Friends, I am in a bit of a work load rush today, so I am making a rather shorter post than usual. About yesterday's episode I will say this ... it was a Monday so as per Elas's theory, Mondays are almost always filler episodes! It did seem as if Ela was right.
Here's a quick gist of all that happened:
The episode started with the same scene that we already saw in the end of the mega episode. Jodha was in her room crying to Kanha, when she heard a tap-tapping at her room door. Thinking it to be Jalal again she refused to open the door. But with all the banging it flew open anyway and her father stood there. He hugged his heart-broken daughter who clung to him from sheer relief at seeing that her father has come all the way to see her. Bharmal kept soothing Jodha by saying "Everything will be OK, Jodha, it will all settle down." But Jodha was still racked with sobs. From behind Bharmal, Jalal watched this scene for a short while and then moved away to give the father and daughter some space and time alone.
At first Bharmal said to Jodha "Come home with me to Amer, my dear, you will be safe there amidst your family and we will take care of you in this mental agitation". But Jodha seemed extremely reluctant. Bharmal looked hurt that his daughter was so hurt by her mother words so long ago that she was never welcome in Amer alone, without Jalal by her side. She hesitated and told her father "I am OK here. I don't want to leave this place. I am happy here." Bharmal tried to reason with Jodha that she should not hold her mother's words against her for even Mainavati is distraught now that Jodha had disappeared and never even thought of coming home to take refuge in her distress. In fact Mainavati could not forgive hereself at all. Jodha should pity her mother and forgive her harshness, which at the time she said those words was actually the wise and good thing to do for Jodha, to save her marriage. He also said Jodha should have come home by demanding her rights as a daughter to enter the Amer home. But still Jodha was adamant, so Bharmal then had to resort to emotional blackmail. He said "If you don't come to Amer, then I will stay here with you, and let all my responsibilities go to hell." Seeing this turn of affairs, Jodha eventually relented and agreed to go to Amer.
Jalal was alone in his room with Todarmal, waiting for word of what Jodha had decided, when Bharmal walked in to debrief him on the happenings. Todarmal discreetly left them both alone. Bharmal told Jalal "Jodha has decided and agreed to come with me to Amer. Let her do that because she needs to cool down in her feelings a bit - with people around her giving her lots of freedom, space and time. I won't invite you to come this time with us Shahenshah, because the timing would not be right. But when Jodha is settled and happier and in a better frame of mind, do please visit us at Amer to bring her round to your thinking. We have the Gangaur festival taking place in Amer now, and so Jodha will find lots of opportunity to put the recent discord behind her. Do please come often then so that you both can be united again. Keep your vishwas in God for he will help you both unite again." Jalal had to agree with the wisdom of Bharmal. He too knew that if he went with Jodha now it would only delay her recovery and every day would again remain a day of friction and despair. She needed time, he wanted her to have the time, but he couldn't suppress the sorrow in his heart that he himself was the cause of this forced separation to give her time.
The next scene was that of Jodha taking leave of Todarmal and all the ashramites. She showered her gratitiude on all of them for so caring for her and giving her a home away from home. Bharmal graciously made a handsome money donation to the ashram. Todarmal bid her adieu with all warmth and graciousness, but Jodha found that one person was missing in the crowd that she absolutely had to bid goodbye to - Shehnaaz. She looked around for her but couldn't see her, and she thought of leaving behind her a gift for Shehnaaz, and was about to get into her doli, when Shehnaaz was found already sitting inside the doli, unprepared to let Jodha go anywhere without her! Despite the ashramites trying to prise Shehnaaz out of the doli, she point-blank refused to let go of Jodha and held Jodha to her "vachan". So eventually again Jodha had to relent and agree to take Shehnaaz with her.
Jodha was just about to enter her doli, when her eyes fell on a forlorn man standing in a corner watching all this. It was Jalal. His eyes were brinmming with unshed tears and had a pleading expression as he looked at her. The voice in his head said "Don't go Jodha Begum, please don't go". Her heart heard these words, but she replied him again without words and just through her eyes "I have to go Shahenshah, I cannot go back with you to Agra. That is a not a life I want to go back to ever!" He heard her silent words too in his heart and we could see his heart sink in sadness and despondency. But he steeled himself with determination. "I will not let you go out of my life Jodha Begum, with my love for you I will win you back" he told himself as he watched her doli go!
After Jodha's family left with her, we saw a very depressed and listless Jalal with a posse of just four sipahis make his desultory way back to Agra. They were traversing some jungles, and the horses of the five men were barely moving, they too seemed to be hanging their heads in sadness and just making a pretence of covering ground. Jalal kept on having reveries of Jodha... of the happier times they had and even of the sadder times between them. In the midst of these flashbacks, suddenly his mind started playing tricks with him. He started imagining he was seeing Jodha standing in front of him, as if she had decided to go back with him. His face became lit with broad and genuinely happy smiles as he said to her "I knew you would come back to me Jodha Begum, I knew you would come back with me to Agra". But the scene ended there with us the viewers knowing that Jalal was just imagining things, although I suspect to Jalal it must have all looked real enough. Was this the unguarded moment when his enemies attacked him? Let's wait for the next episode to see if that is what happened ...
Meanwhile at the Amer palace all the family was agog for Jodha's safe return to Amer. They had received word that Jodha was coming back with Bharmal to stay at Amer. Dadisa and the other women were all thrilled - as were Jodha's brothers. It didn't quite hit the family that there was a separation happening between Jodha and Jalal, because all that the Ameri family could think of was that the missing Jodha had been thankfully located and she had agreed to come home to the safety of Amer. The rest of the separation story will hit them all, no doubt, after Jodha arrives and mopes around every day, without any plans to go back to Agra!
In the excitement of Jodha's arrival Mainavati alone was in agony. She couldn't face Jodha at her arrival, for she knew that the reason Jodha had sought refuge at some way out ashram instead of coming home, was because of her harshness to Jodha in Agra. Mainavati told Dadisa "I cannot be part of the welcome group when Jodha arrives. Woud you please invite her in with all the fanfare, because I cannot readily face her!" Dadisa agreed and so Mainavati decided to sit alone in guilt and shame while all the excitement around her was boiling up. She looked at Jodha's room and all her childhood playthings and tears filled her eyes, for she had meant well when she forbade Jodha from ever returning home alone, without knowing the consequences of those words on the future. Her daughter had shown her that she would rather stay somewhere with strangers than come home to a family that didn't want her and to a mother who could be so distanced!
In the precap of the episode, we all see exactly what we all wanted to see. Abul Mali is personally attacking a poorly defended Jalal and with his sword has slashed Jalal's back and shoulders and chest, and has Jalal pinned to the ground. Before Jalal can rise again, Abul Mali is poised with his sword lifted above Jalal chest and any minute it looks like he will deal that fatal blow to Jalal's ribs to finish him off. Meanwhile, Jodha doing aarti at Amer is telepathically have alarm bells ringing in her head that Jalal is not OK. How romantic!!! I am saying that this is a scene we all wanted to see because now we can enjoy anticipation of Jodha giving Jalal all the TLC he needs to recover from his wounds and there's also the prospect that Jalal will be taken to Amer instead of Agra to recover from his wounds.
Here's my prediction of what may happen:
I think, just in the nick of time, Maharana Pratap will come there and save Jalal by counter-attacking Abul Mali.
In the mega episode we had a brief glimpse of Maharana Pratap telling Baaz Bahadur that he will never be part of any plan that uses subterfuge to defeat Jalal, even though Jalal was his sworn enemy. Maharana Pratap, in fact, has consistently shown through this serial that he is a Rajvanshi to the core. He swears he will never slay a defenceless unarmed man, and if he wants to conquer his enemy he would rather wage a righteous war and face his enemies to slay them rather than go behind their backs.
Yesterday there was a spoiler picture on our Forum showing Maharana Pratap in a change of clothes. He was not wearing his usual courtly green dress (that one that I love to hate!) but instead he was seen with his horse on the banks of river, I presume, wearing a dhoti and angavastra and looking like he was on a temple pilgrimage. I think it may happen that Pratap has come to Mathura for Holi prayers at Vrindavan, and he may be making his way back home when in a timely fashion he lands up exactly where Abul Mali is hurting Jalal in the jungles. I think then that Pratap will fight valiantly with his sword to fend off Mali or strike Mali till he is badly wounded, and Pratap may then save the wounded and semi-conscious Jalal by ferrying him on his horse to Amer.
At first I thought since Jalal is closer to Agra from Mathura, that is where he would be taken. But after seeing the spoiler picture of Pratap and his pilgrimage trip, and especially after seeing that self-righteous "proud Rajvanshi" dialogue pf Pratap in the ME, I am now convinced it will be Pratap who saves Jalal, and since Pratap won't think of ever going to Agra, he may think it better to take Jalal to Amer for more detailed and better treatment after giving some quick first aid in the jungle itself. Till now the Creatives of this serial have always shown Pratap to be an enemy of Jalal but an extraordinarily fair guy. (He even scolded Sukanya's father-in-law for his underhand way of acquiring a fort ... and has time and again berated his fellow Rajvanshis and now even Baaz Bahadur that he will never be part of any underhand campaigns to eliminate Jalal.) It will be a lovely twist to the story if Pratap now takes Jalal safely to Amer.
The other advantage of course is that the recalcitrant Jodha will get a shock of her life to see her Jalal so wounded and she will start tending to him and praying for his recovery in exactly the same fashion that he prayed for her life after the snake poison ingestion. There's nothing life a life-and-death situation for our serial heroes and heroines to discover true love, so I expect that caring for Jalal will bring Jodha back to knowing her priorities. She will forgive Jalal, and Jalal will get loads of TLC and time from her, and the Gangaur festival (which was the time when they first met) may end up bringing them together in their new love for each other. The last time they met at the Gangaur festival was when he stole her paayal and gave her a place in his consciousness. This time around I think Gangaur will seal their love and we may well see declarations of mutual love from them. That should be in good time for the consummation scene to soon thereafter take place ... either at Amer - or on the way from Amer back to Agra!
Incidentally folks, Abhay (History_Geek) has sent me a wonderful PM with full details of the Gangaur Festival and its importance. How fortuitous it will be if Jalal and Jodha can both acknowledge their mutual love at an auspicious occasion such as Gangaur. It appeals to my romantic heart!
My comments on this whole episode:
Folks, this was the typical kind of episode which my sister would call "a pathos episode". It was full of the sadness of two lovers parting, with tear-filled eyes and heavy hearts. We viewers know that this parting is actually going to be rather short and sweet, but the two lovers are not supposed to know that, so we have to try and see the sorrow from their point of view rather than to see it all with the glee in our eyes that the Creatives want to have a consummation scene very quickly now so the parting will not be elongated!
I thought Bharmal was splendid in the way he handled both Jodha and Jalal. He soothed Jodha's frayed nerves and calmed her down and even resorted to a little timely blackmail to make sure she agreed to his demands that she go with him to Amer. He then advised Jalal well that he should not take it amiss if he doesn't invite him immediately to Amer for that would only be counterproductive. Jalal had to agree with the wisdom of Bharmal that Jodha needed time to heal, and both Bharmal and Jalal knew that Jodha would be safer at Amer than spending time away from both of them in some ashram at Mathura!
The part that I didn't like at all was the way this Shehnaaz is sticking like a leech to Jodha. I am feeling very uneasy about this dependency. Of course, Shehnaaz now knows that Jalal is Jodha's husband and so I hope when the time comes Shehnaaz will try not to be a kabab mein haddi between the two when they need to unite. But still, this Shehnaaz behaves like such an adamant child that even if she were to interfere between Jodha and Jalal I am afraid no one will find it in them to be harsh with this girl and tell her it's not on to stand between a husband and wife.
I hate people chipko- fying on others, and Shehnaaz especially seems now to be trading on Jodha's politeness to carry things to giddy limits. I am in jitters as to what she may do to spoil the budding Jodha-Jalal relationship when it happens. Even though that stageis not yet reached, I am dismayed in advance thinking of how this Shehnaaz may behave when Jalal comes to Amer. Yesterday, after the episode, I was even even thinking "If there are anyy brothers of Jodha left unmarried, I hope this Shehnaaz will get distracted by them and leave Jodha alone". Alas, all of Jodha's brothers are married already, and besides, which man would fall for a woman who looks all grown up but is mentally still a five year old?
And besides we don't know the back story of Shehnaaz yet, whether this childlike behaviour is a deliberately put on act or the truth ... maybe she has genuinely had some "sadma" - or as some of us feel, she could well be a clever henchwoman of Maham's ... who knows? None of Jodha's sisters are in Amer either, to keep this Shehnaaz occupied since both Sukanya and Shivani have flown the nest.
Leaving Shehnaaz aside, I loved the way Jalal did not give up despite his despondency that Jodha had decided to go back to Amer without him. He took it philosophically, telling Bharmal, he had done the wrong and he needed to bear its consequences. But inside his mind I loved the way he steeled himself to get Jodha back with his love for her! That was such a heart-warming thing to see. In that moment Jalal thrilled me to bits, for I love a man who does not give up his love at any cost. That is the stuff romantic legends are made of!
I am also excited by my own prediction that Pratap may save Jalal. Just the thought of something like that happening is giving me gooseflesh. That will be one hell of a scene if one proud Rajvanshi with strong principles helps one Mughal with strong fibre even though they are enemies. I feel Pratap and Sujamal are almost similar in the way they view their Rajvanshi pride and sense of honour. They really don't make men like this nowadays!
I love the idea that Jalal may get to see Pratap in action within a week or so of seeing Sujamal similarly in action. As and when Jalal gets disenchanted with his own treacherous family, he will want more and more to be amidst the Rajvanshis and Ameris, adopting them as his own, because every one of them, lncluding Jodha, has shown what a straight spine they have! Bhagwan Das showed his class when he took an arrow for Jalal despite being an accused in the Ruq-miscarriage affair. Then Jodha took the snake poison for Jalal. Then Mansingh took an arrow for Hakim Mirza. Then Sujamal did the same for Jalal ..., and if now Pratap also takes a hurt or two from Abul Mali and yet saves Jalal and takes him to Amer, what more does Jalal need to see to know what a Rajvanshi really is all about?
Let me end with a small word or two about Mainavati. Although I know that she feels guilty about having told Jodha never to return to Amer alone, I personally think she is taking this whole matter a bit too far by acting all remorseful and overly guilty now. I am not seeing calibre in her. If she was so strongly of the feeling that she did the right thing by Jodha's marriage before, by forbidding her from entering Amer where she would not be welcome, she should stand by that decision with pride and strength of mind.
Mainavati as a strong mother should be able to tell Jodha, "Different situations need different strokes. I had to save your marriage then and I needed to take that strong line with you then, which did save the marriage. But this is a different situation again and it requires me to bend my strictness to let you come home, because again this time, I have to save your marriage not with firmness but with leniency. It is a mother's duty to apply whatever method is right in different situations. I just need you to know that whatever I do, I do for your best interest. So sometimes I have to be firm, and sometime I have to be lenient, and it's not for my own happiness that I do so but to help you, my daughter, at your hour of need! But whatever strokes I have to use, as a daughter brought up with the sanskaars of this house, you too should have come here directly and not gone to the ashram. You should have come here and banged the doors of Amer by right and said "I am the daughter of this house and this time my mother has to accept me with leniency because I know that by going to an unknown ashram I put safety last and pride and hurt first." Common sense and propriety should have been your hallmarks as a Rajvanshi, and you should not have let things like ego, pride or a sense of hurt blind you to personal safety and the foregetting of your own rights as a member of this household. If I am a mother with different strokes for different situations, you too have to be a daughter with different strokes for different situations."
Folks, I would expect my mother to say this to me if I were in Jodha's position, so that is what I expect from Mainavati too. I know that some people may not like this angle and may say Jodha did the right thing by forsaking Amer and going to the ashram because she too was angry with her mother or because she has self-respect and pride as her hallmarks too.
But I am one of those who think that within a family, between a mother and daughter, there should be both firmness and leniency on both sides, but not senseless pride. If a daughter cannot assert her rights with her own mother, who can she ever do it with? I would expect my mother to be hard or easy with me as situations demand, but I would not hold it against her for being so and therefore I would not skulk away to some other less safe place rather than go back home to demand my rights to enter.
Families are strong when members can with freedom demand and get their rights, whether they are the elders or the youngsters. That's just my feeling, and I am willing to accept if other people feel differently about how elders and youngsters need to deal with each other in families. Since my opinion is like this, I thought Mainavati was a bit too weepy and melodramatic and over the top a bit acting shaky about meeting Jodha squarely in the eye!
What does everyone else think about this topic?
Health and Fitness
