Friends, all those who were saying yesterday that when Jalal gives Jodha the whip and says "Whip me for my sins!" she should just chuck the whip and give him a good hug instead ... congrats! You were bang on ... but off by one day! The BIG HUG is to come on Thursday and not Wednesday ... but so what? If it is indeed such a big first hug between them we can wait a day. Only thing the Creatives have to promise us that the hug will last at least full 10 minutes and it must get tighter and tighter with every minute!
Since last night, I must have seen the precap of the Wednesday episode at least five or six times just to get the full details of that hug. First he is hugging her while her hands are still straight down. She is serene, like a princess that has given her shoulder for the man of her life to weep on. Her eyes are closed like she's not broken herself, but only giving solace. He is in deep distress and calling for a lot of TLC. His face is tight with his private pain as he cries and hugs her like he cannot even bear to be an inch away from her. There is virtually no space between their bodies. And then slowly her hand rises from behind him to clutch his waist and thus make her also fully participatory in the hug.
The precap hug alone takes two whole minutes. So the real thing, when it comes this evening should be a nicely prolonged affair and should satisfy the emotional longings of all those who were craving for a hug, I think. (Especially Riyya, who wrote the word HUG at least twenty times yesterday in her posts!)
Okay, beyond the hug, there were some cute moments in the episode yesterday, but none were so earth shattering that they call for separate analysis. The opening scene where Jalal gives his hand to Jodha, and leads her into the palace and her hojra (still holding hands) was very sweet. Then the way everything was set and ready in Jodha's hojra for the sthapana puja for Kanha was again extremely lovely. During both these scenes, there were a lot of flashbacks to their own wedding scenes, so the solemnity of these sequences was well established.
Two other scenes that were heart-warming were the Hamida-Jodha meeting and the Shivani-Jodha meeting. One scene I couldn't quite understand was whose painting Ruq had commissioned from the lady portrait painter. Was it of herself? Was it of Jalal? Or was it a painting of Jodha that Ruq could enjoy destroying?
For those who like reading the recap of the whole episode, here it is ...
What all happened in the episode:
In continuation of the scene of Jodha's arrival, after Jodha and Jalal have seen each other, they start walking towards each other ... and soon Jalal holds out his hand and she tentatively puts her hand in his. His hand clasps her strongly as if he never wants to let go. They then move into the Palace, and he leads her directly into her hojra, still holding her hand. He remembers to remove his footwear outside the hojra, as he leads her in.
There in her hojra, Jodha is surprised to find that the arrangements are all in place for a sthapana puja for Kanha that Jalal has himself arranged! Jalal explains to her that since she carried Kanha away with her, his return to the Palace has to be done according to prescribed Hindu rituals. There is even a pandit taking instructions from Jalal to begin the puja. The pandit tells Jodha and Jalal, "You both have to do this puja together" to which Jodha says "We are always together!". Jalal seems warmed by this. The pandit then says Jodha should be sitting to Jalal's left - so they exchange places. Throughout all this hand holding into the Palace, and then this puja, both of them are assailed by flashback memories of the solemn rituals of their own wedding. In a way this homecoming is like their new wedding.
Salima remarks to Hamida that the pair of them look so at peace together again. Hamida says "How wonderful that the Hindus gave Jalal the "paak Koran" and he now is reciprocating with this Kanha puja. How wonderfully this couple have inspired the melting of the boundaries of their two religions!"
When all is completed and Kanha is back at his abode in all regality, Jodha says she needs to spend time with Jalal and talk ... but Jalal seems a wee bit queasy to do so right away. He says "You need some rest from your travels. We'll talk later" and he abruptly leaves the room, much to Jodha's puzzlement.
Jodha then goes to meet Hamida. Jodha's eyes are full of tears as she folds her hands before Hamida asking for forgiveness for running away without telling her. For a moment Hamida tries to look stern, but soon her voice breaks and she is no longer able to pretend anger. She dissolves into tears herself and hugs Jodha close and says "You are not just my son's wife, you are my daughter. How could you have punished me, and Salima and Rahim, just because you wanted to run away from Jalal. I admit Jalal did something horrible to you, but what did I do, what did we do? Now I am going to punish you, as you deserve. Hereafter you will not set foot outside this Palace without my permission, is that clear?" Much as Hamida tried to sound like a harsh saas, both mother and daughter hugged and cried - and both knew that this mother could never be harsh on this daughter. They were too close to lose their bonding no matter what. Hamida then added to Jodha "I must thank you in a way for running away as you did, for one good thing has happened. Jalal has fully found that "dil" that he had kept hidden away even from himself". Jodha smiled through her tears as she heard that.
In a later scene, Jodha was in her room when Shivani and Moti were filling her with stories of how much Jalal had missed Jodha in her absence. They also wanted to hear from Jodha on what had changed her mind and why she therefore returned to Agra. The two sisters were caught in their own stories about Jalal and Jodha missing each other, when the topic turned to Shivani's own pardon from Jalal. Shivani explained how Jalal had not only pardoned her but even given Tejwant a title and a job as his own kaarigar. Jodha, like any woman in love, was growing more and more thrilled to hear Jalal's name taken at every turn of the story.
Shivani after telling the Agra side of the story of her capture and pardon was then a bit sad thinking of her own family at Amer. How had they taken the news, she asked Jodha. Jodha said her parents were both happy with the news of Shivani's pardon and Tejwant's elevation. It is to Jodha's credit that she did not tell Shivani about her father's continuing displeasure. A little bit of sisterly discretion was in order.
Shivani then started teasing Jodha about her desperation for Jalal, especially as she may be waiting for the night, when Jodha started chasing Shivani around the room in a game of mock-chastisement.
While this was happening another beautiful bit of information came to light for Jodha. Moti pointed to the portrait of Jodha that Jalal had installed in her room and said "You know Jodha, since your going, he has been staying in your hojra every night, and he has not slept at all, he has been talking to your portrait all night every night like he was going mad. In fact he never visited or spent the nights with any other Begums."
Just as Moti was saying this, in Ruq's room, Ruq had commissioned the lady artist of the Palace to paint some portrait. When the finishing touches were added to it, Ruq sneered, thinking of Jodha and how she had inveigled herself with Jalal, capturing his "dil" ... and Ruq swore to get back her Jalal from Jodha's clutches. The portrait was never shown to us, so we are left guessing if Ruq got her own portrait painted, or did she get Jalal's portrait painted, or did she get Jodha's portrait painted - so that she could then tear it up in a fury?
The scene then shifted to Jalal alone in his room, standing by the window and again indulging in memories of how he had held Jodha's hand at last after her arrival and led her into the Palace. Those thoughts brought a big smile to his face ... but alas, the smile got wiped off when one his guards said Jodha had come to talk to him. Jalal became very agitated and when Jodha stood before him and said "We need to talk", he interrupted her by saying "One minute ..." and then he went to a box by his bed and fetched out a leather whip. He brought that to her and said with a great deal of ferociousness "Punish me with this, Jodha Begum, punish me please. I cannot forgive myself for the mistakes I made, and unless you punish me severely I cannot raise my eyes and look into your eyes without deep remorse and guilt". Jodha looked astounded and the episode ended there.
The precap was the BIG HUG, which I ve already written a lot about. Hope it measures up to all our expectations.
My comments on this episode:
I have two comments to make on this episode ... one relates to the quality of the Jodha-Jalal relationship post Jodha's return, and the other refers to Ruq's potential pregnancy faking ... I promise you, both points are very interesting, so read on ...
About the dichotomy in Jalal and his crying on Jodha's shoulder
The very interesting part of the episode for me was that even though Jalal was so eager and happy to see Jodha and lead her into the palace, when it came time for a private conversation between them, he became very uptight and cagey and tried to first avoid talking to her and asked her to take rest and abruptly left her room.
Then later after she went to his room, she again interrupted his seemingly pleasant reverie. Standing there alone he had been having pleasant thoughts of her, but as she came in saying "We must talk", he again demonstrated an agitation, a lot of guilt and some deep stress that was killing him.
It was then that he went to the box in his room, brought out the whip and gave it to her with shaking hands and said "Please Jodha Begum, punish me for the mistakes I made. The mistakes were unforgiveable. Please punish me with your own hands, punish me, or I don't have the temerity to even raise my eyes to yours."
There seemed to be some clear duality in him. One side of him was so eager to see her back, and yet another side feared the confrontation that must happen when they meet. He knew the air had to be cleared between them and a lot had to be said, but before everything else he needed to forgive himself for what he had done to her, and nothing short of lacerations from her own hands seemed like enough to atone for his mistakes. He was like a distraught nervous wreck.
I am so eager now to see exactly what happens in the next episode for it is sure to start from this very scene's continuation. Will Jodha just wordlessly throw the whip away and throw her arms open to give him solace? Or will he crumble and will she lift him by his shoulders and will they then get into the hug? Or seeing him in pain will she too start shedding tears for him? Or will she stay rock-hard and self-controlled so that he can have his catharsis on her comforting shoulder?
Folks, this is a hug I am anticipating not just because we are all salivating for some physical contact between the two leads. This hug is different from the run of the mill, because it is usually the heroine that weeps copiously in Hindi TV serials, when the hero pulls her up by her shoulders and roughly pulls the girl into a hug. But here it is extremely interesting that the man is more sentimentally perturbed than the girl.
Also, those typical Hindi serial hugs are about "chemistry" but this hug is about catharsis and solace. This hug is about someone being in pain (the man) and someone being rock-solid and self-controlled (the woman) to give that man the comfort of an unshakeable shoulder to cry on. This hug is about being silent but being there for someone in desolation. And about the woman not breaking down herself so that her distressed lover can freely rely on her to give him the bulwark he needs!
Jalal is overwrought. He cannot forgive his own faults. He needs to shed the tears that he has been keeping suppressed under a veneer of normalcy while she was away from him. And it is he now who breaks down under the sheer relief that she is here before him finally.
He does not know yet exactly why she changed her mind and came back. He does not know yet that she has already worked out all her angst from inside her system and has come to Agra with her heart cleaned out. He could be worried that she may have something more inside her against him. He doesn't want that she should any more nurse even the smallest of residual ill-feelings about him. It is critical for him that she has come with her heart's slate wiped clean. And he needs the catharsis of a complete wash out of all his own guilt and remorse to accept within his own heart that she has nothing more to forgive and all is truly forgiven and behind them.
How often do we see a man so broken and in tears that the girl in his life needs to pull him together with her love and her unconditional acceptance of him? Jodha is at the stage here where she sees finally the true state of self-flagellation in his heart ... and she has to now reassure him that she has already had her catharsis at Amer and does not carry any remaining unhappiness about his behaviour to her. Jodha needs to be able to say to him that she has already wiped clean every rancour in her heart and has come to him not by his pressure but from the purity of her own changed feelings about him.
Both need to know it's a past wiped clean and both are starting anew. Someone wrote yesterday in my thread that this hug is not the culmination of the separation track but the beginning of a new partnership track. At the end of the big hug, that is what I hope they both will come to realise!
I realise that a lot of pro-Jalal people will find it distasteful that he is so weeping while she looks serene. They may be tempted to say "Look at this heartless girl, just closing her eyes coldly ... and look at him shamefully betraying his feelings on her indifferent shoulder." But people who think like that are missing the real beauty of this hug.
Jodha is over the hurt and has come with a clear, clean mind. Jalal, on the other hand, has been on edge hiding his hurts till she appeared before him. And now that she has come, he is finally able to let go his suppressed pain. The nervous energy built up in him needs an outlet. He needs her to be strong for him to be to be able to let his remorse and guilt go. And he is man enough to feel okay with letting his woman see him broken. He has no false decorum to show her, no false pretences to fool her with, and he seems to prefer "genuineness" to any notions of "artificial manliness". After all he is not crying in front of the whole world. He is crying in private when there is no one else but him and her.
I think it's extremely courageous of a man to be able to show his sentiments openly to his woman, in a world and a century when it was considered "unmanly" to show you have a heart. But then Jalal is no ordinary man limited by the social dos and don'ts of his era or any other era. He is a man who is brave enough to bare his sensitivity. When he thought he had no heart he was a different hard man, but that was not the real man he was. After finding his heart, he is not now trying to be all self-conscious or hide behind any social expectation that men should hide their hearts. He has not only found his heart, but he has the conviction to be able to wear it on his sleeve, at least in front of the woman who helped him find that heart. That's part of his greatness!
It is also part of Jodha's greatness that she can put aside all her feelings and just be there rock-solid for him. She is not being cold and mean in letting him cry while she feels nothing. She is all steel as a woman who truly loves a man should be. She has married a man of flesh and blood who has a heart that he has discovered late in life. After asking him to find his heart, would it then be right for her to expect that he should not bare his heart ever, not even to her? Or should she feel embarrassed at his display of personal remorse? Or should she also start crying the minute he starts crying just to show that he is stronger than her, for she is crying more than him?
There ... I needed to get that off my chest because I read a lot of posts decrying Jalal for crying on Jodha's cold shoulder!
About Ruq's pregnancy faking
There was another piece of a spoiler a few days ago that said Jodha and Jalal will plan to spend their wedding anniversary together, but twice during the day he will get called away on some urgent business or other ... which will make Jodha miffed. And in the process of placating Jodha, they will eventually end up consummating their marriage. One of the businesses that will pull him away from Jodha will be this discovery of the danger to Shehnaaz's baby son, and the other business will be Ruq's claim of pregnancy.
Now that I saw Ruq in the Wednesday episode saying "I will win back Jalal from Jodha!", I won't be surprised if Ruq thinks of a fake pregnancy claim as a way to separate Jodha and Jalal on their wedding anniversary. Maybe Ruq plans to keep up this story of pregnancy for a few months - enough time to drag Jalal totally away from Jodha - before she then says "Sorry, I was misled. It appears to have been a false alarm". Maybe her hope is that a fake pregnancy should at least give her enough time to separate Jodha and Jalal and keep Jalal close to herself so that his mind changes about his love for Jodha.
But the big revelation of this ruse being doomed for failure came in yesterday's episode, when Moti revealed to Jodha that since his return from Amer, Jalal has stayed every night in Jodha's hojra and been with no other Begum at all. Now that is since his arrival from Amer, which must have been at least ten days ago (since we know Mainavati said Jodha hadn't eaten for five days after Jalal left ... and then Jodha must have spent at least five more days at Amer before her mind changed?)
Before that Jalal must have been on the road for at least three weeks first hunting in Amer for Jodha, then going to Mathura, then staying at Mathura till he was recovered from one wound, and then staying at Amer long enough after the Abul Mali scuffle to recover from a second wound?
How long would it take Jalal to do the arithmetic to know that if he had not been around Ruq for more than a month at least, Ruq may be faking her pregnancy? Even assuming Ruq was pregnant from well before the day Jodha left Agra and may only have found out recently, I have a feeling Jalal will not believe her easily if she feigns ignorance of her pregnancy all this while. In a Palace where a child, a waaris, is such a big issue - for the King is so far childless - would any Begum with even a hint of possibility of being pregnant not have it checked and rechecked? Especially in the case of Ruq, would she not pounce on the chance to show that she was pregnant if she really found her calendar dates adding to her faint suspicions? She would have been the frist to call the hakim and dream of becoming the Marium-Uz-Zamani. Jalal knows that about Ruq's audha-consciousness, so any story that she accidentally didn't suspect her possible pregnancy won't wash with him.
I think Jalal will easily dismiss Ruq's claims of pregnancy (if indeed that spoiler is true) and that is why the spoiler also perhaps says he will come back to Jodha that same evening and then placate Jodha for leaving her and going away on his urgent business. In the end if Ruq's pregnancy story makes no dent on him and he returns pronto to consummate his marriage with Jodha, what more proof do we need that Ruq's credibility with Jalal is hitting an all-time low?
Ishaani
Cricket
