Jodha Akbar 79-81: Darkness before the dawn - Page 9

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Yes, Devki, your take on this subject is very different from mine,as you can see from my comments below, which are not made in a contrarian spirit, and are mostly factual.

It never jelled with me, this love story, and I deeply resented the way in which Akbar the Great was reduced to a hanger on of Jodha Begum, singing her praises with or without justification, and seeming to have no ideas that are not suggested by her. Why, by the end, his government seems to be on autopilot, while he is loitering in Jodha Begum's hoojra, pressing her head and her feet.

To my mind, the romance was a totally one-sided affair, with Jalal doing all the loving and Jodha simply being loved. That is not my idea of an epic love story, especially as the Rhett Butler I had signed on for was steadily eviscerated and ended up more wimpish than Ashley Wilkes!

But to each her own. There is, it seems, simply no meeting ground at all between us.I leave you to your happiness in this show, and you can leave me to my acute disappointment.

Shyamala Aunty

Aww...don't sound so disappointed. Why is there simply no meeting ground? I do agree with you about the last leg of the serial totally. After the big Salim stepped that's when it lost it charm for me. No amount of hamaam scenes cut it for me after that.

So we can agree on something, however little that may be.

Originally posted by: Sandhya.A

Devki,

The show was EXTREMELY GOOD in the first 80 episodes and the leads SIMPLY GORGEOUS, Rajat a FANTASTIC actor and Paridhi equalling him time to time. This made the show magnetic in different degrees for most.

But the feel factor was scarce...It was like the poignant romance that Devdas is suppossed to be that was NEVER FELT in SLB's version. We could admire everything else there - the handsome trio, costumes, grand sets, music, dance, but it could never tug at your heartstrings, never touch you the way a film like Anand could.

There were very few places where I could feel the love the couple had for each other - apart from many in he first 80, the scenes post Ruqaiya fake pregnancy, just before the dhakka, the closure of the Benazir track, post Hassan death sequence, and a few others. But overall with Jalal reduced to a lallu the feel was sickening considering the fact that it was Akbar the Great in question.

It was interesting that Jodha was not the epitome of goodness. But her wrongs have NEVER been censured. Today she says gushingly that it was their prayers at Ajmer that made Jalal Surakshith completely sweeping her narnaal folly under the carpet to which Hamida nods happily. Her shortcomings are infact declared as her rights and nek manshas by either her cheerleaders or Jalal himself which makes the show highly imbalanced.

Originally posted by: devkidmd

Sandhya, I hate to admit it but I do agree with some of your points.

The thing is the serial had a lot of positives and a lot of negatives(i do realise this as well though I may not say it) but when I weigh the two against each other, for me the positives far outweigh the negatives. This serial has given me a lot more joy than angst and disappointment. Maybe because I do not have anything to compare it with or maybe my expectations are low.

And now I am going to tell you something which might either make you ROFL or put your hands up in the air in exasperation thinking like Aunty did that you can never have any common ground with me.

Are you ready? Ok here goes...

I LOVED Devdas!!!😆

I really did. I have it downloaded too!!😃

Devki

Originally posted by: ---Khushi---

Shyamala Aunty...

Yet again, we are on common ground...about the epic love story...forget epic forget love forget story...it was just another rehash of heroine mahaanta (as all other EK shows of which I have never been a fan of )

To me, a love story is simply one which makes me feel that the couple are in love (even when I m NOT watching the show, n I'm just pondering over them) ...there could be just a dialogue, a look or a touch to suggest that...

Jalal always seemed to be "fanaah" in his love for his Jodha begum...but sadly, the vice versa was never true, at least for me, even when they were together on screen...

I always found Rajat's jalal equally passionate in both his hatred n then love for Jo. ...it was almost ethereal at times...

Bit while Jo was intensely passionate about her ghrina, I found her TOTALLY LACKING after her ghrina phase ended...I just found her role changed from an always angry headmistress 😡 to a smiling headmistress 😃 ...

Even the SR...though I had sort of liked it when it was shown, (the wait had been almost drought like), if one was to honestly ponder on it, & after reading Paridhi's interviews mentioning the need for a BD, one cannot help but conclude that off screen matters did contribute to failure of depiction of proper romance in JA...we saw instances of aerial cheek kisses, Rajat kissing his own hand 😆, Rajat nuzzling the pillow 😆, etc...these scenes, if properly enacted, do enforce the romantic aspect between the couple...

But more than that, it was Paridhi's body language n expressions in all the so called romantic scenes...she always had that "oh god, yet again" type of a look always on her face n she made sure to maintain at least 6-12" between herself n Rajat in the so called hugs & pecks...if u were to note carefully, every single hug of RT & PS could have been between a mother & son or a brother & sister...there was never any romance in that...at least not to me...

Also, RT being a powerful actor & PS being most average, further made the love story look more n more one sided...

Further more, the lack lustre script did not help matters...the script was never about describing a love story...it was always a head mistress admonishing an errant student, teaching him, preaching him, guiding him, maargdarshaning him, & of course, moral sciencing him 😆 Exactly. GThe headmistress comparison is just perfect. And it was a boring as our moral science classes in school used to be. I am sure they had disappeared by the time you came along!

Of course, I realise that I belong to the minority in these views, n hence will have absolutely NO debate with those who disagree with me on this...😃...No AKHAADA sessions over this

Originally posted by: ---Khushi---

Shyamala Aunty...

Yet again, we are on common ground...about the epic love story...forget epic forget love forget story...it was just another rehash of heroine mahaanta (as all other EK shows of which I have never been a fan of )

To me, a love story is simply one which makes me feel that the couple are in love (even when I m NOT watching the show, n I'm just pondering over them) ...there could be just a dialogue, a look or a touch to suggest that...

Jalal always seemed to be "fanaah" in his love for his Jodha begum...but sadly, the vice versa was never true, at least for me, even when they were together on screen...

I always found Rajat's jalal equally passionate in both his hatred n then love for Jo. ...it was almost ethereal at times...

Bit while Jo was intensely passionate about her ghrina, I found her TOTALLY LACKING after her ghrina phase ended...I just found her role changed from an always angry headmistress 😡 to a smiling headmistress 😃 ...

Even the SR...though I had sort of liked it when it was shown, (the wait had been almost drought like), if one was to honestly ponder on it, & after reading Paridhi's interviews mentioning the need for a BD, one cannot help but conclude that off screen matters did contribute to failure of depiction of proper romance in JA...we saw instances of aerial cheek kisses, Rajat kissing his own hand 😆, Rajat nuzzling the pillow 😆, etc...these scenes, if properly enacted, do enforce the romantic aspect between the couple...

But more than that, it was Paridhi's body language n expressions in all the so called romantic scenes...she always had that "oh god, yet again" type of a look always on her face n she made sure to maintain at least 6-12" between herself n Rajat in the so called hugs & pecks...if u were to note carefully, every single hug of RT & PS could have been between a mother & son or a brother & sister...there was never any romance in that...at least not to me...

Also, RT being a powerful actor & PS being most average, further made the love story look more n more one sided...

Further more, the lack lustre script did not help matters...the script was never about describing a love story...it was always a head mistress admonishing an errant student, teaching him, preaching him, guiding him, maargdarshaning him, & of course, moral sciencing him 😆

Of course, I realise that I belong to the minority in these views, n hence will have absolutely NO debate with those who disagree with me on this...😃...No AKHAADA sessions over this

Originally posted by: devkidmd

Sandhya, I hate to admit it but I do agree with some of your points.

The thing is the serial had a lot of positives and a lot of negatives(i do realise this as well though I may not say it) but when I weigh the two against each other, for me the positives far outweigh the negatives. This serial has given me a lot more joy than angst and disappointment. Maybe because I do not have anything to compare it with or maybe my expectations are low.

And now I am going to tell you something which might either make you ROFL or put your hands up in the air in exasperation thinking like Aunty did that you can never have any common ground with me.

Are you ready? Ok here goes...

I LOVED Devdas!!!😆

I really did. I have it downloaded too!!😃

Devki

Originally posted by: Sandhya.A

Devki,

The show was EXTREMELY GOOD in the first 80 episodes and the leads SIMPLY GORGEOUS, Rajat a FANTASTIC actor and Paridhi equalling him time to time. This made the show magnetic in different degrees for most.

But the feel factor was scarce...It was like the poignant romance that Devdas is suppossed to be that was NEVER FELT in SLB's version. We could admire everything else there - the handsome trio, costumes, grand sets, music, dance, but it could never tug at your heartstrings, never touch you the way a film like Anand could.

There were very few places where I could feel the love the couple had for each other - apart from many in he first 80, the scenes post Ruqaiya fake pregnancy, just before the dhakka, the closure of the Benazir track, post Hassan death sequence, and a few others. But overall with Jalal reduced to a lallu the feel was sickening considering the fact that it was Akbar the Great in question.

It was interesting that Jodha was not the epitome of goodness. But her wrongs have NEVER been censured. Today she says gushingly that it was their prayers at Ajmer that made Jalal Surakshith completely sweeping her narnaal folly under the carpet to which Hamida nods happily. Her shortcomings are infact declared as her rights and nek manshas by either her cheerleaders or Jalal himself which makes the show highly imbalanced.

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Well, my pet, I agree with you completely, especially the bit about the always angry headmistress and the smiling headmistress, which is a stroke of sheer genius. Why, oh why did I not think of it??

Ty Aunty 😳...how I love to hear you praising me 😳

They were a spectacular pair in terms of looks, and with a proper characterisation for Jodha, the show could have been a classic. But the script was centred on a mahaanatam heroine and the hero was reduced to worse than a cipher. I have never before seen such a waste of a leading pair with such potential !😭

😭😭...so very true 😭

.it was a total waste...n post leap, I thought the only reason y RT stayed back was coz he didn't want to antagonise EK...he wanted to part on a pleasant note...else, RT should have quit post -leap...or at least, quit as Akbar n come back as Salim...

Also about the Ovaltine romantic scenes. They were dismal. I would hug even a pillow with greater closeness!

And what got my goat was that Jalal was always shown hanging around for some romantic crumbs from Jodha's table, right down to his pathetic requests to her, even he is middle aged and she like a khaati peeti sethani, for her to stay the night with him, and more often than not, she does not oblige! Everyone else is more important for Jodha Begum than her husband. Any normal husband, especially one with 3000+ other options, would have left her in cold storage long ago, but this lallu is still there, pressing her head and her feet.

No comments absolutely on your last line, Aunty...thankfully, I had quit long before that...😆...I almost started disliking RT for a while when I heard of this, for doing this to himself n his fans

I am sure the reticence of the heroine in the matter to the romantic scenes would have had a lot to do with this terminally unconvincing fare. You can watch any other serial to see how such scenes are handled normally, and I do not mean hot stuff, which puts me off totally.

Same here Aunty...I only like subtle, suggestive romance which makes you believe in a love story...nothing more than that...nothing explicit at all...that's a strict no-no for me as well ...

And for the tenderly romantic, you should see Gautam Rode and Jennifer Winget, especially her, in Saraswatichandra. There was very little hugging even, but they were incredibly moving and beautiful. And when her Kumud did hug Saras, and Jennifer too was a married woman, she really hugged him. People who have so many reservations should not come to show business. And all this talk about a body double is totally unprofessional, for it ruins whatever impact the scene might have had.

The talk of body doubles was more for "outlaws" Auntie 😉...if u know what I mean 😆...it was as if, " look I haven't done anything...it was the BD who did it " 🤢😆...but yes, that was thoroughly unprofessional...even the biggest PS fan cannot deny that...u used a BD. ..fine...y announce it beforehand n spoil the impact for the viewers?🤢
Anyways, that's a thing of the past...but like u said, it's actually worse the 2nd time round, coz the first time at least we had hope with us...this time, theirs only a bagful of despair 😆...I really don't think I'll be hanging around after dhakkam-dhukki epi for long, Aunty... (& I don't think you will either 😉 )

Tc, Auntie...Regards, Khushi 😃

Shyamala Aunty