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This post is about looking ahead and not at the past, though the future may have its roots in the past. From Gangaur 1 to Gangaur 2, Jalal and Jodha have completed a circle. How far have they come and what seems to be the road they will take now?
Even a couple of days back, I had high hopes (along with many friends here) that Gangaur 2 will bring in the second phase of love, so to speak, in JJ's life. But Gangaur has come and gone (?) And seemingly on the face of it, nothing has changed. There are no flowers blooming, no birds singing, no rainbow in the sky, no cherubs playing on their harps. If at all anything has happened, it seems to be the return of the early days of marriage. Jodha is seen slipping into a quicksand of anger, resentment, hurt, pain, bitterness and that fearsome word, ghrina. Jalal is seemingly in love but also getting intent on breaking Jodha's guroor.
Where has all the love gone? Is one dhakka by Jodha, one night of accusations by Jalal enough to wreck a relationship in which both partners claim to love each other so much that they can die for each other and snatch the other from the jaws of death?
True, the incidents are devastating for lesser mortals. But JJ are not lesser mortals. They are legendary lovers. Still remembered after 4 centuries. Can they react in the same fashion as us, who have no hopes of ever being recalled for our love stories by anyone other than our very close ones? Why are we imposing our reactions, our expectations, our disappointments on them? Surely, if they were so similar to us, they would end up as another dead royal couple, gathering dust in their tombs?
At the moment, Jodha is burning up with more and more anger every time she looks at Jalal. It was apparent in the way she fought with him in the sword fight scene. The intensity of anger is much more than it was in Sword Fight 1. The passion is much less. The angrier she gets, the more she hurts the ego of Jalal, who is increasingly believing that her ego is preventing her from forgiving him and moving on. He clearly tells her yesterday that he has buried his ego and come for her; then why can't she bury her ego and go back with him? Why indeed?
Why is Jodha getting angrier instead of allowing herself to be wooed and healed? She is so hurt in love that she has built a protective barrier around herself so that she cannot be hurt again. Mansi calls this the empty shell of ego. Try as he might, Jalal cannot pierce this barrier and reach her heart. Like last year, she herself has to break down this barrier and seek him. How can she do this? Will the magic word "trust" be enough to convince her? Not really. In her shell, words have no meaning. Only actions do. She was never and she will never be one to be swayed by words. If she has to again say "Hum aap se ghrina nahin karte, hum aap par vishwas karte hain aur aap hum par", she needs concrete proof that her husband has indeed changed for the better.
Last year, it was easier for Jalal because they were both in Agra and he could, through his actions, convince her of his trust in her. This year, it's harder. He cannot do much in Amer. She won't come to Agra. What is he going to do? He cannot linger on in Amer when his throne is being attacked from all sides by the very people he had trusted it to. He cannot let the sultanat crumble and his people orphaned because he has to win back his love. Today or tomorrow, he has to return.
What about Jodha? She is in no frame of mind to return with him and give him another chance. Some say she should be given time just like Jalal took his time to get over the dhakka. Just because he made a mistake by holding onto his grudge, should Jodha repeat that mistake? And truly speaking, they were hardly in love at that time. It was more a case of physical attraction. Some say she had to drink poison to convince him of her loyalty and love. So does that mean she has to push him to death to believe in his trust and love? Is this what love is at the end of the day? A tit-for-tat taraazu in which both must continually balance their grudges, their mistakes, their mutual hurt?
Jodha has a case for seeking respect for her identity and trust from her husband. I strongly support her cause and her desire to fight for it. But she has to be clear about what she is fighting. She is not fighting Jalal but his lapses of judgement, his misplaced trust in the wrong people, his egoistic mood swings. She has to differentiate the man from his actions. She has to condemn his actions and force him to change them. But she should not condemn the man himself for those actions when he is ready to change. And ready to change Jalal is at the moment because he is so scared of losing her. Herein lies the crux. Jodha is not able to see that this is perhaps her best chance ever to change her husband because she is so caught up in her own perception of reality.
Some may well ask what proof is there that he will change? That he has said all this and more earlier too and then either forgotten his words himself or been brainwashed by others. Does love need proof? Friendship may need proof, marriage may need proof, but love? Love is implicit faith at the soul level. You just believe in your beloved because he/she is your beloved and you know that you can believe in him/her. Period. You don't need proof. You don't ask questions. You expect nothing in return. You just love and you go on giving chance after chance to your beloved because you cannot envisage any future without them.
I am not saying these words only for Jodha but Jalal too. If they have to end the stalemate and move ahead, they have to simply love the other and do nothing else. They simply need to know in their own heart that they can believe the other because they love that person. No questions asked, no long discussions, no proof sought. No seeking or expecting forgiveness. No seeking or expecting love/faith/trust in return. Jodha must lead herself to believe that she can go back to Jalal and she will have nothing to fear again. Jalal must believe that he doesn't need to "break her guroor", that she will return to him one day, never to leave again.
The way this process of discovering implicit faith in their beloved is shown in the serial is anyone's guess. But our concern should not be how it is portrayed on screen but that they achieve it. And they must have achieved it at some point in time because that is what they are remembered for today.
This then is the story of their journey ahead. A journey of discovering and breaking all barriers within themselves against love and implicit faith. A journey of merging their identities into one. A journey of allowing their souls to become one.
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This post is dedicated to Maddy whose questions keep provoking me to think in different directions. 😊
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