Friends, yesterday's episode was one big action thriller. We had an angry King, a furtive khwaja sera, some helter-skelter running sipahis, some dashing swordfrights, some big-toothed evil smiles from Maham, a scared and worried Sharif, a boisterous Atga, some scurrying baandhis, a Ruq in an false world of her own, and a tearful Jodha supplicating before Kahna. But the million-dollar question at the end of a happening half hour was ... is Sujamal in the pot or not?
For those who wish to know what happened, or to relive the drama, here is a quick gist of the action yesterday:
The episode starts with Ruq asking - no, ordering - Dilawar, her new khwaja sera - to press her legs! But Dilawar (in truth being a noble Rajvanshi) did not want to do any such thing. He answered Ruq very cleverly "I can't do it. I wouldn't have it said that anybody else did salaam to the legs of the Begum of the Badshah!" Ruq was checkmated. But then she asked for a hookah and found it not up to standard. As if very angry with Dilawar she then said to him "Take these jewels to Begum Jodha. You know who she is don't you?" Dilawar took the jewels and said with a straight face "Yes I have seen her around this palace, she is the one with the large heart isn't she?" and then he went with the jewels. Ruq was thrilled she had executed her part of the plan made with Maham.
All the while, as Dilawar carried the jewels to Jodha, he jkept getting flashbacks of how Jalal had become suspicious of him at the Hoshiyaar birthday party, and how later Maham has also tried to bait him regarding his true colours. He thought to himself "I have to go to Jodha and tell her everything and make good my escape from here. Too many people have already become suspicious of me here. Before I catch the real culprit, I should make sure I am myself not caught!"
Meanwhile Maham was busy taking the painting of Dilawar to Jalal. At first all Jalal saw on the painting was the semblance of Dilawar, the khwaja sera. "Look at it carefully, don't you see the truth?" asked Maham, but still all Jalal saw was only Dilawar's face. Then Maham, the semi-artist. went to a nearby mashal, collected some soot on her fingers and proceeded to draw a moustache and beard on the face of Dilawar in the painting. Lo and behold, Jalal began to see that the face was none other than that of the "gair mard" Jodha had been secretly meeting at nights. Jalal grew red and furious and his face contorted with anger. He was aghast that the "lover" of Jodha should have the temerity to enter the palace - and of all places, the harem - in disguise as a khwaja sera and thus attempt to meet Jodha on the sly under Jalal's very nose. Jalal unsheathed his sword and with a sort of war cry ran after Dilawar.
Maham told Jalal Dilwar was now assigned to Ruq, so Jalal first ran to Ruq's room. But there he drew a blank and instead Ruq told him a half-truth "Dilawar wanted to talk to Jodha about something, so he has gone to her hojra". Off went a screaming Jalal, running like a maniac behind Dilawar, much to Ruq's delight that her plot, made in tandem with Maham, was working so beautifully. Jalal was almost at the entrance to Jodha's hojra, ... when we have to catch our breaths and be ready for what was inside.
Indide Jodha's hojra, where Dilawar had reached a little earlier, Dilawar tried to hold Jodha's hand, and when she looked shocked by this gesture he removed his facial jewellery and dupatta and said plainly "Jodha, it is I, Sujamal!". Jodha's shock was two fold. One, to see him inside the palace like this in her room despite danger to her life was bad enough. And two, because a Rajvanshi noble like him had been reduced to a disguise of a khwaja sera, Jodha couldn't bear the thoguht! "It's okay Jodha if I take on this disguise," Sujamal explained "Because it is in a good cause. I wanted to keep my vachan to you to save your suhaag. But Jalal has become very suspicious of me so I fear my mission may not completed and I may get caught first." Jodha with tears in her eyes was still staring at him, not knowing what to do, when Jalal's voice was heard bellowing just outside her door "Where is this Dilawar Khan?" By this time Jalal was not running alone. A posse of sipahis was following him, all with swords unleashed, looking for the errant Dilawar Khan.
Just as Jalal entered Jodha's room, however, Dilawar made a hasty and simultaneous exit from the back door of the room - and so Jalal came in and drew a blank again. But he threatened Jodha "I know what you are up to. Where are you hiding him?" and with those kinds of war cries he started searching the whole room as Jodha stood quivering with fear at his ruthless thirst to catch Dilawar. Suddenly Jalal looked like a hound that had got the scent of the rabbit and was gunning for blood!
Sujamal meanwhile, just after exiting Jodha's rooms, was thinking fast "I have to leave this palace now, it's become too hot for me here!". Hardly had he said the words than some sipahis ringed round him, ready to hem him in. But not for nothing was Sujamal such a great swordsman. He cut the ring of sipahis around him with a few well-placed slashes, and felled them all and started running towards the bawarchi khana - the kitchen.
The moment he ran into the kitchen the bandhis there squawked like hens disturbed by a fox and ran out of the kitchen in desperate fright. More sipahis followed Dilawar as he continued to display some great swordmanship even as he ran around pots and pans and tables and shelves. One bandhi girl however did not run. She hid behind a pillar and watched with trepidation. When Dilawar had felled most of the sipahis in the kitchen and the coast seemed clear, he got into a huge empty copper pot in a corner of the kitchen.
The lone watching bandhi girl then ran out of the kitchen to inform the advancing Jalal (who by now also had Atga with him, fully briefed) apart from another battalion of soldiers. The girl told Jalal "That Dilawar has climbed into that copper pot, I saw him do that!". Jalal entered the kitchen with his men and headed straight for the copper pot.
Meanwhile in an aside, Sharif was with Bakshi in her room, when a bandhi came and gave him all the news of all that had happened - especially the part where it was now known that Dilawar was a Rajvanshi male believed to be a "gair mard" visited by Jodha! Suddenly the lights turned on in Sharif's head for when he had first seen Dilawar the face was so familiar. "It must be this Sujamal" he thought to himself and then his face showed great fright because another thought came to him. "What if Sujamal tells Jalal all about me if he knows I was behind the jashn attack?". So Sharif ran as if his backside was on fire to the kitchen to witness further events. Bakshi thought to herself "Here he goes at the mere mention of Jodha's name!" and she gave an ugly grimace.
Meanwhile Hamida and Salima were no less concerned in Hamida's room. "We have no clue who this Dilawar really is" Salima was telling Hamida and both women were looking nonplussed! And in an aside, Adham met with his mother, and she gave him the full lowdown on what was happening - so both mother and son were last seen smiling at each other with utter satisfaction at the fracas happening in their lives. In her hojra Jodha was praying to Kanha to save Sujamal - for he was only trying to save Jalal's life!
Maham was also all the time tailing Jalal so she too was part of the kitchen party, thinking to herself with glee that Jodha's days here would be numbered! Strangly whileSharif also ran and came to the kitchen and was there, Adham was not there in the kitchen tamasha.
Having all congregated around the "loaded pot" Jalal got his sipahis to bring a cauldron of boiling water and then shouted to Dilawar "Come out and reveal yourself - or get boiled to death!" But there was total silence from the pot.
(No doubt when the bandhi girl ran out to tell Jalal about Dilawar in the pot, Dilawar got out of the pot and hid himself elsewhere?) Now there the episode ends, with the pot being the hero of the episode.
The precap was again a repeat of the "angry Jalal shouting at Jodha" promo but there was one more key sentence. Jalal, frightfully angry shouts at Jodha with menace and disgust "I have fallen in love with you and this is what you do to me. You have betrayed me for a secret mard. Tomorrow morning by sunrise I want you out of here!"
Phew, folks, was that enough action for one day? I think there's more to come in the Friday episode because all these things are yet to happen:
b. Not finding Dilawar in the pot, Jalal is going to unleash his anger on Jodha. We are going to get that full angry Jalal promo scene where he tells Jodha to vanish. Jodha may plan to vanish during the night itself instead of in the morning.
c. The plotter then is going to make the attempt on Jalal's life but Dilawar will take the arrow and fall at Jalal's feet. Jalal will be aghast at being saved by Dilawar, and will begin to wonder who this Rajvanshi is, when Mansingh may come and say "OMG, that is my uncle Sujamal". Then the penny will drop for Jalal and he will let Sujamal talk, and Sujamal will tell him the whole story including how he overheard of the jashn attack and saved Jalal there once and how he himself got blamed, and then how he met Jodha to give her a vachan to save Jalal and to take a vachan in return that she will say nothing to Jalal ... blah, blah, blah. The upshot is that Jalal will now have plenty to rue about his treatment of Jodha over the last few weeks.
d. Jalal will run to Jodha's room to tell her not to go away, but he may well find the room empty for she has left in the early part of the night itself! A distraught Jalal will give Sujamal a vachan that he will find his sister and bring her back safe and sound and ask Mansingh to care for his uncle's recovery. Maham and Ruq will have to sit in a corner and lick their wounds ... while Adham and Sharif (whoever is the culprit) will have to beat a hasty exit before they get too implicated.
How much of all this will happen on Friday and how much next week is the only question left! I leave you all to guess. Despite the new "kiss promo" showing both Jodha and Jaja in a rich backdrop, I still feel Jodha will go to the jungle and that kiss will be after Jalal has discovered her and it may be in his khema in the forest.
1. "Wow, nice action after a long time." I love a thriller chase and I got one for the full 25 minutes. Paisa wasool.
2. I loved the quirky old copper pot for it was such a 16th century way of hiding inside a pot!
3. I absolutely loved the way Sujamal cut up sipahis like they were stick figures.
4. I especially loved the way he jumped from the terrace to the lower floor like Errol Flynn in the early black-and-white English movies.
It was all pure Sujamal yesterday ... and he had his full precious moments in the limelight. Now we have to wait for his oratory skills as he "tells all".
For tonight's episode, folks, tighten your seatbelts a little more. I am sure many of you may have fallen off your chairs while watching yesterday and we don't want a repeat of that!
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