Jodha Akbar : 172,173 : At long last, Camelot!
Folks,
This one is again not a chronological analysis, far from it, but a collection of linked themes. And as I often do, let me begin at the very end of these two episodes.
Jalal and Jodha are on their knees in front of Sheikh Salim Chisti, in their Seth-Sethani garb. He sees through this disguise at once and welcomes them by their real names. Jalal is not surprised, but Jodha, though her face is uncovered and the saint has seen her before (when he had come to Agra, immediately after their marriage, to bless them), seems taken aback.
Jalal makes an infinitesimal sign with his head to Jodha - this has by now become a habit between them, which is very significant in itself - and she joins him in doing a matha tekhna before the saint.
He praises Jalal as one who will change taarikh (history) by willingly assuming the garb of an aam aadmi (to ascertain their woes and give them relief and succour). The warmth in Jodha's eyes, and her half smile, reflect her proprietary pride and pleasure in seeing her husband so described.
I was reminded of a line I had written in one of my old posts, about the Jodha I had long wanted, and had now got at long last:
A Jodha who would look at her magnificent husband with radiant pride and say, as Cleopatra once said to Julius Caesar "But for you, the world is full of little men."
Or, to borrow some lines for the famous poet Sumitranandan Pant's Tum aur main, somewhat reminiscent of my comparison of Jalal-Jodha to the deep, turbulent ocean and a clear, burbling brook:
Tum tung Himalay shringa, main chanchala gati sur sarita, Tum naad ved omkar saar, main yuvati nupur dhwani, Tum Shiv ho, main hoon Shakti.
(You are a high Himalayan peak, I am a fast flowing stream, You are the essence of the resonant chant of the Vedas, I am the gentle tinkling of a maiden's anklets,
You are Shiva, I am Shakti.)
[There is an old Tamil movie song for the lovers:
"Nadhi enge pogirathu?" "Kadalaith thedi"
( Where does the stream go? In search of the sea..)
"NaaL enge pogirathu?" "Iravaiththedi"
(Where does the day proceed? In search of the Night..)
"Nilavenge pogirathu?' Malaraiththedi.."
(Where does the moon go? In search of the flower..)
"Manam enge pogirathu?" "Uravaiththedi"
( Where does the heart go? In search of a relationship!)]
Saanjhe raaste, saanjhi manzil: They both have of late faced grave vicissitudes, the saint goes on, and have both triumphed over them, though hers were extremely difficult. Such trials are meant for you to find a saathi, he adds, looking now at Jalal, and I see that this saathi has already been found. Jalal looks across at Jodha's serene face, half hopeful, half still wondering if this is true.
The Sheikh then turns to Jodha Begum, and announces, the level tone of his words belying the momentous import of his vision: You will show a new path to the Mughal sultanate.
Jalal looks pleased but somewhat confused. "What new path? ", he seems to be asking himself, and not getting an answer.
Then comes the second line : By becoming the Mariam-uz-Zamani.
I was profoundly relieved to see that Jodha's eyes are still and tranquil, almost as if she was in a trance. There was not the slightest hint of the hidden distaste, the instinctive withdrawal, that one saw there when the same prediction, that she would bear the heir to the Mughal throne, was made by the saint soon after their marriage.
She seems now to be receiving the prediction not as an imposition, but as a benediction. A benediction that was but an affirmation of her new realization of her own destiny.
Jalal's face, by contrast, is a study in rapidly changing emotions.
First, an expectant stillness, as he waits for the answer to the question in his zehen, Kaunsa raasta, aur kaise? Next, as he hears the words, his eyes light up, fleetingly, with a surge of incredulous joy - as from an inner glow. But he immediately lowers them and looks down, as if to contain his heartbeats and his joy alike: Kahin kisi ki nazar na lag jaye!
He does not look across as Jodha, as he does so often these days, for confirmation and empathy. No, his delight at this sudden gift from the Almighty is, at this moment, his and his alone. For it is the fulfillment of his two most fervent desires. The one, the yearning for an heir, and the other, the craving to be willingly accepted and loved by the woman to whom he has now given his long lost heart. He is limp with relief and gratitude, but he cannot, as yet, share this with anyone else. Not even with her who will, he hopes now, fulfil both these desires .
Then again, there is perhaps the old hesitation, the doubt as to how Jodha will receive this prediction. For Jalal would not want even his long awaited heir to be from Jodha if the child was not as much a source of joy for her as it would be for him. I wish he had turned at once to look at her face. He would have got all his answers.
It is like a big landscape painting in Acryic measuring 500 cm / 350 cm , very smooth, done with dainty and soft colours, depicting the beauty of the dawn, with the orange coloured sun rising, and the birds chirping and singing in the Raag Bibaas..Just reflecting Jalal and Jodha's minds!
NB: Saanjha means "common", in the sense of "shared", like a saanjha chula,at which everyone in the family or community can cook
Shades of Laila Majnu: For this is not the Jodha of old.
Do you folks remember the tale of Laila and Majnu? When Majnu was whipped, the red weals appeared across Laila's back as well.
Jalal and Jodha are not quite at this level of aatmaanubhooti, the perception of soul-connectedness, as yet, but they are working towards it. When her hand touches the hot tawa by chance and she winces audibly, Jalal reacts instantaneously as if it was his hand that had got burnt.
As Jodha applies the lep to the deep sword cut in his back after his victorious battle with the bandits who attack Todar Mal's village, she exclaims aloud in empathetic pain, making him remark Ghaav humein laga hai, Jodha Begum, aur siskiyaan aap bhar rahi hain! He is right, for in her reaction at the sight of the wound , there is nothing of the detached do gooding of old with which she used to tend to him, describing it as her seva to a ghayal. Now, her gasp is one of shared hurt, and of pain which is perhaps even sharper than his.
Sangini in the making: Jodha has also developed a degree of understanding for Jalal's feelings even when they might be not hers, or at odds with hers. And a degree of wifely concern for what troubles and angers him.
Thus, when, on seeing Sher Shah Suri's portrait in Todar Mal's residence, and hearing him say that it was he who had defeated the Emperor Humayun, he clenches his right fist in suppressed fury, the immediate concern on Jodha's face is striking.
Later, when she is tending to his wound, she unhesitatingly asks him about this, adding a typically wifely, inquisitorial query: Aap hamse kya chupa rahe hain? His rage and his frustration at having had to accept the hospitality of an enemy of his father's boil over as he talks to her of what his Khan Baba had told him about Todar Mal. She listens silently, for she does not know much about this slice of recent history. But she does ask him, a little later, why then he had saved Todar Mal's life.
Jalal's aswer, that as the Shahenshah, it was his duty to come to the aid of everyone anywhere in his realm who was oppressed, touches a chord in her. She registers silent approval, both then, and again as he speaks of having to pay off the debt of gratitude to Todar Mal for having sheltered them for the night.
But what struck me was that when he announces, fiercely, that he will come back here as the Shahenshah to punish Todar Mal for the harm he had visited on Jalal's family, Jodha is visibly apprehensive and does not approve of this at all. The old Jodha would have immediately launched into a bhashan about the need for forgiveness and about the quality of mercy that is not strained (apologies to Shakespeare). This new Jodha stays discreetly silent, for she understands where he is coming from and his rage, even if she does not share it.
These days, she consults him with an enquiring glance before doing anything - whether it is going off with the banjaran to the women's section, or going indoors at the Todar Mal residence when the dacoits attack. He too accepts her advice, as when she feels that Todar Mal is trustworthy and they can accept his hospitality.
Again, when Todar Mal offers them a palki for Jodha, she might well, footsore and tired as she must have been from all the unaccustomed hardships of the day before, have longed for that bit of comfort. But she knows that Jalal would not want to be beholden to Todar Mal for anything more, and so she turns the offer down gracefully.
It is equally revealing, and touching, that Jalal too does not jump the gun and refuse the offer on his own; he gives her the choice in the matter, whatever his own reservations might be. I was delighted with both of them!
In fact, it was the theme of your whole show! Justifying the title but shown in a simple outline sketch, in Pencil!
Jodha is also learning the essential art of coaxing Jalal to do what she wants, instead of haranguing him about it. Though Todar Mal has refused to take his guest, Badal , with him to fight the dacoits, when his wife is weeping in an agony of apprehension about him, Jodha wants Jalal, who is standing there in sullen anger, arms crossed across his chest, to go to his aid. But she does not know if he will want to do so, given his visible anger about something she does not as yet understand. So, instead of asking him openly, she looks at him over her shoulder, in a fleeting look of mute entreaty. It registers, and though he looks as angry as before, Jalal nods and moves off.
She continues to be fiercely protective of her husband, When Jalal is threatened with the lash in the jail, Jodha, who has been temporarily silenced by Jalal's kasam and has been shunted off the podium ( the flare up rage on Jalal's face as the guard drags Jodha off roughly is instinctive; he cannot bear it if anyone mistreats her), comes alive in a surge of fury. The sudden strength with which she seizes the whip and throws it aside is powered by this protectiveness.
She is a wonderful companion in hard times. Unfazed by any troubles, big or small. Ever cheerful and uncomplaining. Ready to sit on a dirty floor in a crowded jail without any fuss.. Unwilling to let Jalal take so much trouble with wood gathering for the fire to keep her warm. Ready to walk on despite her swollen, and undoubtedly painful feet.
In short, to borrow a modern term, a very good sport.
The scene of Jalal trying to tend to her poor sore feet was so gentle and charming, even if he could not stop himself from camouflaging his latent hurt about the past rebuff with a tart Rajvanshi auraten apne shauhar ko kya kya nahin karne deti hain? followed, bitter laughter catching in his throat, by his 7th reference to The Dhakka in recent times.
(Similar incident very much later when both of them go to ambi ma's temple by walk to perform pooja for Ruq's 'not -expected - child.').
She is coming along nicely, is apni Jodha Begum. No wonder that Jalal, in the precap to Episode 173, after making it clear to a supercilious Ruqaiya- with a masterly and unerring grasp of her nature - that if she wants to accompamy him for the rest of his journey, she has to do it his way, as a common riyaya, adds: Jodha Begum ko dekhiye, kitni khush hain!
No prudent man would have made such a disastrous faux pas, but then, this is a Shahenshah. As he looks at his Begum-e-Khaas with weary patience, it seems clear that he simply does not care if that riles her, as it assuredly will!
The Shove vs The Handhold: The single most delightful scene in this segment was undoubtedly that of The Handhold. Jodha is now acquiring a new hunar, the gentle art of flirting with her husband, though in a tentative fashion, as in only natural in a novice in coquetry. Or at least so I hoped then! At all events, she is here becoming quite direct in handling him.
There was the Aap mere pati hain na? To aap mujhe baahar nahin le ja sakte? in Episode 169, when you could have knocked me down with a feather in sheer shock. Here, I was better prepared as she got up, threw away the sticks he had gathered for the dying fire, made gentle fun of a Shahenshah so concerned about the wood , and then, to his bewilderment., took his hand and dragged him off to sit next to her. Once there, as she assured him that there was no need for him to be so concerned about her, she held his hand firmly clasped between both of hers. It was not till Jalal pointedly looked down at their entwined hands that she (had to) let go of him and move slightly aside.
What followed was at once sidesplitting and very revealing. Jalal, ever on the ball, and having decided to abandon his dhakka mantra, got back at her for all her earlier stree ke liye lalasa taunts, though with gentle mischief. He now realized, he asserted, why she had thrown away his sticks. It was not that she was concerned about his exertions. Not at all. It was really because:
Aapko bahana chahiye tha humaare paas aane ka, humein choone ka, hamare haath to pakadne ka. Aap ne sochaa, raat kaa andhera hai, aas-paas koi nahin hai, mauka hai, mahaul hai, dastoor hai, to kyun na in sab baaton ka faydaa uthaya jai! Shahenshah saamne hain, aur aapne bina jataye yeh sab kuchh kar diya! Waah !
Jodha, caught unawares by this wicked broadside, neither lashed out in angry denial nor moved off to sulk at a safe distance.Instead, she tried to recover lost ground by rushing to pick up the sticks she had thrown away, merely noting, in a somewhat proforma manner Aisa kuchh bhi nahin hai, her body language seeming to convey merely exasperation at having been caught out, and at Jalal's refusal to play along instead of exposing her little trick.
I have been repeating this too often of late, but indeed , how much have things changed!
The Teddy Bear & his Sethani: While we are on this topic, whatever anyone else here felt about it, I loved this Seth-Sethani gig, every single bit of it. I did not care if Jalal looked even more like a teddy bear, especially when Jodha was imagining him capering about with unaccustomed gusto as as the banjara musician. Incidentally, Jodha looked gorgeous as the banjaran , as she danced with svelte abandon, and the banjaran costume suited her to a T.
There were so many charming vignettes of them both in these episodes that I have lost count.
There is the open amusement in Jodha's face and the quizzical look in Jalal's as the fellow jailmate describes their jodi as kauwe ke chonch mein moti. She is no end pleased at all the talk of the Shahenshah having acquired such a beautiful begum who was ready to sacrifice her life to save his ( I must say the grapevine in the Mughal sultanate seems to rival the internet in both speed and reach!) .
Her laughing at herself after imagining Jalal as the banjara musician, and responding to Jalal's standard issue gripe about not understanding women (strange, but men are still sayong the same 450 years later!) with a smart putdown Agar samajh nahin sakte, to samajhne ki prayaas kyon karte hain? Accompanying that by a little pout, and then tilting her face with a satisfied smile.
Her bustling over to the oven, and persuading the banjaran, Kaki, hamare bartar ke liye roti banani hai, and then settling down to the chapati making without a belan. A quintessentially wifely desire to cook for her husband. Not to pay off a debt of gratitude, as when she made that fancy lunch for him in Agra, but out of simple caring.
The way she sits next to her sethji on that charpoy, one leg bent at the knee and the other folded under her, proferring the rotis and the water. Exactly like the way a farmer's wife sits down next to her husband in the field and produces his lunch. And watches with proprietary pleasure as he eats it.
This is judged as the best of the lot for the award of first prize! A wash drawing in many ways similar to the paintings of Raja Ravi Varma with the rustic backdrop! Look at the matronly concern on her face when he eats.. and look at the contentment on his face ! Only thing missing is a small fan in her hand. She could have used the Pallu of her sari!
When he enquires about the burn in her hand from the tawa, her candid pleasure at his concern, and her gratitude for it, is charming in its sincerity. Jodha Begum has now learnt to value this husband of hers, jo use har waqt palkon par bitatha hai.
And I simply adored the way in which he calls his Sethani Bhagwan. I would have suggested Ramu ki Maa, but perhaps that would have been too much even for the new Jodha!
(But where is Ramu?)
So, I am not one of those who turn their noses up at the Seth-Sethani segments, deriding them as corny. How else would we have ever got to see such charming domestic scenes between Jodha and Jalal, thanks to the mahaul and the total privacy?
Moreover, these scenes are like a series of stepping stones for Jalal and Jodha to get across a morass of misunderstandings, doubts, lack of faith, and all the malevolent attentions of several denizens of the Agra palace. And reach the other shore safely, to a genuinely happy togetherness. Or, to be accurate, they should have been, but never mind! They were pure pleasure while they lasted.
Jalal: Imperial traits: I am sure that like Sandhya - jiski aankhen Jalal ki shamsheer ko jung mein dekhne ke liye taras gayee theen - the rest of the forum too was in the seventh heaven after Jalal's unexpected and savage display of shamsheerbaazi (even if the shamsheer was borrowed one!). Rajat was as agile and ferocious as ever, and I loved it too, though the shaky takes robbed it of the clear cut, raw physicality of the similar display when Jalal was escaping from Amer with Abdul.
For the rest, two of Jalal's scenes stand out.
The one, in the jail, after Jodha pays the teerth kar with her jewellery and prevents Jalal from being whipped. Jalal says to her Apni hi mukarrar ki gayi sazaa ko kaatna bahut kam shahenshaon ke naseeb mein hota hai, Jodha Begum. Aapne hum se yeh mauka cheen liya.
The bitter sense of shame he feels at the injustice being done to his subjects under his rule, his desire to assuage his sense of guilt by taking the very punishment decreed for them in his name under harsh and unjust laws, plus the unstated determination to set things right at the earliest - they are all there in Jalal's eyes and face as he looks at a troubled , unsure Jodha. The deep regret and the (temporary) helpless frustration are dissolved in the final Khair.. as he leads her away.
This is a portrait of Jalal, done in oil medium,every stroke showing the different expressions on his face, the agony,the helplessness, anger,regret and frustration. Recommended for a special prize! Well done!
It was an unbelievable display of deep, complex emotions conveyed with a single look, and thru the deep, frustrated tone of voice.
The other is when he is bidding farewell to Todar Mal and his wife. Never was the duality of Badal and Jalal more evident than here. As Preeti.r had pointed out with remarkable perceptiveness on my original thread of February 12, 2014, even earlier, while asking whose portrait is the one on the wall, he is all unsophisticated curiosity as Badal. Once he learns that it is Sher Shah Suri's. his voice cracks like a whiplash: Yeh yahan kya kar raha hai? It is pure Jalal, and Todar Mal must have been startled, and possibly alerted to the fact that this is no Sethji.
He takes leave of Todar Mal as Badal, but when he receives the Shahi mohar, inspects it, and comments on it, the tone of voice and the quick assertiveness are Jalal's.
Finally, after listening with unwinking attention to Todar Mal's exposition of his personal code of chivalry and war, when he says that Todar Mal is a bhalmanus, he is pure Badal. But in the same breath, whem he assures his host that he will remember the lesson he has learnt from his for the rest of his life, he becomes all Jalal.
( my doubt.: He refers to the gesture shown by Shershah Suri. But as an aam aadmi, what lesson he would learn for the rest of his life?)
This scene also brings out, once more, Jalal's ability, like the swan of myth, to separate and drink only the milk and discard the water. Akbar kept up this trait all his life, no matter from whom he learnt something useful. It was one of the special attributes that made him Akbar.
Todar Mal: Subtle wisdom: He is calm, dignified, perceptive, astute, and has a flair for doing exactly the right thing at the right time. He turns Jalal's hostility towards him into acceptance and appreciation by gifting him the shahi mohar of the Emperor Humayun. With that one stroke, he achieves three things.
One, he shows his profound gratitude to (the supposed) Badal for saving his life.
Two, he defuses Jalal's enmity towards him by telling him how he got the shahi mohar.
Three, he makes it clear, thru the very special nature of the gift, that he recognizes who Badal really is. At the same time, by preserving the Shahenshah's incognito, he displays his impeccable discretion.
No wonder that Jalal dockets him away in his mental card index as a very valuable find, whom he will summon to Agra at the soonest. The Navaratnas are slowly taking shape.
Precap: I feel sorry for Ruqaiya from time to time, especially at this point, seeing that she is pathetically ill-equipped to cope with what is going to hit her very soon. But here I was very sorry to see her land up so soon. I wanted more of the delightful Badal-Kajri duo, and I felt highly irritated at the prospect of being shortchanged.
My hope that she would baulk at the prospect of traipsing with Jalal-Jodha on foot on bad roads, and would push off in a palkhi while our Seth and Sethani meandered leisurely across the countryside communing with nature and the riyaya, was of course belied.
Which was a great pity, especially as I had, in my 2014 post, tacked on a hopeful prediction about their entourage being extricated from prison by Ruqaiya and her escort. The prospect of that daroga facing the Malika-e-Khaas would have been too delightful to be missed!😉😉
Shyamala / Aunty/ Akka/Di
And thank you very much Shyamala, for the treat you offered for my imagination as a part of your Valentine gift!
Yours,
Saraswathi Akka.
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