Friends, yesterday's episode was just one long scene of Jodha and Jalal heading for the same bed. There was just one other scene of Sujamal with Maham, but the bulk of the episode was how Jalal tried to sleep with Ruq, drank a lot to try and suppress his sorrows, and then eventually could stay there no longer and went to Jodha's room to caress her feet, get close to her face and lips - and then to get his second self-given dhakka from the bed to the ground. He fell with such a noise that Jodha awoke, barely pulled and pummelled him back into bed and spent the night staring at him and wishing of what may have been. In the morning, Ruq came to crow over Jodha that she now has Jalal's days and nights, only to find Jalal comfy on Jodha's bed!
Other than this long and gladdening prospect of Jalal in Jodha's bed, and how he got there, we had Sujamal trying to prowl around the palace after Bakshi went to sleep, in a hunt for possible clues on the " real culprit within" wanting to take Jalal's life. But unfortunately he drew a blank on the jasoosgiri, and instead he came upon Maham who neatly tripped him up with conversation. Maham said "You cannot be seen prowling around these parts, your duties are with Bakshi" to which he let slip "Yaad karoonga". Maham pounced on that grammatical error and said "Don't khwaja sera's use the feminine gender and say "Yaad karoongi ...?" Touche! Sujamal barely managed to extricate himself with some blabbered explanation and ran away from that spot as fast as he could while Maham swore to herself, "I'll lie in wait to catch you with Jodha and then all hell will break loose".
I don't know what to say for my analysis since we had just these two scenes. But in case you missed the bedroom scene or want to live through it all again here it is with my comments ...
The story of the bedroom switch and how Ruq was upstaged by Jalal's drunken antics
The episode began with Jalal walking into Ruq's room, morose and very grumpy. Ruq tried to greet him with an "adaab" that he didn't even bother to reply. He stared at the ground and did not even raise his eyes to meet hers. Holding him by the hand Ruq pulls him towards the bed - she had taken pains to elaborately prepare her room for his arrival and a host of bandhis were standing against the walls, waiting to be dismissed. "You've made me wait a lot" Ruq said in a complaining voice that couldn't quite mask her childish delight. "How long I have been waiting for you! Look I have made great food for you, and we can play chess or chausar. So what would you like to do?"
Still staring dolefully at the ground, Jalal said, as if he was forced to say something "I prefer playing chausar! And today I want to get drunk before I play". He said it with the intent of one who wanted to drown his sorrows. He was so totally not into Ruq and her seeming delight at his presence that the two of them looked poles apart in mood and sentiment. One was blissfully ebullient, the other was totally despondent. A bandhi was then summoned by Ruq to bring Jalal his "jaam" and she then dismissed all the bandhis with a "Takhliya". "Today I will be doing his khidmat" she announced to the bandhis, as if to impress the bandhis that she had had this rare opportunity to serve him!
Jalal continued staring at the ground with such a unwavering, sorrowful, out-of-mood stare, that Ruq thought to herself "I think, as Maham says, something is indeed troubling Jalal." She then served him a glassful of "jaam" which he drank down in a single gulp, much to Ruq's alarm. "Jalal when did you start drinking like this? Go slow" she said to him. "I am too thirsty today. I want to let go my feelings and drink mindlessly. And I want you to drink with me too", he replied. That was the first sign of some life in him. "Sure, how can I refuse you" she said, as she poured two more glasses of wine, and he again drank his entire glass in a single mouthful, while she sipped at hers. He was going for it like he'd never seen drink for ages! "Shall we now start the game" she asked, and he nodded ... so Ruq brought out the game apparatus.
In Jodha's room meanwhile, a sad and dispirited Jodha was lying on her bed in the dark, her eyes filled with a strange sorrow. Moti came in and saw her thus and said "What's happened Jodha? Why are you here like this in this darkened room?" "Because I am sleepy" said Jodha, but her eyes stayed wide awake giving lie to her words. Moti lit a few lamps to bring in the light, and said "How can you go to sleep now? You have not even eaten your dinner." Moti then sat by her and touched her forehead to see if she had a fever and then said "No you don't have any fever either! Then what's the matter, Jodha? Why are you so sad?"
Jodha wiped an errant tear from her eye. "I have no idea, Moti", she said "sometimes I just don't know what is happening to me or even why ... the Shahenshah seems angry with me and doesn't even want to meet me. I am not even sure if this is what's happening, or I am imagining it all."
Back in Ruq's room, the game of chausar was in progress. Ruq played her turn but found a still-morose Jalal now swaying slightly under the influence of the drink. There was a dull drab blankness in his eyes. "What is the matter, Jalal? Today you look very troubled", said Ruq. "Why are you saying this, Ruqaiya?" Jalal asked, finally raising his eyes a bit to look at her. "Jalal, we both are childhood friends. I can understand by just looking at your face how you feel. I have been watching you for a few days ... you seem withdrawn and distanced from Jodha Begum. Has Jodha Begum hurt you in any way?"
Though Jalal had lost his senses somewhat with all this drink, it seemed he was not fully gone. He said to Ruq, "Where are we now, Ruqaiaya?" and she replied "In my khwaabgah." "Then why are we talking about Jodha Begum here?" he asked sharply. "I didn't know you were so angry with Jodha Begum", Ruq said, pressing the point despite his not wanting to talk about it. "Look Ruqaiaya", Jalal said, "if you want to talk about Jodha Begum, you go and talk to her, don't talk to me about her". He made to stand up as if he wanted to leave, when Ruq pounced on him and pushed him to sit down again saying "No Jalal, I was just saying something without intent. Please sit. Now we will talk of no one but our two selves. Go on, let's continue playing. It's your turn now." He replied, looking at his empty glass and with a furrow deep in his brow "To play my hand now I need more wine to drink".
In Jodha's room again, Moti tells her, "Jodha, if despite having me here as your friend you are still lonely, I cannot have that. " With that Moti stands up to go, but Jodha then sits up and holds her back. "Moti, if I myself don't know what is happening to me, how do I explain it to you?" she asks. Moti replies "Try me. Who knows, we may together be able to find a solution to your problem."Jodha then opens up. She says "You were there, weren't you, Moti, when in front of me the Shahenshah sent word to Ruq that he wanted to spend the night with her. I know he is the Shahenshah and can spend the night with anyone he chooses, but why am I feeling so bad about it. It is a strange feeling." Jodha's eyes grow wide in perplexity. Moti says wisely "Jodha this is not a strange thing at all. In fact it's a very good thing." "What are you saying, Moti?" Jodha says in a very tearful voice. "I am about to cry and my throat is choking." They both spend a moment in silence digesting the sensations that Jodha is working her way through. Then Jodha continues "The Shahenshah one day asked me "If you are in love with me, would it not feel bad if I were to spend time with someone else"?". Moti said "And what was your reply?" "Jodha thought about it for a moment as the scene flashed back before her eyes. "I replied that definitely I would feel very bad, even though I know that he has so many queens, and it is his duty to be fair to all of them ... I said as a wife I would feel very bad". "Okay so you admit it makes you feel bad." said Moti, "Now I think you have given yourself the answer as to why you are feeling this way today?" Jodha's eyes wear a look of comprehension.
Going back again to Ruq's room, Ruq has just finished the game of chausar when she tells Jalal she is very happy to be spending time with him ... and happier still to be beating him at this game. He nods in acknowledgement. But with a slightly derisive look he tells her "You may feel like an expert at this game, but Jodha plays a far superior hand than you at this game". "You said we both won't talk of anybody else, right? Then why are you now talking of Jodha Begum" Ruq asked churlishly. "Jalal was nonplussed for a moment. Then he managed the situation by saying "I wasn't talking of her, I was talking of the way to play the game".
Ruq saw the chance to press his patience a bit again "Jalal, I can see that you are very troubled, but I don't know why. Tell me, Jalal, what is this topic you are hiding from me. Why don't you talk to me about it?" "Despite my asking her, she lied to me, and I saw her with my own eyes" he said without saying what or who he was referring to, "and I am unable to bear these lies".
Ruq held his hands and grasped the point that he was referring to Jodha. "Jalal, I don't think Jodha will lie to you," she said. "I saw her with my eyes, Ruqaiaya, and yet she is telling me lies", he insisted, with a wry twist to his mouth. Ruq tried to explain something to Jalal. She said "A woman may lie under two circumstances. Either she doesn't want to hurt another person by telling the truth, or else she fears telling the truth. Maybe she has done something wrong and wants to hide it?" Jalal seems to hate hearing that and just readily throws back his answer to Ruq "Absolutely not, Ruqaiaya, Jodha Begum can never ever do anything wrong!".
The look of disbelief at what he was saying flashes across Ruq's eyes! "OK, if that's how you feel, that's fine. Drink some more wine and take rest" she says, resigned and beaten. Jalal drinks the wine again with a single gulp as Ruq talks to herself "A man looks like this when he suspects the woman in his life. This suspicion Jalal has is like my own victory. " She keeps plying him with more wine.
Later we see a shot of Jalal and Ruq fast asleep. It looks like there has been no "real action" that night between him and Ruq, for he is so much in a stupor while she too seems fast asleep under the influence of the drinks she has had. He stirs suddenly, as if unable to sleep deep, and his eyes fly open. He gingerly takes Ruq's arm off his body, and then sits up, helping himself to more wine as if he has not had enough to quell the feelings in his mind.
As he drinks he gets flashbacks of Jodha meeting Sujamal. He crashes the wine glass to the floor in frustration but even that loud noise is not enough to waken Ruq who seem in a stupor herself. He again sees visions of Jodha with Sujamal, and this time, unable to bear it any longer, he walks across the corridors of the palace to Jodha's room. There he is still swaying and lurching but he remembers to remove his shoes before entering. He almost knocks a vase of flowers over as he looks around for Jodha and finds her asleep on her bed with the purdah gently fluttering around her in the breeze.
The music changes subtly as he looks drawn by her beauty as she sleeps. She looks utterly serene and sensational. His eyes roam her whole body as his eyelids grow heavier with passion. He goes and sits at Jodha's feet, for that's the only uncovered part of her ... and he starts caressing her feet with both his hands. The music that plays as he feels this level of passion for her is an entirely new tune in resonance with the depth of feeling in him.
As she feels the touch on her feet, she draws her feet away from his fingers, and he then stands up to walk around her bed to lie down beside her, his face ever so close to hers that they can feel each other's breathing. He looks like he wants no distance between them at all. But sadly, flashbacks again disturb his mind. He sees visions of Sujamal holding Jodha by the shoulders and quickly following that vision is the memory of her giving him the dhakka on that fatefiul night long ago. The sadness fills his eyes and he closes his lids as if trying to forget all those bad memories capable of hurting his heart.
He looks to move away from her and stand up, but he is swaying and lurching so heavily and is so unstable that he falls to the ground , knocking over a big vase in the process. The noise is loud enough to wake Jodha, who peers over the edge of the bed to find the Shahenshah fallen flat on the ground!
She runs to his help and says "Shahenshah ... it's you? Wat are you doing here?" he smiles a smile of self-derision. "The last time I came here, you gave me a dhakka and made me fall over. But this time, even without the help of your dhakka I have fallen" he laughs drunkenly. "Looks like even the things in your room want to see me fall".
"You have drunk too much madhira today", she says alarmed and trying to hoist his upper body to make him sit up. "You are not able to manage yourself". "You should not have done this to me" he keeps repeating as she somehow manages to make him stand, saying "What are you saying?" she asks. Half standing up with her help, he says through slurring speech "You know I like you ... but you should not have done this which I don't like." "Sit down please", she says as she makes him lie on the bed and gently covers him with a bedsheet. He is staring at her all through this.
She turns to go, but it looks like he's pulling her dupatta. "Shahenshah, I respect you a lot, but please leave my dupatta" she says looking away from him. But there is no reply from him and she turns to see that he is fast asleep, his hand clutching the end of her dupatta. She then gently releases his hand from her dupatta and goes to stand at the foot of the bed, looking at him sleeping like a child. We are back to the Amer music again.
In a very revealing sentence she talks to herself as she watches him sleep, "The last time you came I gave you a dhakka. But at the time the situation was very different from what it is now ". She then turns away.
The precap scene shows the morning after the night before. Ruq is seen crowing away to Jodha "By now you must have understood well enough that the Shahenshah was always mine and always will be. I am after all his Khas Begum. His days are mine and so are his nights." She has barely finished her showing off, when her head turns ... to find Jalal sleeping in Jodha's bed. Ruq's eyes widen in shock as Jodha even looks a trifle guilty as if she's done something wrong!
My comments on this whole scene of Ruq, Jalal and Jodha:
Friends, I have some six points I want to bring to your notice and aks if you felt the same way as I do:
1. The childishness of the relationship between Ruq and Jalal came out totally in the scene today.
I don't know how many of you noticed this but there was a degree of over-formality and childishness - such a contrast - in the relationship between Ruq and Jalal today. On the one hand she had over-elaborately done up her room and posted bandhis all across the side walls when Jalal entered and she greeted him with an "adaab" and a "khushamdeed" to which he gave no answer. But folks, tell me, did it not look like too formal an opening ceremony for a husband and wife about to sleep with each other romantically? Does a man really like to enter a wife's room with a dozen bandhis in attendance and a formal greeting from the wife. The only excuse I can think for Ruq was that maybe he was going to her room after a long time, and she was all eager to make it "special". But people with romantic feelings do not make a room special by lining up bandhis and elaborately using formal language for greeting the loved one into the room.
In stark contast then with all this entry formality, Ruq then asked Jalal which game he wants to play. I have heard of foreplay in lovemaking but I never thought that a romantically inclined couple would play chess or chausar to break the ice before going to bed with each other. Compared to the formality of her greeting and invitation to Jalal to enter her room, the sudden childishness of Ruq in suggesting board-games to her "playmate" also astounded me. She seems to be teetering between two extremes. She is either too formal or too childish in her relationship with Jalal. But what she is NOT is clear: she is not a "lover".
Okay, look at one more thing as regards Ruq's behaviour with Jalal. She needs an audience to whom she needs to declare her intentions with aplomb, and hence the presence of the bandhis, I suspect. I think she is more keen to give all and sundry the feeling that she is with the Shahenshah - and she values actually being with the Shahenshah a little less than letting everybody know of this fact. For instance when he asked for wine, she first asked a bandhi to bring it, and then addressed not Jalal but the bandhis: "Takhliya, you can all go now, I plan to serve the Shahenshsh myself today." When a woman wants to do something special or personal for a man should she tell the man that she is wanting to do this for him - or should she tell the bandhis she wants to do this for him? It seemed to me that "audience" was far more important for Ruq than Jalal himself!
2. The cinematic direction of the intercutting scenes was very good. It gave us a view of both Jodha and Jalal parallelly.
I must again applaud the Director of the serial. I know he is a cantankerous man always fighting with his staff! But still he has talent of the highest kind in directing this serial and ensuring the shots are beautifully sequenced and arrayed and presented. He has an eye for exquisite detail. He has his plus points, I guess, and that's why his poor PR skills are forgiven.
The way the scenes of Jalal-Ruq and Jodha-Moti were intercut so that we saw the evolution through the night of both of them parallelly was beautiful. The scenes of each side were cut short at just the right time so that the continuity of the scene was then seen by us from the other point of view. There was a close match of the way Jalal felt versus what Jodha felt.
For example, when we saw Jalal feeling sorrowful and morose, we also saw Jodha sorrowful and morose. Then when Jalal started opening up to Ruq partially about Jodha lying, Jodha too started opening up to Moti about how bad she was feeling that he was sleeping with other women. Then when Jalal took Jodha's side and said she would never ever do anything wrong, Jodha was also telling Moti about how she had openly told Jalal that she would feel very bad if he was with any other woman.It was like a gentle opening up in layers on both sides, and the scenes of each were in close match with the scenes of the other.
3. Ruq wanted to follow Maham's instigation but Jalal would not talk of Jodha disparagingly or otherwise!
It was clear that Maham's instigation was working on Ruq. She was trying very hard to keep pressing the point to Jalal that maybe his sorrow and upset was because of Jodha. Twice she tried opening the topic with Jalal but he almost was ready to leave if they talked about Jodha. At first it looked like he was angry and therefore didn't want to talk about Jodha. But then you could see that is was not so much anger against Jodha but protection of Jodha.
This became clear when he started telling Ruq a little bit about Jodha, after her persistence, but he said something so cryptically that she may have had a hard time figuring out what he meant. He merely said "I saw her with my own eyes and she lied to me". What did he see and what did she lie? He suppressed that information. Again he was stressing not what he saw as hurting him, but her lying was what was hurting him!
Ruq then did the completely undiplomatic thing with her half-knowledge of what he was saying. She said maybe Jodha had done some wrong she was trying hide by lying. The speed with which he pounced back on Ruq, despite all the drinks he had consumed, was remarkable. He spat at Ruq "Jodha Begum will never ever do anything wrong!" The look on Ruq's face was to die for.
Many of us were wishing that he would not share with Ruq anything about his relationship with Jodha. But he went one step further to cheer us up. He needed to tell someone that he was hurting so he talked in riddles about the subject without giving away any facts. And then he protected Jodha from Ruq's assumptions and barbs with a speed that belied the fact that his brain was addled with drink. When it came to Jodha, nothing, not even glasses and glasses of drinks, could hide his protectiveness of her dignity, her sincerity and her dependability in his life. I was so touched because he showed such protectiveness of Jodha even when he himself was laying his own heart out in an unprotected way!
4. The contrast between Ruq and Moti as confidantes was worth watching - how different they both were!
A point that particularly hit me was the way Ruq and Moti played the confidante role in the episode yesterday. Moti was the perfect confidante. A confidante's role is to be a good listener, and to help a person who is hurting. To be a good confidante, you have to urge the other person to speak saying you are there for them, but you should not try to press your advantage at a cost to their own readiness to speak.
In Ruq's case she was trying to lead the conversation and was almost forcing a confidence out of Jalal. No doubt this was not just Ruq showing her initiative, she had been mentally brainwashed also by Maham, and hence her desperation to make Jalal open up on Jodha. When Jalal did not open up, she started prompting with leading questions. She ventured opinions on why Jodha would lie, when she should have kept her personal opinions to herself. She then went too far in imputing motives to Jodha as having done something wrong and trying to hide it. This was no way to be a good confidante. Her objective was too transparent: she was trying to make Jalal belittle Jodha and she got just the opposite of what she wanted.
But in contrast, Moti was just simply non-pressuring and just reassuring. She asked Jodha what was troubling her and she let Jodha quietly reminisce on her scenes with Jalal. Jodha herself then said she had told Jalal how bad she would feel if he was with other women. Moti then simply underscored the point that Jodha herself had made. She said "There you are, you have the answer to your dilemma yourself. You don't like him sleeping with other women and that is troubling you." This is what a real confidante's role is ... to get the other person to share and not to try and put words into the other person's mouth!
To add to all this Ruq made another cardinal mistake. She saw in Jalal what she wanted to see. She tells herself "Jalal is suspicious of Jodha and that is my triumph.". The stark point that Jalal was making was that he WAS NOT suspicious of Jodha, in fact only her lying was hurting him, but this point bypassed Ruq completely because she was seeing and hearing only what she wanted to see! In contrast Moti made no assumptions about Jodha. They just let it lie between them that Jodha was unhappy with Jalal sleeping with other woman. But Moti did not try to tell Jodha what she should therefore do or say to Jalal or to herself. Isn't it elementary that a confidante needs to be a listener of the truth and not make personally-favourable assumptions of the state of mind of the other person too quickly?
5. The music in their lives is subtly changing ... their music for "mutual attraction" is different from their "music of physical passion"!
I hope you all noticed the music with a keen ear. There was something entirely different about the music at two different stages of the scenes between Jalal and Jodha today. Previously we have always had the Amer music playing in the background to suggest the "mutual attraction" between them in various scenes. Their relationship was always so far staying at the attraction level and so the Amer music always came on and seemed to echo the theme of attraction - but not more than that.
Yet today, when Jalal came into Jodha's room looking and yearning for physical contact, the music changed. We had a totally new tune for his physical longings. When he caressed her feet and then went to lie beside her looking almost to kiss her, the new music with stronger beats and chords was playing as if that was the "tune of their physical relationship".
Later in the same scene, Jalal falls asleep on Jodha's bed and she stands at the foot of the bed staring at him asleep, and we get back the Amer tune. Does this imply that it is still attraction from her side but from his side it has all progressed to deeper tones of physical sexuality? I got that impression just seeing the contrast in the music when they were both shown individually looking at each other in that scene.
But the beauty is that despite the "attraction music of Amer" playing in the background for Jodha as she looked at him asleep, she ended the scene saying "I once gave him the dhakka, but things are very different now than before". So folks, it is my feeling that slowly the "Amer music" will give way to the "music of physical passion" even for Jodha very soon! The chemistry is building up in her too!
6. A medley of my other observations ... I have some six points to highlight as the other things I noticed:
a. Did he need so much wine to drown his sorrows? How deep must be his pain then?
b. He caressed her feet while she was sleeping, and I suspect her feet will become precious to him. Rajvanshi women cannot otherwise allow their patis to touch their feet, so if he likes playing with her feet, he has to do this only while she sleeps!
c. I loved the way the angry dhakka dialogue is now becoming a joke between them. He said "Last time I fell because of your dhakka, but this time I fell even without your dhakka". How cute that he now finds it amusing rather than a point of anger.
e. She thought he was pulling her dupatta to get her back to bed next to him. Did she want him to do that? And was she disappointed that he had actually fallen asleep with her dupatta in hand. I thought so!
f. In the precap I can't understand why Jodha still wears a look of guilt when Ruq finds Jalal in Jodha's bed. She should stop feeling guilty for her husband being in her bed, even if they've done nothing so far in that bed!
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