Friends, the episode yesterday (Friday) was not the greatest ... but it had flashes of worthwhile scenes here and there to keep it going . The pace of the episode was a bit slow so it was not gripping. And in the end when I counted all the scenes that happened there were very few of them, for each scene was a bit long. But nevertheless I found something in every scene to keep me reasonably interested!
I had some scenes that I liked more than others.
One extremely interesting scene for me was the way Jalal handled Ruq in the opening sequence. He covered up the fact that he had previously said he loved playing chess with Jodha more than he loved playing with Ruq, by now saying that it was because he had won over Jodha in the game. Ruq changed countenance almost immediately and started blabbering about getting a "khas" gift for Bakshi's goad bharai ... but all through her almost-hysterical blabbering, Jalal looked serious and thoughtful as he thought of Jodha's request of a different kind of gift for Bakshi - the release of Sharif! The difference between his two wives must have been patent to Jalal.
I am more and more convinced that I was on the right track yesterday in saying that Jalal is treating Ruq like a small child ... in fact, like an indulgent parent treats a small jealous first child after the second new child comes into his life. When Jalal tries to say hard truths to Ruq and then sees her hurt and deflated face, he then converts it into some flimsy talk that will again cheer her up. He is thus able to easily distract her with childish fob offs.
He has noticed that any talk of praising Jodha deflates Ruq - and any talk of triumph over Jodha revives Ruq again. He is clearly not happy with this situation, his face shows his displeasure. But I think at the moment he doesn't have too many ideas of how to change Ruq's attitude and is just playing along for time to show him how to handle it. He knows clearly that his one wife is childish and fluttery and without depth. The other one is deep and far thinking and sage. The flimsy wife is beginning to irritate him - as he wants more and more to gravitate towards the wife with depth and character. But for the moment all he is able to do is to keep the childish wife in place with childish placation!
The second scene I liked was the goad bharai ceremony itself - with the included flashbacks of Jalal and Jodha that apparently took place after the chess game. These flashback scenes were not shown to us yesterday, but it appears to have been the critical part where Jodha convinces Jalal to free Sharif. The flashback scenes were intercut into the actual goad bharai ceremony scene in the Friday episode in a very interesting way, so as to keep the fluidity of the story. I liked that immensely.
I liked the way Jodha sequenced her arguments to Jalal to procure the pardon of Sharif. She first said he helped her in the Ben case. She then went on to say his gunah was no greater than that of Adham who had been pardoned. But finally she said the one argument that got Jalal ... she said every woman marries for companionship, to have her husband beside her to enjoy life's ups and downs with. And Bakshi was no different.
But I think Jalal heard her talking more about her own need for her husband to be by her side, and Bakshi's need for Sharif became just an example to the argument, rather than its central pole. Jalal, I think, felt very gratified to hear Jodha articulate what she herself was looking for in her marriage and her husband! I loved that flashback scene just for this one part, when I thought I saw a new understanding in Jalal's eyes regarding Jodha's need of him as a husband - as he became finally "moved" to release Sharif!
Another semi-interesting sequence was the way this Sharif and Bakshi decided to thank Jodha for procuring their pardon, but all the while Sharif via innuendo kept leching at Jodha, giving a sanket of the times to come. I particularly liked the part where Sharif makes the mistake of saying that the painting of his beloved sustains his love for her (meaning Jodha's painting keeps him going in his lust for her) ... but then he quickly changes the angle of dialogue to imply that it was picture of Bakshi that he was keeping with him all along in the prison that helped him survive the separation from his wife.
I liked the way the dialogue was written for this scene with all double-meanings in Sharif''s words, where it looked like he was talking about Bakshi, but he was really meaning Jodha ... but I absolutely didn't like the way he was leching after Jodha. It was sleazy, horrible, unbearable!
One idea that is coming to mind after Sharif mentioned the Jodha painting so expressly is that when Sujamal attacks Mewat he may come across the painting of Jodha in Sharif's private quarters - and he may start suspecting that Sharif has this "burri nazar" for Jodha. If Sujamal comes to Agra and lets slip this information either to Jodha herself or to Jalal - or at least to Mansingh who may tell Jalal - I would be very pleased.
I want Jalal to come to know fast that Sharif is leching after Jodha in an indecent way ... and even talking of "getting her somehow". I hope some abduction scene is not on the cards! But on the other hand, a bit of jealousy in Jalal regarding other men salivating for Jodha would be a good thing, I suppose. Jalal needs a bit of competition to spice up his advance with Jodha. Who knows his jealousy may give us some more "physically- passionate sequences", since jealous husbands are known to get more charged up to be passionate and active!
I do not want to dwell too much upon the scene where Adham throws a tantrum about the release of Sharif and sees him now as a competitor for the takht. Maham quietened Adham by saying "Keep your cool always" (it seemed like a sanket that soon Adham may lose his cool and go on a rampage). But then, Maham also had a bit of very nasty stuff to say about Jodha being the one that got Sharif released. She said with slow realisation "This is what Sharif was talking about in jail, that someone big would release him".
But while Maham and Adham can rue Sharif's release they can't do much about it, I guess, because they all have a feeling now that the Shahenshah has ears only for Jodha!
For my picks of the two scenes to detail, I have chosen the Jalal-Ruq scene, and the Goad Bharai Rasam scene ...
The Jalal-Ruq continuation of the chess talk
This scene was exactly as Maddy yesterday had predicted. Hats off, Maddy!
Jalal had started his sentence in the previous episode by telling Ruq that more than playing chess with her he loved the game he played with Jodha. And in this episode of Friday he continued "In fact I will always want to play with Jodha only".
As Ruq looked more and more miffed, he then completed the sentence unexpectedly. He said he loved playing with Jodha because he won the game! The light of satisfaction spread on Ruq's face as she started wildly congratulating Jalal. I saw Jalal keenly looking at her facewith no such satisfaction on his face. Seeing this unbridled display of glee at Jodha's loss, Jalal said to Ruq"Why do you get so thrilled if other Begums lose?" She replied "Because there are some things I don't want to share with anyone. And this game of chess with you, using real people as mohras, I certainly don't want to share."
And then she changed the subject abruptly, saying "Come let's both of us play shatranj". Jalal said "No, not today." Again he noted her face. It was crestfallen. Again he attempted to revive her spirits by saying "Today I want to celebrate my win and also Bakshi's goad bharai ceremony". Ruq was back to beaming delightedly. She seemed so easy to distract like a brainless child!
She then launched delightedly into talk of Jalal and herself buying something "khas" as a gift for Bakshi but Jalal seemed lost in deep thought about the comparative gift that Jodha wanted him to give. Ruq saw the subdued look on his face but perhaps assumed it was because he was thinking of what gift to give. She again reiterated the idea of a khas gift from Bakshi's "Bhaijaan and Bhabhijaan", and he left her, nodding his acquiescence, but distracted still.
I feel sad for Ruq folks, that she is so under-grown in her mind that she is responding only to treatment as a child. Does she have any maturity at all?
When the time comes for her to see what is happening right under her nose - that Jalal is deeply in love with Jodha - will she suddenly have to wake up to accept a grown up life with catastrophic psychological trauma? I don't see how she can accept what is happening with grace and equanimity as long as she has the maturity of an eight year old. When the times comes to accept the truth, she may have a very rocky time of it, having to grow up twenty years in one shattering moment of realisation!
Bakshi Bano's goad bharai rasams and the freeing of Sharif
Bakshi Bano's goad bharai ceremony begins with the traditional koodadaan. She is made to sit on a tarazu and the ladies and Jalal add gold to the other side till her weight is matched or even exceeded, and the tarazu scales tip. The resultant gold is all given to charity. After this short ceremony, during which Ruq was upset to see Jalal standing beside Jodha, they then had a gift giving ceremony.
All the ladies gave meaninful gifts, and when time came for Ruq's gift, she announced with aplomb that it was a joint gift from her and Jalal ... it was a cradle. (Nothing very new about the idea, for Jodha had already once gifted a cradle when she thought Ruq was pregnant!) Anyway Ruq preened, thinking of her gift as the best idea that ever was. She even said she wanted to bribe the baby to like her best of all. Jalal just quietly watched Bakshi to see how happy she looked. But he also looked up to set his eyes on Jodha's face every now and then.
Then came time for Jodha's gift, when Jodha gave Bakshi a glass of something to drink and a kiss on the forehead. Hamida asked her if she didn't have a gift as her hands were empty. Jodha replied "I do have a gift. But some gifts are to be experienced. This gift of mine is given by me and the Shahenshah - and since he is older than me, I want him to give it to Bakshi!".
Friends I can't describe Jalal's face and eyes to you through this whole sequence. He was so proud of Jodha and there was so much love in his eyes that he kept "marvelling" at her all the time, so to speak ... I felt like seeing this sequence many times just to see his expressions.
He clapped his hands, and Sharif appeared in the room as the "gift" to Bakshi! It took everyone at least five full minutes to register the import of this gift! Bakshi stood up in surprise.
Just then a whole lot of flashbacks came to the screen to show us exactly what had transpired after the chess game between Jodha and Jalal that convinced him to give Bakshi this gift of a free Sharif. Jalal remembered all this in his mind as he saw his sister inch towards her husband.
"Tell me plainly ... what gift do you want me to give Bakshi?" Jalal had asked Jodha at the end of the chess game. She had replied "Bakshi Bano's pati!" "Why are you doing this Jodha Begum?" Jalal had asked her "why do you time and again make me do what I don't want to do? Yesterday you came in front of all and asked me to pardon Bakshi. Okay, I did that. But now Sharif?" Jodha had replied "All just for Bakshi's sake, Shahenshah! When I drank that vish to save you from Ben there was a great deal of help I got from Sharif in that case." Jalal had stopped her by saying "You should never have gone to meet a criminal, it was itself a crime. Okay, so your intention was right, but don't try to keep on praising Sharif before me. He tried to defame you and you want me to release him?"
Jodha had replied "But Sharif had no ill-feeling about the Sultanate, in fact he kept sending for me to exhort me to save you." Jalal had said 'But why did he not tell me all this directly" and Jodha had replied "Maybe he thought you wouldn't listen to him? And by the way you let free Adham because he eventually kept the Sultanate's prestige even after doing an apraadh exactly like Sharif did. And here Sharif was also trying to keep your life safe, and he doesn't get the same freedom? Sharif is Bakshi's husband! Don't you want Bakshi to be happy with her husband beside her?"
Jalal again had reiterated "Jodha, you are asking me to release the man who conspired against you?" Jodha had then said with utter truthfulness "Yes, he was against me, but he was not against my pati." Jalal had then looked pulled towards Jodha. He had listened to her with a new keenness for she was now talking of "husband-wife closeness", a subject close to his heart. "Shahenshah, people marry for the happiness of companionship, some one to live life with and to enjoy things with. Every woman needs her pati with her. Bakshi needs Sharif in the same way. What better gift can you give her than her husband freed? Please pardon him Shahenshah!"
Jalal face had been a picture. He had been deeply affected by this one argument of how much a wife needs her pati, and no doubt it had hit him that Jodha was talking as much about her own life with her pati as she was talking about Bakshi.
The scene then cut back to the Bakshi goad bharai rasam, when Jalal continued "To all those surprised by my move to release him I want to say that Sharif has proved himself to be a wafaadar just like Adham, and it was his repeated efforts that helped Jodha save me from Benazir. If anyone objects to my decision, you can come before me." No one had the guts to object, and Sharif looked triumphant. Then Jalal looked at Bakshi and said "Go Bakshi, go claim your gift." Bakshi ran to embrace the loving-looking husband of hers, who unfortunately had a wicked gleam in his eye for Jodha.
Hamida then re-emphasized to Jalal that he and Jodha had together done the right thing - for nothing is more valuable to a woman than her husband by her side. Jodha and Jalal were lost in each other's eyes, and the whole closeness of theirs was not lost on a fuming and fretting Ruq!
I thought this scene was beautiful, because of the flashbacks being introduced at just the perfect point - and in the flashbacks Jodha had used all the arguments at her command beautifully to convince the Jalal. The clincher of course was the argument that people marry for companionship and a woman without her husband at her side is bereft of that! I though I saw Jalal's eyes moisten a bit at that, or at least he looked very moved.
As I end, folks, a word about the precap ... THERE WAS NONE IN THE FIRST TELECAST, but apparently there was one shown in the repeat telecasts, which I have not seen!
Ruq to Hoshiyaar "Woh sab samaan kashti main hai na...jaisa humne kaha tha...?"
Jodha to Moti "Hum jaise hain vaise hi shehenshah ke samne prastut honge(her clothes)...humein zyada sazne sawarne ka shauk nahi hai..." Moti says "Aap kanha ki kasam khaiye ki aapko sajne ka shauk nahi hai?"
Thanks for this precap update, Aanchal! 😛😛
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