Friends, the episode on Monday was sweet in its second half, but I am afraid the first half of it really was puke-worthy for me! Especially after that terrific Friday episode, already my expectations of the Monday episode were low to begin with, because I dared not expect two supersonic episodes in a row. But still the way the Monday episode unfurled at first, I really started losing hopes of it amounting to anything, till slowly some of the sweeter scenes started appearing towards the tail end of the show ... and by the end of it all, my memories of the disgusting first half were slightly obliterated.
The problem with the first half was that yet again we had Ruq acting miffed about not being told personally by Jalal about the mandir trip and the skirmishes Jodha and Jalal had with Adham's micreants. She was at her most imperious and high-handed behaviour, storming to Jalal's room and accosting Jalal about not telling her anything about his trip and his wounds. Despite Jalal saying that he and Jodha were both wounded but now fine, and how they did not want to upset her in her delicate condition with bad news, she rudely sidelined Jodha as if she counted for nothing and treated her like an unwanted worm in the room. She talked exclusively to Jalal, and as much as said and implied that she was only bothered about Jalal's wounds and his hiding facts from his "Khas Begum". Jodha, to my horror, actually also tried to placate the angry Ruq (which Jodha need not have done according to me!) but this only seemed to grate further on Ruq's nerves. Further when Jalal started praising Jodha and saying he would never again venture out without her company, Ruq's ears were issuing steam!
It all ended in the usual and unsatisfactory way for us viewers, when Ruq forced Jalal to accompany her to her own room, leaning on him heavily as if she suddenly realised she was supposed to be pregnant. Having thus divided Jodha and Ruq she then acted all upset with Jalal - till Jalal then had to promise that he would never keep things from her and placate her with a kiss, before she began smiling again.
There are ways and ways to commiserate with two people who have both got wounded on a mandir trip, and to ask for footnotes on what happened during the trip ... but this kind of storming into the room where they both are, unleashing an unholy tantrum, and then ignoring one of them while acting all too considerate only of the other, and then breaking the two apart to get a five-minute span of attention exclusively from the husband, through forcing him to employ placation, is not my cup of tea.
What a disgusting scene it was, and how intolerable Ruq was ... and why did Jalal not feel the insults Ruq was heaping on Jodha? And where was the need for Jodha to try and calm this openly insulting Ruq with a dhaga for her baby's protection from the temple? I found the behaviour of all three protagonists a bit unacceptable for if Ruq was bad, Jalal and Jodha need not have both fallen over themselves to try and soften Ruq's mood. That they both tried to do so may be ascribed to their thinking she was pregnant and should not be allowed to get upset. But even so, was such consideration from Jalal and Jodha wanrranted for the way Ruq openly belittled Jodha in front of Jalal? I could not swallow what I had seen in the first half of the episode ... till we had the subsequent exclusive scenes of Jodha and Jalal learning to sweetly pray in each other's way - and that soothed my temper a bit!
Anyway, let that awful Ruq-Jalal-Jodha scene pass. After that we had some very nice scenes between Jodha and Jalal, which again were not overt "physical passion" but were the kind of love that helped them both pray like the other, and thus fuse a deeper bond between their hearts. Jalal was in the courtyard talking to Atga about who might be behind the mandir trip attack, when the strains of Jodha singing her Kanha bhajan came wafting in the air. Jalal's feet led him straight to Jodha's hojra, where he joined her in prayer to Kanha.
Jodha then totally surprised Jalal by requesting him to teach her how to do her namaz, and he was ultra thrilled with her request and gave her a first kiss for this. They then laid out a rug, knelt down and with their headgear in place, Jodha began to imitate Jalal's movements as he prayed. It was an extremely cute scene. There was nothing particularly "coochey coo" about this scene, but the very act of praying together seemed to meld the two hearts into one, and I felt as if I could palpably sense the love emanating from both of them. How lovely that Jodha was learning to pray the namaz way from Jalal himself and not from Hamida or Salima - which would have reduced my happiness a lot if she had! When they were through, Jalal was still overwhelmed and gave her a second kiss.
Through all these Ruq tantrum scenes and the subsequent prayer scenes there were two other scenes of some importance. In one scene, Maham accosted Adham and asked him outright if his evil hand was behind the attack on Jalal and Jodha and he admitted it. He also admitted that his men had botched up the attack. His mother seems to have lost control over him since her demotion by Jalal, for all she could do was beg Adham to please be careful as Jalal was far more powerful than Adham thought. Adham on the other hand said he did all this to avenge his mother's demotion and insult for which she could neither thank him nor feel any solace. She was gripped with fear that her beloved son was getting into waters too deep for him!
In another scene, Atga came up to Jalal in the courtyard and was about to tell him that he knew who was the culprit behind the mandir trip attack. Jalal replied that Atga should summon everybody to the DEK where the culprit had to be nailed for having dared an attack not only on Jalal but also on his "aziz" Jodha (which by no means he could tolerate). But before Atga could give the name of the culprit, Jalal was beckoned by Jodha's bhajan singing and he left for Jodha's room. As Jalal left Jodha's room after the prayers he spotted the wound on her hand and all his ire against the attackers returned, as he made his way to the DEK to punish the ones who had hurt his sweetheart. In the precap, the scene was in the DEK, where Jalal was shaping up to declare the name of the culprit behind the attack. Adham and his mother were seen looking extremely shaky, but the episode ended before we could know what Jalal was going to be saying!
For my analysis of the episode, at first I thought I would take the two prayer scenes - first Jalal praying Hindu style with Jodha, and then Jodha doing her namaz with Jalal learning from him., But then I thought about it again. These two scenes were ultra sweet, but there was not much to analyse as such in them for they were just expressions of a growing love between the two that were everyday dissolving their boundaries and closing any gap that existed between them. Instead I thought I would be a bit radical today and analyse the ugly Ruq scene for two reasons:
1. Spoilers now categorically say that Ruq is going to be found out for the fake pregnancy by Jalal very soon. When I called up Zee yesterday that man told me personally that it will just take a week for this bhandaphod and he re-iterated that it would be Maham who betrayed Ruq. The spoilers further say Jalal will discover this truth dramatically and get extremely angry with Ruq - and if we are to believe history, he may even stop speaking to Ruq for years and sideline her completely for cheating him on such a sensitive subject. I thought I would dedicate my analysis today to Ruq as a goodbye gesture for I am now heartily sick of the way she is compounding her lie with Jalal! The more miffed she is getting with Jodha and Jalal being together, the more layers of lies she is adding to this fake pregnancy. From my side she needs a strong "goodbye" analysis!
2. Dialogue wise and complexity wise this Ruq scene allowed me more room to try and analyse the behaviour of all three players - Ruq, Jalal and Jodha. There are unpleasant aspects in the behaviours of all three of them I noticed that I wanted to share.
But by no means do I want to create the impression that I liked the Ruq scene better than the sweeter prayer scenes that followed. As I said earlier the prayer scenes made the whole episode palatable for me and helped me forget the nasty taste in my mouth after the Ruq scene. But the prayer scenes did not lend themselves to deeper analysis as much as the Ruq scene did, and I wanted to get Ruq out of my system by giving vent to my angst about her behaviour.
So here goes:
The Hakim is in Jalal's room applying lep on her wounds, when Jalal refuses to let her tend his own wounds saying "Please concentrate on Jodha's wounds" Jodha then rises to go and sit next to Jalal and says "Shahenshah, I think you too need attention on your wounds. I think it's good for you". Immediately Jalal listens to Jodha (and this little bit of advice from Jodha and Jalal's immediately agreeing to it is a little reminder that he nowadays does what she wants without a murmur, trusting in her care and concern for him).
In another reminder of how far this Jalal-Jodha relationship has now gone, Jalal asks Jodha "Jodha Begum, do you think we should meet Ruq and tell her about what happened, because she may worry about all that has taken place?" "No Shahenshah, I don't think you should meet her in this condition. Firstly, you have a lot of open wounds that she will see, and the thought that you were under attack may upset her." says Jodha. Jalal replies "Yes, you're right. Let's go and meet her afterwards." (Now when has Jalal asked Jodha before going to meet Ruq? I thought this was a first for him!)
Back in her room, Ruq was meanwhile throwing verbal abuse at a bandhi who seemed to have brought her news of this attack on Jodha and Jalal. "So much has happened and no one thought of telling me?" she shouted. "Where is the Shahenshsh now?" Hoshiyaar, standing by, said "He is in his room" Ruq then shooed Hoshiyaar out of her way as she did a high-speed walkathon through all the myriad corridors of the harem to reach Jalal's hojra. En route, various assorted begums in the harem and even Hoshiyaar seemed to question her prudence in doing this near-sprint in anger thus endangering her "delicate condition".
Jodha and Jalal were further talking about not informing Ruq. "Shahenshah" said Jodha, we both are well now, and telling all this to Ruq would only cause her anxiety. So why do that?" Jalal had a reasonable doubt. "But if we don't tell her this now, what if this news spreads and she gets to hear of it from someone else and gets even more upset?" he asked. "Hmm, yes, "Jodha agreed, but then an idea struck her "We have the prasad from the mandir and the dhaga for her wrist, so why don't we give these to her as assurances that everything is generally OK, and you can then also apprise her of the attack where we ended up safe?" Jodha said.
Even as all this was being discussed though, Ruqiaya was on fifth gear storming towards Jalal's room, till one of the harem begums said "Looks like a storm is on the way!". "Yes with a baby on the way she has to be more careful" another harem begum said, but this sentence seemed to trouble Hoshiyaar a lot (no doubt Hoshiyaar knew the truth about there being no baby).
Jalal meanwhile was totally agreeing with Jodha's idea not to tell Ruq anything now and he started breathing easier.. But the calm between Jodha and Jalal was very short-lived ... for in came Ruq like a steam engine saying "What are you planning not to tell me Jalal?" "You here?" exclaimed Jalal, "You should be resting in your room". "If you can't come to my room, I have to come here" she said churlishly. Then softening her manner she addressed Jalal. "Have I become such a pariah that you never thought I needed to know about this huge event yesterday? My husband was attacked, he got wounded and I had to hear of all this from a mere bandhi? There was a time Jalal when even if you sneezed you used to come to me. You would share the biggest of issues and the smallest of secrets with me. You never hid anything from me, so why now like this?" Jalal started looking a bit guilty but then he looked at Jodha as he said to Ruq "We didn't want to hide things from you, but then we thought ..."
The very idea that Jalal was now not merely talking of his own role in the hiding of information,n but was making it sound like "Jodha and I" as a team decided, must have really got to Ruq - for both Jodha and jalal were wearing the look of co-conspirators. "You thought where was the need to tell me anything, isn't it?" barked Ruq. And then she went into a different tack "The biggest mistake is that first you leave the sipahis behind and proceed to the orphanage." And then you get attacked, you fight with the enemies and get wounded and return home, and everbody including Ammijaan and even all the khwaja seras know about it, except me." Then Jalal openly said the one thing that rubbed salt on Ruq's wounds . He said "Ruq, Jodha Begum and I felt that ..."
"I DON'T CARE ABOUT ANYONE ELSE HERE, JALAL" Ruq positively screeched, "All I care about is you only. Can I not have this much faith that you will surely share all with your childhood friend and your first begum, your Begum-e-Khas?" Jalal tried to bring down the tone of discourse and said gently "Ruqaiaya, you are pregnant and should not get upset in this condition. I don't want any bad news affecting your health or the baby's. See how agitated you are now. This is why we didn't tell you."
"Yes I am upset Jalal," Ruq replied " but not because there was an attack on you. I know you can handle a whole army. I am more upset that such a big news had to be told to me by a bandhi. Why are you taking my "huq" away from me?" Ruq then started breathing very heavily in agitation and Jodha tried to run to her side and said "Ruqaiaya begum, take care of yourself".. "LET GO OF ME" Ruqaiya rounded on Jodha viciously. Jalal's face started wearing an unpleasant look. Jodha continued to hold Ruq's shoulders and turn her to face herself. "Ruqaiaya Begum, please calm down", she said "We are doing what's good for you." "NO" Ruq said again screeching hard. "No one really cares about me, no one. Let go of me."
Jodha persisted "Please sit down and take deep breaths, and someone fetch some water". "NO" Ruq shouted again, "I want nothing and especially I don't need any one's sympathy" she snarled at Jodha. "I am not weak. AND ONE MORE THING ... WHEN I AM TALKING TO MY HUSBAND I DON'T NEED A THIRD SOMEBODY BUTTING IN", she added with pure venom.
Jalal unable to watch more of this seemed placatory and pulled Ruq to sit on a sofa nearby as he also sat beside her. "See I am actually well and not really hurt". "Yes you are now "Ruq admitted, "But what if something had happened? What was the need to go to the orphanage?" "There was a need" Jalal said firmly, "Jodha begum had taken a vrath to pray for our baby and I had to go with her to the mandir and then to the orphanage where the good wishes of the children there would bless our baby. I wanted to do all this so I went with Jodha to pray." Jodha then reached for the mandir ka dhaga and told Ruq "For the protection of the baby we have brought the "pavithra dhaga" from the mandir. Let me tie this to your wrist". Reluctantly, as Jalal also applied pressure on her, Ruq extended her hand and Jodha tied the dhaga.
Jalal then again started a topic that made Ruq see red. "You needn't have worried at all about me, Ruq" he said, "Jodha Begum was with me all the time. Here I was wondering how to handle so many enemies and how to keep Jodha Begum safe, but she made short work of a lot of enemy soldiers." Jodha demurred "The Shahenshah is just making a lot out of my simple actions" she said self-effacingly. "No, no, no, no", said Jalal, "I am telling the truth "I have decided that hereafter wherever I go Jodha Begum will always go with me. As long as she's with me, why do I even need the army with me? Jodha Begum, you really are a great soldier. Thank God I am not one of your enemies, or you would have made short work of me also!" he said with pride in his voice.
Ruq didn't like what she was hearing. "Jodha Begum, you seem to have gone a step closer to Jalal with all this" she said to herself, "and you've pushed me a step further from him." She turned to look at Jalal beaming with pride and love as he kept looking at Jodha. "Even at a time like this for me, Jalal is praising Jodha to the high skies?" she self-talked. "I want to go to my room now" she then said aloud, for she needed to break up this cozy Jodha-Jalal eyelock. "I wish to rest", she added for good measure. "Okay, I'll drop you there" said Jalal.
Ruq then made a huge production of limping listlessly into her room making Jalal pull one of her hands over his shoulder for additional support. Eventually they made their way laboriously into Ruq's room, and Jalal after making her sit on the bed, sat next to her. "Still angry with me?" he asked as she looked at the floor without raising her eyes to him. "Such stubbornness is not good" said Jalal. "And what about your stubbornness" returned Ruq, "You know I cannot even withstand a scratch on you." "If something happens to you or our child, I won't be able to bear it" said Jalal, "that's why I had to keep information from you."
Sensing that she now had Jalal all to herself Ruq took on a a mock-angry" tone letting go of the earlier stormy demeanour. "Don't try to placate me, Jalal, for it doesn't work with me" she said, "Okay," said Jalal "so I need to ask for pardon. I promise not to hide anything from you in future and not to displease you. Happy now?" She still looked miffed, so he planted a kiss on her forehead after which she deigned to smile. "Rest now, I'll take leave" Jalal said and started moving out of the room, when Ruq asked him to please send Jodha Begum to her room.
Before Jodha could come, though, Ruq viciously snapped the dhaga from her wrist, and wore a look of pure hatred. "I don't need your care or your dua, Jodha Begum" she bit out, "you are using such duas to steal Jalal from me. But I am not about to let you do that." And with that she gave an evil sneer!
My comments on this scene:
Folks, I am tempted here to write a few thousand words about Ruq and her bad behaviour. She was at her ugliest best, especially the part where she tells Jodha to butt out of her dialogue with her husband and says she cares for no one else's wounds but his. I am sure if all of us give vent to our opinions about her boorishness we can fill at least 50 pages on this thread.
I am also sure that despite all our dislike of the way Ruq behaved we all also have a soft corner for her in way for she is fast losing what is important to her, and she too is a young girl in her own private hell. We can feel sorry for her and we do.
But when I really analysed my own deep feelings about the things that troubled me about the Ruq-Jalal-Jodha scene, I found to my surprise that my irritation was not mostly about Ruq so much - it was the guilty expressions of Jalal and Jodha that really made me very disturbed. The way Ruq behaved soon faded for me, but the way Jalal and Jodha handled everything, with a tinge of defensiveness about their decision and their new love, still rankles with me.
For whatever reasons sounded good to them, they both mutually decided not to tell Ruq about the events of the day before. They both thought it would upset Ruq in her "delicate condition". Maybe we can also ascribe Jalal's fear of Ruq's agitation and Jodha's apprehension of how Ruq would take it all as concern for Ruq in her pregnant state. But even if the reasons that the decision was taken was out of concern for Ruq, once the decision is taken, there has to be more conviction in spelling it all out to Ruq, which I found missing in Jalal and Jodha. They were saying the right words but the body language of Jalal and Jodha were not matching. They had stooped shoulders, their eyes were not meeting Ruq's and they were not cut and dried about their decision. As Ruq was shouting out her ire to Jalal and Jodha, there was way too much reticence and deference shown to her by both Jodha and Jalal.
Time and again I saw Jalal looking at the floor unable to raise his eyes to Ruq - and so did Jodha too do the same thing. Was there a lot of guilt in them both that Jalal had now shifted loyalties to Jodha? It looked to me that while the Jodha and Jalal love had progressed, as far as Ruq went they were still a bit cagey about their new relationship being too much "in her face". I am still wondering ... was it the events of the previous day they were trying to hide from Ruq or were they trying not to let their new love be too much for Ruq to bear and were they trying to soften the blow for her on the matter of losing Jalal's love?
That's why I think I am now waiting for the exposure of Ruq's fake pregnancy with much eagerness, not just because I want Ruq pulled down, but because I want to see Jalal lose that "fear and guilt of Ruq's wrath" and gain an assertiveness over her. I am not sure if I should use the words "fear and guilt of Ruq" here, for it is not so much "fear and guilt" that Jalal has, but he's got some "unreadiness for her expected unpleasantness" which he is wearing on his face like a guilty expression. And Ruq is immediately sensing this conflict in Jalal's mind and stomping all over Jalal with her belligerence trying to make him even more guilty of siding with Jodha and leaving her out.
We now need a crisis moment now, a bhandaphod moment, when Ruq's belligerence gets a full stop thanks to her "faking exposure" ... and Jalal gets a stronger conviction that it's okay to love Jodha more than he loves Ruq. He needs a crisis that repositions the three of them into a new hierarchy of who is more important than who, so that Jalal loses this defensiveness about his love for Jodha.
To make matters worse, Jodha was also doing a lot of ground-staring and wearing of guilty expressions as if she too was a schoolchild caught out by the teacher in some mischief she should not have done. Jalal and Jodha need not have been so defensive about hiding information from Ruq for her own good - and they should not have given Ruq the clear signals through their body language that they both were uncomfortable hiding things from Ruq. They both should have stood up for their decision with such strong conviction that Ruq would not have been able to do more than a feeble protest! I feel the scene was needlessly wimpy because of Jalal and Jodha's defensiveness and eagerness to placate Ruq rather than their being forthright, ruthlessly honest and intolerant of tantrums - and they should not have tried to placate Ruq but should have silenced her by the sheer logic and conviction behind their decision!
I expected Ruq to behave badly and almost even expected the insults on Jodha that have become her ugly habit, but I expected also a spirited defence by Jalal and Jodha when they replied Ruq. How long would it have taken for Jalal to say forthrightly to Ruq "I did what I thought best for you, so there's no point ranting about it. Jodha and I, we both jointly took a right decision, I believe, and I expect you to understand it." And how long would it have taken Jodha to distance herself from this diatribe between husband and wife so that she didn't invite insults by butting into the conversation and then being asked to stay out of it?
The problem I think was that there was a genuine guilt in Jalal, to some degree, that he has fallen for Jodha, his decisions are all now taken in concert with Jodha and he himself feels a bit as if he is leaving his old loyalties out of his life. If his own vulnerability were not at play, Ruq could not have walked all over him as she did. So to a small degree, this altercation between Ruq, Jalal and Jodha yesterday showed that while Jalal has veered towards Jodha more now, there is still some vestige of feeling in him as if he is betraying Ruq. He needs to get out of that obligatory feeling, and he is particularly susceptible to it when Ruq says "I am your childhood friend, your first wife and your Khas begum and yet the last to know and that too from a bandhi!" Ruq is twanging Jalal's guilt strings perfectly!
Even as I write all this I am aware that the excuse given for Jalal and Jodha's "taking the bad behaviour from Ruq" would be that they were afraid to upset and agitate her further in her "present pregnant condition". That's a convenient excuse for now, and I cannot argue against it, because it may be true in its own way that care and concern for Ruq made Jodha and Jalal a bit cagey to strongly impose their decision on her. So let me wait and see how they change their body language and behaviour after the Ruq bhandaphod.
But does it really make me happy that a bhandaphod and demoting of Ruq is needed before Jalal and Jodha can be less defensive about their love? No. I would have prefereed that even without the bhandaphod, Jalal and Jodha would have been less wary about their love and they wouldn't have been walking on eggshells where Ruq is concerned.
In a polygamous situation, every wife is supposed to know how far she can go and how far she can't when the husband's allegiances change. That's par for the course. We would have expected that of Jodha so why not of Ruq? Does the first wife have any special indemnity or insurance against the husband changing his allegiances? Those who are in positions of being "favourites" have to face the days when they may not be favourites. That's the law of life and more so in a polygamous marriage. Time changes everybody, including the husband. Neither should the first wife resent change, nor should the husband feel defensive about his new loyalties. That is my feeling.
I know this subject is contentious. Many on the forum may feel the pain Ruq is going through and say that Jalal did right in giving her that support when she is in pain. But my own personal feeling is that when there has to be a break, a clean break is better than a prolonged torturous gradual elimination of someone from your life. A clean and fast break is sometimes kinder than a slow stretched out torture of separation. If Jodha and Jalal could show Ruq that they are not in the least defensive about their love, Ruq too will adjust fast after initial trauma. But now we have a situation where Jalal and Jodha do look defensive and therefore this bhandaphod of Ruq's fake pregnancy has to happen to afford that clean break that the protagonists themselves were unable to o take without an unpleasant event having to happen.
a. Jalal was taking Jodha's advice on this whole matter of whether to tell Ruq anything and he allowed Jodha's advice to prevail with him.
b. He kept initially referring to all his decisions to not tell Ruq as "joint decisions " between himself and Jodha as if they were a team.
c. He openly praised Jodha's fighting prowess to Ruq and said he would hereafter always go out with her.
a. Ruq being nasty and insulting to Jodha and Jalal not noticing or protesting about it
b. Jalal looking like he was afraid of Ruq's vehemence and recoil as if he disliked her unpleasantness and tried always to keep her in good humour, more so in the present condition
c. Jodha's look of staring at the floor when Ruq accused Jalal of hiding things from her, as if she too was a guilty party, and then Jodha trying to placate Ruq instead of keeping a dignified distance.
I know I have today put out a debatable point of view. But I want to hear all sides of this debate so do tell me if you agree or even disagree with me. I promise to take everything in my stride!
Tum Se Tum Tak
Cricket
Bhabhi Ji Ghar Pe Hain?
