Friends, I am not sure how many of you really liked the episode yesterday. I had high expectations of at least some developing closeness, some bridging of the distance, between Jodha and Jalal, in the privacy of their bedroom and the overall conducive situation at Amer. But I was a bit disappointed that the degree of expectation I had of some sort of reconciliation between the two protagonists was not yet there.
Don't mistake me ... I am not saying I didn't like the episode. It was a reasonably good episode overall. But while there was banter between Jodha and Jalal, and it wasn't acrimonious banter - yet the banter still showed that while Jalal was trying to tease Jodha into forgiving him, Jodha was ready only to show care and concern but not really close the gap between them with actual forgiveness ( she was still seen on her high horse most of the time, acting like she was not quite ready to forgive him).
There were three scenes and a precap that covered their encounters ...
a. Early on in the episode, she was preparing her "magic lep" for his wounds. She at first tries to get a daasi to apply it to his wounds. When he refuses twice to take anyone else's help, she is forced to apply the lep herself, to which he acquiesces. But when he uses the physical closeness between them to ask her again to forgive him, she says that her hurts are too deep yet to forgive. Yet he finds that she shows a lot of care ("fikr") for him, cares for his wounds, helps him when he is swaying to get steady and to lie down. That dichotomy of hers (i.e. feeling some care and concern for him along with also being unable yet to forgive) perplexes him and keeps their relationship standing at the same level without further resolution of the distance between them.
b. A little later in the episode we had a "snake in the bed" situation ...when she leant over his face keeping her face barely two inches from his. Not understanding what all this is about, he no doubt imagines all kinds of interpretations of her actions, but finds at the end that she removes a dangerous snake from his pillow-side. Again there is this superficial banter. He says to her "Do snakes just roam at will at Amer? And you seem to have a particular addiction to these "zehreele" creatures? First you have the Benazir snake and now this? Why do you go to the extent of keeping snakes away from me?" No doubt he wants to hear that she cares? But she replies ""Just beware of the naag and the naagin at Amer". And with a huff she drops the purdah between them as they share the bed and tries to sleep. He just says then to her "Well, the snake at least seemed happy to share my bed!" to which she merely turns towards him and looks archly!
c. In yet another encounter between them, there is a swordfight scene ... the script of the episode runs exactly similar to the movie "Jodha Akbar". He wakes up in the morning to find her not in bed. He goes to the window to see her practising her swordfighting with some sipahis, with a large audience of daasis and Shehnaaz spurring her on. Her swordfighting moves are angry and vicious as if she's trying to work out her angst.
He then decides that she is the medicine he needs today, for her smile as she enjoys the thrust and parry of the swords bewitches him. It's a smile he hasn't seen for a long while and he blames himself for that! Despite that huge wound on his shoulder he too dresses for some swordmanship practice and appears before her.
Her protestations that he should be in bed are dismissed by him. She then tells him through her pent up anger and gritted teeth that she is going to show no mercy even if he's wounded. He says he is game ... and so a really fierce encounter of swordmanship then takes place. So vicious is she that he has to ask her "What is this really? You are fighting me like a real dushman?" The onlooker daasis further say "Oh my God, he can barely avoid her attacks, she is on the offensive today." Jodha replies them saying "He should have had the sense not to step onto the ground here then!"
They fight on as Jodha vents her fury on him and he just checks and parries all her moves, keeping himself safe. Suddenly, as it were, Bharmal and Mainavati arrive on the terrace to see this spectacle. Bharmal immediately becomes very concerned with Jodha's acrimonious style of swordsmanship against the heavily wounded Jalal, and reacts like a fearful mansabdhar cautious about his Shahenshah's opinion of his daughter's behaviour. But Mainavati tells him to stay away from this "fight" as it seems to be purely between pati and patni, and if they have started this they also know how to end it. She says they can trust Jodha not to really hurt the Shahenshah. Mainavati says "He is working out his "paschathaap" and she is working out all her "anger" and a little bit of such games will not hurt him."
True enough at one stage of the swordfight, Jalal says to Jodha "What? Are you waiting to finish me off? Why don't you kill me and I'll go without even an "uff'?" but she replies "I do not play to kill!"
Eventually Jalal catches sight of Jodha's parents and the onlookers now looking like they are watching a do-or-die match where the wife wants to finish off the husband thoroughly. He tells her, "Do you want your parents and these people to all see how you want to eliminate me with this viciousness?" Just then Jodha comes to her senses and quits that mental zone of fury and fierceness that she had been absorbed by so far. She looks around at her parents and others' aghast expressions and realises she has been carrying this swordfight into a real fight instead of it being just a practice round.
Jalal, catching her off guard for a second, then grips her neck like a vice with his free hand and holds the sword to her neck and says she is defeated. "Cheater, cheater, cheater" she says in disgust, but he just says to her "All is fair in love and war. I forgive your loss. Now before you go off in a huff, thank me for sparing your life!" She walks off angrily with the awestruck Shehnaaz!
This was the sum and substance of their interactions and their banter. Although Jodha was slightly better than she was in the episode yesterday (when she seemed spaced out and numbed) the banter and exchanges in this Thursday episode gave me no sense of real progress in her towards Jalal. She was still in the throes of working out her anger with fierce words or fierce actions.
d. Meanwhile the precap seemed to be a culmination again of the same anger continuing. Jalal is seen telling Jodha "I wanted to take you back to Agra for I have made a promise to my mother to bring you back. But if you still are adamant, well then ... Khuda Hafeez". He clearly needs to get back to his kingdom, now that he is slightly better in health, and he knows his mother and family must be waiting anxiously. I suspect Jodha is still recalcitrant and so he may be forced to go back without her?
So far again it looks like the serial is still following on the lines of the movie. In the movie too, Jodha refuses to go with Jalal, and he leaves her behind ... but later when he has abolished the yaatri tax and impresses her with his sensitivity towards Rajvanshis she relents and goes and joins him.
I don't know if this serial will do the same thing, or whether there is a twist now in the tale and Jodha decides to go with Jalal. In the precap she is seen with tears in her eyes at the mention of Hamida in distress. Could she say, perhaps, that she will go back but only for Hamida's sake? That also seems possible!
(I am still keeping in mind the possibility that Ekta and her Creatives are planning the suhaag raath sometime soon, maybe in the next week or two. If I factor that in, then I think Jodha will travel back with Jalal and there may be a reconciliation on the way back or upon reaching Agra?)
So much then for all that happened between Jodha and Jalal yesterday. It was like three steps forward, two steps back for me ... so while I am not ecstatically happy with the episode, I am not too put out either. I'll wait and see what happens on Friday.
Meanwhile at Agra's paagalkhhana ...
At Agra we saw three scenes that reminded us that the paagalkhana inmates are still madly active.
a. Maham was first seen in the surang, where she picked up a small baby (almost as small as a newborn infant) and started talking to it - ostensibly to convey a message of warning to the baby's owner whom we were not shown. Maham said "Have you eaten anything today? You know I'll never spare you till you tell me what I want to know?" And then she showed the baby her 64 teeth.
b. A little later in the episode, Maham and Salima were seen praying at a dargah for the safety of Jalal and Jodha. As Salima went back home to Rahim, Hamida decided to linger back a bit ... when she suddenly saw Maham covering herself in a shawl and hurrying away through the crowds. Hamida was intrigued by this behaviour, and soon she too wrapped herself in her own shawl and started following Maham. So are we nearing the part of the story where Maham's surang secret is going to be exposed?
Since Maham was searching Hamida's room for the farman, it all seems to sit neatly. Maham's secret somehow involves some secret of Hamida's too, I suspect!
c. The last of the paagalkhana scenes showed Ruq first talking to an absent Jalal about a boat ride. Finding that she was daydreaming she then decided to go and talk to Salima about her woes. But Salima was on a sentimental wavelength talking hopefully about how Jalal will soon bring Jodha home. That topic did not suit Ruq and so she beat a hasty retreat.
Such is the state of affairs at the paagalkhana, even as Jodha and Jalal are still nowhere near complete truce.
My comments on the episode:
As I have already said, folks, to me the episode was a bit lacklustre. It was not one of the episodes you can fault, but there was absence of movement in the story and a feel of marching in the same place.
The precap does give the sanket of some progress, even if it creates a fear that Jalal may go to Agra leaving Jodha behind. I do not want to torture myself thinking of that so I will wait in suspended animation till I see today's episode.
Something tells me though that Jodha will go with Jalal and will not stay back. There are four or five reasons I can think of as to why she may decide this way:
1. She already had tears in her eyes when he mentioned that he was leaving for he did not want to distress Hamida further. Whether Jodha's tears were for Hamida or for Jalal himself we do not know. But even if they are for Hamida, I guess this sentimentality from Jodha at the thought of him going back bodes well, if it will make her want to go with him.
2. I think although Jodha does not seem ready yet to drop her anger and her hurt caused by his behaviour, she is also not ready to risk another attack on Jalal when he is in this barely recovered condition. So my hunch is that Jodha will want to accompany him back to Agra rather than sit and worry in Amer for his safety en route.
3. The Ekta Creatives have indicated a consummation "like never seen before in TV serials" is likely to take place by end April/beginning of May. If these two protagonists are in different cities, I don't see that happening. My guess therefore is that they will both go back to Agra and either there may be a reconciliation on the way or slowly at Agra.
So my hunch again is that we will be shown this double-sided Jodha at least till one day before the suhaag raath. Then there will be sudden meltdown and she will "give inn to Jalal's persistence".
Till last week I was also interested in what is happening on the Maham-farman-Hamida front, but in the absence of progress on the Jodha-Jalal front, my motivation to stay interested on the Maham front is flagging. If something were happening simultaneously on the Jodha-Jalal front, if real progress was being made here, I would be more gung-ho and eager to know what else is happening in the story. But as of today my excitement level is a bit low, and so I don't seem to care for Maham and the baby and Maham's 64 teeth and Hamida in a shawl, etc etc.
I need a pick-me-up guys, because today I am a bit of an unhappy bunny. Does anyone have any other positives to give me on yesterday's episode that can put me back in high spirits? Abhay, Diksha, Maddy, Cleo, Jyoti, Ela, Ayushi ... everybody. Give me some miracle cure for this low morale.
Do you think breaking another 11 coconuts for Ganpati will help? Even Ganpati will at this rate get fed up of me. Yesterday I broke 11 coconuts for him to bring Jalal to Amer. Today I am ready to break 11 more coconuts to send Jodha with Jalal back to Agra. What will Ganpati think of me? He is going to ask me "Am I your God ... or your travel agent?
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