Friends, I can't say this episode on Monday was a fantabulous one. But it was interesting because it was a medley of many different things, including bits of light romance in parts and some high drama at the end.
Most important of all, let me first remind you all of the spoiler we read early last week (or maybe the week before). It was in Pinkvilla and in Fuzion, I think. Both are not highly reliable sources. But since both sources independently alluded to it, I started paying some credence to it, to see if things are going that way.
Indeed things are going the spoiler way!!!!
The spoiler said "On the day of their wedding anniversary, Jalal will be whisked away by two events. One will be the danger to Shehnaz's son Rahim and the second will be Ruq's pregnancy. Jodha will get miffed that Jalal is not spending time with her on their anniversary and he will try to placate her and this will lead to the consummation".
Well, what do you know, yesterday's episode started with all talk everywhere that it was indeed Jodha and Jalal's wedding anniversary. Jodha suddenly remembered it when a gemstone from her kangan fell off (and she remembered that it was a kangan gifted by Jalal on their shaadi day and she has been wearing it ever since - for one whole year!). Jalal remembered his wedding anniversary through some gifts that arrived for him from Bharmal. Soon Hamida was stirring a pot in the kitchen making sweets specially for celebrating this day, and Jodha and Jalal found themselves at the dargah with the same idea ... they were both tying a dhaga, separately acknowledging that they were happy to have this special day. Seeing each other there, they seemed happy to jointly pray for many more such anniversaries to come.
So all this firmly established the fact for us that this was indeed the wedding anniversary date when the spoiler said things would happen.
Sure enough the first part of the spoiler came true too. The spoiler had been a bit cryptic saying "Shehnaaz's son Rahim would be in danger and Jalal would be called to save him". Naturally we all thought it may be the baby in the surang the spoiler was talking about ... and we were all wondering too whether Shehnaaz had a son with the exact same name as Rahim. As it turned out, our own Rahim Khanekhana was the child in danger, thanks to Shehnaaz, it seems. Rahim was playing with a male doll and a female doll and he took these two to show Jodha and Jalal (who were sitting cordially in Jalal's room talking). Rahim showed these dolls and said they were the Shahenshah and the Choti Ammi - and then there was much ribbing between Jodha and Jalal as to which doll was better looking.
Just then Shehnaaz came in and tried the grab both dolls from Rahim. Rahim ran off with the dolls, with Shehnaaz still following with a motive to grab the dolls. On a precarious edge of the terrace, Shehnaaz caught up with Rahim and snatched the dolls. Rahim, with all the jerking, lost his foothold on the terrace and tipped over - and then was seen hanging by his hands to the terrace edge with just the hard ground ten feet below him.
Jodha saw the fracas and yelled in fear for Rahim. Luckily Jalal saw this, and bolted like the blazes from where he was - just in time to catch a fast cascading Rahim in his arms and thus preventing a huge and possibly fatal fall. Meanwhile Salima and Ruq too had joined in to see the rescue by Jalal. But Shehnaaz was just seen laughing hysterically at having the dolls, but completely unaware of anything else that had happened.
The net result was that the first two parts of the spoiler were thus over. It was the Wedding Anniversary Day, and Jalal had been called to rescue Rahim from Shehnaaz.
Since two parts of the spoiler have come out exactly right, I am now tempted to believe the spoiler on the remaining two parts. What about the rest of the spoiler which said on this same Wedding Anniversary Day, Ruq would distract Jalal saying she's pregnant, and Jalal would run to Ruq? And what about the part that said Jodha would get miffed with Jalal for not giving her any time on their special day and in placating her the consummation of their marriage would happen on the Wedding Anniversary Day?
Does this mean that we are about to see Ruq's fake pregnancy now happen as the very next event, and then we are about to also see the consummation happen immediately after that? Would Ekta actually have a consummation scene now without her usual tom-tomming in the media about it?
In trying to make sense of the spoiler and whatever has happened so far, I have a prediction that is like this:
I think this whole week will show just this Wedding Anniversary Day.
Now that the Rahim-Shehnaaz event has happened on Monday, the immediate next thing to happen in the Tuesday and Wednesday episodes will be the exposure of Shehnaaz ki Raaz plus surang ke raaz. The precap yesterday already showed Jalal miffed with Shehnaaz and Jodha trying to argue that Shehnaaz was not in her senses. Maybe Todarmal will add to the effort and say that Shehnaaz seems to be after the Kanha murthy and the dolls because of the sadma of losing her own child. Somehow Jodha and Jalal may do some jassoosi on Shehnaaz and get her talking and in the Tuesday and Wednesday episodes the surang ka mystery will explode and the husband and baby of Shehnaaz may be found in the surang ... and Maham may get caught and punished for that.
During this surang/Shehnaaz ki raaz issue Jodha and Jalal may have done everything together, leading Ruq to feel jealous of their Wedding Anniversary and wanting to bring Jalal to her side. So after this surang/Shehnaaz ki raaz issu, maybe we may have Thursday and Friday involved with Ruq's faking pregnancy to get Jalal's attention and take him away from Jodha. Jalal may initially believe it but later discover its fake. It may be Maham who may tell Jalal that Ruq is faking pregnancy (as the Zee man has said)., because Maham may have been punished for the surang mystery, and may decide to bring down Ruq also with her. There could be an altercation between Jalal and Ruq with a big blowout on this issue on Friday leading to a breaking of relationship between Ruq and Jalal.
And then by the Friday episode's precap, we may have Jalal trying to placate Jodha that their Wedding Anniversary has been too full of huge distractions and he wants to now give the rest of the evening solely to Jodha.
Next week, after some full blown weekend promos and articles on the consummation, the consummation scene may take place. (We have had no promos for two weeks so I feel that a big consummation promo is going to come on during this week in preparation for events next week.)
I think timing wise also this consummation scene set for next week may help because it is the final week of the IPL ... and so it could be a well-planned high event (the consummation) to take eyeballs away from the cricket to the serial.
Okay so much for my trying to fit the spoiler to what I am seeing on the screen. For those who want a recap of what all happened in the episode, here's a quick gist ...
The fight between Jodha and Maham continues from the previous episode. Maham says she hates Jodha and she hates Rajvanshis and she has not one ounce of remorse for doing her saazish to separate Jodha from Jalal, because Jodha has separated Maham from her own son Jalal. Maham says she has nothing to lose by doing her best to eke Jodha out of Agra. Jodha says she isn't angry with Maham and instead she pities Maham. And she also says that Maham may not be afraid any more of losing anything because she has already lost everything by losing Jalal as her son! After Jodha leaves the scene, Maham is seen saying she is a lioness and will strike Jodha viciously! Maham has flashbacks in her mind of Jalal punishing her at the DEK and adds this to her collection of cribs against Jodha.
Jalal, meanwhile, at the DEK is surprised by receiving a spate of paigams. Several Hindu and Rajvanshi kings have written letters of praise for the abolition of the teerth tax and Jalal is apprised of all these letters of kudos by Atga. One letter is ostensibly from Sujamal, again in praise of the tax abolition, and Jalal is happy to hear that - for he has started liking Sujamal despite him being an enemy and gaddaar against the Bharmal family. One other paigam is from Maharana Pratap, who pays a back-handed compliment to Jalal that really amuses Jalal. He says "Thanks for removing the teerth kar, but I suspect your motives of being a bit teda. Anyway you still remain my dearest enemy. Yours sincerely, etc etc".
Jodha in her hojra meanwhile loses a gennstone from her kangan but a bit of searching helps Moti retrieve it. Talking of this kangan, Jodha remembers Jalal gave it to her one year ago at the their wedding and she has never removed it ever since. That brings the memory to Jodha that today is their Wedding Anniversary.!
At the DEK, Jalal too is told by Atga that aside from the paigams there are loads of gifts from the Bharmal family, and Jalal too is thus reminded of his Wedding Anniversary. Both Jodha and Jalal have vivid flashbacks of the wedding, and are then seen as if walking towards each other with happy strides, both having been reminded that this was indeed a special day for the two of them.
But then they are not really walking towards each other, they are both going to the dargah. Jodha readies herself to tie a dhaga at the dargah, when through the lattice screen she sees Jalal also ready to the same. They both realise they have remembered it's their anniversary and they both have come to pray for the longevity of their marriage!
After Jalal ties his dhaga and prays he finds Jodha still in prayer with eyes closed, on her side of the screen. Jalal comes round to her side and surprises her because she is looking for him on the other side and finding him missing. They then have a small coochey-coo-cum-tana-maroing session when Jodha asks him what he prayed for and he says "You never tell me what you pray for so why should I tell you?" They banter like kids and then Jodha acts mock-miffed as Jalal says he still loves tana maroing her from old habit! They then link hands ever so sweetly and leave the dargah!
Meanwhile, Maham is seeing going into the surang, and in a viperish fit she takes a whip and soundly lashes the victim she has trapped there. Then she remembers why she did that. She was no doubt venting her frustrations with Jodha on this trapped victim! She lashes the person even more and tells her guards "Go get the Gwalior Hakim and get the wounds on this person healed before my next visit. I cannot let this person die so soon without telling me what I need to know".
At the Palace, in the meantime, word has got around that it is Jodha and Jalal's wedding anniversary. Hamida is seen ordering the kitchen around for making all the many sweets for the occasion!
Later, Jodha and Jalal are sitting on Jalal's bed, generally chatting with each other in private (how far they have come!) when Rahim runs in with two dolls - one male doll and one female doll. He says they are the Shahenshah and Choti Ammi, and they look good together. But again another prankish altercation begins between Jodha and Jalal as to which doll looks better than the other. They both are again tana maroing each other, when Shehnaaz enters in a frenzy and like a stubborn kid, insists on grabbing the dolls from Rahim. Rahim refuses to give the dolls and runs out of the room.
Next thing we know is that Shehnaaz chases Rahim and grabs the dolls viciously, even as Rahim loses his foothold at the edge of the terrace where they both are, and Rahim falls over the edge of the terrace. Luckily he remembers to grasp the terrace edge with his hands to break his fall, and is thus hanging precariously for his life, with nothing but hard ground some ten or twelve feet below him. Jodha screams as she sees this, and her scream alerts Jalal who thankfully runs like Usain Bolt just in time to catch the falling Rahim from hitting the ground. Salima and Ruq too have arrived on the terrace meanwhile and are thankful to have seen the last bit of the rescue. But Shehnaaz is laughing away hysterically at having managed to grab the dolls, not even registering all that has happened.
In the precap Jalal is furious with Shehnaaz, especially since she is seen laughing at the fracas. Jodha tries to argue that Shehnaaz is a bit woolly in the head, but Jalal is nevertheless in no mood to excuse that.
My comments on the episode:
I think we should not see this episode separately and try to judge it for it will fall short of our expectations in many ways. The run-and-rescue of Rahim was indeed very well shot and the last few minutes of the episode has us gripping the edge of our seats. But the tender romantic moments were not phenomenally memorable. They were there, they were good, but not Oscar Award worthy.
I think we should judge this episode as the first part of the highly eventful Wedding Anniversary Day, and the rest of this week will show us the rest of the same Wedding Anniversary day which is slated to see many events unfold (as I have written in my opening remarks, based on the spoiler).
Given that context, the events we saw in the Monday episode have taken the story forward on three fronts:
1. We came to know it's the Wedding Anniversary day
2. Rahim was put in danger by Shehnaaz and her behaviour is so odd that the story will now go into deciphering why she is odd, and it may all lead to the discovery of her sadma, the surang and its occupants and the Maham exploitataion of the surang occupants.
3. We saw Maham going to extreme lengths with the whip lashings on the surang occupant and then ordering the Hakim to heal the wounds before her next visit.
I think in the next two episodes (i.e. Tuesday and Wednesday), it will be established that Shehnaaz is using the dolls and the Kanha murthy as surrogates of her own lost baby ... and this may lead to an examination of what the mystery behind Shehnaaz is. With help from Todarmal, Jodha and Jalal may be able to quiz Shehnaaz more closely ... and establish the fact that she has lost her husband and baby.
Separately Hamida may again find Maham's behaviour odd and get reminded of the surang trips. She may tell all she knows to Jalal - and Jalal and Jodha may go to the surang and retrieve the baby and the trapped man and find that these are the lost family of Shehnaaz. Jalal may well punish Maham for this surang issue (as I doubt the Hakim would have been able so quickly to heal the tell-tale whip lashes on the person's body).
Seeing Jodha and Jalal get so close to each other on the Wedding Anniversary, and even in solving this surang-Shehnaaz mystery jointly, Ruq may get peeved and hatch this plot to separate Jalal and being him to her side with this faked pregnancy. But as I said before (courtesy the Zee man and his promises) Maham may expose Ruq's saazish and turn Jalal off Ruq. This pregnancy faking and exposure issue may take the rest of the week (i.e. Thursday/Friday), so that next week (starting 26th May) we may see the placation of Jodha by Jalal on the evening of their Wedding Anniversary leading to the consummation.
I will stop my comments here for today, because I need to see if the rest of the spoiler is working out as expected. Maybe tomorrow and the day after will tell us if my prediction is working out right, and then we can adjudge if this whole Wedding Anniversary Day was a well-thought out sequence or not.
I also need to see if my own earlier prediction that Shehnaaz is none other than the long lost sister of Jalal _ Aqiqah - works out right. (I had said Maham may be trying to get this husband of Aqiqah and their baby killed and Adham married to her, so that by some old farman of Humayun, Aqiqah's husband (ie. Adham) and she inherit the Delhi takht as compensation for having lost her childhood with her family). I had also predicted that maybe this husband of Shehnaaz is staying alive because he pretends to have the farman and so long as he does not give the farman to Maham, she will keep sparing his life. Let's see if this prediction also comes right.
At the moment, it's hard to tell if the individual characters are shining or not in their roles as it is all an ongoing situation and there are lots of spoilers and predictions to complicate the story. So I'll reserve my comments for a full opinion blast towards the end of the week, after seeing if most of the spoilers/predictions comes true.
All that I want to say is that it is time for a promo, and if my hunch is right we could very well get a "consummation hint" promo this week or at the weekend. So let's see if this happens at least by end of the week!
I still think the timing of the consummation scene, if it is indeed next week, will be just right as it's the final week of the IPL matches and just about the right time to magnetise the eyeballs away from cricket to the serial.
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