Friends, my first look at yesterday's episode made me think it was a pure blah episode again. But when I sat down to write this post it struck me that the episode did have some reasonable progress on four different fronts. It was not spectacular progress, but it was some progress all the same. Also some parts of the story seem to be running at super speed while other parts seem stagnated.
The problem was that each of these four fronts was not connected to the others directly yet, so it looked like four totally separate things had happened and the episode was a kind of khichdi. Also because of the many things happening, the episode did not look as slow as it did in the previous episode. There was some momentum, albeit a disjointed feel.
Here are the four things that happened with my comments on each of them ...
Jalal almost catches Sujamal out ... but Sujamal is a little too smart!
At Hoshiyaar's birthday party Resham is dancing, the rest of the crowd is cheerful, Jodha is watching with some happiness at the smiling faces, Jalal tries hard to look pleased ... but Ruq does not hide her feelings of utter boredom. Ruq then turns to Jalal and says "All said and done, having a birthday party for a khwaja sera is a bit over the top". Jalal replies calmly "They too need their moments, they have been loyal to us. Everybody deserves a bit of happiness. I would have thought after all these years that Hoshiyaar has served you, you would be full of happiness for him?"
Ruq replies with her typical uppity air "Yes, but this kind of thing for a mere khwaja sera is not on". Jalal agrees with a sort of double meaning "That's true, Ruqaiya Begum, people need to be kept in their right places. But khwaja seras also have to right to be happy in their places." Jodha has meanwhile been listening to this whole conversation, and though initially she found Jalal almost agreeing with Ruq, there is a delight on her face as Jalal seems to put Ruq in her place!
Ruq then says it is past dinner time and they should leave. But Jalal insists that they have dinner at the party itself and then summons the food to be laid out. Now comes the best part of this entire scene. Jalal suddenly notices with a keen eye that Sujamal is washing his hands the "Hindu way". (I am told that Muslims wash right up to their elbows, but Sujamal was merely washing his palms and fingers.) Then Sujamal tries hard to copy the way the Mughals said their prayers before the meal. But the biggest issue for Sujamal was the food itself ... a big lump of meat was lying on the plate from which they all had to share the food, and Sujamal positively balks at it.
He makes a pretence that he has to leave without eating because Bakshi Bano is in a bad way, but Resham and the others insist on his having at least the sweet. Sujamal barely manages a spoonful of the sweet. But an alert Jalal is watching all this with a hawk eye. Something is not adding up about this Dilawar Khan, he thinks to himself, and the feeling of unease doesnot leave him even after the function.
Later when Maham comes to his room, Jalal opens the topic with her. He says at first "Badi Ammi, do you not think that a true Muslim should be very careful about the rituals he follows as prescribed?" Maham says "Tell me what you are talking about?" Jalal says "Never mind that, but as a rule should a Muslim not follow his given tenets for rituals?" Maham then launches into a solemn-voiced speech on why every Muslim should follow rules. But just as Jalal is about to tell her that he found Sujamal's hand washing very "Hindu like", Sujamal was himself brought into the room, to Maham's great alarm.
Jalal just goes up to Sujamal and says "Who are you?" to which Sujamal replies "Dilawar Khan." Jalal persists with forcefulness and menace "Who are you really? For you are no Dilawar and no Muslim either!" Maham's eyes become saucers. For a minute it looks like Sujamal is squarely caught ... but this chap is resourceful, to say the least. He wrangles his way out of this mess by saying "Yes I admit, I was born a Hindu. But I had to change my religion to find work. I was for long out of work and I thus converted. Only after that was I able to get some work as a Khwaja Sera." Jalal is about to interject when Maham tries to help Sujamal out by giving him a leading question "With whom was your last job?" A grateful Sujamal clutches at the rope Maham has given him by saying "I was with a Hindu Raja Ramchandra in Panna."
Then with a smartness that speaks a lot about the mental agility of Sujamal he diverts the topic into an area that totally distracts Jalal. He says "May I please go now to Bakshi Bano. She needs me. She slipped and almost fell today from weakness." Jalal gets all flustered and despatches Sujamal forthwith to Bakshi ... and that brings the interrogation of Sujamal to an end. But even after Sujamal goes, Jalal says to Maham: "Keep an eye on him. We have to watch his movements". Maham agrees with a great deal of put-on docility, even though in her mind she is congratulating Sujamal!
My comments on this scene:
I am in a way very happy that this whole issue of Jalal accosting Sujamal shows the speed at which the story is progressing on the Sujamal disclosure front. Jalal is already on the scent and very alert to Sujamal's movements, so now if Sujamal does not take the arrow fast and open up his whole story to Jalal fast, it may be too late! The time is ripe for the arrow taking ...
This is what I meant when I said in my opening remarks that sometimes the story is progressing like a superfast express train and sometimes like a slow coach. In respect of Sujamal's arrow role coming through, things look to be on the fast track, whereas the dialogues between Jalal and Jodha seem stagnated.
From another angle entirely, I am very impressed with Sujamal's adroitness with which he tackled the tricky moment when Jalal demanded "Who are you?". Even the great mistress of saazishes - Maham - must have been impressed with the way Sujamal did two things to save himself. He first concocted a story about being a born Hindu who later converted into a Muslim to seek work and a livelihood and fill his stomach. This story was not only plausible but also heart-rending, considering the "sincerity" with which it was said. But then Sujamal pulled out his second and better ace. He turned the topic to Bakshi Bano's illness and weakness that made her almost fall ... and with that he completely changed the tracks in Jalal's mind! Jalal became so concerned for Bakshi that he dismissed Sujamal from the room with speed. He did make mental notes to stay alert on Sujamal, but for the moment Sujamal became less of a priority in the face of Bakshi's distress!
I have always heard that Sujamal was a great warrior, a great sipahi, with extremely high skills in warfare, but I never saw him as a strategist. In fact I always thought he was a duffer strategist for joining forces with the treacherous Sharif against his own Ameri family. But yesterday Sujamal really impressed me with his ability to manoeuvre through tricky situations with mental finesse.
Among the Rajvanshis, I would even put Sujamal higher than Maharana Pratap, who in this serial so far looks more like a bag of hot air than an astute warrior. Let's see how Pratap carries himself, his mind and his fighting skills when the time comes. But Sujamal has impressed me no end yesterday and at the moment he is my favourite Rajvanshi!
What is Maham up to? Secret outings, surangs, paigams, burnings?
The secret goings-on in Maham's life seemed highlighted when Jalal asks where she was, and why she was missing at Hoshiyaar's birthday party. Resham replies that she was on her weekly dargah trip - a dua she has undertaken ever since Jalal had that attack on his life. Ruq agrees that Badi Ammi is so concerned for Jalal, and loves him so much, to be doing this - and it looks like Jalal agrees with a bit of private reserve .
But lo and behold, we viewers were shown exactly what was meant by this weekly mazhar trip of Maham's. She goes in a doli till the mazhar, then steps out of the doli and goes into the dargah for the space of a few minutes. Seeing that the coast is clear, she then goes surreptitiously into a darkened area of the mazhar and pulls out a dark shawl and covers herself - and then she steps out of the mazhar with no one guessing it is her.
She then proceeds through the thick of a jungle till she reaches an assigned spot, where she signals someone who looks like a doorway guard. After some mute instructions from her, the guard seems to open the entrance-way to a surang. Maham disappears into the surang.
Much later she is seen emerging from the surang with a green-cloth backed paigam in her hands, which she secretes under her shawl, and then she proceeds back home the same way she has come, presumably via the doli. To make matters curiouser, she then sets ablaze the paigam in a small cauldron of fire in the middle of her bedroom at the palace.
Javeeda suddenly comes in there unannounced and tries to pull the paigam out of the fire, but Maham shouts at her to mind her own business. When Javeeda persists in asking what that paigam was about, Maham fobs her off saying it is a paigam from heaven for herself from the fairies. Javeeda seems temporarily staved off with Maham's alternative sweet talk and sudden scoldings, but after Maham leaves the room, Javeeda is seen still hoping to pull the remnants of the paigam from the fire.
My comments on this scene:
I must confess all my theories of this scene (which I had constructed after seeing the precap on Friday) have gone for a toss. This scene has completely surprised me. In fact I am now wondering if this is some side track to the story running parallel to the Sujamal-Jodha-Jalal story and unconnected to it.
Can it be part of the "downfall of Maham track" ... can it be that she later gets caught in some underhand issues regarding some paigams? See I say "paigams" in the plural, because she is seen going week nfter week to the dargah. Will she go repeatedly to the dargah if she had to burn only one paigam? Is she getting some series of messages from someone that she is retrieving, reading and then burning systematically each week? I think, from what I see, that these paigams are for Maham from someone else ... but who?
Further, the man Maham was seen talking to looks just like an ordinary guard of the entranceway to the surang, there was nothing notable about him! So much for all our guesses that he may be a "gair mard" Maham is trying to set up as an alternative to Sujamal.
Also, can it be a slip of the tongue that makes her tell Javeeda that these are "love paigams"? Is there some connection of "love" between someone and someone that Maham is either delving into or fostering ... or even trying to squash? She then changes the story to Javeeda as "love paigam from fairies" but when Javeeda says "Oh, so that is what your weekly trip to the dargah is about?" Maham looks like she had been caught out! The stupid Javeeda seems to have somehow got too close to the truth.
Does anyone have any guesses what this whole track of Maham and the burning paigams is all about? Does it looks connected in any way to Jalal and Jodha or to Sujamal or to Adham ... or maybe even to Shivani? I am totally flummoxed!
The latest tarazu scene of Jalal and Jodha - the antipathy is palpable!
Jalal is already standing near the tarazu when Jodha comes up to him. In their typical fashion, the one always knows when the other is in trouble or conflict - and both usually gravitate towards the tarazu. Jodha says"Pranam" to Jalal which he does not reply. "Why are you here?" she asks. He still looks away from her as he says"I wish to be left alone ... so please leave me." She makes to go, but suddenly stops as if she is drawn back to him. But seeing her hesitation in leaving he says again, a little more sharply "I am telling you again, please leave me alone."
Jodha stays on nevertheless and says "Do you remember, Shahenshah, that the last time I was here in uljhan about taking on the harem job, it was you who stood here and showed me the way forward?' "There is no need to discuss past events" he says abruptly. But she doesn't give up. "There is a need", she says, "for when I felt alone, it was like I had you, my pati, my friend along with me, helping me share what was on my mind. Today I want to know what is troubling you." He looksaway steadfastly away as he says "Don't worry yourself, I will find my way forward myself."
"They say a problem shared is a problem halved. I am after all your patni. If you won't share your troubles with me, who will you share it with?" she asks in all innocence and with good intention. But he just replies again abruptly "It is not necessary for a husband to share his every thought with his wife." She thinks about what he says and then replies "In that case it shows a lack of sufficient vishwas between both of us". He stays silent, as his mind flashes visions of her meetings with the "gair mard".
"Please tell me your sorrows", she pleads. "As a wife I want to help. So please tell me. How can I help?" Jalal then decides to lie through his teeth. He says "I am not troubled. Who told you I am troubled?" Jodha says "You can fool me and a lot of others, but not your mother who has seen you looking troubled. She sent me here". "Oh, so you came because my mother told you to?" he asks churlishly. "Why do you twist all my words?" she asks him plaintively. "And why are you so stubborn over every word of yours, when I've asked you to leave me alone?" he says with his voice slightly raised .. and with that he walks off leaving her staring at his departing back.
My comments on this scene:
It is symbolic that they are both at the tarazu again, for that is where they both go when in conflict. The conflicted one usually goes to seek solace, while the other one intuitively seems to know that is where the other troubled one can be found and also goes there. That significance of the tarazu in their lives has been maintained even in this episode. But there the similarity between past vists to the tarazu and the present visit ends.
This time there is a reversal of the typical tarazu behaviour when the troubled one accepts the advice of the other. Here Jalal negates Jodha's advice and first says "Leave me alone" and then says "Oh so you've only come because my mother asked you to?" It seems to me that Jalal himself is not only in two minds about the issue at hand (Jodha's gair mard meetings) but he is also in two minds about whether he wants her at the tarazu or not. On the one hand he says "Go away, leave me alone" and then on the other hand he wishes she had come of her own volition and not because his mother sent her!
The very fact this time the tarazu did not resolve his conflict shows two things:
One, the problem is more serious in his mind than the previous times where he felt he could work on the solution with Jodha's help. And two, there is a feeling in him that even if Jodha offers help, he doesn't want her help, even if it will help him to hear that advice. He doesn't want the helper even if he needs the help, for he is internally angry with her. But it doesn't strike him that by not wanting the helper he is not also getting the help he needs.
And also one more point ... this is Jodha's second or third real try to get him to speak his mind. Yet again, however, he doesn't clasp the opportunity to clear the air. How can we fault Jodha for his steadfast refusal to take all the chances she gives him to speak his mind with her? I see only good intention on Jodha's part, for she is really trying at every opportunity to make him come out with what is troubling him. But the fact is that he is holding onto his grouses as if they are precious. What in him is making him want to believe the worst of her even when given so many chances to clear the mess between them?
I think he is stuck in some old rut that says "She has to open up first, not me". He is in some mindset that is expecting her to speak up (without even knowing what the subject is) and he will not tell her what he feels till she comes out clean first and tells him why she was going on secret outings. There is not just hurt here. There is ego! My feeling is that somewhere Jalal has got trapped into an "my ego vs your ego" situation, where he believes that if he asks and she tells it will less "truthful" and "trusting", whereas if she tells without his asking, she would be more "truthful" and trusting.
More and more when we see this situation it looks like Jalal is caught in the cobwebs of his own mind, and it is become less and less about Jodha ... it is a fight between two parts of his own mind!
Adham returns sans Pir ... Jalal pines, Maham gets deeper into chaals!
Jalal and a few of his sipahis and Maham reach the gates of thepalace to greet two returning horsemen who look like they have news to give. It is Atga and Adham. Adham dismounts with a word to please Jalal. He says "Congratulations, we have won the Malwa War and Baaz Bahadur and his men have been defeated". Jalal is happy indeed, but he soon notices that Pir Mohammed is not among the returnees. He askes pointedly about Pir Mohammed "Where is he? Why has he not returned with you? Is he by chance taken ill?"
Atga then ventures the bad news "Shahenshah, in the war, Pir Mohammed has given his life and become a shaheed." Jalal is shocked and thrown. "How did this happen?" he asked Adham. "It was the day after the war" says Adham "a few of the remaining men of Baaz Bahadur attacked us and in the fracas Pir Mohammed lost his life. I tried my level best to help him but couldn't". Jalal says to Adham "I am sure you must have done the best you could", but all the while Adham was having flashbacks of the way he himself has ensured Pir Mohammed's drowning in the river. Jalal then gives instructions to Atga to take care of Pir Mohammed's family for he has been a true wafaadaar and his wife and family should not suffer. "Oh my God" laments Jalal, "why am I losing all my wafaadaars one after another. God have mercy on me!
Maham meanwhile was beginning to get the whole picture and as Adham looked at her through the corner of his eyes, the proud mother knew her son has eliminated Pir Mohammed, won the Malwa War and also got back his subehdaari with a lot of clevereness. Later in the secrecy of Maham's room mother and son are in a mutually congratulatory mood, when Javeeda comes in to claim Adham's time. She pulls Adham away from his mother and that leaves Maham silently swearing to herself "The way Adham has eliminated Pir Mohammed, in the same nasty way I will make sure Jalal eliminates Jodha from Agra. I will make him so deeply suspicious of her that he will never again look her way."
The next thing we know is that in the precap Maham (obviously as part of some deeply thought out chaal) is telling Ruq all - except the key bit of information! Maham tells Ruq "This secret 'gair mard' of Jodha is a Rajvanshi, and what do you know, he is now employed in this very palace as a khwaja sera and been tasked to take care of Bakshi Bano!" Maham fails to tell Ruq the important bit that it is Sujamal. So naturally Ruq is aghast with all this information and covers her mouth with her hand uttering a loud gasp!
My comments on this scene:
I am again totally flummoxed by why Maham is going and telling Ruq all this about Sujamal. What does she gain from it? Does she believe Ruq will fill Jalal's ears better than she can? Is Maham again trying to keep herself safe on this whole issue while using Ruq's shoulder to fire from?
One of the problems that Maham faces is that if she says too much about Sujamal herself, the question will arise in Jalal's mind about how Maham allowed this "gair mard" in the khwaja sera outfit to pass the physical test.
And would Ruq go and tell all this to Jalal? What will she say if Jalal asks "Where did you get all this information from?" Will Ruq not have to say "I got it from Maham"? Then what happens to Maham?
My own personal feeling here is that the more hotter this situation gets - with both Maham and Ruq now guessing at Sujamal's presence in the palace, and desperate to tell Jalal about it - the faster the arrow-taking by Sujamal will have to happen, before things get very ugly and become irreparable.
The machinations of Maham will flop for sure ... and Ruq may well find herself on the wrong side of Jalal if she goes and carries this "secret of Jodha's gair mard" to Jalal only to find that Jalal has already found out that the "gair mard" is Sujamal, Jodha's brother!
Another very pertinent idea comes to my mind about the likely downfall of Maham at this time. After the era of Maham at Agra is over, what will be Ruq's sources of information and strategy as regards keeping Jodha away from Jalal? Ruq, on her own, seems fit only for throwing tantrums and making petty plans. It is only with Maham's help that she is even in possession of vital information to act upon and try to woo Jalal away from Jodha. Without Maham Ruq would not even be a fraction of the size she is now. Added to which if Ruq loses her only other source of information to Jodha (ie. Hoshiyaar), then where is Ruq?
I used to think that after Maham exits the serial, Ruq may become the key villain in her place. But now I find myself asking "What are Ruq's remaining sources of inside info? If neither Maham nor Hoshiyaar are in her corner, how powerful can Ruq be? Maybe Gulbadan Begum, being her aunt, may have a soft corner for her. But Gulbadan is no strategist. So how can Ruq become a first class villain after Maham goes if her information pipeline is so weak?
In a strange way, folks, I am finding this serial now at a very interesting stage ... even if we are all roundly cursing its convoluted track (which seems at times to be a slow train and sometimes to be a superfast express). There are so many spoilers floating around, that the permutations and combinations of what can happen are so many and so varied ... and we are unable to predict what may happen with any fair degree of accuracy. Also many spoilers are cancelling each other out!
The latest is the Tatasky spoiler, for instance, which changed yesterday quite suddenly from talking about Jodha's jungle trip, to asking "Will Jalal, after he learns of Sujamal's truth, be able to stop Jodha from leaving?" This now suggests that Sujamal will take the arrow and declare all to Jalal just after Jalal and Jodha have had their fight, and Jalal has asked Jodha to get out. So maybe Jodha is either ready to go or just barely left when Jalal runs to her to try and salvage things?
Maybe the jungle will still happen, for near Agra is Vrindavan, where Jodha may go in search of Kanha ...and another spoiler yesterday says Jodha and Jalal will meet one new character - a saadhwi - at an ashram near Mathura, which suggests that after Jodha takes the Vrindavan route, Jalal follows and they both meet up (and meet the saadhwi too) at an ashram on the outskirts of Mathura, where Jodha tries to take refuge?
Meanwhile what is this paigam Maham is burning? Till yesterday, we all assumed that Maham's strange behaviour seemed connected to the story of Sujamal and Jodha ... because many of us assumed that Maham may try to set up a fake paigam from some other "gair mard" to Jodha, after Sujamal comes into the palace and no longer seeks outings with Jodha. We thought Maham would engineer things in such a way that Jalal could catch Jodha responding to the fake paigam and going out to meet a fake "gair mard" again ... but alas, all these predictions we made are going for a toss. What Maham is up to may or may not even be connected to Sujamal, Jodha or Jalal, it may some other track converging into this one, probably?
And the other big question ... what does Maham gain by telling three-fourths of the "Sujamal truth" to Ruq? Is she hoping Ruq will spill those beans to Jalal, about the "gair mard" being a Rajvanshi, inside the palace as khwaja sera to Bakshi? If this precap is true, then the paigam Maham brought from inside the surang may not be connected to this track, as Maham has made Sujamal himself look like the "gair mard" without revealing the key bit that he is Jodha's brother. Oh boy, I am so in a knot ... whichever way you try to tie the loose ends, something is not working out!
I am as confused as everybody and after three of my recent predictions have gone for a toss, I am not going to predict any more. Can someone who understands what's happening please give me the story outline in brief for the next three weeks? Help me, please, the suspense is killing!
Arjun
Anupamaa
