Friends, after the dismal episode on Monday, the Tuesday episode was not too bad. It moved the story forward on three important counts.
The first important forward progress was on the "Jodha and Jalal romance" front. Both Jalal and Jodha still seem to be on the flirty, hand-holding mood after the trip, so all is well on the "small romance" front. I almost expected that they would become all serious again after return to Agra, but so long as Ruq is not in the scene, Jalal seems to have no qualms or abatement of his attraction for Jodha and he seems to want to grab every chance to meet and make cow eyes with her. The cute couple are thus continuing to be "cute with each other". She even went as far as holding his hand twice, and even tickled his feet once ...so far so good. I don't think we can or should expect more. Incidentally, the whole love track, I feel, is not going to happen in isolation or fast, as we wish it would, but as a consequence of the politics at Agra. We may well get one or two lollypop scenes between Jodha and Jalal every day (as in the precap also with the hair drying), but these "romantic moments"will be interspersed with and accentuated by the political goings on at Agra. It is the political events that may give a fillip here and there to the romance. I expect this to be the trend, going forward.
The second important forward progress seemed on the "Sharif release from jail" front. Jodha chanced upon a pregnant and vomiting Bakshi Bano when she went to give her the Baba Salim Chishti dhaga. Seeing her in this condition, Jodha tried to soften up Jalal to release Sharif from jail because it was very important that a pregnant girl be happy in her pregnancy with her closest one to share the time with. Jalal refused to pardon both Bakshi and Sharif. Then Jodha appealed for help from Hamida, who again tried to wheedle Jalal into acquiescing. But again Jalal has refused the plea. And that's where the episode stands. But we all know the spoilers are hinting at an imminent relenting by Jalal, and a "goad bharai" ceremony organised by Jodha for Bakshi, wherein Ruq tries again to spoil Jodha's name. We'll have to wait for that to unfold in the next two episodes ...
The third important forward progress seemed to come on the "Adham's end days" front. Yesterday in the second scene of the episode, Jala was seen deep in talk with Altga Khan about some money embezzlemments that seemed to going on unchecked from the Treasury. Jalal was furious and asked Atga to immediately institute an enquiry into this matter to see who was swindling the Sultanate of so much money under false accounts. We know from the historical information that Abhay (History_Geek) gives us that Adham Khan was eventually hauled up for financial fraud, when he became desperate and when on a murdering spree of the top officials at Jalal's court including Atga, and thus ended up being killed himself under Jalal's orders. Maybe the ground is thus being set for the elimination of Adham.
Now here are two more things that we have to keep track of simultaneously.
It is is said that Maham herself dies about 40 days after Adham. So if the end of Adham is near, then the end of Maham is also perhaps near. Maham apprarently (in history) mourned the death of Adham in great sorrow for 40 days (the mandatory mourning period) but was herself killed mysteriously on the very fortieth day, and then some elaborate tombs for both Adham and Maham were built by Jalal in their memory and thus ended their reign at the Agra Palace.
If Adham's financial doings are now under investigation and he is due to be caught sooner rather than later, what will parallelly happen to Maham, is the question, in my mind? I have a feeling, from watching our TV version of the story, that Maham will get caught both ways - the Jodha pagam truth will come out via Rahim (and the author of the extra bits read out from the paigam will be discovered as Maham). Jalal may get very upset to hear that Maham has thus embroidered Jodha's paigam with stuff that was not really written there - thus causing the embarassment of his amorous visit to Jodha and her "dhakka". Simultaneously almost, this Shivani-Tejwant may be captured and Shivani will be asked by Jalal "Why did you agree to get engaged to Hakim, if you loved this Tejwant?" And Shivani may thus reveal the hand of Maham in advising her first to go ahead and get engaged, and later to run from the marriage by eloping, and also Maham's blackmail threats via the collection of paigams she claimed she had extracted from Jodha's room. These two incidents at least, if not others may convince Jalal against Maham ... and this may happen parallel to Atga collecting information about Adham's embezzlements - and thus son and mother may fall foul of Jalal almost together, and we may see the end of both, one after another.
Now in the movie, as well as in history, the No. 1 enemy of Jalal is not Maham, it is Sharif. Perhaps that angle is also being progressed now, not just with Bakshi Bano's pregnancy (whereby Sharif is released) but we are also hearing rumours that Sujamal is now shooting on the sets again. A lot of our Forum members thought that the entry of Sujamal would signal another MU between Jalal and Jodha because in the movie Jalal mistakes Sujamal to be Jodha's clandestine lover and thus banishes her at Maham's instigation back to Amer. Only when he later finds out who Sujamal was her brother does Jalal go to Amer to apologise and bring back Jodha.
However, Abhay (History_Geek) and all our other historians like Sangeetha (Lizzy 2012) have categorically told us that in history Jalal never banished Jodha to Amer. There was also no historical parallel to Jalal mistaking the identity of Sujamal and suspecting Jodha of a clandestine lover. So this MU that we fear that may happen as in the movie is probably not going to happen, if Ekta is following history fairly closely as she is.
But the Sujamal factor is important because Sharif is now going to be freed. Sharif and Sujamal are old friends-cum-foes from the Amer war days, and Sujamal may come into the picture now, I feel, in one of three ways. One, it may be to express remorse and join again with the Amer family. He may even visit Agra, thinking the Ameri family are now not such friends with Jalal, but he was not involved with the Shivani episode and he may thus be more welcome by Jalal and Jodha. Or two, perhaps he has favours to ask of Jodha that he cannot ask the Ameri Bharmal family and so he comes to Agra. Or three, he may have info on Maharana Pratap's plans and hope to please Jalal with this info. He does come to Agra though, I feel, because spoiler pics show him with Mansingh.
If he thus comes to Agra, he may well fall into the clutches of Sharif again, who may dissuade him from going to Jalal, and may use his info or him (to shoot from his shoulder at Jalal). So some bad blood between Jalal-Sujamal-Sharif is likely to begin now as Sharif jockeys himself to become Jalal's biggest enemy with the wane of Adham and Maham. (Incidentally, some Forum members keep saying maham will never be caught as she is the prime villain. But actually the time is near when Sharif becomes the prime villain of Jalal's life - so I feel the time for Maham's departure is near.)
Half of what I have written above is what I saw in yesterday's episode - and the rest abour Maham downfall and Sujamal entry is my hunch built on historical facts and the spoiler pictures.
(Abhay, if you can please give us a full historical picture of Adham and Maham's death and circumstances relating to it, and if there is anything about Sujamal and Sharif now joining forces against Jalal, or Sujamal being used by Sharif against Jalal at this stage of the timeline, please give us the details?)
Okay, now I want to detail two scenes I liked yesterday - one was the "Bakshi-Jodha-Jalal" sequence and the other was the "Jodha-Hamida-Jalal" sequence. I'll finish off with a few words on the precap ... and I also want to say something about this Zee Response Desk!
The Bakshi-Jodha-Jalal sequence!
The episode starts with a scene of Bakshi Bano vomiting from her pregnancy. Jodha enters the room to give her the Salim Baba dhaga, and starts by asking after her wellness, saying "How are you Bakshi? I heard that you had prayed a lot when I was unconscious after drinking that snake venom." Bakshi says "How could I not pray for you. Even after so much has happened between us, you have forgiven me, but my brother still doesn't want anything to do with me. You are one the best people I have come across. But you really shouldn't have come here to see me. My brother will be very angry if he knows. I am after all a "guneghar" of the Mughal Sultanate."
Jodha says "No Bakshi, I see your act as a sign of your love for your husband. You still are family to me and will always be. Accha, I've brought you also a dhaga from Salim Baba with his ashirwad ..." and with that Jodha ties the dhaga on Bakshi's wrist.
Just then Bakshi again gets another bout of sickness annd looks like wanting to vomit. A concerned Jodha asks what is wrong and should she summon the Hakim? Bakshi tries to dismiss it all as a normal stomach upset when Jodha's eyes fall on a bowl of aam and imlis, and she puts two and two together saying "Tell me truthfully, Bakshi, what is the matter?" A crying Bakshi then admits that she is pregnant. At first Jodha is so happy for her that she stands up to say "Let me go and spread the good word now", but Bakshi stops her with "Please don't tell anyone about this, especially not my brother who will be frightfully angry. Promise me." Jodha promises her "I swear I will do only that which will bring you happiness!"
Bakshi hugs Jodha but says "How can I be happy. This child I bear, its father is a traitor in jail". Jodha says "I give you my vachan, I will do my utmost to try and get him released for your sake!" But Bakshi finds it hard to hope!
Later Jalal is in talks with Atga in the garden, discussing serious matters of embezzlement of funds from the Treasury, when he hears the melodic strains of Jodha singing her bhajan for Kanha's aarti. He is drawn towards her room and enters just as she finishes her bhajan and aarti and asks Moti to distribute the prasad. "Where s my prasad?" asks Jalal, and that's when Jodha realises he has entered the room, leaving his footwear just outside!
Jodha also looks immensely pleased to see him there and asks Moti why she never warned her about him being there. He says "But even Moti didn't know ... I just got drawn here by your singing, but if I shouldn't be here, I'll go ..." and with that he moves to leave, when Jodha grasps his hand and holds him back with a "Nahin Shahenshah!" They both looked taken aback at this gesture. He can't believe what she just did. She then says "Sorry Shahenshah, I caught your hand." My cutie pie Jalal then says to her "I don't regret that you caught my hand, but only that you left my hand again after that!" She smiles and asks him to sit.
Then he starts talking after a brief silence of looking at her "I enjoyed the trip with you, Jodha Begum" She says "Yes the trip was good for me too." He jumps at the chance to ask her again "But what did you enjoy more, the trip itself or my company?" A bashful Jodha looks trapped as he keeps watching her reactions keenly. She says "What kind of question is that. The trip was made in your company?" He says to that "Now that question of mine was not so tough that you have to run in circles to answer ... tell me what I want to know ..."
But just then Jodha is saved from answering when she sees a scratch on his foot,showing the wear and tear of the trip on his feet. She summons a bowl of hot water from Moti. "That's not the answer to my question" he says looking perplexed at her sudden turn of topics. As Moti brings the basin of hot water, Jodha takes Jalal foot and puts it into the water saying "You prayed for me and undertook this dargah trip for me. The least I can do is to care for your feet?"
Jalal says to Jodha "And now what kind of tradition is this? You says Rajvanshi women can't have their husbands touch their feet, but you can touch mine?". She looks at him archly still rubbing his feet in the water. After a bit of delicate foot rub from her side, he seems to feel tickled and he breaks into a giggle. She is amused to see this as he says "Careful, mujhe gudgudi ho raha hai". She is now hiding her open laugh behind her hand.
Then slowly, while still tending to his feet Jodha begins tentatively "Shahenshah I want to tell you ... there is this friend of mine who is very lonely ..." He cuts her short "I know you too well. You have something on your mind that is both making you happy and concerned. Out with it. Don't feel shy, tell me about it". Jodha says "You have seen through me. But Shahenshah if I ask you for something, will you promise not to get angry with me?" he says "Surely! Tell me what you want ..." Jodha says "But the topic is such that you will get angry" and he replies "Unless you tell me how do we know that. Go on. Tell me ..."
Jodha then summons the courage to say "I went to see Bakshi Bano, and give her the dhaga from Salim Baba ..." By then Jalal has turned his face away in cold quiet anger. "You know you shouldn't have gone to a traitor of the Sultanate?" Jodha replies "But she prayed for me when I was ill!" he says "Nevertheless she is a traitor."
Jodha in a very whispery voivce now says "Shahenshah, Bakshi is pregnant. She is to become a mother soon." Jalal looks taken aback for a moment at the news. And then the surprised look on his face changes to one of unbridled happiness as he says "I'm going to become a Mamujaan?". Jodha nods.
But then just as suddenly his expression freezes and turns back into cold anger. He just rises to leave, but for the second time that day, Jodha catches his hand to hold him back "Please forgive Bakshi, give her one more chance." He pulls his hand free of hers with violence. "Sharif and Bakshi are unfit to be forgiven" he says. Jodha appeals to him with her eyes "But Bakshi is your sister!". He grits his teeth annd says "I don't want to talk about this any further with you ..." and walks out of the room.
Jodha is left wondering to herself how the same heart he has becomes so filled with love one moment annd then freezes so hard again the next moment. "Why, Shahenshah, why" she asks herself.
Friends, I picked this scene, not just for the "gudgudi" that has so tickled all the Forumites today after the episode. Apart from that "ticklish" moment, the scene itself was great for me because there is such candour in Jalal's eyes as he wants to know why she loved the trip so much, and he is so eager to hear her answer that he leans forward compulsively trying to get close to her. She is also very affected as her eyes show throughout the scene. She seems to like his presence in her room so immensely that her voice goes all whispery as she talks to him. The signals of love are all there, and its like these two hearts are barely able to contain their feelings and are rather desperate to hear it from the other one, because they have already heard it all within themselves. And as for Jodha, she seems to lose not even one opportunity to grab his hand. It started on the trip when she seemed to pull him by his hand a couple of times, and now she's done it again twice in the space of ten minutes in her room.
Folks, I think it would be too much for us to expect exclusive episodes of just the love between them growing. It is all going to happen at a very slow pace and in the midst of the turmoil of the context of the Agra Palace which forms the backdrop of their lives. If we all expect "pyaar ka izhar" so quickly we are going to be disappointed. Instead it would be wiser to expect some daily small doses of "friendliness bordering on growing love". If we are content with that we should get plenty of just that every day in some small way. I, for onem am reconciled to seeing the daily bits of small romance amidt the rest of the goings-on. I refuse to expect more now - and fall hard on my already softened backside!
The Jodha-Hamida-Jalal sequence!
It is late into the night annd Hamida's bedtime, when Jodha decides to visit her. Jodha asks forgiveness for the late hour but Hamida says it must be something important if Jodha has thus come, so she prepares to listen to Jodha. Jodha starts by saying "Ammijaan, I don't know how to start saying this to you ..." but Hamida replies "Talk to me with the freedom of a daughter to a mother." Jodha says "Yes I have come to talk about a daughter, your daughter." Hamida at first is concerned that Bakshi may have done something wrong again, but Jodha continues "When I went to her to give her the Salim Baba dhaga I saw she was pregnant."
A happiness spreads on Hamida's face just for a fleeting moment, but then gets replaced by silent anger when she remembers the gunah that Bakshi and Sharif had committed for which they were being punished by Jalal. Hamida says "I don't know Jodha whether to feel happy that I am to become a grandmother or to feel sad that this child will be born with a father in jail. But Jodha, you should never have gone to meet Bakshi. She is a guneghar and the law forbids hobnobbing with guneghars. What if Jalal comes to know?"
But Jodha reassures her that she has told Jalal everything, including how important it is for Sharif to be near Bakshi at this stage. But Jalal had refused her request to release Sharif froom prison. Jodha appeals to Hamida to do something about Jalal's uncompromising firmness on this case!
Hamida however says "No Jodha, I know this is good news for Bakshi, but I know Jalal too and he will never forgive her mistakes. Moreover Sharif is a "gaddar" and "gaddari" is what Jalal will never ever compromise on." Jodha says "But I have forgiven them both Ammijaan, and their gunah was against me, wasn't it. It is so important for Bakshi to have her whole family near herself at this stage?"
Hamida says "That's just it Jodha. If we are family, how will Jalal accept that a part of the same family waged an attack of slander against another part of the same family. Abetting the miserable Sharif, Bakshi too has played a vile part in giving you that ark and trying to defame you. How can you forgive them after they have toyed with your emotionns and made you look "na paak" in front of Jalal? Not only Jalal, but I myself cannot forgive them!"
"That is alll true Ammijaan" says Jodha, "But I see Bakshi not as my sister-in-law but as my sister. You can't leave her alone to suffer on her own at this stage. And "apraadhis" can be rectified not by punishments but by inducing remorse, isn't it? Bakshi does already look remorseful, and if we punish her further at this stage, she may only harden against us. You always talked about Jalal's loneliness, but do think how lonely Bakshi is! You must please talk to Jalal and convince him to forgive Bakshi and Sharif!"
Hamida hugs Jodha and says how pure is her heart that pleads even for those who hurt her.
In the next scene we see all the ladies of the family called to her room by Hamida, where Jalal too is present. Jalal is concerned by the womenfolk thus collected together - for the room has a serious atmosphere. He asks "What is the matter? Have I done something?" But Hamida comes striiaght to the point "You always do as we ask, but this time we want you to please forgive Bakshi Bano in her present pregnant condition."
Jalal turns his angry face away, though. "Sorry, Ammijaan, forgive me, but I cannnot ever forgive those "gaddaris" that tried to defame my begum." I was noting the faces oof Ruq and Maham very keenly at this stage, for they both did not seem ot like it one bit that Jalal was taking the insult on Jodha so seriously!
I picked this sequence for detailing simply because I thought the conversation between Jodha and Hamida was very authentic and rather straightforward. They did not hum and haw around the subject of Bakshi and her pregnancy, but the sentiments they both felt were discussed with a great deal of practicality. Even Hamida, who is usually given to hyperbole when it comes to Jodha, was constrained and delicate in her handling of the Bakshi issue and its arguments. There are times that hit every family when they have to balance the actual happenings on the ground with the "principle of the thing". Here priinciples said Bakshi and Sharif were no less than traitors - but in the midst of that was a lonely young daughter of the family, pregnant with her first child, with her husband (worthless though he is) in prison and not with her. The time callled for a weighing of "family vs. traitors" - and for compassion. And Hamida is a compassionate soul, no matter how angry she may be with Bakshi. Jodha appealed to her compassion in just the right way without frills or fuss. Jodha was good, so was Hamida, and I exppect that despite his initial refusal, Jalal too will see the merits of allowing Bakshi some leeway during her pregnancy to have her husband with her.
The lollypop precap that tantalises!
Jodha's hair is being dried by Moti using incense, when Jalal suddenly appears on the scene and quietly asks Moti to go, leaving him to dry Jodha's hair - a switch Jodha never suspects. Jodha on the other hand is still talking to Moti about that time when she was unconscious after the drinking of the snake venom.
She says "Even in my dream Jalal was so typical of himself. I can't believe it, that even in my dream he started giving me an "aadesh" to come back to life! And then he held my hand ..." Jodha's voice gets very soft when saying this, and Jalal momentarily stops drying her hair to feel the words she is saying and let them work their way into his heart. He is loving hearing this.
Jodha continues "And he then kept holding my hand even after I was awake ...". Jalal is motionless, watching, absorbing the moment!
I would give my whole day to re-watch that scene, especially the way Jalal stops what he is doing to listen keenly to Jodha, his eyes reflecting the effect the words were having on his soul. He then goes back to drying her hair, when he accidentally pulls a strand and she turns her head to admonish Moti ... when she finds Jalal there instead.
Dying to see thhat whole scene today!
One note of caution to all my friends here regarding Zee''s tukkas:
We have all been calling the Zee Response Desk and getting tidbits from the guy and the gal who answer the phone. But from the way this guy and gal are changing their story every day it is clear that they are not privy to what is really happening at the Creatives Desks at Balaji and are merely "tukka-maro-ing".
Clearly they have only been instructed to tell the callers to "stay with the serial" and "wait and watch". They have not been authorised to give timelines of tracks or tidbits of storyline - and much of their promises of "bahut jald Maham pakda jaayegi" and "Rahim ab bahut jald aayega paigam padne ke liye" etc etc are just perhaps their own unauthorised sops for persistent callers.
So let's not get carried away by what they say today and then get all depressed when events on the screen confuse even them so much that they change their story tomorrow. For instance the guy at Zee first said to me "This trip is not for Jodha humiliation by sleeping outside, it is for Ruq's humiliation". Then yesterday when he started getting irate calls saying "What was that sleeping scene all about?" he was so flustered that he became all rude suddenly and said "That's because Jalal doesn't love Jodha, he still loves Ruq".
Now that was not right either, but the poor man had to say something when he got sandwiched between viewers and channel. He wasn't authorised to say anything about the storyline but he had offered his own tidbits- which he then had to retract and he made a mish-mash of it.
See guys, my feeling here, upon calmer reflection, is that Ekta wants to give us this epic Jalal-Jodha romance ... but at a very gradual and inching pace. If the romance fully happens quickly there's no story left. As for Jalal's love of Ruq and not Jodha, remember Jalal did not only say in his soul talk that he loves Jodha, he said it also to God when he prayed at the mazhar. So Jalal does love Jodha and he knows it within himself, and he is now trying to ascertain how Jodha feels about him. Jodha has begun to feel for him but is not yet at the stage where he has reached.
Meanwhile it is clear that Jalal will play a "game of attrition" with Ruq. She has been a friend from childhood and rather than rub Jodha in her face or openly berate her, I get the feeling now that he is probably going to let Ruq see for herself over time that he has fallen for Jodha and he hopes perhaps that Ruq will wisen up and reconcile to the situation at her own pace after a few early hiccups and angst. He is willing to wait and let things happen, and the Creatives seem to be hoping we too will wait and let things happen at their own pace.
The dependability of the tukkas from the Zee guys is based on Balaji having a fixed storyline. But I suspect Balaji actually have a flexible storyline, so that they can respond to drops and rises in the TRPs and inject elements in a different order if the need arises. We know Balaji are broadly following history so far and we cannot fault their research. It seems more or less on track. But the day to day drama will be adjusted according to the TRP situation and the guy at the Zee Response Desk will not be able to keep up with this, for he is not being told.
Also in this "sleeping case" I suspect that Balaji themselves made a mess of Jalal's characterisation, making him look poor in decency, just to dramatize the jealousy of Ruq. The Zee guy also got caught unawares by this blooper in the charactersiation of Jalal, as much as we did. That's probably why he got so flustered himself whn our phone calls started asking awkward questions!
If we can get some direct line to Balalji Creatives it is worth telephoning. Otherwise I would cation everyone to stay off the phone calls to the Zee folks. I have already burnt my fingers ... so this is friendly and well-meant advice!
Shiv Shakti
