Friends, this is still a short-ish update today - on account of personal work. But anyway this was again another filler episode of sorts yesterday for me. The episode itself didn't move the story forward beyond an inch or two. But three things have happened so far that merit some attention.
One, the increasing belittling of Jodha continues unabated!
(But there were some instances that showed Jalal was on the snoop himself too!)
I am ashamed to say I am continuing to watch a serial where the storywriters are getting such glee at demeaning the heroine more and more - just to get a melodramatic turnaround positive effect when she finally unmasks the true villain and in the 11th hour saves Jalal. Till then it seems, everybody in Agra will try to heap insult upon insult at Jodha, till she is ready to break, and we audiences may have to squirm and start shouting "Enough, enough, we cannot watch this torture and humiliiation of any human being any more!"
Jodha was twice more deeply hurt and insulted yesterday - once by Jalal, and once by Ruq/Maham - and in both instances, I was itching to go into the scene myself and deliver a round of tight slaps at those hurting her. Just to show Jodha as the super heroine at the end of the track, does so much mindless and endless humiliation need to take place on a daily basis? Every little belittling of Jodha by Jalal also reduces his character to me, so in the end I feel as if both my hero and heroine are being shown in their worst light. What are we to think of the hero Jalal if he is one of those reduced to such rudeness just to vent his own frustrations with Jodha? And what are we to think of the way he seems not even to know what his Khas Begum and his Badi Ammi are up to when they heap endless venom on Jodha?
Anyway there's one point that came through all this belittling tamasha - and that is that Jalal may already be in the suspicion mode about Ben and her plan, and may be preparing himselffor a dirty turn of events - even if he is not 100% sure of his facts yet.
Yesterday a spoiler came out that Jalal will fully know about Ben being a vishkanya and her detailed plot, just moments before Jodha actually saves him at the nikah. And so when Jodha saves him he will instantly see what a heroic act she has done, for by then he would know the full extent of the khatra to himself from Ben.That spoiler seems to be on the right track ... for in yesterday's episode, it sure looked like Jalal was doing his own jasoosi on Ben (even while blaming Jodha as jealous of Ben). I seemed to get two isharas of such private Jalal jasoosi which I have detailed below.
Anyway to trace back a bit, the episode started with Jodha and Salima near the poisoned well, taking in the scene of the villagers mourning their dead and saying this well was not contaminated a week back, and it has only been so in the last few days - thus hinting at the period after Ben jumped into it. Jodha had heard enough to want to go and tell Jalal herself about Ben having contaminated the well!
Hamida, meanwhile, came to Jalal and said "Son, I think you must give Jodha one more chance. She may be telling the truth about how she saw Ben consuming poison as a vishkanya!"Jalal however maintained his "Jodha is jealous of Ben" story but promised Hamida that as the son of Humayun and her own son he would do all in his power to stay safe from khatra.
(I saw this sentence as the first clear ishara - that while Jalal was tukrao-ing Jodha's story overtly, on the sly he was suspicious of Ben to a degree, and knew he had to be careful - even if he did not have the full details of what was going on. That allusion to being the son of Humayun and Hamida seemed a powerful statement of extreme personal alertness out of duty to his vansh).
In a slightly later scene Jodha is seen having told Jalal about Ben and the poisoned well, when instead of believing her, Jalal rounds up on her saying "Oh, so you got this gossip at the city market? What exactly were you doing there, may I ask? And if you insist on your cock-and-bull story about Ben being a vishkanya, let me double check this well ka incident with Atga and Adham!" He then summons Atga and Adham, and Adham conveniently lies that a dead snake was found in the well causing it to be contaminated - and he has since closed the well. I thought the dialogue so far was even OK ... but what folllowed from Jalal was really unnecessary. He added to Jodha "Okay, now go and help Ruq. It is part of your duty as one of my earlier wives to welcome my new wife. Go get ready to do so!" Knowing full well how Ruq had treated Jodha on the lep incident yesterday, it was uncalled for to say "Go and assist Ruq" as if exhorting some baandhi to do her job at the bidding of a superior. To me, it was like showing Jodha what was her lower place in the hierarchy oof his wives, which sounded downright indecent and uncalled for to me!
After despatching Jodha, Jalal was seen talking to himself "Jodha you clearly don't want my marriage to Ben!" This sentence could be interpreted either way ... as Jalal still continuing to hold Jodha as jealous oblivious to her telling the truth ... or it could also be taken as Jalal knowing that Jodha was telling the truth and reiterating to himself hat there must be a good reason why she dooesn't want him to marry Ben and is doing everything she can to protect him. If we want to be positive about Jalal, we can take the second interpretation above. But still, where was the need to tell Jodha to take herself off and help Ruq with the welcome party. That was needless rudeness, I thought!
(Maybe I am making too much of this rudeness by Jalal, but it hit me a bit hard when I saw it, so I am stressing this point. Others may see it all as not so intolerable, and I can understand if they feel that way.)
In a later scene, Jalal is seen approaching the garden asking Atga "That job I told you to complete before the wedding ... is it on track?" and Atga says "Yes it is!". Now what was that about?
(I saw this sentence as the second clear ishara - that Jalal was secretly doing something with Atga's help to stall or mitigate something BEFORE the nikah! Hence my suspicion that Jalal has no intention to go ahead with this nikah at all and is going through a charade with Ben. Let's see in the end how much was Jodha's heroism, and how much was Jalal's own jasoosgiri that redeems his own character in this track!)
Rounding off from the Atga group Jalal comes up against Jodha who again tentaively begins by telling him "I know you still don't believe me , but ...". But hear what Jalal replies! He says "I know that you never wanted me as a husband yourself. But still you are so jealous of Ben? It must be your audha that you want to prevent Ben getting, since it's not me you want! But anyway I know you will not give Ben a welcome gift as you should. So I have brought one instead which I want you to give to her. And though you say you will not do this gifting, you always do the opposite of what you say, so I will take it that you agreed to offer the gift, thanks and gooodbye!"
The thing that seems to continue to irk Jalal about Jodha is that she "doesn't seem to want him as a husband". That much is clear that he is very frustrated by her aloofness from himself. But to lose no chance to give some nasty pokes at every turn (especially if he himself is already also suspecting Ben) seems to be a bit over the top. Maybe even these frustrated jibes of Jalal are being heightened by the Creatives just to show Jalal falling into the deepest remorse when Jodha demonstrates how important he is to her by risking her own life! Nevertheless I can't understand the value of going to such extremes just to increase melodrama later! OK let it all be done in one episode, but to have three episodes with continuing Jodha humiliation? Too much!
The sad part was that this conversatiion (about audha being important to Jodha), as said by Jalal, seemed to fall on the eager ears of Ruq and Maham watching the scene. Maham instigated Ruq saying "See how despite their overt diffferences, he still always stop s to talk to her? She is getting too close to him, emotionally and physically. You, as the harem in-charge need to reposition her proximity to him!"
At once the enraged and idea-laden Ruq marches to Jodha's room and says "Vacate this room forthwith as Ben now must occupy it if Jalal wants her as close to himself as I am on the other side. You have till evening to move out, and make sure you're in time for the mehndi ceremony!" (What a b****y thing to say or do!!)
Jodha is crestfallen and more than hurt that when she is trying to do good she is actually going from bad to worse in Jalal's eyes and he surely must know what Ruq is doing, right? Moti consoles Jodha saying "Remember Kanha's words in the Gita 'Do your duty wiithout expectation of results'". Jodha resigns herself to do just that!
After seeing all this I have a question: are there more insults to Jodha in the offing today also so that the grand nikah can happen only on Friday? I am not sure I want to see another half hour of everyone ganging up to make one girl's life miserable. My support is always with the underdog, but even I am tired of what the underdog has to go through to look like a Great Hound on Friday! I am tired of the way Jodha is being crushed and the way Jalal and some of his his family are being shown as enjoying crushing her!
Two, Adham Khan enters the picture to muddle the works!
(But his agenda seems divergent from Ben's and that's where they may unmask each other!)
The precap in the previous episode had prepared us for Adham Khan and his hi-jinks with Ben in yesterday's episode, but exactly how he would fit into the picture was not clear. However yesterday all was patent! Adham overheard Salima and Jodha (in their baandhi dresses) discussing how the well may have been poisoned by Benazir, and he thought he had heard enough to be able to take advantage of the doubts on Ben in Jodha's mind. Already I suppose he was predisposed to wondering if Jodha's accusations of Ben were true, so yesterday he looked like he had got something valuable to work with - the well! He then (in a series flashbacks) was shown as double-checking Ben's vishkanya status with Sharif in jail (and even giving dire threats to Sharif in case the info was not proved right!) and additionally he also got the same feedback from one of his henchmen.
He then was seen marching into Ben's quarters just as she was saying she just didn't want the nikkaah with Jalal. Adham started circling around Ben with flirty remarks on her beauty, husn, intelligence, and then also her "zeher". That made Ben extremely nervous when Adham further indicated that he knew for sure she was a vishkanya (because the well incident proved it!) and he could make Ben miserable if he wanted to by going to Jalal with all this.
But, he hastened to add, he had instead fooled Jalal by saying a poisonous dead snale was found in the well, and he had saved Ben. Why, she may ask! Well, it was because he too wanted Jalal dead and the throne for himself, so they both could be "two people in the same boat", as it were, in their intentions to see Jalal finished off! Ben was shocked to hear this but before she could ask further, Adham insisted that none of this should reach his mother Maham's ears - as she had a soft corner for Jalal, and even though she wanted the throne for Adham she did not want it at the cost of Jalal's life, and so Ben had better be warned not to provoke Maham's notorious ire!
After Adham left, Ben was seen telling Zakira that she thought she now had a firm ally in Adham Khan! She thought it would now be easy to end Jalal's life at the nikah, and then flee into the sunset as Adham would make it possible. But simultaneously Adham was busy telling his henchman a different ending to the same story. He said "After Jalal is finished off, this Abul Mali will no doubt step forward as a claimant to the throne, but he and Ben do not know that I intend to finish off Abul Mali!"
So much for friendhsips and partnerships between two evil eggs. They are both together till the end of Jalal after which they plan to turn against each other! I wonder what will happen now after Jalal lives, Jodha becomes a heroine, and Ben gets caught. What will happen of Adham's secret plot? Will it stay unexposed and consigned to the background of affairs at Agra never to be revealed?
I have some suspicion that the story will not just end with the death of Benazir at the nikah. I think, as per the new promo, Jodha saves Jalal by drinking the poison herself ... immediately after that Ben will try to flee on a horse that Adham supplies her. And simultaneously Abul Mali too may escape jail via the route hiidden in the paigam in the darbooz.
Maybe in the end Jalal's men will catch and neutralise Ben in a countryside capture-and-kill, while Abul Mali will scoot away to return to the story another day! And maybe, just maybe, Jalal will come to know that it was Adham's horse that Ben was trying to flee on, and his suspicions on Adham will add to his subsequent suspicions on Maham (when Jodha's paigam is read or Shivani returns to recount Maham's role in her elopement story).
Three, the new promo hints at a "vish ka pyala", not a bite!
(And so could the poison be neutralised with an antidote for Jodha as with Zakira?)
Okay, a last parting word on the new promo that's just aired. It shows Jodha grabbing the "vish ka pyala" from Ben's hand after Ben drinks from it - and just before she offers it to Jalal to drink from. Jodha falls unconscious after thus drinking that poison and Jalal is seen cuddlling her in his arms with shock written across his face!
I don't know whether this promo is just symbolic of Jodha saving Jalal, or whether the "bite" idea has been replaced with a "vish ka pyala" idea instead. Maybe the Creatives thought that for a 8 pm serial slot, it would not be appropriate to actually show an impending liplock/bite between Ben and Jalal, and decided on the poisoned cup being a safe alternative?
There's also another theory that I've been won over by that when a snake directly bites someone, the poison acts immediately to kill since it enters the blood stream directly. But when the poison is diluted or mixed with drink -eg. milk, as in the case of Zakira - it takes slightly longer to take effect as the dosage is a bit diluted and also because it needs to be digested by the drinker before it enters their blooodstream ... and thus it can be neutralised with an antidote given in quick time. So just as Zakira was saved, maybe in the same way Jodha would be saved by a timely antidote, because Ben again used the "pyala drink route" for Jalal (as with Zakira) rather than the "bite" route used on that despatch-clerk-sipahi?
What comes today? As the precap shows, there is a fracas at the mehndi ceremony when Jodha trips and falls on Benazir (when she is again humiliated and asked to apply the shagun ka mehhndi on Ben, whom she has persistently called a vishkanya). It is not wrong to ask Jodha to do this shagun rasam at the mehndi ceremony, but it was the way she was asked to that sounded like a mocking punishment rather than a ceremonial act!
As it happened, the mehndi on Ben's hand gets all messed up by Jodha's fall, and Maham is forced to call it all an "apshagun". Was it delibarately done by Jodha or just an accident? Either way, be perpared folks for another day of insults on Jodha. The womenfolk headed by Ruq are going to shriek and squawk and make the most of this incident and hurl even louder abuses at Jodha. And if Jalal hears of this he is again going to say Jodha wanted to despoil the mehndi ceremony from Ben-jealousy. Same crap, another day!
Apparently all this is to show her as a mega heroine on Friday as a very remoseful Jalal cuddles her! To get to the sweet part it seems we have to withstand some really endless needless needling of Jodha ... which makes any sane person wonder how much is enough and if its all not getting too unbelievably over the top?
Can a woman not do hero-giri of outstanding quality unless she is trampled underfoot many, many times over? I fail to get it! And at least in Jodha Akbar serial I thought we would be above this petty cliched storyline of "go on treating the heroine like mud so that she looks like a mahaan tomorrow". I thought that was the stuff of pathetic "formula" serials without imagination! Or is this one also one more pathetic "formula" serial without imagination? Looks like it is!
Health and Fitness
381