Friends, I was not too thrilled with the episode yesterday. We can't call it a bad episode because we can surely see how step by step the noose is tightening around Ruq's neck by her own hands. But even that one lollipop Jodha-Jalal scene we get every day was missing totally! So for me it was like a bit of a tain tain fiss!
The whole of the first two segments of the episode were nothing but Ruq! And the last segment strangely was a re-introduction of Adham getting an itch to settle scores with Atga, using the pretence of sword fight practice. But thankfully Jalal intervened to take the practice with Adham on himself and soon had the man-mountain down on the ground with a broken sword!
The precap gave promise of at least some lollipop scene in the Thursday episode with Jodha and Jalal planning a romantic walk to the mandir after leaving Salima in charge of Ruq. But Shehnaaz overheard them and has plotted to attack their tryst with each other, and so I suppose we should be getting ready to soon see Jodha and Jalal hanging from a net (as per promo).
For those who want to know how devious the mind of Ruq is, and how neatly Maham betrayed Ruq yesterday, read on ...
The entire Ruq saga yesterday and the way she got off by wearing a face mask!
When the episode opened, Ruq was extremely busy puffing away at a hookah and letting off clouds of smoke like an ancient steam engine. The room must have been thick with the scent of the hookah smoke. Halfway through the smoking of the first hookah, Ruq let fly some choice gaalis at Hoshiiyaar for producing a pathetic hookah experience and sent Hoshiyaar to get her another better-stacked hookah.
That was the moment Jalal walked in - and in a rush Ruq ran across the room trying to waft away the tell-tale smoke permeating the air. But Jalal was sharp enough to smell the smoke, and he got extremely angry with Ruq for endangering her own health and that of the unborn child in her with her addiction to hookahs.
The fun part was that just as Jalal was delivering some strong words at Ruq, Hoshiyaar grandly arrived with the second hookah. By now it had dawned on Jalal that Ruq was a "chain hookah smoker" and so her really lost his top.. He shouted also at the hapless Hoshiyaar and said "No more hookahs. And if I catch Ruq smoking again, I'll punish you!". Poor Hoshiyaar, what was he to do? He had already tried dissuading Ruq from smoking but had only received some foul language from her in return. There was a limit to even what Hoshiyaar could bear?
Anyway, Ruq did the thing that always saves her with Jalal. She immediately apologised profusely, and swore she would never touch a hookah again. Jalal also became a bit contrite for shouting at her in her present condition. Ruq saw Jalal softening and pressed her advantage. She held his hand and said "You always come here bringing Jodha with you. You never come and talk to me alone. Sit down now and talk to me." He obliged and they seemed to go on chatting for a while.
The scene came to an end ... but Ela and I had had a niggling doubt if Jlalal spent the night with Ruq? But then on second thoughts I told Ela "I don't think he would try to sleep with a pregnant wife!" and so between us we let out a sigh of relief.
Anyway Jodha next morning arrived with her medicines, including the nauseous kaada for Ruq to drink, and she began swiftly pulling open the curtains to wake the slumbering Ruq. Ruq didn't want to wake up and drink the kaada so she screamed blue murder at Jodha and point blank refused to cooperate. Jodha and Ruq were almost trying to play "Catch me if you can!" round and round the bed, when Jalal and Hamida walked in.
Hamida cajoled Ruq like she would cajole Rahim, and finally Ruq made nasty faces and drank the kaada. Thereupon Hamida gave Ruq a taaveez that had come from Ajmer Sharif and also threw a thunderbolt at Ruq. Jalal explained that Hamida had requisitioned the services of a very experienced lady Hakima to come and check up Ruq to see if the pregnancy was progressing well. The bombshell hit Ruq hard, for she was close to being exposed for her fake pregnancy. Her mind started ticking over fast as she needed to do something to talo-fy this Hakima!
Who does Ruq usually go to when in trouble? Yes, that's right, she went to her "Ideas Fountain" Maham! Maham was busy with that "naksha" in her hand trying to decipher it and muttering to herself that "This stupid is not blurting out the truth". She meant no doubt that Chand Begum was not revealing the map details. But as Ruq entered her room half-hearting the last bit of the self muttering, Maham quickly changed the subject and said this map was Javeeda's handiwork and undecipherable except by Javeeda.
Anyway none of that bothered Ruq for she had a single point agenda. She outright told Maham "Tell me what to do? This Jalal and Hamida have got a new expert Hakima to check me out. I will get exposed for my pregnancy faking. Tel me what to do?" Usually Maham would have grabbed the opportunity to give Ruq a few devious tips ... but this time Maham surprised even me by completely betraying Ruq. She first said "Settle the Hakima with some money, it usually works!". But Ruq said it was too risky. Then Maham said coldly "Unfortunately there are no ideas coming to my brains, so better you apply your own brain this time." Ruq had no choice but to withdraw because the "Ideas Fountain" was pretending to be dry! After Ruq went Maham savoured the thought that soon Jalal will be tearing Ruq to bits. She said to herself "Hope he treats you better than he treated me!"
In case you are all agog with what Ruq did to save herself here's the next bit of the story. Ruq straight went to a bandhi and asked her to liberally apply a facemask (uptan) all over her (Ruq's) face. She was looking gleeful as if this was a great idea that would work beautifully. Soon Jalal, Jodha, Hamida and Salima entered the room with the expert Hakima. Jalal was aghast to see Ruq with all this uptan, and Ruq acted like she'd forgotten the Hakima appointment. Anyway Hamida said "Never mind the uptan, Ruq and the Hakima can go to the adjoining room for the check up" and so Ruq and the Hakima went in.
Inside the checking room, there was Ruq complete with cucumber slices on her eyes and her face fully covered with uptan, as the Hakima checked her stomach and her pulse.
Now note this point folks, we hear Ruq asking the Hakima "What is the prognosis?". Notive that I have said we hear Ruq's voice, but if you watch carefully the person lying down on the bed dressed identical to Ruq and with uptan on her face also does not even move her lips! The room was surrounded by curtains and so it could very well have hidden Ruq, while another pregnant bandhi with similar uptan on her face could have impersonated Ruq. (I've written more revealing things about this scene in my Comments section!)
Anyway the Hakima added a few minutes of suspense to the story by refusing to tell Ruq the results of her test, and she insisted on telling only Jalal (and that too she did in mute). So the audience was as eager as the rest of the cast there to know what was being said and whether Ruq would be found out. But Jalal then smiled that the Hakima had said the mother and baby were both fine, and Ruq came out the ante room grinning broadly. The other ladies, relieved with the Hakima's explanation left the room, and Ruq again tried to take advantage of the lingering Jalal to make him spend time alone with her. "Later" he said peremptorily before going away himself! And that left Ruq thinking she had pulled off the greatest coup of the decade - and that too without Maham's help!
Adham resurfaces with an itch to fight someone ... his impatience is killing him!
In a later scene after the second commercial break of the episode, Adham is seen in the courtyard of the palace, swishing a sword in the air for want of a practice partner. His face registers a growing tenseness and building anger that he is just dying to unleash on someone. Just then Atga and Todarmal appear there and ask Adham what all this hungama is about? He says he is looking for a sword practice partner - and Todarmal, not knowing any of the background score between Adham and Atga, suggests that Atga could give Adham some practice. Atga agrees, but while poor Atga is just doing a few dancing moves, Adham gets vicious with every passing minute. He is so murderous in his supposed "practice" that even Todarmal is a bit stunned. And soon Atga gets his hand slashed through with a deadly swipe from Adham.
Luckily Jalal arrives on the spot just then and calls a halt to the whole session. He remarks at seeing Atga's hand, but then tells Adham he himself has not practised against Adham for a long while so he will spar with Adham. Again Adham becomes his murderous best, clanging swords with Jalal, and both men make some incredible moves. Adham himself is no mean fighter and Jalal gets stretched before he is able to overthrow Adham to the ground with his sword blade broken in half. Adham is belittled with ease for he is such a hulking giant that he is not half as nimble as Jalal. Jalal extends a hand to help him up as Adham tries to bite down his defeat. Jalal then sagaciously tells him "Adham, you are one of the best fighters we have but you have to control your anger which is your weakness". Adham replies "Some men like me need to build up anger to fight well". But Jalal then replies "That would not make you a good sipahi, it would just make you a mujrim!" Wow, what a dialogue!
Anyway folks, it looks like this scene was introduced yesterday because as the Ruq-Maham duo get soon exposed the Adham downfall track is in the offing and yesterday it looked like Adham was somehow itching to cut up Atga and engineered this whole swordplay exhibition. His patience with Atga is running out very fast it seems.
Lollipop on the cards as per precap ... and Jalal and Jodha soon to be in tangle!
In the precap, Jalal was seen telling Jodha "I have arranged everything. Tomorrow Salima has agreed to look after Ruq so you and I will take a trip to the mandir together." Jodha simpers sweetly. And all looks arranged for a lollipop scene of a temple walk together. But alas, from a window Shehnaaz listens in to this plan and comes up with her own plan to somehow attack the couple and wreak vengeance on them. No doubt this is a sanket of the promo scene going to happen in the next episode.
I don't know how much of a lollipop this temple walk is going to be - because soon on the way the promo shows that Shehnaaz manages to trap Jodha and Jalal in a net! Are we all supposed to be very eager to see this "romantic tangle in a net?" Gee whiz! I can't wait! (I'm sarcastic!)
My comments on this episode:
Now I am waiting for this Goad Bharayi with some fear in my heart because I myself feel Jalal's impending terrible anger steaming from his ears! I am quite sure that Maham needs no excuse now to expose Ruq. We all earlier thought that Maham will expose Ruq either if she herself is found out on the surang issue or is trying to distract Jalal from the surang issue. But after seeing the way Maham betrayed Ruq yesterday saying "I have no more ideas, use your own brains", I have a nasty feeling Maham needs no excuse to pull the rug from under Ruq's feet during the Goad Bharayi ceremony. Just to spite Jalal she seems ready to expose his chit of a wife and show him what kind of Khas his Begum is!
I don't know exactly how Maham may expose Ruq. I have a feeling now that she may not straightforwardly tell Jalal "Your wife is faking pregnancy!". Instead I have a feeling that Maham, with her flair for drama and hungama, will set up things in such a way that Ruq exposes herself like a jackass, and then Maham may move in with her cluck-clucking that Jalal has been made a bewakoof!
I desperately want to see this Goad Bharayi scene, because I suspect Jalal is going to froth and fume and finally unleash a violent spurt of abuse on Ruq, because the whole "baby" thing is now grabbing his full attention and the Creatives have given a good build up of Jalal's happy anticipation of a waaris. As a viewer, I want to see a highly satisfying end to the Jalal-Ruq relationship, not because I hate Ruq, because I have a vested interest in the Jalal-Jodha equation. If I want a clean and clear Jodha-Jalal relationship, there has to be a clean break in the Jalal-Ruq relationship ... so although at times I do feel sorry for Ruq who is nothing worse than a stupid girl with a shine for audha and pathetic brains, still I have a priority for Jalal-Jodha to be more close and exclusive to each other withour Ruq vying for a place in the relationship and making it a threesome.
Regarding the ploy that Ruq used yesterday (the uptan idea) my friend Jyoti was telling me "Hear that voice, it was Ruq asking the hakim what the result of the test was!". And true enough when I saw the scene the first time, I too heard that voice and thought the person on the bed was really Ruq. But the Maddy sent me a message to see the scene again, because when Ruq's voice spoke, the person on the bed was lying still with no lip movement! By jove!
That suggests that Ruq must have gone into the ante room for the check up and hidden behind the copious curtains and watched from there as another uptan covered pregnant bandhi may have been put on the bed. After the Hakima checked the pulse, maybe it was Ruq asking the question from behind the curtain in her own voice "What is the result?". Notice how the Hakima was also not facing the person lying on the bed when this question was asked. The Hakima turned to answer only after the question was asked. And the Hakima said "I'll tell jalal". Notice how there was no expression immediately on the face of the person lying on the bed!
Also one more thing ... see before Ruq went in for the test she just had uptan on her face but her eyes had no cucumbers on them. But why then would she go for the Hakima test and put on the eye cucumber slices as if she's in some spa getting ready for a massage? Strange that she thought of keeping her eyes covered for the Hakima test? It all makes sense if she was using a pregnant bandhi in her place, for then the cucumber would cover the eyes from being a dead give-away!
So much for Ruq. What about Jodha? Yesterday she was reduced to being an "extra" according to Maddy! I agree. In most of the scenes, all that Jodha did was to smile beatifically and look like an angel. Even in the scenes where she appeared she looked like a stepney to Hamida. And as for the tender moments with Jalal ... zilch! At one point Jalal told the expert Hakima that even in their house they have their own personal Hakima (i.e. Jodha). That was the only close-ish Jodha-Jalal moment I could find in the whole episode. Am I supposed to feel the wonderful "mohabbat"of Jalal pouring out towards Jodha as he lovingly called her his own Hakima? W*F!
One more thing guys before I get off the subject of Ruq. See this Hoshiyaar is also getting to be a potential betrayer to me. In those olden golden days when he worked for Ruq he was able to take all her abuses in his stride. But after a stint under the benign and more gracious Jodha, surely Hoshiyaar may have seen how it is to be treated well. Now that he has come back to Ruq, don't you all think his own patience with abuses would have become shorter? I don't know if Hoshiyaar will let down Ru q in this Goad Bharayi, but I sure think he has the potential now and the irritation with Ruq needed to let her down. I would watch Hoshiyaar's moves carefully.
About the Adham swordfight scene, the greatest take out for me was that after this current track, the next big one is likely to be the Adham-Atga face-off. And Jalal's "mujrim" comment seems to be sealing the direction in which Adham will go. It was a good piece of dialogue from Jalal, and the swordfight itself was well directed because the moves of both Adham and Jalal llooked menacing and ruthless and mesmerising. Only Atga looked like he was playing dandiya!
Diksha believes that today and tomorrow (ie. Thursday and Friday) will go on this Shehnaaz ki "net" chaal, and then next week will be this Ruq/Maham exposure. I agree. Since they have already started showing Adham-Atga, I don't think the Ruq/Maham exposure will be extended beyond next week! The CVs are already signalling that the Adham-Atga track is almost ready to happen.
Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah
Tum Se Tum Tak
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
