Friends, what can I say? It was a "filler Monday" again! Yesterday's episode was not exactly a typical filler though ...it was a sort of teaser. Jodha was shown as being on the way, on the way, on the way to Agra ...while Jalal waited and waited and waited with the enthusiasm of a little boy. Meanwhile we spent the major part of the 22 minutes just looking at his cheerful, excited and cock-a-hoop expressions.
Even when the episode ended, I could not believe it had ended without Jodha actually arriving. I thought there must be one more segment to watch and Jodha will step out of the doli, etc. etc. But alas, that scene never came ... not even in the precap ... so I am now wondering if the wait is over really ...or will even Tuesday will go in the wait? (Sorry, don't throw chappals at me for saying that!)
There is a lot of promise of high events and drama during and after the moment Jodha arrives ... for starters, we all want to see how Jalal and Jodha will set eyes on each other and how that arrival moment will be. How will the lovers meet again, what will they say to each other, will they get a moment in private? Spoilers say that soon after the arrival, Jodha is expected to hear all the gossip she has missed out on from Jalal, and she is supposed to accost Maham about her whole Sujamala-Dilawar saazish.
Also one more thing ... I never saw Shehnaaz get into the doli with Jodha at Amer. So I am wondering if she has indeed been part of the caravan coming to Agra? If she is there then how will her first step on Agra soil be? Will she recognise Maham - or will she recognise the Agra Palace and its people (thus proving some childhood connection)?
Two more items can be anticipated ... Ruq is in a jealous frenzy, and Sharif was showing signs of going into his lecherous best. So I suppose immediately after Jodha's arrival both Ruq and Sharif will start showing their true colours?
All in all, the Agra paagalkhana looks like it's going to "be at its best" very soon! There's a lot to look forward to ... so Jodha had better arrive fast! After weeks of the separation track, we all thought the wait would be over yesterday , but to find it dragged out is making us hold our breaths and quieten our itchy feet.
Since there wasn't very much substance to the episode yesterday, here's a brief recap ...
What all happened in the serial yesterday
There was an elaborate scene of Jodha taking leave of all her relatives at Amer. We were forced to watch each one of them hugging and blessing her, as Shehnaaz watched on. The same music that was used for her bidaai after the shaadi was used ... so we were to assume that this was a second bidaai of sorts. Finally all hugging came to an end and Jodha sat in the doli, holding her Kanha close to her, and the convoy started for Agra under the full moon.
Here in Agra, Jalal was shown at the DEK, issuing various orders to his courtiers when he was told that the Hindu yatris he has saved from teerth tax wanted to see him. Atga said they wanted to express their thanks to Jalal with a gift. Jalal demurred from accepting any gifts for he felt he had only done his duty as a fair King in abolishing the tax. But the yatris insisted on meeting Jalal and so they were brought in.
The yatris loudly praised Jalal and profusely thanked him ... and then in a really lovely gesture they gifted Jakal a "paak Koran", all covered in green and with rose petals. Jalal, Hamida and everyone at the court was so moved that they started praying at the sight of the Koran. The sullen maulvis standing in one corner were still miffed and said "Ha, they think by giving Jalal the Koran they have quietened us?" but then they could not do much else than start praying themselves! Adham and Sharif muttered under their breaths that they had to suffer all this saccharine sweetness between Jalal and his praja ... for what choice did they have?
The scene shifted briefly to the Akbar Ka Makabra where Jalal's soul told Jodha's soul that he was very touched by the gesture and gift of the Hindus who had truly shown their tolerance and love for his religion with this act of reciprocation. As the scene shifted back to the DEK, Jalal prayed in his own heart "God, please bring Jodha back to me!"
Ruq was then seen in her own room, elaborately arranging a shatranj game for Jalal, who sauntered in looking a bit distracted. Ruq tried to wheedle herself close to Jalal by first praising his abolition of the yatri tax, and I am not sure if Jalal truly believed her because he started talking of those who were opposed to the tax. Ruq tried to make him forget all that with the game of shatranj, but his mind was so occupied elsewhere that he agreed to just one move on the board!
Just then a bandhi came in with a message and Jalal saw the ugly side of Ruq. She abused the bandhi for interrupting (and her face does look very ugly when she thus vents!), when Jalal insisted that the message be heard. The bandhi said a paigam had come for Jalal urgently from Raja Bharmal of Amer. Jalal was up like a shot and he left the fuming Ruq to go and receive the paigam.
But on getting the paigam to hand, he had to bring it back to the same Ruq for reading out to him. To Ruq's disgust it was from Raja Bharmal saying "I am happy to tell you that Jodha has decided to return to Agra. By the time this paigam reaches you she may already be more than halfway there as she left at night. Her brothers are escorting her. Wish you both a long and happy life etc. etc".
Ruq's voice choked in her throat and her eyes burned bright with jealous disgust. Her nemesis was on her way to Agra! (I thought for a moment that Ruq may deliberately misread the paigam to Jalal, but thankfully she did none of that kind of mischief.) Anyway Jalal then grabbed the paigam from her as if it was his precious toy, and started smiling from ear to ear with unbridled delight. His Jodha, the light of his life was coming back, and he had arrangements to make. He just dropped Ruq like a hot brick and said "Shatranj can wait for another time" as he hurried out with the paigam clinched close to his heart!
Ruq looked so miffed that she went into an evil-looking slow motion temper tantrum ...as face turned all shades of green and she then turned the chessboard upside down in a frightful hissy-fit! Smoke was issuing from her ears! "JODHA BEGUM!" she screamed in a voice that could be heard across the Sultanate, "I HATE YOU!"
Jalal went running to his mother who was with Salima. "My wife, your daughter, is on her way back" he said to Hamida, and both mother and son were in transports of delight. Hamida said all the nice things that a mother says to a son who is over the moon with happiness. Jalal was not just happy to hear the platitudes, but he asked his mother "Have you forgiven me? Jodha seems to have forgiven me?" Hamida then hugged her son close and it was a moment of real bonding! "You must give her the grandest welcome you can", Hamida told Jalal - and he agreed. He requisitioned the help of Salima to do up the harem and Jodha's room, and went out of his mother's room with a spring in his steps and a whole gamut of eager emotions in his voice. I have never seen Jalal this much alight with happiness, and it was quite a sight to watch ... especially after we have seen the extent of glumness he can bring to his face when he is downcast during a separation track!
In the next scene, Jalal was seen with his key courtiers around him and he was issuing orders for each of them to take on a key responsibility for Jodha's grand welcome. To Atga, he said "Please send out your sipahis to locate exactly where Jodha has reached so far, and I want regular updates to know exactly where she is reaching every few hours!" And then to Mansingh he said "You have to see that you are with Jodha in the final stages of her journey. I want her arrival to be so good that she forgets the sadness of the way she departed. To Sharif (who was already nursing indecent thoughts of Jodha returning!) he said "Where are you preoccupied? Your role is to decorate the whole palace for Jodha's arrival!" Sharif was thus dismissed and only Todarmal and Maham were left. To Todarmal, Jalal said "I request you to be the overall in-charge and see that everything ticks along like clockwork." Todarmal agreed and left. Only Maham was then left standing with no role or responsibility. To make matters worse, Jalal seemed oblivious to her presence as he stood talking to himself "How I have longed to see Jodha Begum again!". Maham must, at that moment, have truly felt the depth of her unwantedness in his life, especially his life with Jodha!
In Jodha;s hojra, Hoshiyaar briefed Moti Bai on the news of Jodha's return, and Moti at once set out to make Jodha's hojra beautiful for her ... even as Salima arrived with fresh flowers for every single vase in the room. Moti expressed her own deep inner delight to be seeing Jodha again!
Down by the Palace gates, Atga was putting the finishing touches to the arrival pageantry he had planned, when Jalal went there to see how the preparations were looking. He could not suppress his delight and anticipation of Jodha's arrival - and he told Atga that, as he gave Atga a bear hug. Atga smiled on avuncularly, and said his highs were coming just by watching the smiles of delight on Jalal's face. And with that the episode ended with a happy and gleaming Jalal lost in his own thoughts of his dearest love returning to his life!
The precap was a taste of things to come. Jalal was on the terrace of the palace still jumping about in eagerness for the arrival of Jodha, when Ruq tried to throw a damper on his emotional state by saying "Where's the need for so much elaborate hoo-ha?". But Jalal just replied, "It's not the "istaqbaal" or even the arrival moment that I am waiting for. It's the sight of my Jodha that my eyes are waiting to see again!". Ruq asked for that and got it!
My comments on the episode:
I got a lot of PMs from people who were getting restive with the non-arrival of Jodha yesterday. Some sinister thoughts have been visiting some of these people. First Mainavati said "Jodha should have departed at a good muhurta instead of the night" which sounded to many like an ominous sanket. Then comes this overdose of Jalal waiting in unrestrained glee that seems to be attracting something terrible (according to Indian TV Serial tradition). So the general trend of the PMs I got was "Will this Sharif kidnap Jodha on the way? Why are they so stretching out Jodha's arrival and making Jalal look too excited for his own good. Should we have looked out for some more sankets of impending disaster?"
To all those who are doing such Doomsday Thinking, I want to say "Relax!"
All the spoilers say that Jalal will be overjoyed with Jodha's arrival and one of the first things she will do upon her return is to confront Maham after Jalal tells her all about this Sujamal-Dilawar Khan saazish. Some spoilers even go on to say that Jalal will at first tease Jodha for changing her mind and coming back to Agra. He will then get very sad and tell her all about the role of Maham in separating them, so Jodha will offer him a lot of TLC. And then will come the grand scene of the Jodha-Maham confrontation.
No less a source than "Tatasky the Trustworthy" seconds all this info ... so take a chill pill, folks, I don't think any kidnap is on the cards, and the Creatives are just enjoying teasing us a bit by delaying Jodha's arrival - or else they are enjoying a long weekend and will be back in form for the Tuesday episode! That's my hunch!
(Besides, don't forget that Atga's sipahis have already gone as additional escorts for Jodha, and the invincible cherub Mansingh has also departed to accompany the entourage at its final stages ... and I doubt Sharif has had enough time to plan the kidnap, if at all his intentions lie in that direction.)
Regarding Jalal's acting boyish and even silly-happy at times, there were a few comments from some people who felt it was a bit over the top and contrived at times. My explanation for that is:
a. So what, folks, the guy is so unbearably happy to get back Jodha, isn't it natural for him to be shown wearing an endless grin? After weeks of morose expressions, can everyone not withstand one full episode of smiling? C'mon folks, cut him some slack!
b. If the Creatives don't show Jodha's arrival for one whole episode, what can Rajat do but show us as many happy and bright expressions as he knows how for 22 minutes? Believe me, he must be as tired of a stretched mouth as we are and must be loosening his jaws after the shooting!
c. If Jalal's enthusiasm is a bit too much to take, then what of Hamida's unwatchable beatific expressions? How many of those do we have to take before Jodha arrives? Is it not easier on the eye to see Jalal's engaging smile than to see Hamida's blank beam?
Apart from the way Jalal took centre-stage yesterday with his childish joy and eagerness, there are four other points that struck me as noteworthy:
1. I thought it was a superb idea to make the Hindu yatris give the gift of a "paak Koran" to Jalal in reciprocation. Whoever among the Creatives got that brilliant idea deserves a round of applause. That was really a lovely gesture of mutual religious tolerance - and especially that moment ,when everybody said a prayer to their own God in whatever way their religious traditions asked them to, was outstanding. I liked that scene a hell of a lot!
2. While we were whiling away time yesterday waiting for Jodha, the good eggs and the bad eggs at Agra seemed to sort themselves out. Adham, Sharif, Ruq, Maham and the sulking maulvis were among the clear bad eggs. The rest of the eggs were largely good. The bad eggs all got one line of dialogue each to say - to show us that they were bad eggs with bad intentions and so we have to watch what unfolds with these eggs in action after Jodha's arrival.
3. I liked the scene between Jalal and Hamida despite Hamida always irking me with her artificial look whenever the camera is on her and she is not speaking. I always find that in such shots where she has to register an expression of listening to the person opposite her speak, she looks somehow bland and her expressions don't match what she is supposed to be hearing from the other person. But anyway the mother-son bonding seems to be getting closer and closer now (especially after the mother-son bonding of Jalal and Maham has collapsed). I have one bit of advice to give the Director and the Creatives, though. I wish they would not show any long shots of Jalal with either Hamida or Salima, when they are all standing. These two ladies tower over Jalal so much in height that it seems to highlight Jalal's height (or lack of it). They can avoid these kinds of shots, I feel, where Hamida has to double over to hug Jalal who is barely up to her shoulder! These are small matters of aesthetics that the Director and the Creatives should think about! The audience likes to see the hero bigger and stronger than anyone else!
4. I thought that scene was remarkable where Jalal was shown giving everyone else some job to do for the "istaqbaal" of Jodha - all except Maham who looked ignored and dismissed from Jalal's mind as she stood there waiting to see if she too would be given some role. The worst part of it for her must have been that Jalal did not even register her presence. Or if he did, he effectively sidelined her by not even deigning to look in her direction. He looked abstracted thinking of meeting Jodha at last, and Maham was left looking like a piece of the furniture. For Maham's part, she deserved all that and more for the evil saazish she did in separating Jodha and Jalal, and so I guess, she could not have expected that she would be given any role in Jodha's welcome party. But still it is difficult to watch someone go from prima donna to nothing! I almost started feeling sorry for her ... but then I stopped myself. She is by no means calling it quits yet, and no doubt she will add yesterday's slights to her list of reasons for ruthless revenge on Jalal? We cannot afford to feel sorry for her, as she may look sad at times, but despite that her mind never stops its churn of evil plots. Maham will be back with a vengeance, folks, and I think we may see some of her most evil saazishes unleashed now.
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