Friends, after the day before yesterday's episode brought so much of "soul talk" between Jodha and Jalal - and even a "declaration of love" from Jalal - there was a lot of curiosity among all of us about what the next episode would bring.
Would Jodha remember the words Jalal had said to her? Would Jalal remember what he said to Jodha? How would they both behave around each other? How much of time would the episode give to them exclusively, and would the Creatives keep away extraneous characters for a while?
Already in the previous episode Jodha had showed some movements of waking up. Her fingers in Jalal's hand started moving, and her lips began to move too as if she wanted to speak. So we were prepared to see her fully woken up and maybe even having a long talk with Jalal. We also saw a precap where Ruq was trying to enter the room where Jodha and Jalal were, and Moti holding her back saying Jalal had ordered that no one at all should enter. So we were again prepared to see what the "spoiler" that appeared last evening said ... that "Jodha would console Jalal, and Ruq seeing this would feel mighty upset at their closeness." But none of what we were expecting happened as we thought in yesterday's episode.
We further saw a beautiful promo that showed Jalal tenderly taking care of a healing Jodha and exulted over the fact that we may be in for at least a week of TLC between them. And then there was this tantalizing article that further said "The next upcoming track would be the one where Jalal decides to go on a lengthy trip around his Sultanate to get a feel of how well his people are, and to do this he and Jodha would dress up as a Marwari couple. During the trip they would find ways to get even more closer to each other."
To add to all this, we then also had Zee telling our Forum phone-callers that the unraveling of Maham and the isolation of Ruq will imminently start. Shivani and Tejwant would be brought back and Shivani would spill all to Jalal about Maham's role in her elopement, and simultaneously Rahim too would piece together the Jodha paigam - and this would give Jalal even more insight into Maham's evil role in reading the false letter from Jodha to him (causing all that spurning and subsequent bad blood between them). And then Hakim and Mansingh would also now return from war with their own dynamics playing between them.
That's not all ... Zee also told some of us that Maham would now lose a lot of sheen in Jalal's eyes, and Ruq would be definitely sidelined by the growing closeness of Jodha and Jalal - and that part of Ruq's humiliation has already started, according to the Creatives, with Ben's inelegant dragging of the Begum-e-Khas thrown across a horse, and then dumping her onto the dusty ground like a sack of potatoes. Zee said Atga Khan would now grow in prominence at the cost of Maham, and he would try to muzzle Adham, and this would lead Adham to do something stupid. At the same time Jodha would forgive Sharif in the same way that Ruq pardoned Adham, and Sharif would become free from jail to re-start his machinations ...
Phew! We all have been loaded with a lot of spoiler information from various quarters (including a lately voluble Zee) ...
... but since none of all this showed up yesterday, it is but natural that we are all asking "How does all this happen now? In what order? How fast? And can we have at least one full week of just Jo-Ja whiile all the rest is kept for later?"
I would say the episode yesterday had some patches of unexpected brilliance - but also patches of mundane scenes of no value - and so it was kind of mixed show leading us to have to wait for another "big one" to appear maybe on Friday - or possibly next week. Only when Jalal and Jodha really talk to each other can we consider we've got what we wanted, and so it looks like today will be that day, because the last scene yesterday saw Jalal shaping up for that long talk with Jodha.
What happened in yesterday's episode was three broad things, and I'll try to go into a bit of detail around these three main topics:
Jalal found solace in talking to the praja and he really moved them and us!
To really understand what exactly made Jalal speak the way he diid to his praja yesterday, we have to begin at the beginning of the episode when Jodha started moving her fingers and her lips and tried to open her eyes and wake up. Jalal was both alert and stunned by the change in her and bid her not to get up and rest. The Hakim, who was flabbergasted by the "chamatkar" that had saved Jodha, told Jalal "This is nothing short of a miracle Shahenshah, it looks like she has fought the poison and has got back the will to live. I wonder whose words have given her back this will to live? I'll prescribe the medicines she now needs, but rest is the key thing!"
Jalal agreed with the Hakim and subtly asked everyone to leave Jodha alone for rest, annd thus dismissed everyone but himself. At Jodha's bedside, Jalal stared at her for a long while, with the expression of a man concerned for her - but also very tentative about his new feelings for her. Already by then I was getting the feeling that Jalal fairly well remembered all that his soul had said to Jodha, for his eyes had a sort of knowing look which we have never seen before in him. He seemed to have an added layer of depth to his silent thoughts that reflected in his eyes, while looking at Jodha. And on her part, she was looking at him a bit quizzically through half-open eyes, for I think she sensed something heavy in him now, but was not awake enough to register more than that.
He made to move away from her and leave her bedside, when her hand gripped his hand tightly and refused to let him go. He was caught - in welter of feelings! He then took a little while to prise open her fingers, let loose his caught hand and then with his other hand he laid her hand gently back at her bedside. He moved away from the bed a few paces - and then he couldn't leave because something compelled him again to turn around and look at her.
Folks I am stressing this particular sequence a lot because if you all saw that expresion on his face now as he turned to look at her, it became patently clear that he was heavy with the knowledge of exactly what he felt for her and had articulated in that soul-talk scene. The same soul that said all those things verbally was now speaking via his eyes, and his sombre face gave away the depth of feelings inside him. Notice how she was by now even more curiously looking at him, through her half-open eyes, her gaze held by his eyes!
We then saw Jalal walking with his entourage towards the waiting mutlitudes of his praja, roaring in his praise. He went first to the mazhar to offer a chaddar and to pray in thanksgiving, annd when that duty to God was over, he then made his way to a high tower from where he could address his people. Jodha meanwhile, hearing the roar of the crowds outside stirred herself (despite the objections of her caregivers) to go closer to the window to see her husband talk to his people. She was shaky but determined to see him. What did Jodha see?
She saw Jalal first remove every single symbol of power from his person - his pagri, his knife, his cummerbund, his overwrap ... he stood there despite security risks to his body, dressed without any vestiges of royal power, like an ordinary man among his ordinary men. He then started a speech that gave me goosebumps because of the sheer force that his words and voice produced, even as his eyes were full with unshed tears. He was almost in a sort of semi-relief, semi-hysterical state, showing us how deeply he had feared the loss of Jodha, and now how relief was washing over him in huge waves, lending a rapidity to his words, and a rare timbre to his voice - and flooding his eyes with barely held-back tears.
He said "Many of you must be wonderng why I have removed all my kingly vestments and thinking I must be going mad, because a King usually does this when he is either relinquishing his crown or has faced defeat. But fear not, for nothing like this has happened. I have stripped myself of all the royal emblems of power just to see myself as an ordinary man like all of you. There is no fear for my security either, for I have come to those whom I now consider as family - all of you - and you are the people who gave me your love, protection, confidence and unstinting support in my darkest hour. You gave me your prayers by which a deadly enemy was unable to do anything to me and my dearest. Her posion was unable to harm my Jodha Begum. The people of the Sultanate prayed so hard for Jodha that your prayers have defeated even death. I know I have always said I have no "dil" but with that "dil" I now thank all of you from the bottom of my heart, and promise you that I am not just your Shahenshah and you needn't fear my crown and my shamsheer. I promise that your concerns will hereafter be my concerns and I will work to remove all your troubles. Because it was thanks to all of you that I have come through successful in the greatest battle of my life. Your love of me is what has given me this victory. If Jodha Begum is alive today its not just because God spared her life - but because yoour prayers rendered it impossible for God to do anything else! For that one night's help that you all gave me, I pledge my whole life to all of yoou."
The people at this point started roaring "Zindabad" to him and Jodha. He looked gratified, but continued "For Jodha's safe recovery I will now give a huge jashn, but not within the four walls of the Palace. It will be a jashn where all of you will celebrate. Hereafter you will enjoy all my successes and I will share all your pains. I just simply want to say that I thak you all from the deepest recesses of my heart." And then hearing more of the cries of "Zindabad" for himself and Jodha, he is transfixed for a moment and then makes his way down from the podium.
Jodha all the while was watching from the window, and although her body seemed very weak, her eyes were full of grateful tears as she heard her husband say that her impending death was the biggest, blackest fear of his life, and the last night was the longest darkest night of his life, and her recovery was his greatest battle won - and the prayers of his loving praja was the one thing even above God that had won his "dil" so much that his whole life hereafter would be for them alone.
You know what folks, I thought Jalal knew that in his own heart that it was his soul-talk to Jodha declaring his love for her and saying he could never live without her that had been the greatest force in her recovery. She had come alive for him. He knew that.
But in this moment, when Jalal chose to talk to the praja, and give them the credit for their prayers as the force that moved God to save Jodha, he was stripping himself of the credit for having brought Jodha back from the brink of death.
I thought it was a watershed moment in his life when "humility" became his strongest and greatest trait. Knowing that he was the one who had saved Jodha, he chose to give over his success to his people as their own success.
He also wanted not to be just the one who declared love to her in words, but he wanted desperately it seems to vent his love for her via actions. He seemed to want to display his love of her by doing what she cared for the most - sharing his "dil" with his people, and becoming one of them to do so.
Yesterday he said "I love you" directly to Jodha via his soul, but today via that speech to his people he did something to reduce himself to show both himself and Jodha how far his love went. He needed to express all that wealth of feeling that had expanded in his heart suddenly, and he couln't say all that to her yet.
He thus treated the praja that she loved as her surrogates ... and emptied his heart to them, as if talking to her via them.
What a beautiful way this man found to say to Jodha what she meant to him and how grateful he was for her life! He may not even have known she was listening, but it was enough for him just to voice all that, whether she heard him or not.
I am close to tears myself and cannot control my feelings! That speech was just absolutely fabulous!
Ruqaiaya made me ashamed with her untimely territorial possessiveness!
The less said about this awful scene, the better. But it has to be said - for again it ws an important scene that underscored to us the degeneration of Ruq. Many of us were making allowances for her mood swings and tantrums and wild behaviour saying she loved Jalal so much that she couldn't help but be so loyal and caring of him - and that she was more than a wife, she was a close friend, which gave her an extra bond with him, and her possessiveness ws all due to that.
But yesterday even the die-hard Ruqaiya fan would have been mightily ashamed of her. I know I was. She came in to see how Jodha was doing and complimented her whole heartedly for her actions. She then said "You have done a very great deed and saved Jalal and even saved me from widowhood, so please ask for anything - anything at all you want - and you shall have it. BUT DON"T ASK FOR JALAL!"
My God, did I really hear that? I was looking keenly at Salima, standing by, only to find her looking down when this was said, no doubt from an equal sense of shame at this kind of behaviour from Ruq. What was all this about?
I think Ruq already sees the writing on the wall. She has seen Jalal more that distraught all through Jodha's illness, and then speaking to the praja declaring Jodha to be utterly precious to him. She has seen his "Takhliya" to herself when he wanted to be alone with Jodha. She has also seen that Jalal stayed back to save Jodha while letting Atga and his men follow her when she was captured by Ben. All this is not adding up to a nice story in her mind. But at the same time she has to thank Jodha for "saving Jalal and saving herself from widowhood (read that as audha)". So this was the best she could do via a note of thanks ... "Take what ever you want, except Jalal!"
Disgraceful! Utterly disgraceful!
What is the use of being a "Queen" if graciousness is nowhere in her psyche. How cheap even a favoured Queen can get was shown to us yesterday!
Please folks, those who want to support Ruq, don't say the poor girl was so into Jalal that she was forced to show her loyalty and bonding with him in this way. This is plain and simple cheapness! It has no excuse! Even if she felt that way, where was the need to voice it aloud to Jodha who has just risen form her death bed? Is this the time or place to be saying "This is my territory and this wee corner is yours"?
Jalal knew what he all he had said to Jodha ... and he was tiptoeing around her!
The Jalal-Jodha scene was one of less words and more tentative tip-toeing of Jalal around Jodha. The poor boy had so much on his mind and yet such a "hichkichaahat" that he couldn't but be acutely aware of her questioning eyes - and he was slightly cagey at the same time that his feelings may pop out too quickly and embarrass him.
The scene started for me with Jodha hearing from both Moti and Salima how much Jalal had cared for her life in those dark moments, how he had never stirred from her bedside, and how he had sat alone with her most of the time, sending everyone else away when all treatments seemed to fail. She heard how he had prayed for her and talked to the praja to pray for her. Everything must have sounded like sweet music to her ears - so much so that she kept badgering Moti to say more about Jalal ... and Moti had to ask if she was really wanting the details again or just wanting to hear the name of Jalal repeated over and over! Jodha started humming and hawing that the reason she wanted to know more was in case he later did some tana maro-ing that he had done so much for her! But there was no conviction in her excuses for wanting to hear about him more!
Just as she was talking to Moti about him, Jalal walked into her room, but with a very very tentative look, and very hesitant in his aproach. He stopped at the door, remembering how he had gone from here the last time saying he never wanted to see her face again even if she were dying. A wide eyed Jodha seemed to be wondering why he had come at all after saying what he did to her last time. But there was again no animosity in her self-question either.
Wearing a very embarassed look Jalal then said "Look at the ittefaq' ... I am here again after saying I wiill never come here!" He then turned around and went back out of the room to remove his shoes and once again attempted to enter asking her "Do I have your permission to enter?" I loved the way she was like a child eager for him to come in. She said "Jee Shahenshah, aayeeye na!" His head still bowed down, he entered, and met her "Pranam" with an attempt at an offhand "Adaab".
He was still looking down, up and everywhere, but at her. Then he slowly llifted his gaze momentarily to her wide-eyed face and shifted his glance away again. His glance "achanak" fell on the Kanha statue, and he went near and knelt before Kanha, while Jodha started gently smiling. So did Moti!
Jalal then lifted the aarti platter with the lit diya on it to Kanha, and then turned around to face Jodha. By now Jodha had hidden her smile and tried to look serious. He said a bit abashedly "I know I said I'll never enter this room again, but sometimes before the will of God one has to bend one's own will, so its better to try and forget the past." (Oh you Cutie Pie ... was that an apology, my Honey Bunch?)
He then looked everywhere else again before looking a little straighter at Jodha, and offering her the aarti saying "Aarti leejiye?" She took the aarti and then wa surprised when he handed her some prasad. He didi the same for Moti. And then he himself took the aarti and then some prasad in his hand, and turned to fold his hands and bow before Kanha before putting the prasad in his mouth. Both of them made a bit of a elaborate affair of munching the prasad as they looked everywhere but at each other!
Then he remembered she'd been ill and he thought he could spend some more time in the room asking after her health. So he asked her "How is your health now? And she answered "I am OK now." Again they looked down and up and side to side, but not at each other!
He then looked at some medicinal herbs on a plate near Jodha and asked why her medicines have not been given to her. Moti said she's been administered the gaada but these herbs were for later use. He then said "Why are they not covered by a lid?" Moti answered that the Hakim has instructed they be uncovered. He then said "Oh, if that is the case, its OK!" Again he started staring at the ground.
Fortuitously it seemed, Moti then said "I have to go out Shahenshah" and he said to her with a great deal of hichkichaahat "Suno, I want to talk privately to Jodha Begum for a while. So please see that no one enters and we are alone?" He was talking to Moti - but looking at Jodha all the time.
Jodha turned her wide-eyed look at him directly again and asked "What do you want to talk to me about Shahenshah?". The poor boy by now looked totally loaded in his heart and mind, and yet unable to look into her eyes and get the words out.
We've left him at that stage in the episode, and I, for one, am as curious as Jodha to know what he wants to talk about!
How cute was that scene. Jalal was desperate to hang out in that room, he was desperate to say all that was on his mind, he was feeling very bashful and uneasy,and yet now and then compelled to raise his eyes to hers and then pull away before he revealed too much.
Ok, let me not tease him too much, because he's a boy newly aware that he is in love, and he is wondering if she senses it, and he is all overcome with a kind of shyness that usually hits those who try to hide their lovey-dovey feelings! Let him be for today! Cut him some slack folks, he is feeling too much and trying to cover up his feelings with extremely mundane actions and even more ridiculously mundane words. He is just where we want him to be, right?
The precap, folks, shows Maham doing more of the Ruq-instigation that Jalal is now forever attached to Jodha like a second skin and that he is showing too much TLC. And that is what will make Ruq march to that room (as in the previous precap) to find Moti at the door barring entry. It's my hunch that in the private talks with Jodha, Jalal may eventually break down and need consoling (which should tell Jodha a lot about his feelings!) and at that moment precisely Ruq may shove Moti aside and enter and thus see them both maybe in a consoling hug? Thus the spoiler of yesterday may come true!
As regards all the rest of the spoilers, I think this Shivani-Tejwant return and Maham expose may happen next. At the same time Hakim-Mansingh may also return in time to hear Shivani's story. Meanwhile dear Rahim may also re-enter with the paigam pieces and that should make Jalal even more "in silent love" with Jodha after seeing that she never let him down at all. He may thus heed her wishes that Sharif should be released (that's not too clever!)
And then as per the declarations of support to the praja that Jalal made, he and Jodha may decide to tour the Sultanate and mingle with the people dressed as a simple Marwari couple. And while they are on the trip hopefully they may romance in various wayside tabelas ... and we will see some fresh new faces they come across instead of the same pathetic Ruq and the even more pathetic Maham.
By the way how many of you think that the Adham-Javeeda scene shown in yesterday's episode was totally not needed? Everybody? OK, then let's make a couple of phone calls to Zee, shall we, to now say we don't want Adham- Javeeda and they can also go into that convenient well that now houses Benazir? I hear Zee is eager to hear from us since we have not called as much in the last three days! Ela, Lashy, Aanchal ...where are you?
Anupamaa
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Cricket
377