Friends, yesterday's episode was not bad. In fact in parts it was good. After the frightful episode of Tuesday, I feel anything better than that would have looked good to us.
Part of the good feel came from the fact that Paridhi herself has issued an interview to the Hindustan Times confirming that while there were some issues, she is not quitting the serial. And later in the night, there was also news that she had resumed shooting after a small boycott, so since things are now quieter on the news front we can all focus on the story of the episode yesterday.
The episode yesterday had two main courses and one small side dish. The side dish, which was disgusting, was a rather stupid scene of Javeeda trying to light a hookah and actually setting fire to Maham's room. This was a pathetic effort at comedy so I am not going to waste any more words in it.
The other two main courses - or themes - in yesterday's episode were these:
The first day of Sujamal at work ... challenges and the discovery of a crucial painting!
Sujamal's first day at work was already very productive, as per yesterday's episode. The episode started out with Sharif visiting his wife in his room, and trying to wheedle her with some sweet nothings that were transparently meaningless. Sujamal, as the new Khwaja Sera of Bakshi Bano was a witness to this entire coochey coo, when suddenly Sharif's attention went to Sujamal as he started inspecting this new entry into his room as if he was inspecting a worm under a microscope in a science lab.
Anyway, despite going round and round Sujamal all that the brainless Sharif could detect was something which tickled his funny bone ... he was amazed to see a Khwaja Sera looking almost like one great Rajvanshi hero he knew! The resemblance of this Khwaja Sera to the Rajvanshi man was so close apparently that Sharif guffawed in laughter at how the Rajvanshi would feel if he knew he had a look alike that was in such menial service at Agra!
Having thus endured Sharif's idiocy Sujamal later had to go with Bakshi to the Diwan-e-Khas, where Jalal was holding court. Bakshi introduced her new Khwaja Sera to her mother Hamida, and meanwhile as Jodha came there, Sujamal's eyes filed with sentiment for his sister. He seemed happy to see Jodha smiling away and talking to Bakshi and Hamida. Meanwhile Maham started enjoying the whole scene a lot. Here was Jodha sitting in the front, and her brother just diagonally behind her, while Jalal was expected to arrive any moment. The curious thing is that while Maham had instantly recognised Sujamal, neither did Jodha nor Mansingh recognise him!
Jalal then arrived and gave Sujamal some tricky moments. He asked first on the state of the Malwa campaign and was told by Mansingh that the campaign was won and Baaz Bahadur's men had fled. Jalal then asked Atga and Sharif about whether Sujamal had been traced, for he wanted him dead or alive. Jodha squirmed in her seat at this, but Maham was keenly looking at Sujamal to see his reaction. Atga and Sharif said they had had no luck yet but soon hoped they could catch Sujamal. Atga then said he was last seen at a particular town, and so their hopes were high. Despite this close skirmish that Sujamal had with Jalal at the DEK, nothing much else happened here.
A little later Sujamal and Jalal came almost face to face when Jalal decided to pay Bakshi a visit to see if she was well. There Jalal was introduced to Sujamal and told that this Khwaja Sera was the new one Ruq had engaged for her and was given his name as Dilawar Khan. Jalal did some very brotherly thing there in scolding Bakshi because she never took her medicines on time. Poor Sujamal was instantly reminded of his own days at Amer when he used to similarly scold Jodha and make her drink her medicines. Then Jodha herself appeared in the room. As she greeted Jalal, all that Jalal gave her was a perfunctory look and then he looked away. He soon then said that now that Jodha was there he was going ... and he left abruptly. But this exchange of cool distance was not lost on Sujamal. He noticed keenly that there was some friction happening between husband and wife. But he perhaps stored this in his mind for later review!
Again in a later scene, Bakshi was in her room with Dilawar, when she accidentally cut her hand when trying to cut some supari. Her Khwaja Sera was all attention for her, giving her first aid with Jodha's lep and tying a bandage and also scolding her because in her condition she was not allowed to eat supari. Dilawar was just about to move the trays of medicine and supari to a nearby table when the covers of a painting nearby slipped off and revealed that it was a freshly painted portrait of Jodha! Imagine Sujamal's surprise at this, but even worse was Bakshi's surprise. She had given off to Jodha the first such painting that Sharif had commissioned and was surprised to see that her husband had commissioned an entirely new painting of Jodha again! Bakshi's anger and jealousy of Jodha made her grimace when Sujamal even mentioned Jodha's name, and as Bakshi explained the whole issue to Sujamal, he grew even more curious about why Bakshi was so against Jodha. Bakshi said her husband had tried to describe her own beauty to the painter but the painter had ended up drawing Jodha instead. "Go give this away to Jodha now!" Bakshi said vehemently, as Sujamal watched the harshness on Bakshi's face. Something was amiss here for sure, he thought.
Phew, what a first day at work for Sujamal. First there were some near skirmishes with Sharif and Jalal - and then some curious behaviour between Jalal and Jodha and Bakshi and Jodha. And then there was this mystery of this painting ... what more could a Khwaja Sera in disguise want? Life at the palace was interesting, to say the least!
Jalal-Jodha play hide and seek with each other - but at night he goes to Jodha not Ruq?
As mentioned above there was just one fleeting scene between Jodha and Jalal at Bakshi's room, when Jalal seemed to abruptly leave as Jodha entered. Aside from this there was no interaction at all between the two. At the Diwan-e-Khas they both didn't even look at each other.
But on the other hand Ruq was in seventh heaven. When Hoshiyaar brought her the news that Jalal wanted to spend the night with her (after a long time) Ruq was with Gulbadan who was wanting to write about her own childhood and how she was married to Jalal. This was such a sweet subject in Ruq's ears and further it became sweeter to hear that Jalal would come to her that night.
Ruq started redecorating her room in earnest. She wanted to set a highly romantic evening with Jalal and the more preparations she made the more I got the feeling that she was in for a huge let-down! Maham came to her room to see her in such high spirits, as Ruq crowed over the fact that now both the harem and Jalal were hers. Things were back again to the good old days! Maham decided to add spice to Ruq's life. She said "Jalal is in a lot of trouble personally, you know. It's not political trouble, its trouble with Jodha. He's in love and suffering a lot in consequence of it." Ruq promptly said "But he has no dil to employ in love", to which Maham cryptically said "Oh yes, he is using his dil alone a lot these days!"
Now with all these preparations at Ruq's room, and the way Jalal brushed aside Jodha in the previous episode showing that he wanted to spend the night with Ruq, the precap was the unexpected part of yesterday's episode.
In the precap itself, Jalal seemed to be slightly drunk as he came into Jodha's room instead of going to Ruq. Jodha was fast asleep. Jalal at first started caressing Jodha's feet standing at the foot of her bed. She withdrew her feet into her blanket. Jalal then went round the bed and lay down beside Jodha, their faces almost touching. His eyes were partially hooded and filled with unbridled passion. The camera played delightfully on his lips and then on her lips as if to suggest what was on his mind! Tantalisingly the precap ended there.
Now the questions in my mind are: Did Jalal really ditch Ruq and come to Jodha instead? Or was it again only his imagination? Did he go to Ruq at all or was he in his own bed imagining all this? Or worse, when he is with Ruq is he imagining all this action with Jodha? Or was it Jodha's imagination this time?
This seems to be season of "imaginings", so I am afraid to think it was a true sequence that actually happened. Later the Creatives may show it was just an imagining by Jalal or Jodha ... and then I'll be flat on my bottom hitting the hard ground beneath me. So better to think it was someone's imagination and then find it was a true scene, rather than the other way round!
Other than this precap, I found no scene worth describing in detail, so I will spare you all a scene by scene description.
My comments on the episode as a whole:
It was more of a "getting to know things around the palace" for Sujamal ... and a way for the Creatives to show us that though Jalal is trying to stay aloof from Jodha he is unable to sustain it as his mind is returning to passionate thoughts of her! I just wish things would move faster to the point where Jodha leaves for the jungle and then the real remorse of Jalal and the hunt to get her back can start.
This much of scene-setting at the palace is perhaps not needed. But I don't know if we are forced to see all this because of Paridhi not turning up for shooting for two days and so a lot of Sujamal is being shown meanwhile as a patch up job. If Paridhi has started shooting again I would expect the story to move forward at a faster clip!
The strange part of this whole Sujamal issue is that no one at the palace - not even his sister or his nephew - can recognise him, and yet Maham can? Who would be able to believe this kind of crappy storyline? What does Maham have ... laser eyes? Some little semblance of believability has to be there in the story.
Again I noticed one blooper - if we can call it that! If Maham has already told Jalal via that spy that Sujamal has fled, then where was the question of Jalal asking Atga or Sharif if they have managed to trace Sujamal and should bring him alive or dead? Did the spy say Sujamal had fled within a certain reachable range? From the time the spy gave the news of Sujamal to the present episode a lot of time has passed, so does Jalal still expect Sujamal to be within traceable limits? Was it a blooper? I am unable to judge the distance vs. time issue on how far Sujamal could be expected to be gone, and whether Jalal still expects Sujamal to be caught by his men, however far he goes? Or was it a sanket that Jalal didn't quite believe Maham's spy who said Sujamal had fled?
Just one more point in passing - it was lovely to see the brotherly love of Jalal for Bakshi juxtaposed against the brotherly love of Sujamal for Jodha. Brothers anywhere, when they love and care for their sisters, always use a mixture of scoldings and cajolings, and both these brothers were no different. I liked to see that scene because I don't have a brother who cossets me like that, and it makes me wish I had one!
Accha, so now we wait to see two things in the next episode:
a. Will Sujamal go to Jodha's room to return the painting and will he announce himself to her? Will Jodha know that Sujamal is now in the palace? How will she react to his presence? Will Jodha now become ultra-scared and even more cagey with Jalal, so that Jalal gets even more infuriated?
And how will she react to this painting of hers in Sharif's room? Will she wonder why there are two identical paintings of her? Will Sujamal and Jodha get to discuss why Sharif is doing painting after painting of Jodha?
b. Will Jalal wake up from his dream of being in Jodha's bed (if it is a dream) and thus depress all of us that it was just his imagination? Or will he really find himself there in the morning - much to Jodha's consternation and the wrath of Ruq and Maham?
How will Jalal rationalise this desire in himself for physical relations with Jodha at a time when he is loathing her for lying? Does it show the conflicting forces in his mind - passion and disgust at the same time?
Will he acknowledge he is itching to unleash his physical passion with her? Will he be angry with himself for allowing such thoughts into his head for a "liar", and will he therefore scream at Jodha (rather than at himself) causing her to run away to the jungle?
Or will he feel even more acutely distressed that he is beyond redemption on the "love front" such that keeping Jodha away from him is getting harder and harder? So will Jalal think "If she's here in Agra I will not be able to control myself. Better to be very angry with her for lying and send her back to Amer where she cannot disturb my every night with dreams of her?" And will Jalal thus lie to himself and summon up his anger to banish Jodha just to be able to stay in control of his passions?
People in love - specially unrequited love - do the strangest things to pretend they are not in love and to get control over their secret longings. Who knows, Jalal may feel the need to banish Jodha from his vicinity just to save himself from going out of control physically with her?
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