Folks,
I normally discuss three episodes per post. This time too, though it looks like just two, the ground covered will be the same since No. 85 was a mahaepisode.
The title is because all thru this stretch, Shahenshah Jalaluddin Muhammad was at the top of his game as he worked to further his twin objectives: the one of co-opting the Rajputs as a pillar of the Mughal sultanat, and the other of getting closer to his prickly Amer ki mirchi. I doubt if he himself was aware of when one ended and the other began, for they were overlapping all the time, before and during their journey to Amer, and at Amer itself! So let us begin.
Episode 85a: Mischief abounding!
This one is of course for Jalal, whose eyes were exactly like the magical potions bubbling and boiling in a witch's pot. Eyes that gleamed at times, clouded over at others, as diametrically opposite emotions chased each other in their depths. Emotions that swam up to the surface for varying periods, just to tantalise us, and then vanished again as Jalal gazed, at times outwards, thru a lattice, at the setting sun, at others at his own reflection in the mirror, as if to share with it a secret he could share with no one else.
A Puck in Jodha Akbar:This sub-title is for the impish sprite of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, if you will bear with the superficially incongruous comparison of such a creature with the Shahenshah-e-Hindustan, in all his imperial splendour. But Jalal in this episode was nothing if not puckish.
The leit motif throughout was mischief, unbridled, unfathomable mischief. Jalal was devilishly provoking, teasing, confusing, with both the women in his life: Ruqaiya Sultan Begum , demanding and doubtful, seeking reassurance ever as she sought to control him , and Jodha Begum, exasperated and enraged by this dancing dervish of a husband, who managed to unsettle and infuriate her with his mocking sallies even while always dodging out of reach when she attempted a comeback.
After weeks of indecision and trauma, of physical and emotional stress , Shahenshah Jalaluddin Mohammed was back at last. Clear-minded and decisive, a surface candour veiling his secret plans as he reassured Bharmal, countered his Badiammi, convinced Ruqaiya and baited Jodha, and laughed conspiratorially with, not at, his aks in the mirror.
Two useful maxims: Before we proceed, two thoughts I would like to leave with you.
Firstly, I begin to think that we all, and I am a major culprit here, parse and analyse the show too much, to the extent that the pleasure of watching it gets eroded. We are dissecting it even as we look at it, and it becomes like reducing an impressionist painting, a Van Gogh or a Monet, to a collection of coloured dots. This is to do, not Jodha Akbar, but ourselves a disservice.
So, after pondering the question marks on the episode before this one and then cobbling them together into my ???????? post on Episode 84, I decided, for the next episode, to go with the flow, and soak up broad impressions. I did not bother about what seemed like a discontinuity in the screenplay and the characterization, I just watched. And what I have set down above is what stayed with me.
Secondly, there are only 2 distinct ways of analyzing a show. One is to treat the characters as individuals, and praise or critcise them for their acts of omission and commission. The second is to treat them as creations and puppets of the CVs, and blame the scriptwriters for everything that we feel is wrong with this or that character.
I always follow the first option. But that is not the point. The point is that we cannot follow both options at the same time. When things seem to us to going wrong with a character whom we have been praising and defending till the day before, we cannot suddenly say that he/she seems to have gone bonkers because the CVs have messed up!
nuff said. Let us come to the collection of scenes of which Episode 85a, the first half of the mahaepisode, consisted. Throughout this, what struck me was how adept Jalal was becoming - astonishing in such an alpha male who claims he finds it difficult to understand his begums - in handling all the very different women in his life, Maham included. And he does this not by blunt commands, but by finessing his equation with each expertly, so as not to bruise the relationship seriously, and if possible at all, while still getting his own way and disregarding what each of them wants from him. If this means that he has to dish out plausible, not lies, but half-truths, who shall blame him? Even an emperor seeks, like any other male of the species, to avoid domestic discord!😉
Jalal-Ruqaiya 1 & 2: In the first scene between them, Ruqaiya quizzes Jalal about the reasons for his having arranged this marriage for Sukanya - whereupon he firmly denies, with a great (and misleading) air of truthfulness, that he has done it for Jodha Begum!😉- and about whether he is proposing to go to Amer for this wedding. She then asserts her right, as his friend, to forbid his making this journey. Jalal's face as he looks at her retreating form, his eyes narrowed, is a study in controlled exasperation. Haq jataakar humse hamara hi haq cheen liya! Tumhara andaaz ajab hai, Ruqaiya!
Not that he has any intention of allowing even his Begum-e-Khaas to decide things for him, for at the meeting soon after with Bharmal, Jalal confirms that he is accepting Bharmal's invitation. Ruqaiya learns of this only thru Maham who, having failed to stop Jalal from going to Amer, now makes a desperate appeal to Ruqaiya to try to ensure this. So we come to Jalal-Ruqaiya 2.
It is a very beautiful scene, most aesthetically set up and shot, with the rays of the setting sun, filtered thru the lattice, creating shifting patterns on the Jalal's face and adding an extra layer of mystery to his deep set eyes.
No sunset for their rishta: Those who see the sunset motif in the latter scene as an (admittedly attractive) symbolism for the fading of Jalal's relationship with Ruqaiya as that with Jodha gains ground, are doing Jalal a signal disservice. He is emphatically not one of those who discard an old, time-tested relationship for a new one, no matter how beguiling the latter might be. He values those who stood by him when he needed them - his Khan Baba, his Badiammi, and Ruqaiya - very greatly, and he will never abandon them until he is forced to do so, and then it will be like having an amputation. Whence his agony when it seemed that Maham was the culprit in the dature ka ark affair.
As for Ruqaiya, however antagonistic she might become towards Jodha as matters develop, this antagonism, rooted in jealousy, would not be a reason for Jalal to break up with his childhood friend; he would merely be amused and even pleased! So I do not see any sunset ahead for the two of them, and in any case, all that Jalal says is that she has come at the right time, and how beautiful the sunset is.
Testing the waters:But Jalal is testing the waters with Ruqaiya, for he does not want excessive friction with her as he becomes closer to Jodha, something he intends to achieve, whatever the Amer ki Mirchi might be thinking. The whole spiel about Hum mohabbat karte hain Jodha Begum se is part of this exercise. And how superbly it is executed!
Jalal turns to Ruqaiya and raises his eyes, with visible hesitation, to hers, and then turns away again. The words flow with increasing speed, and devastating candour, after he begins with Hum mohabbat karte hain Jodha Begum se. Here he looks Ruqaiya full in the face. Her eyes are wide with dismay, and Jalal looks away again. Hum aapko yeh baat batane ko majboor nahin hain ( a clear putdown!) lekin sach yahi hai.Pata nahin kaise, ek jadoo sa kar diya hai unhon ne hum par. Unhein dekhte hi dil mein kuch hone lagta hai (a riff, 436 years earlier, on KKHH!). Unhein door jaate dekhte hi, dil isi suraj ki tarah doobne lagta hai. Hum mohabbat karte hain unse, deewaane ban chuke hain unke, ghulam ban chuke hain unke. Ab har din, har pal hum unse aur judte jaa rahe hain, Ruqaiya!
At this point he turns, looks at her face frozen in shock and worse , and begins to laugh. Aaj pehli baar aapke maathe par shikanj dekha hai! Aapko hairaan kar diya hai Ruqaiya!
Jalal is very convincing at the beginning, and in 2013, I was really foxed and confused, for all that his confession seemed most premature. It was only when he got to unke deewane, unke ghulam, that I knew it was a con, for never would Jalal (at least at this stage!) become any woman's ghulam, not even of the love of his life! But when he turns back after that deliberately exaggerated confession - not fake, be it noted - and sees the frozen shock and despair in Ruqaiya's eyes, Jalal knows that he has gone too far and has to retreat, for he has no notion of wrecking his bond with her. Not for anything, least of all for the uncertain prospects that lie ahead with Jodha.
A more devious explanation: There is another possibility: that Jalal shocks Ruqaiya with Hum mohabbat karte Jodha Begum se quite deliberately, so that in the overwhelming relief when he tells her that he was only joking, she will easily accept that the visit is a purely political exercise. Personally, I would opt for this, for there is no real reason that I can think of for Jalal to inform Ruqaiya that he has fallen in love with the woman of whom she is acutely jealous!
Siyaasati wajah: So, he now appeases Ruqaiya by repeatedly laying exclusive emphasis on the siyasati wajah for the Amer trip, embroidering it with the ancillary themes of winning over the Ameri awaam and eliminating any rebellion for keeps, as he moves step by step, adding one relationship after another with erstwhile enemies, towards uniting all of Hindustan under his rule.
Hum Amer rishtedaari nibhane ke liye nahin ja rahe hain..hum wahan sirf aur sirf siyaasati matlab se jaa rahe hain. . Hum chahte hain ki hamara auda unki nazaron mein aur bhi bad jaye...Humne Amer par fateh ki hai, ab uski riyaya ke dilon par raj karna hai humein. Zindagi bhar baghawat ka khyal nahin aayega unke zehen mein!.. He rounds off this misleading peroration by asserting Hum unke jhuke hue sar dekhna chahte hain!
For us to shrink at this old chestnut of jhukofying the Rajvanshi sars , which is meant only for Ruqaiya's consumption, would be as unwarranted as for us to assume that the entire siyasati rationale is just a smokescreen to hide Jalal's real reason, to get opportunities to spend time in Amer, as up close and personal as can be managed, with Jodha.
We should not forget that Jalal is an emperor, and the expansion and strengthening of his empire would, for him, come first, always and every time, and this no matter what he feels, or does not feel, for Jodha. This is as it should be, for I for one would, in 2013, have hated to see Jalal reduced to a pathetic lover sighing verses to his mistress' eyebrow', as, who else, Shakespeare would put it. Let us not even talk of what happened later!
However, the siyasati reasons are not the whole truth either. Jalal knows his Gatti, and banks on her believing his half truth to be the whole truth, because she believes what she wants to believe.
A menage a trois?:When he asks her if she is not coming to Amer with them, he might have assumed, knowing Ruqaiya, that she would refuse. But he could not have been sure, so why does he broach it at all? Methinks it was just more of mischief, for I am sure he does not doubt his ability to juggle both these balls in the air while at Amer and never drop either!😉
Jalal-Maham: It is revealing that Jalal does not go to the lengths he goes to with Ruqaiya to persuade Mahaam to accept the Amer trip. For one thing, he knows that if he argues this one out with her, his shrewd Badiammi will start trying to take his siyasati rationale apart, and he does not want to go down that road.
Moreover, emperors do not explain their decisions. So two crisp sentences, ending in Yeh tai hai ki... and it is all wrapped up (it is to be noted that his Ammijaan is not in his list, but I am sure she will add herself!). Again, in the Diwan-e-Khas with Bharmal, he neatly prevents Maham from raising any objections by saddling her with the responsibility for the gifts for the bride.
In all of this, one also sees that while asserting that his decisions are not to be altered, he nonetheless is never abrupt towards or dismissive of Maham. He merely sidesteps her, and is considerate even while being unyielding. He has, beyond any doubt, grown up, has our Jalal.
Jalal-Jodha : & 1: The half scene is the exchange of understanding glances between them as Bharmal leaves. Jodha's eyes brim over in gratitude, as Jalal acknowledges it by an almost imperceptible nod (Rajat must be having a micrometer in his head, to be able to achieve such miniscule shifts of position and expression!) that seems to say: Don't worry, it will all be fine. Very nice going, I said to myself, and got ready for a pleasant rubaru between them soon.
Then came the Scene 1, which of course upset all my calculations. For the first 30 seconds, as Jodha neither enquired after Jalal's health, nor sought to apologise for the narnaal fiasco, nor even thanked him for arranging Sukanya's alliance, but launched into a broadside against his taking aapke parivaar ko (in which she obviously does not include herself) to Amer, I was all at sea.
Then I switched to my earlier resolution, abandoned any attempt to understand the discontinuity in Jodha's behaviour, and simply went with the flow. It was a wise choice, for what followed was pure delight.
This scene too was amazingly well envisaged and shot, with most of the action being shown in the mirror, an unusual trick that heightened the impact of each frame.
Jalal: Mischief abounding: Rajat's Jalal is here fabulous from start to finish. He never misses an opening to trip up his angry, flustered Jodha Begum. He is brimming over with mischief - it is there in every glance of his, in the teasing tones in his voice, in the mocking lines after he has extracted a reluctant and qualified thank you from her:Aapke is upkaar ke liye hum aabhaar prakat karte hain parantu... .
He he follows that up without missing a beat: Magar kya, Jodha Begum? Bura socho to bhi aapko gussa aata hai, achcha socho to bhi aapko gussa aata hai. Yeh hunar aap mein paidayeshi hai, ya baaqaida aapne isme taaleem haasil ki hai?
And much more in the same vein, about a baaghin from whom humein khatra hamesha hai. The flummoxed Jodha exclaims in disbelief Kya??? Whereupon Jalal embroiders further on this enticing theme, about the mortal danger to him from Jodha's assorted deadly weaponry- top ke gole ki tarah hamesha phatne ke liye tayyar aapka gussa, shamsheer se tez aapki zubaan, aur katar ki dhar dar aapki nazar, in teenon ka hamla hum par ho gaya to koyi marham humein bacha nahin sakta!
All delivered with the same lightness of touch, the same effortless mastery of flirtatious leg pulling, while his eyes, gleaming with ill-suppressed merriment as they never leave her fuming face, seeking to unsettle her even more.
Jodha: Easy prey: I was sorry to see Jodha play right into his hands, and make a complete, pokered-up, ungracious fool of herself by the time she reacts to his last sally about what all she can do for him in Amer in return for the itna nek kaam he has done for her family.
Hum to soch rahe hain kyon na roz aapke haathon se banaya khana khayein? Waise humein ab teekhe ki aadat ho gayi hai. And as Jodha's eyes narrow in anger, Ab hum par mirchi ka asar nahin hota hai! She responds to this teasing by turning her back on him and stomping off in a huff. She leaves Jalal, predictably, chortling in glee with his companion in the mirror.
Her problem is that she is utterly devoid of a sense of humour. If she had only laughed out loud at his description of her top ke gole ki tarah hamesha phatne ke liye tayyar gussa, shamsheer se tez zubaan, and all the rest, and declared :
Apitu hum to Amer ki beti hain, Shahenshah, Amer ki mirchi jaisi teekhi. Hum jaise bhi hain, aapko to isise santrusht rahan padega! Humein apne aap mein kuch bhi parivartan laaneki koyi bhi ichcha nahin hai. Aap to is janam mein to kya, agle cheh janam ke liye hamare isi kaaya aur isi pravrutti se bandhe rahenge. Kya karenge aap, Shahenshah? ,
Jalal would have been totally stumped, and might have started laughing with her, not at her.
Similarly, if she had thanked him warmly for arranging Sukanya's marriage, and told him how sorry she was about her having put him in such mortal danger without at all meaning to do so, he would have been disarmed.
But no, she has to go wandering into the morass of accusing of having ulterior motives in arranging Sukanya's marriage, which was ungracious, to say the least. From there to insisting that he never does anything without the hope of gaining something else, is but a step, as she plays further into his hands. As a feminist, I felt like shaking some sense into her head. Not that it would have helped!
So, finally, she stormed off, looking nothing like the baaghin he was comparing her to, and more like an angry kitten frustrated at not having been able to sharpen her claws on her tormentor!😉
In all this relentless, but not malicious teasing, for that is what it was, one revealing point has to be noted.
When Jodha asks, angrily, whether he had no faith in Amer or her Bapusa's ability to ensure his safety, Jalal answers her seriously and reassuringly, stressing his conviction that her brothers would be ready to do anything, including giving up their lives if necessary, to protect him. A girl with a bit more of perceptiveness would have noted the sudden change of tone and of content, from being frivolous towards her to admiration and respect for her family, and reacted accordingly.
We might them have had the first ever civilized conversation between them. Alas, this was was not to be!
Hopes belied: We are , beginning from right now, going to be treated to every corny trick in the panoply of romantic pulp fiction, up to the Ratanpur Qila contretemps, which is when the script starts picking up again. The interim Jalal-Jodha interactions bored me stiff the first time around, and the Govinda style tel maalish sequence had me fuming.
So much for my vain hopes for Jalal and Jodha, of seeing mutual caring and affection develop, slowly but surely. Of an edgy friendship morphing, insensibly, into love, with all its yearnings, its restlessness in the absence of the loved one, the misunderstandings, the jealousies, the protectiveness and the possessiveness, and beneath it all, the undercurrent of a hidden sensuality.
Of a Jodha whose pride in her magnificent husband would make her say, as Cleopatra once said to Julius Caesar : "But for you, the world is full of little men".
What a fall this is going to be, my friends (apologies to Mark Antony)! Anyhow, I am going to number the Jalal-Jodha scenes from now on, and give them a rating of 1 to 10. You, my gentle readers, are more than welcome to give your own ratings in your comments, with reasons for them.
There is only one thing I was looking forward to in 2013, and that was Dadisaa getting to know Jalal. I would bet anything that if she had been 50 years younger, Jalal would have flipped for her without a second thought, instead of this sulky, irascible, pokered-up female he has now landed himself with, complete with her bhashanbaazi and her tantrums😉 .
Kunwar Pratap ki duvidha: I normally do not devote too much space to this gentleman, mainly because Ekta's casting has, for once, gone awry with this Kunwar Pratap. Moreover, most of the lines given to him are pure bombast or ranting against the deshdrohi Bharmal. However, this time, I was so impressed by the lambent wisdom of his guru , as also by Pratap's articulation of his unwavering commitment to the Rajput code of honour, that I am going to spread myself a bit!
Of geedhads and shers: I loved it when Pratap, after listening impassively to a whole line up of his (most unimpressive and dismal looking) advisers push for a sneak attack on Jalal's cortege on the way to Amer, in order to put paid to him easily (being stupid, they assume that he will not have a military escort!), responded with a caustic Theek kah rahe hain! Uttamtam (the Sanskrit superlative) hai, parantu kaayaron ke liye, veeron ke liye nahin! ..Avasar ki prateeksha kaayar karte hain, aur peeche se vaar geedhad. Singh nahin! Singh hamesha saamne se vaar karte hain, garajkar, vijaynaad ke saath!..Is tarah peeche se vaar karna na hi hamara rashtra dharma hai, na hi Rajvanshiyon ki maryada.
This was the clear, uncomplicated code of honour by which this great warrior lived, fought, and died. This, and his fierce determination- his head unbowed and his tenacity a byeword - never to accept the suzerainty of the Mughals. No wonder that his legend endures.
Chanakyan advice : While Pratap oscillates between the conflicting pulls, the duvidha of which to choose between shatruta aur swabhimaan on the one hand, and sambandh and kartavya (of upholding family ties) on the other, his guru is clear-eyed and categoric, insisting that the latter should prevail, and that Pratap should attend the wedding.
But not solely, or even largely for familial reasons. Rather because the Mughal Shahenshah will also be there at Amer. Brushing aside Pratap's distaste for meeting Jalal, the guru sets out the tactical and strategic rationale for what he advises. Yuddh karne se pehle, apne shatru ki shakti, uski neeti, aur uski chaal ka avalokan karna, yehi rajneeti hai. Yeh tumhare liye ek avsar hai, Jalal ko theek se jaan ne ka, uski shakti aur chaal ko samajhne ka. Itihaas wo hi likhta hai, Pratap, jo apne shatru ki shakti ko jaanta ho. Yon samajh lo ki yeh nimantran tumhare liye ek rajnaitik aavashyakta hai. Yeh jan ne ka avasar hai ki kya tumhari talwar ki dhaar itni saksham hai ki wo Jalal ki dhal ko bhed sake?
The great Acharya Chanakya, from nearly 19 centuries back, would have approved wholeheartedly! Whether the results from this sakshatkaar that Pratap's guru had hoped for actually materialized is an open question.
Episodes 85b and 86: A jaundiced view
This one is going to be -now don't start laughing already! - relatively short. It is more of a venting of exasperation than an analysis.
Let me therefore just put it down as a series of questions, and you can then amuse yourselves thinking up the answers. And if any of you is still in a roseate haze induced by the boat ride, please snap out of it!
Q1) It is all very nice to educate the viewers in the complexities of Mughal-Rajput animosities, and I was duly moved by the noble sentiments in the invitation sent by the Rajmata of Amer to Maharani Jaiwantibai of Mewar. But apart from the fact that the Rajvanshis shown confabulating with Kunwar (not Rana) Pratap looked like a bunch of extras from a gangster film togged out in royal attire, there was another major problem with this segment
What about the invitation to Pratap's estranged father, the Maharana of Mewar, Udai Singh? It was to him, as the head of the Sisodias of Mewar, that the invitation would have been addressed, not to Pratap, who was not even the Yuvraj. It would have been unthinkable in terms of royal protocol.
The CVs seem to have forgotten all about Maharana Udai Singh, but when Akbar laid siege to Chttor in 1568, It was still Maharana Udai Singh who was on the throne. He had moved to Udaipur, which he founded as his new capital, and left Jaimal and Patta to defend Chittor. MaharanaUdai Singh also stood firm against the Afghans first and then the Mughals, so this premature emphasis on Kunwar Pratap seems odd, to say the least.
Q2) Why is it that Jodha is not even thinking of throwing out any of the Kabul ke zevarat gifted to Sukanya by Hamida Banu ? Should they not remind her of the Devi Maa's jewellery the Mughal raiders looted from the temple? And it is not even as if this was after Jalal had, at the Kali Maa mandir, fulfilled the sankalp Jodha had taken after that incident. Not only does she not reject the jewellery now, but she does not burn the Dhaka mulmul either, inconsistent wench that she is!😉 In fact, she seems quite in ecstasies over her Ammijaan's largesse for Sukanya, this sammaan for Amer that they would never forget!
Joking apart, of course the context of the two sets of gifts could not be more different. I was decidedly critical of Jodha's immature and thoughtless act in burning the Shahenshah's gift of the shaadi ka joda, which might have seriously endangered Amer. But I also feel that if it had been Hamida Bano who had brought it, instead of the vicious Maham Anga, Jodha might, just might not have burnt it, even if she accepted it only with a sullen face. There seems to be an instant soul connect between Hamida and Jodha, probably dating back to a poorva janma!
Q3) Why is the Shahenshah's chief minister, Atgah Khan, shown to be such an incompetent that, with a large military contingent at hand, he suggests that his emperor go for a boat ride on a lake in hostile territory, a sitting duck for any attacker, without first securing the perimeter of the lake? In his place, having handled such visits as an Ambassador, even if it was not in hostile territory, that is the first thing I would have done.
Q4) How many times is Jalal to cut his hand - not to speak of worse - in order to promote his shaky romance with the Amer ki Mirchi? At this rate, he will fade away from sheer blood loss 😉 . This is the third time, and it is getting to be so hackneyed. Can't they think of something a bit more intelligent for a change? The script's sole brainwave for promoting the Jalal-Jodha romance seems to be to get him to injure some limb so that Jodha Begum can set to work on it with her patented lep. And how the devil did he cut it this time anyway? His hand was quite saabut when he got into the boat.
It is a good thing for Jalal that the lake water in which his sulky begum is washing the cut must have been pure in those days. If it was today, he would die of chemical poisoning, possibly from mercury, as in the Minamoto affair in Japan.
Q5) What was it with the pathetic standards of marksmanship among the tribal warriors? Their arrows fell in showers, reminding one of the Yuddha Kanda in the Ramayana, and if they had been even halfway proficient, our nascent lovers should both have been reduced to pincushions. At this rate, the tribals must be starving in the jungle!
Oh dear, I had forgotten the numbering of the Jalal-Jodha scenes. Here goes, then.
Jalal-Jodha 1: Nauka vihar: This began in a promising fashion. I perked up when Jodha Begum was quizzing a daasi about her khema, displaying a sure-footed certainty as to which was the Shahenshah's. (This bit was edited out by Zee Anmol).Apart from this indication of interest in his doings, she had also given up her unseemly habit of haranguing him about a separate khema for herself. Whether it was due to the presence of Hamida Banu is not clear, but Jodha seemed reasonably well-behaved, even summoning up a reluctant smile when her Ammijaan summarily decided that she would go with the Shahenshah on the nauka vihar.
As for Jalal, he was assessing the possibilities as soon as he spotted the Amer ki Mirchi. His eyes, as he looked at her, and then up at the full moon, lit up with nascent mischief. This became even more pronounced as he saw manna descend from Heaven, in the shape of his Ammijaan, who delivered his recalcitrant begum up to him without his having to exert himself in the least! So, when Jodha was trying to catch his eye and nodding her head in the negative, Jalal blandly informed his Ammijaan: Hum bhi Atgah Saheb se yahi kehnewale the!😉
No wonder then that Jodha, forced to trot after her exasperating spouse, muttered audibly about his daft idea of going for a boat ride this late at night. She then responded to his Aapne kuch kaha? , in an irritated tone: Kaha bhi to kya? Apne hat ke aage aapko kisi ki baat sunayi kahan deti hai? Anything more typically biwi-like could not be imagined😉! Or perhaps Asha Parekh in a 1960s Hindi film? So far so good.
From then on, however, things go steadily downhill. Jodha hesitates visibly, in fact for what seemed an age, about letting her husband help her into the small boat. Once in the boat, after grabbing his arm when she loses her balance, she continues with her 1960s film heroine stance. She looks everywhere but at Jalal, while he gazes unblinkingly at her.
When, in an effort to make some conversation, he enquires pleasantly about her liking boat rides, what is it with her reply? Anand milta hai ya dand, yeh kiske saath ho us par nirbhar karta hai! It is insolent and ungracious, and for that one moment, his smile fades. As a follow up, she informs him that the problem with him is that aap baatein nahin, kewal vivaad karna jaante hain!What vivaad there was in his innocuous question I could not make out, not to speak of the fact that Jodha Begum has a PhD in vivaad or behas!
She keeps up this snippishness without a let up. When, after washing the cut in his hand, in slo mo, with the lake water, she sulks and gets up suddenly, if there had been any justice in the world of soaps, she should have fallen into the water and got the dunking of her life! No such luck, alas!😉
This is not how royalty behaves, and that too in front of servants. And there is a lot of space between a goody two shoes, and this humourless, ill-mannered young woman, and this should not be forgotten. It does not have to be one or the other. That Jalal does not seem to mind her ungraciousness, and when he does, he seems to get over it fast, changes nothing in this. I long, simply long for a sensible conversation between the two of them, free of taanas and sallies of the cutting kind, but where is this to be found? Not in this script, that is for sure!
In 2013, at the end of this episode, with the two of them facing a steady shower of arrows from the bank, I was wondering how on earth Jalal was proposing to save our Amer ki Mirchi! At that moment, she seemed to be in front and more exposed, for all his bravado of letting nothing happen to her. The only option would have been for him to dive under the boat with her, and use the inverted boat as a shield.But then her regalia, when wet, would be heavy enough to sink them both!😉
The whole boat ride scene was contrived in the extreme, farce with a capital F. Not that I think anyone cared!
Rating: 4 out of 10, and 2 of those for the pleasing beginning!
Jalal-Jodha 2: Saanjha khema: Now this one was a delight, and this not only because Jalal was in full flow as the Puck of Agra. Jodha too played off him with praise-worthy comic timing.
When Jodha turns up unannounced in Jalal's tent (which is odd, but perhaps the guards assumed that a begum has this privilege!), he usurps her standard opening line: Aap yahan?, and hiding his surprise well, informs her kindly :Zara gaur farmayiye, Jodha Begum! Aap galat kheme mein aa gayi hain!
When Jodha counters this with a poker-faced: Hum bilkul sahi sthan par aaye hain, and announces Wo...h...Aaj raat hum yahin, aapke kheme mein hi rahenge!, Jalal is not about to let any rising tide of gladness, however tentative and hesitant, show on his face. So he gets up from the bed, and takes refuge in an ironic comment: Wallah! Aaj pehli baar kisine Shahenshah ko hukum diya hai!
Her eventual explanation, about her sudden descent on him being due to their Ammijaan's orders, must have brought him down to earth with a thud, but he hides that too well in badinage about offering her the bed while he sleeps on the couch. Her predictable refusal of his upkaar, adding, as an afterthought, Waise bhi, is upkaar ke badle mein na jaane kya maang baitein aap humse? does not faze him, for this sort of thing is now old hat for apna Jalal!
So he does not respond in kind. Instead, eyes mock serious, he sends up a prayer to the Almighty: Phir saanp bichuon ki jaan par Khuda khair kare! Hum aaj unki jaan nahin bacha paayenge, kyonki hum kisiki jaan bachata bahut thak gaye hain!😉 And he retires to the bed, leaving fully half of it free, undoubtedly anticipating the future developments, and closes his eyes.
What follows is delightfully comic. Jodha, sitting on the couch, mulling over Jalal's sanp bichoowala comment, her eyes scanning the tent with increasing trepidation, is assailed by memories of the Mohini kaand on the road to Ajmer. That does it! She gets up, sidles over to the left side of the bed, seats herself gingerly after moving the coverlet towards Jalal, and looks at him, apparently asleep already, out of the corner of her eyes.
Just when she looks reassured (of what?), Jalal suddenly moves, blows out the only candle in the room, and again closes his eyes. Jodha, startled , exclaims aloud: Inhon ne diya kyon bujha diya?, to Jalal's secret amusement.
She next looks Heavenwards, and sends up a petition : He Ambe Maa! , presumably for divine assistance to keep Jalal on his side of the bed😉. I was wondering why Ambe Maa had been selected this time, and not Jodha's regular Kanha, but this was very likely because Jodha felt that the Goddess would have some extra feminine solidarity with her! 😉Next, a concerned (but not nervous) Inhein kehne ka bhi koyi labh nahin hoga! , before she too settles down for the night. Jalal, watching all this unobserved, must have been chortling inside! Peace then presumably prevails in the Shahi khema for the rest of the night.
The significant point about these goings on is that Jodha now clearly trusts her patidev to keep the line. Which ensures that the stree ke liye laalasa theme has been laid to rest ( not permanently, alas!). This is a baby step forward in her relationship with Jalal, and undoubtedly has a bearing on her agreeing to share his bedroom while at Amer.
As for Jalal, who has surely never before had to woo any woman, especially one who will not even give him the time of the day, such incremental progress must have the charm of novelty!
Rating: 7 out of 10, 2 of which for Jalal's saanp-bichoo crack!
Much of a muchness: Well, we now know that a lot more more of this jejune stuff is going to be unloaded on us in Amer. The sad truth is that after a while, even Jalal's mischievous, dancing eyes begin to pall; one can have too much of a good thing, especially when the object of all his badinage and flirtatiousness continues to look as if she has been attacked by a swarm of bees! It is now the nth time that he is teasing Jodha calling her a baaghin. And being a completely humourless girl, she is unable to think up a single smart retort. Or better still, laugh it off. I have by now grown tired for writing snappy lines for her!😉
Don't mind me, folks, I am already out of sorts after having to watch all this laboured nonsense. Carry on with the joyfest over the Akdha/Parijat prem katha. They should have had Jalal cutting another limb the day after, and Jodha being be stabbed by the assassin the day after that. Phir kya, yeh prem katha toh chalti nahin, daudti!
Jokes of the day: 1) Bharmal, who was not present at the main gate of the Amer fort to greet his javaisa the Shahenshah, leaving Jalal to the care of his sons, while personally escorting Kunwar Pratap, not even the Yuvraj of Mewar, to his rooms, for all the world as if he was his ADC. It was beyond ridiculous.
2)The idea of Maham Anga singing a lori😉. It had me in splits!
Scene of the day: The relentlessly hyped face to face encounter between Jalal and Pratap. It was so stagey and affected, and so obviously meant to impress the viewers, that it was almost amusing. The wooden faced Pratap did not disappoint me, never departing from the flat monotone which characterizes all his utterances. Jalal was of course far more nuanced and subtle, but Rajat had no one and nothing to play off, and there was only so much even he could so with that scene.
Finally, I almost expected a large announcement at the bottom of the frame when they were eyeing each other : YAHAN, SHAHENSHAH JALALUDDIN AUR MAHARANA PRATAP, US SADI KE DO MAHAAN HASTIYON KA AAMNA SAAMNA HUA!😉
Rather like the caption of the frame in the 1982 film, Coolie , when it was released after Amitabh Bachchan's recovery from near death, showing the exact moment when Amitabh took that mistimed, almost fatal punch to his abdomen!
That is it for now, folks. The next time, en avant to the Kali Maa mandir, and the cutting of a Gordian knot!
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