Friends, after the big, booming episode on Friday maybe we were expecting too much from the Monday episode. It turned out to be a mega time waster. Sometimes we usually joke, don't we, that some scenes look as if they have been inserted just to drag out the episode so that the Director and actors can catch their breaths with the oncoming shooting schedules that are hectic. Well, in Monday's episode almost every scene was a time-stretcher, so what can I say?
Time Waster No. 1:
The very first scene of the episode was a repeat of the last segment of Jalal's monologue, from the point at which he starts asking questions of Jodha and she has to answer Yes or No and he then overturns all the furniture of the room after every question. The whole segment ate up 5 minutes till in the end he says "Get out of my sight by sunrise".
Time Waster No. 2:
We then have a scene where Jodha is crying to Moti about her dilemma while Ruq and Hoshiyaar also have an exchange. Here Jodha is saying "He has asked me to go, Moti!" while there Hoshiyaar is giving Ruq this good news but also declaring sadness for Jodha (whereupon Ru throws water on Hoshiyaar for changing his loyalty)! The scenes are completely wasteful, for they lead nowhere. Eventually Maham enters Ruq's scene only to gloat briefly that they both are now getting their way since Jalal has finally asked Jodha to go!
Time Waster No. 3:
Jodha is asleep and obviously in uljhan about her divided loyalties between Jalal and Sujamal. Just then, what do we have? An antaratma appearance, of course!
Jo's antaratma comes and gives her an earful. First the antaratma says "Go and tell Jalal how you feel. Tell him the truth about Sujamal." And then the antaratma changes tack a bit and it says "You are in love with him girl, that's why despite his shouting and asking you to leave, you are still not unhappy. Have you no Rajvanshi pride. Get out of here." Whatever position the antaratma takes, Jodha herself argues the opposite position for a while till the antaratma seems to win ... or at least it has left her in the mental understanding that either she should go and tell Jalal everything and make him see her differently - or else if she has no ability to break Sujamal's vachan and tell Jalal, then she should take Jalal's berating more personally and for the sake of her shame she should leave! I could have told Jo this, why did we need her antaratma?
Time Waster 4:
Jodha goes to Jalal's room presumably having decided eventually to tell him everything about Sujamal. We are to understand that her love has won and she has decided against sensitivity to the insults to her person that Jalal has dished out. But lo and behold, who does Jodha bang into but Maham, who tells her it is no use talking to Jalal now, for he has issued orders that he wants to be alone ... and meeting Jodha will only exacerbate his already bleeding wounds. Maham's advice is "You'd better not meet him as you may make things worse", and when the dispirited Jodha goes away hearing this, Maham is full of glee that she has staved off a near danger of the Jo-Ja reconciliation!
Time Waster No. 5:
Maham then goes to Jalal deliberately when he is still enjoying turning all the furniture upside down in his room in anger and she says ":Jodha wanted to meet you!" Natutrally Jalal said nasty things like "I don't ever want to see her face again, ask her to get out ... and you too get out of my sight!". Maham just wanted to hear this for she wanted to be sure the flame of anger was still burning bright in Jalal. She acted as if very scared of him, but she came out of the hojra immensely satisfied. She had told him from her side that Jodha had come to see him, and so she had covered her tracks!
The only worthwhile scene:
Next morning at the DEK, Jalal is surrounded by everyone usually seated there, except Jodha. Ruq and Maham are tittering about their success in getting rid of Jodha, while Hamida and Salima are concerned with all that has happened between Jalal and Jodha and are worried about her absence. Hamida even tells Salima "Whatever the miscommunication between them, Jodha will never ever double-cross Jalal by taking a lover, so I don't know what this is all about!"
Jalal then tells Atga he wasn't the Rajvanshi prisoner to be brought to him, and he wants to talk to him alone. But unfortunately the sipahi sent to fetch him returns bare-handed with some terrible news. On his being brought from prison to the DEK, Sujamal has cut loose and killed some sipahis and fled! Jalal is utterly frustrated and almost holds a sword at the messenger-sipahi's throat uttering fierce vengeance at this "Rajvanshi male". He then tells Atga and his men to follow and he runs to the entrance of the palace.
There in true Jalal-style (reminiscent of Jalal's first Amer visit), Sujamal has killed every last sipahi on duty, and piled the bodies mountain-high and fled on a horse. Jalal sees this sight and is aghast. I suspect he saw that the "Rajvanshi male"was at least as true a soldier as he himself was, and could be just as barbaric. Jalal mounted his horse, and with his men following at a distance with Atga, he rode hard into the surrounding forest, almost as if he knew every inch of it, and he knew where Sujamal would go.
In time, he caught up with Sujamal, with his soldiers still far behind. There was even a scene where Jalal and Sujamal were so close to each other that they were lakaaro-fying each other thus suggesting they were within earshot of each other.
Now while this was happening, another diabolical plot was taking place. Shari f knew that the Rajvanshi male was none other than Sujamal. He knew that a major fight would break out between Jalal and Sujamal and it would be a protracted fight since both were terrific warriors of almost the same calibre. He decided that this was his moment to kill Jalal. So he stationed himself behind a tree, his face masked, and looking for his best opportunity to fell Jalal with an arrow, so that Sujamal could perhaps be later saddled with the murder!
Meanwhile in the precap we see Jalal has got the better of Sujamal. I suspect Jalal is just a shade superior to Sujamal and has thus made him dismount - and he has then started pummeling him with fist punches, pushing Sujamal against a tree trunk. The bleeding Sujamal is almost slumped from exhaustion, yet not quite giving up. But jt is then Sujamal catches sight of a bowman hidden behind a tree aiming for Jalal. Tantalisingly the precap stops there so that in the next Tuesday episode we can see the grand gesture of Sujamal of taking the arrow and saving Jalal, and thus Jalal's eyes opening to his true character!
OK, folks, there's not much analyse in Monday's episode because I don't feel like wasting more time on so many time waster scenes. Instead let me give a prediction based on the many spoilers that seem to have come out.
Here's my prediction:
Jalal will be saved by Sujamal who takes the arrow from Sharif shouting "Shahenshah, app hat jao, aur mujhe ye arrow lene do, taaki aap ke zindagi bach jaaye" ... and thus falls to the ground. Jalal will stand in shock that the man he was trying to kill - his enemy, the Rajvanshi man who had secret meetings with Jodha - actually saved his life!
"Who are you, really?" Jalal will ask, and Sujamal may reply "Thank God, you are alive Shahenshah, for I have given a vachan to my sister Jodha to save her suhaag!". (Just then , if Mansingh is alsopart of the horse-mounted party he may come forward and exclaim "Kaka Sa!"). Jalal will now need no more convincing that this is the great Sujamal, the errant brother of Jodha and not some "gair Rajvanshi mard".
As Sujamal seems to be on the verge of losing consciousness thanks to the arrow being poison-tipped, he may tell Jalal "I want to talk to you alone!" and Jalal may say "Takhliya" to all his troops and the two of them will be alone. Through failing breath, Sujamal may tell Jalal the whole story from the beginning.
He will say he came to Agra after the Mewat War to see if his sister was indeed fine after drinking that snake poison. He will say he never ever killed Jalal's brothers from backstabbing or otherwise he would not have returned the bodies with so much "neeti". Someone must have backstabbed the bodies en route to Agra to make it look like Sujamal's handiwork.
He will then say "I was about to leave Agra after seeing Jodha seemed okay, but suddenly your tightened security trapped me here. As I sat on a tree waiting to flee, I overheard Abul Mali, his henchman and someone from within your palace plotting to kill you on the day of the jashn. I could not see the co-conspirator's face but I knew he was the one giving maps and instructions on how to kill you. So I sneaked into the jashn that day, saw the henchman about to kill you, and I foiled that attack and took the henchman outside and killed him in a fist fight."
"But just then Sharif arrived, who recognised me and turned the blame for your attack on me. Nevertheless, I have always given a vachan to my sister that even if I hated Mughals I would never let any harm come to her suhaag (i.e. yourself)! So I decided to stay back in Agra to hunt down the real culprit even though you had issued a farman for my life."
"I wrote a paigam to Jodha to meet me and told her of my plans. I also took a vachan from her never to reveal my presence to you, in case you killed me before I could save your life from the attacker, and Jodha was thus tongue-tied due to my vachan. Seeing then that I could not do much from outside the palace (as the culprit was inside the palace) I took on the khwaja sera disguise and entered the palace."
" Jodha knew nothing of it till that day when you were actually hunting for me, and I was forced at the last minute to tell Jodha of my new disguise. Even then it was my plan that since you had started suspecting me I would have to flee and not keep my vachan to Jodha of finding the potential attacker of her husband. But alas, you caught me in her room."
"Be careful Shahenshah, for I have gone to all this trouble to save your life, now don't let this attacker attack you again. He has tried once even today with this arrow, and this is my second time I have saved your life."
Jalal will be so moved by this speech that he may order some water from his troops for Sujamal and bathe his wound himself ... and then say to Sujamal "I will see that you live for Jodha's sake.. I will not let you die. I will leave you in the able hands of Mansingh and Atga. But I have to rush back to the palace ... I have to talk to Jodha, and I have to stop her from leaving as I yelled at her insultingly yesterday to leave, thinking she was a treacherous wife. I have to beg her pardon." Sujamal will then say "Yes, please go urgently to Jodha, I will be fine".
All the while that this speech by Sujamal is happening, Sharif may still be hiding behind the tree and listening ... and he will know that sooner or later Jalal will start suspecting him, so he will be thinking "What should I do now? Go back to the palace as if nothing happened - or should I flee for safety from here itself to avoid detection?" In the end Sharif may decide to return to the palace as if nothing happened ... because if he did flee he would look really more suspicious!
Jalal will ride back faster than the others to the palace, and the troops after some first aid to Sujamal may follow behind with him. But Jalal on running to Jodha's hoijra will hear that she's gone!
Jodha, I suspect, would have told Moti something cryptic that sounds like she is going to Amer but her real destination would be different. She may have told Moti "Mein apna ghar jaa rahi hoon, jahan mere Kanha mujhe raksha karenge". Moti must have thought that was Amer, but Jodha must have actually decided to herself "If I go to Amer there will be a big daag upon my family. Let me instead go to Mathura to Kanha's temple and seek refuge in some ashram there."
And so Jodha must have set out in the dead of the night itself to go to Mathura via the Vrindavan forest, dressed in common clothes and with just a few personal belongings.
Jalal on arriving at Agra palace would have heard from Moti that Jodha has gone to Amer ... and so, cursing himself, he will immediately set out for Amer, stiil riding his horse to get there faster than with the troops following far behind. Atga and Sujamal and Mansingh, also perturbed by the missing Jodha must have also followed Jalal. Soon however, Sujamal with his superior riding skills may catch up with Jalal, and thus both men will be riding out front with the troops following behind them headed by Atga.
Incidentally, Sharif, who is keen also to personally know what has happened to his fantasy-woman Jodha, may follow quietly behind all the troops in some sort of face mask just to be abreast of the events.
On reaching Amer however, Jalal will find Jodha has never come there. The Ameri family will by now be terribly saddened and afraid to hear all that has happened, and Jalal will be even more distraught because he now truly doesn't know where Jodha is and whether she may have contemplated suicide again and what did she mean "She is going home to Kanha?"here Dadisa or mainvati may bring some clue from a meeting with Shaguni Bai, that Jodha may have gone to some Kanha temple.
Just then at Amer a troop of banjaras will appear who have seen someone of Rajkumari Jodha's similarity in Vridavan, and so hearing this Jalal - and Sujamal - will decide to run there in search of her. Meanwhile of course, Sharif too has overheard all this. He will try to reach Vrindavan by a different faster route to try and kidnap Jodha before Jalal and Sujamal can get there.
Jodha, incidentally would have slowly reached the ashram on the outskirts of Mathura and taken refuge there and befriended a sadhvi there. Sharif may spot her there with the sadhvi and would be hiding behind the bushes waiting for Jodha to be alone to abduct her, when to his chagrin, Jalal and Sujamal will arrive in the nick of time. There may be a bit of fracas of the veiled Sharif trying to abduct Jodha but being overpowered by the combined rain of arrows and swords by Jalal and Sujamal ... and so Sharif may flee once again as Jodha is saved from his botched abduction attempt.
Jalal then will be filled with contrition as Jodha will initially refuse to look at him or listen to him, and instead she may show lots of concern for Sujamal. But Sujamal will tell her a few home truths. He will say, "Don't blame Jalal, Jodha, he was angry as any husband would be. There was a fault from every side in this issue. My side, your side,Jalal's side. We are all one family and need to forgive each other". And thus Sujamal may pave the way for Jo-Ja reconciliation in Jalal's khema which has been pitched near the ashram.
Jalal will apologise to Jodha for his mistakes and kiss her forehead and tears and she may apologise for her mistakes and kiss his hand, and then there will be this big hug (for fultto 10 minutes, shot from every angle, including top angle!)
From behind the curtains Sujamal may see a glimpse of this hug and be happy that he has united them both. He may then tell Jalal that he has to take leave, and Jalal will tell him "You are a brave soldier. You deserve a separate country to rule. I will talk to my father-in-law about this". But Sujamal will say "Even if I go, and all is now well between you and my sister, I will always be fearful for your life for we have not caught this man who tried to kill you and he may be the same one that tried to abduct Jodha. I will never be at peace until I have solved this issue, so I will keep on the alert and let you know if there's anyone I suspect of ill-will towards both of you. Meanwhile please call for me if you need an extra hand to fight the enemy. I still have to keep my vachan to my sister to protect her suhaag, even though I hate Mughals as a general rule."
Both men may hug cordially, jalal will praise Sujamal for teaching Jodha and mansingh such good warfare tactics, and Jo-Ja may then continue on their trip to Mathura to the Kanha temple to pray for thanksgiving while their troops largely follow them at a distance.
There in the ashram Jalal may also be introduced by Jodha to this sadhvi who seems to love both Islam and Hinduism equally and is very erudite on both subjects ... and they may ask her to go back with them to Agra to spread her philosophical messages to the Agraites and the praja. And thus will begin another track.
How long will all this take?
My guess: two weeks! By Friday 19th April, this track should end, and maybe this new sadhvi "mystery", Adham financial downfall, and Maham downfall (via dhakka paigam and Shivani return etc) may start happening.
Will Sujamal die?
I don't think so, because history says Jalal argued to Bharmal for a kingdom for Sujamal and Bharmal agreed even ... but later it happens that Sujamal really carries some concrete information that Sharif is plotting for Jalal's life, and that is when Sharif actually kills him. Sujamal manages to reach and give the news to Jalal and Jodha but dies soon after ... and Bharmal is thus never able to give him that promised kingdom. So I think Sujamal will not die so soon, now!
How do you all like my prediction?
Shall I apply to Balaji for a job? If I get the job I promise to include minimum three kissing scenes in every episode (in the right places), minimum four hugs (without even one centimetre space between their bodies) and generally make 20 minutes of every episode phsyically Jo-Ja centric.
(And I promise also to make Maham die a tortured death at the hands of her own son, just for sadistic pleasure.)
Anupamaa
Members Lounge
Hindi TV Shows
Cricket
