , as Kamal put it on my 2013 thread, her patidev's supposed carnal desires. So great is this fixation that she can apparently think of nothing else all the time after they left Agra. It was unbelievable, and the way she carried on, not only with Jalal but with the daasis, made me feel downright queasy.

So it seems I was in the same boat all along, only I had forgotten about it! I plan to use this para in my next post. And of course I await your take on this with bated breath!😉

Shyamala Aunty

Originally posted by: ---Khushi---

Shyamala Aunty...🤗...I'm back🥳

Will soon be back with my views on these last few epis...with Adi's Freudian theory about Miss Always Right being obsessed with Mr Always Wrong proving so very right 😉😆

Originally posted by: Sabdabhala

HI SHYAMALA AUNTY. THANKS FOR YET ANOTHER AMAZING POST. IT IS PERFECT IN ALL RESPECTS, AS USUAL. EACH AND EVERY SCENE HAS BEEN ANALYSED COMPLETELY.

HAVING READ THROUGH SOME COMMENTS ON THE POST, I AM INCLINED TO MAKE THE FOLLOWING POINTS -

I WAS QUITE DISAPPOINTED WITH JALAL AFTER WATCHING THE SUICIDE. THE ONLY POINT HE CAME UP WITH WAS - AAPNE HAMARE SEENE MEIN WO TALWAAR RAKHI THHI, HUM USKA BADLA LENA CHAHTE THHE AAPSE - FOR ME, THIS JUST WASNT REASON ENOUGH FOR THE CONTEMPT AND HATRED THAT HE FELT FOR HER

He does not feel either contempt or hatred for her at this point. This is all a sham. That is why I had called the section in my this post about all this "The same old spiel". I am surprised that you seem to be swallowing his shams wholesale. Surely his conversation with Maham later, that I had covered in detail in The Matters of the Heart, shows this?

FROM THE INITIAL EPISODES, JODHA'S RANTS ABOUT JALAL KA SAR, DROVE US ALL INSANE. HER OBSESSION AND DESIRE FOR IT AND HER SEEMING PRECONDITION THAT EVERY SUITOR OF HERS WOULD GET THAT COVETED PRIZE FOR HER WAS ALMOST FUNNY, COMBINED WITH HER TOTAL NEGLIGENCE OF HIS POWER AND STRENGTH.

BUT IN HER ROLE OF AMER KI BETI, IT WAS NOT AN IMPOSSIBLE THOUGHT. SHARIFFUDDIN'S ATTACK ON AMER, HIS SENDING SURYABHAN'S KATA SAR, JALAL'S FORAY INTO AMER INCOGNITO, HIS ACT OF PILING UP DEAD SOLDIERS IN THE EFFORT TO SAVE ABDUL, JODHA HERSELF VIEWING THE TEMPLE LOOTING INCIDENT, APPARENTLY DONE ON THE ORDER OF SHAHENSHAH JALAL, ALL THESE LEAD ME TO BELIEVE THAT, IGNORANT AND FOOLISH THAT SHE MIGHT BE, BUT JODHA'S FEELINGS OF HATE FOR JALAL WERE NOT MISPALCED AT ALL. TO A LARGE EXTENT, SHE HAD A RIGHT TO THEM. AND HENCE, HER IDEA THAT SHE WOULD JUST AVOID JALAL AND TRY AND SPEND HER TIME AS PEACEFULLY AS POSSIBLE, SEEMS QUITE PLAUSIBLE TO ME.

YOU HAVE SAID IN ONE OF YOUR REPLIES THAT WHY WOULD JALAL LIKE TO KEEP AN UNWILLING WIFE IN THIS HAREM AT ALL. THATS TRUE. BUT WHY IS IT THAT AFTER HE WITNESSES THE MAINAWATI SCENE AND HE SAVES JODHA FROM THE POOL, HE HIMSELF SAYS THAT CHAHE HAMARE RISHTEY SHAUHAR AUR BIWI JAISE NA HO, AGAR AAPKE WAALIDEIN KE GHAR MEIN AAPKE LIYE JAGAH NAHI HAI, TO AGRA MEIN USKI BEGUM KE LIYE BAKAAYDA JAGAH HAI. WHAT HAS CHANGED NOW? ONLY THAT HER SUICIDE ATTEMPT HAS DEMONSTRATED HER COMPLETE VULNERABILITY? OR THAT HE NOW KNOWS SURELY THAT SHE DOES NOT HAVE ANY OTHER PLACE TO GO AND SO NOW IS THE TIME TO BE MAGNANIMOUS?

No. Jalal gives her the assurance that she has a place of respect in the Agra palace as his begum because she now has nowhere to go. If she had been able to return to Amer, he would have let her go. He would have given her the same assurance even if she had not thrown herself into the pool.

FROM THE START, JALAL HAD NO REAL REASON TO DISLIKE HER TO THIS EXTENT. TRUE THAT HE HAD HEARD HER RAMBLE ABOUT JALAL AND HIS CRUELTY TO SURYABHAN, HEARD HER, TIME AND AGAIN, RANTING ABOUT SEEING HIS KATA HUA SAR. BUT, IN THAT MOMENT, MOST PEOPLE IN AMER WOULD HAVE SIMILAR THOUGHTS ABOUT JALAL. HE, AFTER ALL, WAS AN INVADER, AND A KROOR ONE AT THAT.

He had not yet invaded Amer. And the fact that many Ameris said such things does not mean Jalal would not be angry when Jodha said them. It was his imperial ego, the very thought that she, a mere woman, had put a sword to his neck.

HIS REACTIONS TO JODHA AND ALL HER ACTIVITIES IS, IN MY OPINION, IS A RAGE THAT COMES FROM THE FACT THAT EVEN THOUGH HE WANTED HER TO SEE HIM, TO CARE FOR HIM, TO BE CONCERNED FOR HIM, AND VERY BADLY SO, HE COULD NOT GET HER TO DO IT

No, he may feel so deep down, but it is not overt as yet. He is not really angry with her at all. You just have to read The Matters of the Heart section of this post to understand that. Did you read it? If you did, and you liked it as much as you say you did, how are you stating this now?

As for Jodha's " activities", if she had pulled a fraction of these stunts with a Rajput king, like Maharana Udai Singh of Mewar, she would have been jailed or sent back to her maayka, whether they would take her back or not.

THEREFORE, AT THIS POINT, AFTER WITNESSING JODHA'S INTERNAL TURMOIL AND SUICIDE ATTEMPT, I FEEL, THAT WE HAVE BEEN QUITE HARSH WITH HER

JALAL'S FORAY INTO HER HOJRA, MANHANDLING HER, TELLING HER THAT HE MARRIED HER ONLY TO BEIZZAT AND TODO HER GHUROOR, HIS ACT OF SUMMONING HER IN THE DARBAR TO SING IN FRONT OF EVERYONE, HIS PLOTTING WITH RUKKAIAH TO HUMILIATE HER IN PUBLIC THROUGH A GAME OF CHESS, ALL THESE WERE SOME OF HIS MISDEEDS TOO.

All this is old news, long past its "use by" date. Jodha writes her poem and is happy discussing it with Jalal well after this. He shows high regard for her at the jashn. The only thing she can really hold against him is the sadistic way in which he treats her during the dature ka ark affair, which was awful. But he apologises for that to her both privately and publicly. That might not be enough, but one cannot expect any more from an emperor.

AGREED THAT JALAL HAD GRANTED HER HER PREMARITAL SHARTS/WISHES. BUT WAS THAT TO MAKE HER HAPPY? LIKE HE CONFESSES TO MAHAM LATER, IT WAS MORE BECAUSE HE DID NOT WANT OTHERS TO THINK THAT SHAHENSHAH EK ADAD LADKI KI DO ADAD MAANGEIN NAHI POORI KAR SAKA.

This was not true at all, as I had made clear in my posts on the Shahi Shaadi. He cooks up this explanation to hide his real one and keep Maham off his back.

YES THERE WAS SOME EVIDENCE TO TILT THE MISCARRIAGE FIASCO AGAINST JODHA, BECAUSE OF THE THE PRESENCE OF THE KESAR, BUT IF THE INITIAL EVIDENCE HAD POINTED TOWARDS SALIMA, WOULD JALAL TAKE THE SAME ENRAGED STANCE? WOULD HE NOT HAVE BEEN AT LEASE A LITTLE CAREFUL WITH HER? I AM CEETAINLY INCLINED TO THINK SO. HIS INSISTENCE THAT SHE NOT BE TRIED, THE CASE NOT BE ARGUED, JUST BURN HER ALIVE, WAS ALL AN EMOTIONAL OUTBURST ON JALAL'S PART, STEMMING FROM THE LOSS OF AN OFFSPRING, ON THE ONE PART AND HIS DISGUST AT HIS OWN FAILURE AS REGARDS JODHA, ON THE OTHER.

No, not his failure as regards Jodha Did you not read my post on this track, Wuthering Depths, where I had dissected his savage reaction in detail? It is reproduced below for your reference.

"Evolving attitude: It is the same with his attitude towards Jodha.

From the time of the chess match, thru the fencing duel, Jodha rescuing Rahim, the Motibai affair, and finally with the lovely poem she writes for the Jalal-Ruqaiya baby, Jalal had come quite a distance, and on an unfamiliar road, as far as Jodha was concerned.

His attitude to her earlier , up to the immediate post marriage phase, was entirely coloured by what he had heard her say about him at the Amer jail, and by her very obvious distaste for her marriage to him, which she never made any attempt to camouflage. So his approach was shaped partly by a desire to dominate her and break her guroor, and partly by reluctant admiration for her beauty.

There was no personal element in it, for he did not know her as a person at all. And when he thought he did, as in the mirchi incident, his antagonism was only reinforced.

But soon enough, as he got to see a different facet of Jodha every other day, all of them positive and fascinating, Jalal began to slip into a phase he had never known before. It was not yet what is commonly perceived as love. It was rather admiration for her various skill sets, which overlapped with his own - at chess or at fencing - and to which he could thus relate at once.

However, it was only after the rescue of Rahim, then her use of the farman to save a lowly daasi, and even more so after the poem, which effected a quantum change in the way he perceived Jodha, that Jalal began, for perhaps the first time in his life, to trust in the unselfish goodness of another human being.

He was now suddenly sure that the Amer ki shehzaadi was special, that even if she did not care for him and even if she still hated him, she was capable for deep and genuine affection for the child which was already the closest to his heart. Everyone else who was close to him had always wanted something or the other from him, but Jodha was unselfish and undemanding, he believed, and so she was in a class apart.

This shift in perception and feeling on his side was reflected not just in his private praise of the poem to her, but in his public praise of her gift at the jashn, and in the unprecedentedly high level of respect and regard he showed for her then.

How are thou fallen? : It was from these heights in Jalal's innermost being that Jodha fell, and fell precipitously, the same night when, after fighting the idea initially and threatening the Khwaja with dire punishment if she turned out to be wrong, Jalal succumbed to what seemed to be a cast iron case against Jodha. It was not circumstantial evidence but (concocted) physical evidence, the validity of which, in those days of no forensic or technical skills, was readily accepted even by Mansingh.

One can cite the Holy Bible about Satan: Lucifer, Son of the Morning, how art thou fallen? , which is mirrored in Jalal's anguished cry to Jodha: Tumne yeh kyon kiya? Tum itne neeche kaise gir sakti ho?

For Jalal, already reeling under the loss of his child , ripped apart inside by a grief that chokes him, this second shock must have been crippling. He saw himself now as a soft fool, who had succumbed to a hitherto unknown weakness, and had placed his trust in a devious murderess who had channeled the hatred for him into this crime, to hit him where it would hurt the most. I have noted this in my last post, but it bears repeating.

Whence his savage desire, no matter how many others are guilty, to hurt her as much as he can, to punish her not just for extinguishing his dearest hope and joy, but for having, as he sees it, trampled on the innermost recesses of his being, where no one else had ever been allowed entry. There is to be no escape route for this Jezebel, she has to pay and pay to the limit.

Right and wrong no longer count for him at this stage (they will, fairly soon, but we are not there yet). So it is pointless to talk of respect for women or for the rule of law. The law is in any case what the Shahenshah says it is.

Note that in every meeting with the Amer sextet, Jalal looks only at Jodha; the rest are irrelevant, and they are to be punished because that will hurt Jodha far more than her own punishment"

AND THEN AGAIN, WHEN HE OFERED JODHA TWO CHOICES - ONE TO STAY ( HARA RANG PEHEN KE) AND THE OTHER TO GO, HE WAS APALLED THAT SHE CHOSE THE LATTER. AGRED THAT NO WOMAN, IN THAT DAY AND AGE, WOULD CHOOSE THE DIVORCE OPTION AND THAT JODHA HAS CERTAINLY MISSED SOME CRUCIAL LESONS ON HOW TO BE A GOOD WIFE. BUT WHEN A HUSBAND COMES TO HER HOJRA AND SAYS THAT I WILL MAKE IT EASY FOR YOU TO BE FREE BY GIVING YOU THE CONSENT OF A KHULA, THEN WHAT SHOULD SHE SAY?

For this one, I shall refer you to the section in my next post, on a little matter of conjugal rights. You are not going to like it!

AND THE HOLI DEBACLE. SHE NEVER ASKED PERMISSION TO PLAY. HE WAS THE ONE WHO BOUGHT ALL HER COLORS, TO GIFT TO HER, AND ADED THAT SHE COULD PLAY. IN THIS SCENARIO, WHERE WOULD SHE PLAY? IN HER HOJRA?? AND EVERY EYEWITNESS PRESENT THERE COULD HAVE VOUCHED THAT THE SCENE WAS AN ACCIDENT. WHY IS IT THAT JALAL DID NOT ASK ANYONE ABOUT IT? THE ULEMA SPOKE SOMETHING TO THE EFFECT THAT THIS IS BLASPHEMY AND JODHA'S FATE WAS SEALED. IF JAVEDA HAD DONE TO SAME ACT, WHAT WOULD JALAL'S REACTION BE?

I had said all this in my post on this segment, so I fail to understand why this is being repeated to me again! And let me make one thing clear, Jalal had also said that she had the freedom to play Holi without troubling anyone else. This would have automatically ruled out the palace gardens. Her maids start saying that as soon as the fiasco occurs. Jodha, as I had again underlined, collapses like a pricked balloon, because she is convinced that she has committed a big paap. I had criticised her for that, and Hamida too for her very lukewarm comments, but one cannot make pronouncements on the religious sensibilities of a bygone era. As Donjas has noted, riots have broken out for less.

And you have left out Jodha's atrocious and public rudeness to the Shahenshah at the Meena Bazaar, which I am sure had something to do with Jalal's reaction. I had pointed this too out in my post.

As for Javeda doing any such thing, firstly, she would not have played Holi. And even if she had done so and the colour had fallen on Maham, Maham would have scolded her and that would have been it. Jalal would never have got to hear of it at all.

But once Maham complains about Jodha, and the matter is given a religious twist, as Hamida says, mazhabi maamle mein riyaayat nahin barti ja sakti. Jodha understands this perfectly, which is why she is so frightened that,as I wrote then, my heart went out to her.

TRUE THAT JODHA ACTED MOST UNQUEENLY AND REALLY BADLY WITH JALAL FROM THE WORD GO - HER BURNING OF THE SHAADI KA JODA, HER INSISTENCE ON A SEPARATE KHEMA, HER BLUNT REFUSAL TOWARDS HER WIFELY DUTIES ETC. MIGT BE SEVERAL CASES IN POINT. BUT WHEN HAMIDA, SALIMA RAHIM, AND EVEN A COUPLE OF JALAL'S BEGUMS COULD WARM UP TO JODHA SO MUCH AND SO QUICKLY, WHY DID SHE FAIL SO MISERABLY WITH JALAL?

That is because she is sugar and spice to everyone else, but consistently hostile to him, even when he does not deserve it, and she gives him no credit when he deserves it. The Green Jodha put this perfectly, and I have discussed this at length in this post.

A husband is quite different from all these other people you have mentioned. In a marriage, if a wife, because of the kind of failings you have listed, which affect only the husband, gets on with all these people but not with her husband, her marriage is a failure.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Folks,

What Mainavati tells Jodha in the court are her real reasons, not the sugar coating she puts on it while talking later to Hamida Banu. And who shall blame her? That is the code by which a Rajput girl in that era was taught to live, and this all the more so when she was a princess, and now a queen.

When Menawati talks so clearly crisply and to the point why has she never taught the same to her laado?😉

Over and above all this, I was very pleased when someone, and it was perfect that this someone was her own shocked and embarrassed mother, informed Jodha bluntly that, as my favourite Vicki (Morons ki Mallika) put it back in 2013, Marriage is not a joke, and it is not a boxing rink either . Marriages are not sliding and revolving doors that you can walk in and walk out of at your whim and fancy. Which is why she asks Jodha: Did you actually work at all on this marriage?

Menawati's reaction was most realistic and natural under the circumstances. Amer had invited the wrath and displeasure of the entire Rajput community due to the marriage. She couldn't let Jodha make Bharmal look like a fool and expose him to further ridicule.

Jodha: A one track mind:

So I was not in the least surprised by Jodha's despairing tears once she is back from the Diwan-e-Khas session, and her boiler plate accusations against the Shahenshah. She has so far never made the slightest commitment to this marriage, and one does not expect the public prosecutor- which is her self-assigned role - to suddenly start looking at things from the POV of counsel for the defence. No, there was nothing new there.

Still, some of what the Yellow Jodha says, in her first response to the Green Jodha, was interesting. Na humein Amer ka chhoda na humein Agra mein apnaya. So all that Hamida and Salima have done to make her feel at home in Agra counts for nothing; all that matters to apni Jodha is that Jalal ne use Agra mein nahin apnaya. Of course she does not spare a thought for whether she had accepted him!

Then the accusations that he did not live up to his vachans, ki wo humein prasanna rakhenge, hamare vishwas karenge, hamara sammaan karenge. It is clearly Jalal's lack of vishwas in her during the dature ka ark affair that rankles the most. Whence her outburst to him then: Humne bar bar saugandh khayi ki hum nirdosh hain, humne kuchch nahin kiya, par aapne hamari ek nahi suni. Ab Ruqaiya Begum ne kaha ki koyi aur gunehgar hai aur aap maan gaye?

But how does she expect Jalal to trust her blindly the way he trusts Ruqaiya? Isn't trust to be earned over a period of time?

The Green Jodha: A refreshing alter ego: Baar baar vidroh karke apn aapko aur doosron ko dukhi karna bandh karo, aur Amer laut jao!

I was surprised at the candour of Green Jodha. She knew that she was inviting misery upon herself. Pity that Green Jodha never resurfaced again ever. Had she expressed her anguish and doubts over her doubts over Jalal's upholding his zubaan in Jodha fake pregnancy track or her changing feelings for him the story might have been more complete and satisfying from her end.

But the Yellow Jodha's idea of a tolerable life in Agra is to carry on as before, boycotting Jalal and any overtures he might make, overlooking anything positive he might do, and making sarcastic remarks to him whenever the opportunity, public or private, presented itself, while basking in lovefests with his Ammijaan. Whence her current complaint that Shahenshah chahte hain ki hum Agra chhod dein, which is far from the truth.

When Jalal offered her his 2 choices, he pulled the plug on this convenient scenario from the Agra end.

😆

Now her Maasa has done the same from the Amer end. It was only to be expected that Jodha would outdo Niobe in the tears department.

Jodha's fault has not been her pride and prejudice, if you come to think of it. Her fault has been expectation of rights without putting responsibility and duty adjacent to them. I mean, today, when she talks about being abandoned by Jalal or not being wanted by him... you recall that child in a candyshop who wanted all the candies but did not know that he had to pay for them." No one else could have put it better!

👏

Jodha wanted the status quo to continue till the end of her days. But if this were to happen, firstly, we would, one by one, drop out of sheer fatigue at the endless and meaningless fights between them, and secondly, why would Jalal, or any husband for that matter, put up with such a state of affairs from which he gets nothing except periodic dressings down from his own wife, including in public? And in the 16th century at that!

😡

Unexpected, ruthless logic: Whence the unexpected clarity and ruthless logic of the Green Jodha, which took me by surprise. And since she was only a partial manifestation of Jodha's inner voice, we arrive at the momentous discovery that Jodha had been feeling all this, at some subterranean level, of late, but suppressing these inconvenient truths and clinging for dear life to the Yellow Jodha.

Incidentally, Jodha sets a sizzling pace to the pool, probably she has had a lot of practice in 400 metre dashes to save oppressed pigeons!😉

😆

Jalal: Blindsided: Jalal was clearly taken aback by Mainavati's public refusal to take Jodha back. He responds unapologetically to her initial references to the nazarband of her sons ( please note that she does not include Jodha in this, for in Mainavati's eyes, Jodha no longer belongs to Amer, but to Agra and to Jalal)

Very well observed.👏

, and is almost blunt in what he has to say about Jodha: Agar gunahon ki tehreez (? Putija, please come to my rescue!) na hi khole jai to behatar hoga! Then the clincher: Amer ke shehzaadon ko nazarqaid karna ek Shahenshah ka farz tha, aur Jodha Begum ko wapas Amer bhejna ek shauhar ka farz hai. Aur wo khudh wahan par wapas jaana chahti hain.

But Mainavati's appeal to him, with folded hands, not to send Jodha back to Amer, is acutely embarrassing, and he at a loss how to react, till Jodha rescues him from his dilemma. Then, he is again at a loss, this time about what to do with Jodha.

Lurking fear: Later, once again blindsided by the news of Jodha's disappearance, Jalal reacts at two levels. On the surface, he is bound to stick to the Mughal sultanat ki shaan ko barkarar rakhna routine, and so he does. Inside, especially after Ruqaiya fulfills her sole purpose in that scene - that of bringing up the suicide theory - he is really frightened, for this is a situation he had not anticipated.

Rajat was superb here. He expressed his chilling fear of loss so well yet concealed in his royal pride.

The rest: They don't count. But I loved the indiarubber fashion in which Javeda bounces back, unfazed, after each encounter of the close kind with her thug of a husband. Some female, this!

🤣

Question for the day: Why on earth were the personal affairs of the Shahenshah - he himself says sending Jodha back to Agra was his duty as a shauhar, so there was nothing either siyasati or riyasati about it - up for discussion in the Diwan-e-Khas, which is meant only for high political affairs of state? It was ludicrous, like a circus.

The scene would have been better in family circles but it was not just a question of husband-wife misunderstanding. He had to make it clear in public that it was her choice. Not a shouhar's guroor. There would be political reactions to it for sure. So he couldn't present himself as the villain like he did in Jodha fake pregnancy track which was entirely his private problem.

Point of the day: I distinctly remember Jodha her glaring at her Kanha with unaccustomed hostility, at the end of her behas with the Green Jodha and the Maroon Jodha, and asking him a question that sounded decidedly cutting. That was probably why she did not lug him along to the pool, for otherwise, she is always shown with her Kanha, like Jalal with his shamsheer!😉

😆

Episode 77: Beloved enemy

I am sure that even with a re-run, most of you - where are you, Preeti?😉 - are still in a romantic daze over the joint ride back to the Agra fort! I hope that the roseate mists have lifted by now, and that all concerned have come back to terra firma, so here goes.

😳. Back to terra firma. But whenever the image of Rajat and Paridhi together on the horse 'flashes upon the inward eye' we are back to the romantic daze. What a perfect image! (Thankfully Rajat was riding the horse. He was what the Barbara Cartlands glorify its Earls and Dukes- of them being a part of their mounts. It is a visual treat to see him on horse or with his shamsheer.😳)

The pre-pool doings - Jalal: I liked the way Jalal snarled at Moti & Co. for leaving their mistress alone ( they could hardly have flouted her explicit command to that effect, but a man in panic mode is hardly logical!), his rage in direct proportion to his fears.

Exactly!

By contrast, his patience with the hapless guard who was unable to stop Jodha from leaving the fort on horseback was exemplary. Here is a just ruler, who does not penalize an underling for failing to stop something that was beyond his ability to handle.

Any guesses what Sushim's reaction would be!

Jalal's action plan was impeccable, but still, it was pure serendipity that he happened to land on the same track across the hills that Jodha follows, and that too well in time to see her do that jump (not a dive, a dive is what Jalal does) into the deep water. But then Lady Luck, though a fickle jade, must have a soft corner for handsome young men!

Why justLady Luck! Any Lady will have a marshmallow corner for this handsome young man in red! ☺️

His shouting after Jodha, who is doing an Usain Bolt to the pool, Ruk jayiye Jodha Begum!Yeh hamara hukum hai! was proof positive of how a person can be hard wired, in this case to command.

🤣 He was so used to hukum-ing that he forgot that this woman doesn't obey his hukums even in normal mode.

I have not laughed so much since Alakh made Jodha lecture Mohan about his being ehsan faramosh (krutagnata heen, to be precise), unlike the atyant krutagna Ameri variety of sher!😉😉

NB: Did any of you notice the difference in the way Jalal rides and Jodha rides? Jalal is at one with his mount and the two move as one, gracefully and in perfect sync with each other. Jodha, on the contrary, though she keeps her seat well, is out of sync with the galloping horse, and so she bounces up and down constantly.

She looked stiff and funny.😆

The pool and its aftermath: Three rounds of solid applause would be the minimum due for Jalal's comprehensive dressing down of an ungrateful and resentful Jodha (I would not hold that against her, for no one attempting suicide is grateful for having been saved; usually the opposite). To borrow Vicki's mirror motif, Jalal holds up a mirror to Jodha with pitiless logic, going one more than the Green Jodha in sheer vehemence . What he tells her is well worth a full transcript, so here goes.

Bas! Ek lafz aur nahin Jodha! Jab dekho shikayat, jab dekho taane, ki kabhi humne aapke saath yeh kiya, kabhi humne aapke saath wo kiya! Kabhi ki humne aapko aapki zindagi se cheen liya hai, aapko akela kar diya hai! Lekin aaj tak - and up comes his forefinger in savage emphasis - aapke man mein jo aaya aapne wo kiya, aapke dil mein jo baat thi wo aapne keh di. Humne aapki saari shart maani, aapki saari khwahish ko qubool kiya. Yahan tak ki tumhare Amer lautne ki khwahish ko bhi humen poora kiya (turning the tables neatly on Jodha!). Lekin hum aapko yeh bewaqoofi nahin karne denge!

Then a most salutary and violent line: Aap apne aapko samajhti kya ho!!!

Hum maante hain ki apni zindagi par aapka haq hai, lekin Mughal sultanat ki izzat aur uske rutbe ko kaayam rakhna hamara farz hai Jodha!Aur hum aapko uski izzat aur uske rutbe ki ruswayi nahin karne denge! Hum maante hain ki Ruqaiya Begum ke maamle mein humse galti hui, lekin jaise hi humein us galti ka ehsaas hua, humne fauran qubool kiya zur sab ke saamne aapse maafi maangi! Lekin aapke dil ne kabhi yeh zehmat uthane ki koshish ki hai ki izzat aur guroor sirf aapke pas nahin hai, baki sab logon ke pas bhi hota hai? Attaboy, I said to myself, that is the stuff to give her!👏 Not that it is going to have much effect, but it was good to hear him telling her a few home truths.

👏one of those rare perfect scenes - visually and in content.

Generous reassurance: Be that as it may, he makes it a point to reassure her: Agar aapke walidein ke ghar main aapke liye jagah nahin hai, to Mughal sultanat ki begum ke liye uske mahal mein baaqaida jagah hai. Bhale hi hamare beech shauhar aur biwi ka rishta nahin ho, lekin aapko wo saari sahooliyatein muqammal ki jaayengi jo ek begum ke liye hoti hain.

So this was the iron cast zubaan that Jalal supposedly gave Jodha and Yellow Jodha got exactly what she wanted.

The ride: An affair to remember!: Ah, the ride! Straight out of the 1950s Errol Flynn golden oldies of Hollywood. Jalal and Jodha looked spectacular together, even in the less than optimal situation of being sopping wet. But for this, one had to watch them long distance, as the amused peasantry was doing. Their indulgent smiles proved anew that all the world loves a lover, and if there are two of them, why they love them twice as much!

😳

An impression that was only reinforced when he drags her thru the khufiya raasta back to the palace. Her hanging back and demanding to know where she was being taken was silly even by her recent standards. What did she think, that he was going to feed her to Mohan in the forest?

😆

Matters of the heart: The piece de resistance in the whole episode is the incredibly moving scene between Jalal and Mahaam, which is really between Jalal and an invisible Jodha. Jalal's thoughts flowed on and on, unaffected by anything that Mahaam had to interject and to object. His eyes, still and introspective, with a clear, unveiled sadness in their depths, reflected every shifting nuance of feeling as he talked.

What he said was apparently to his Badiammi, but really to himself, as he dissected, with the precision of a surgeon's scalpel and the honesty that is one of Jalal's main traits, what he felt about Jodha and about himself, and how distinct the similarity was between their respective fates and their present/ past situations.

What a depth shine and deference Jalal's character earned in this scene scripted and enacted so well! A man claiming to be heartless understands the loneliness of another so well and the heart-ful lady is impervious to his - even when he explicitly refers to his childhood woes.

One such scene for Jodha with self talks would have balanced thw scales. But we were given none till the very end.

The loneliness of the soul: What Jalal now feels is rooted in the perception that Jodha and he share something crucial, the arid loneliness of the soul that comes from not belonging anywhere or to anyone. His words bring all this to life with startling sensitivity and clarity.

Hum samajhte hain ki aisa unhon ne hoshohawas mein nahin kiya. Pichle kuch dinon mein jo bhi huwa, un sabka bahut gehra sadma laga hai Jodha Begum ko. Unke walidein ka unhein Amer le jaane se inkaar kar dena Jodha Begum ko tod gaya hai.

The mellifluous Urdu brings out what he wants to convey - not to Maham but to himself and to the Jodha who is not there - with a delicacy and a level of sensitivity that the English translation can never convey.

Sab kuch hote hue bhi kuch na hona, rishtey sirf naam ke bankar reh jana, har or ruswayi, har or akelapan. Aisi haalat mein kisi par kya beethti hai yeh hum se behatar koyi nahin samajh sakta.

Aaj pehli baar humein ehsaas hua hai ki hum aur Jodha Begum, donon ek hi kashti mein sawaar hain.

Responding to Maham's strong protests, he goes on, his eyes reflecting a sadness too deep for her to grasp: Badiammi, kya Babur-e-Azam ke khandaan mein kisi ko dard nahin hota? Hum maante te hain ki hum Humayun Shah ke bete hain, aur Mughal shehzade the. Par phir bhi,hamare haalaat Jodha Begum se juda kahaan?

Humein bhi hamari Ammijaan ka saath nahin mila, Jodha Begum ki tarah.

Saare rishtey naate hone ke bawajood, hum tanha hain, Jodha Begum ki tarah.

Jodha Begum ka rishta Agra aur Amer donon se hai, par aaj na hi wo Agra ki hain, na Amer ki. Jaise ek waqt hum bhi na Dilli ke the, ne Agra ke, na Kabul ke.

The tanhayee , the loneliness inside him that he is referring to, is of now. It is in the present.

It was such a telling scene. 👏

Aftab ka pehla noor: A dreamy scene, that, the door of that room being unlocked by Hoshiyaar (did Jalal leave the key in the lock? Unlikely. Which means that Ruqaiya has duplicate keys for all the locks in the palace), to reveal Jodha sleeping like a tired child in the aftab ka pehla noor. Whence the Hand of God that cannot be denied.

Wasn't thescripting beautiful here? How many beautiful scenes we had in each episodes those days! Which reduced and became scarce later and totally vanished towards the end. Surely it was the housekeeping probably those displeased with their husbands who did the scripting later on with all the Jodha jaijaikars.🤢

Ruqaiya: Jalal comes first: I loved the way she is shown as being reconciled to Jodha going to Ajmer with Jalal, because she believes in the Pir Baba's edict and is genuinely concerned about Jalal's safety and well being. One could see, from the way he looks back at her retreating form, that Jalal feels the same. This little vignette underlines, after a long time, the special quality of the bond that the two share. Jodha will one day be the love of Jalal's life, but she cannot become the friend that Ruqaiya was and is to him.

One of those rare scenes that portrayed gray so beautifully. Again the housekeeping never knew to bring out shades. Later it was all black.

Plus here she looked, in that armour plate-like necklet and her stiff costume, almost like a stuffed Thanksgiving turkey.😉 Her face, set in resentful lines and full of disdain when rubaru with Jalal, seemed to hint at an impending attack of the mumps. Her lovely, big eyes were puffy and narrowed.

Perfect description.👏

I begin to think Suryabhan was better off sar ke bina, all things considered😉. Bechara Jalal to phans gaya; gale mein akti huyi hai yeh Begum Jodha, ne nigalte bane ne thookte bane.

😆

The RK Films logo: It was a very charming scene, lit up by Rajat's mischievous smile, and the comic element was delightful.

Along comes Begum Hoity Toity, her disdainful nose well up in the air, affecting to ignore the fact that her obnoxious patidev is openly contradicting his earlier assertion and niharofying her unblinkingly😉. She sails past him with no acknowledgement of his existence, the ungrateful little wretch, and bingo! Fate deals her a googly, and she slips, right into the aforesaid patidev's arms. Poetic justice, if ever there was one! Jalal, being a Rhett Butler in temperament, was enjoying himself thoroughly!

🤣

This is such a tired staple of romantic scenes in films, and even more so in TV serials, that is it very difficult to keep oneself from laughing at it. The poor actors, especially the girl - who is stuck in that that awkward position for as long as 2 minutes at times just because that is the director's idea of the high romantic - struggle to look lovelorn. All the while, the one is hoping that he does not suddenly drop her, and the other saying to himself Lord, she weighs far more than I would have imagined!😉

🤣

But Jalal and Jodha manage to make even this old chestnut look fresh.

Lastly, it does not hurt that they are a remarkably handsome couple. It was noted by a film critic, after watching Jodhaa Akbar with Hrithik and Aishwarya, that Salim must have been the most beautiful baby in the whole of the Mughal empire. One could say the same of the Salim-to-be here, but unfortunately we ended up with a lemon! 😉

An ugli fruit at that.🤢😆

Originally posted by: adiana12

Unres pg 1

Dear Saraswati, I'm going to talk about my habit of reserving space. Generally I read Shyamala's post while on the move and hence reserve to post my comments later as it's tough to give a detailed response from my mobile. I not that tech friendly 😛 And usually I do post within 24 hrs my response, unless I'm unable to do so due to work pressure or travel reasons. It's just a way to keep track of the thread without having to search for it as the reserving is a post and thus appears on the My Posts list.

Originally posted by: karkuzhali

Dear Shagun,

My doubt is what is the purpose of reserving a place before everybody else's response, and insert your comments later, without giving a chance to the subsequent writers to know about your views and include them in their posts.

By the way, I enjoy all your posts in this forum for their sincerity and clarity. I think you are the youngest forum member and I am the oldest!

Saraswathi Aunty.