Friends, let's do first things first. Yesterday was Diksha's birthday which she hid from all of us. So let's start by wishing her HAPPY BIRTHDAY! May this year be a great one for you Diksha! Love you lots!!!!
Now onto the more mundane things ... yesterday's episode was not so remarkable in and of itself, but it is now actually fast progressing this entanglement of sorts between Todarmal and Shehnaaz. I would say that all else in the episode was peripheral, even the Jodha-Jalal love scene, and the Todarmal-Shehnaaz show was the prime focus.
Todarmal was warned by a jail-bound Zakira that she is not the culprit and the real culprit was still outside ready for another attack on Jalal. That set Todarmal's mind on a jasoosi mode.
He then chanced to see a poison scar on Shehnaaz's hands when Shehnaaz accidentally banged into him on the verandah. In order to pull her up and offer apologies, Todarmal extended his hand to Shehnaaz but then he saw her other hand that was braced against the floor to give her leverage to get up. It was scarred and she couldn't quickly explain how she got that scar. She actually said it was caused by cold water. All the while he was looking at Shehnaaz's scarred hand, Todarmal forgot to notice that he had been holding Shehnaaz's other hand far too long that was "proper" between a man and a woman.
This whole scene was witnessed by Moti Bai, but I feel that Moti as an onlooker must have herself got the wrong picture of this whole scene. Since she and Jodha have been habituated to thinking of Shehnaaz as this innocent young childish girl, Moti must have felt that Todarmal was lingering a bit too long in holding Shehnaaz's hand and inquiring after her hurt. I got this feeling that Moti looked a bit uncomfortable, and herself tried to hasten Shehnaaz out of that place fast before Todarmal could keep her there and ask more questions.
After Moti and Shehnaaz left, Todarmal then examined the scars on his own hands caused by the poisoning and saw they were exactly similar to Shehnaaz's scars. His eyes narrowed in recognition of this huge clue that he had never suspected before.
I think Todarmal now felt so hot on the scent of Shehnaaz that he decided to not let her out of his sights. In the precap, therefore, he was seen actually tailing Shehnaaz to watch her movements. God knows how many random people may have seen Todarmal thus stalking Shehnaaz?!
Shehnaaz herself had meanwhile spotted Todarmal staying only a step right behind her and she tried to hide herself to watch what he was doing.
A cut shot in the precap then showed Todarmal holding both hands of Shehnaaz when Jodha saw the scene and she herself winced at it - as if it felt like it shouldn't have happened between that man and that woman. For all we know Todarmal must have been examining Shehnaaz's two hands and accosting her about the crown poison, but even to us looking at the shot, with their voices muted out it, looked like it could be mistaken for a "improper touch". No wonder then that in the process of getting too excited doing jasoosgiri on the crown poisoning affair, Todarmal put himself squarely in Shehnaaz's sights for a subsequent molestation/rape charge!
If the expressions on Jodha's face and Moti's face alone were enough, the seeds of suspicion (a wee bit) has already been sown in their minds regarding the propriety of Todarmal's actions with Shehnaaz. Tomorrow I have a feeling that in his anxiety to solve the case, Todarmal is going to commit some more indiscretions which Maham will see and this idea will get born in Maham's mind that Shehnaaz could well cast a rape charge on Todarmal.
That would serve two strategic purposes. It would prevent Todarmal from further examining Shehnaaz's hands by holding them close to scrunitnise them, and neither would anybody else believe Todarmal's story about Shehnaaz as a possible crown poisoning culprit. Secondly, Maham would gain her objective of eliminating Todarmal from scrutinising her son Adham's financial frauds if Todarmal is put in jail.
My only worry here is that Jodha and Moti should not feel that Shehnaaz is telling the truth about Todarmal and the rape charge because they saw his behaviour towards Shehnaaz "with their own eyes" and it was not "proper"!
Even if Todarmal should protest strongly that he was suspecting Shehnaaz of being the culprit of the poisoning, the question is "Which charge would be taken most seriously in the Agra Palace?". Would it be "Shehnaaz's crown poisoning charge" or "Todarmal's invasion of Shehnaaz's privacy charge"? I think the lady will win hands down, because Jalal already thinks he has the culprit Zakira, and so will be less inclined to think of Shehnaaz as the poison culprit. And besides in those days a molested lady's word was held far higher than that of a protesting male!
Thankfully the spoilers say Jalal won't believe this of Todarmal ... and Jodha too goes against what she saw with her own eyes, to ask Jalal to get to the whole truth of this matter. And later Jodha herself also finds out the truth about Shehnaaz. But till then what will we have? Todarmal and Zakira as cell mates?
Something tells me that Zakira and Todarmal have already formed a bond of sorts after Zakira stopped to speak to Todarmal before going into jail. So somehow the same Zakira may also help Todarmal escape this rape accusation by helping him nail Shehnaaz! Or maybe Jodha will nail Shehnaaz and Zakira and Todarmal may re-affirm that idea with their own clues?
For those who want the whole story of yesterday's episode here it is in brief ...
The episode began with the DEK where Jalal pronounced that Zakira has to be jailed for the empty poison vial was found in her room. Jodha stood up to protest that the proof against Zakira is insufficient - but Jalal sternly told her that this is the DEK where justice has to be dispensed as per the proof at hand. He cannot make an exception for Zakira. Jodha thus had to pipe down, much to Ruq's delight!
As poor Zakira was then led out to jail by the sipahis, she stood for a moment before Todarmal and said to him "Todarmalji, I am not feeling so bad that I am caught, but that the real culprit still is out there somewhere at large in the palace and is in a position to attack Jalal again!". Todarmal seemed very moved by this statement and I think in that moment he knew in his own mind that Zakira was really innocent!
At Kabul, meanwhile, the daughters of Mahchuchak were revolted by their mother's impending marriage to this young bridegroom. But as their mother entered the room they quickly changed the subject and then had to withstand her menacingly tight embrace. It looks like Mahchuchak never does things by halves. When she hugs even, she almost drives the breath away from the bodies of the people she is hugging. Her daughters gasped for air after she left!
In her room in the palace Jodha was seen with Shehnaaz (whose head was in her lap) while Moti stood and watched. Jodha ranted about Zakira, saying they all never thought Zakira would do this crown poisoning as a return favour for the good treatment they had given her. Moti too agreed with Jodha, but Shehnaaz then suddenly sat up and said "Let's be thankful nothing happened to Jalal". Even as she said this aloud, her thoughts in her mind were the exact opposite, as she cursed the fate that had saved Jalal from the poison!
Jodha suddenly then noticed a bandage on Shehnaaz's arm and asked what happened. Shehnaaz said she had burned herself and so Jodha left it at that.
As they were thus talking in Jodha's room,, Jalal was announced in and so Shehnaaz and Moti left. Jodha took one look at Jalal and said "You look very tired today", and he returned "So do you!". Jodha then said "OK, then let me drive away your tiredness with a head massage", but Jalal said "How will that help your own tiredness? Let's both take a walk in the garden instead?" Jodha agreed and so they both left for the garden in companiable silence.
At Kabul again, it was dinner time, and Humchuchak was chatting up her daughters and her guests - Haider and his uncle and Fazal Beg. Suddenly, a lump of something disgusting-looking was served onto Haider's plate. "What is this? " he asked. Mahchuchak told him "It's lion's heart!" The look of revulsion on Haider's face was to die for. "I am already feeling too full" he said as he never looked again at his own plate. Meanwhile the sycophantic Fazal declared that the food was excellent and his own taste echoed that of Mahchuchak!
In the garden at Agra, Jodha and Jalal walked for a bit and then Jodha broke the silence by talking of Zakira. "I never thought she would return our good treatment of her by doing this to us. I still can't believe she did this poisoning", Jodha said. Jalal replied "She had the means to access your rooms, she was unsuspected by the sipahis, and she knew a lot about poisons. All that fits. But still I don't think she personally gained anything by killing me. She must have been doing it for someone else!"
By then Jodha and Jalal had approached the seats at the Angoori Bagh and Jalal bade Jodha to sit down and he sat next to her. Jodha began the topic again saying "But how did Zakira get the poison in the first place ...". Jalal was too tired to keep up the conversation. He said "Let's not talk about this anymore", as he leant his head on her shoulder. "To tell the truth Jodha Begum," he said to her, "it feels great to be with you all the time, but when we are not together ..." She instinctively put a hand to hold his face and stop him from going to the topic of their separations. "I will never again be away from you, never. We have already suffered that once and it will never happen again. I am always going to be with you" she said. He looked pleased and happy despite all his tiredness, and it was a very pretty picture as she held his face that was on her shoulder.
On the corridor of the terrace palace Shehnaaz was running towards Jodha, when Moti saw her and tried to stop her from disturbing Jodha and Jalal in their privacy. But Shehnaaz ran all the faster to avoid Moti, and thus banged into Todarmal coming in the opposite direction. "I am so sorry, it's my fault", said Todarmal giving Shehnaaz a hand to help her get up. But just as he gave her his hand, he saw her other hand braced against the ground, deeply scarred. Momentarily distracted he continued to hold Shehnaaz's good hand too long as he inspected the scar on the other hand and then asked "What happened? How did you get that?" Shehnaaz was so flustered that her hand was seen, that she said she got a burn from cold water!
Moti Bai meanwhile watching all this from a distance did not seem to like Todarmal holding Shehnaaz's hand for so long and she quickly intervened to tell Shehnaaz to go on her way and she stemmed the discussion from extending. After Moti and Shehnaaz had left, however, Todarmal undid the bandages on his own hands and saw that Shehnaaz's scar exactly resembled his scars from the poison-touching. Bells started ringing in Todarmal's head about Shehnaaz and her being a possible culprit!
Shehnaaz meanwhile went to her room but there was a sudden knock on the door and she began to fear that sipahis had arrived to take her to jail. Tentatively she opened the door to find a sipahi, but it was not from Todarmal. This sipahi said she was a wafaadaar of maham and she had a paigam from Mahchuchak for Shehnaaz. (Isn't that strange that maham's sipahi should be bringing a paigam from Mahchuchak? So are those two wicked witches in cahoots?). Anyway the paigam said Mahchuchak's forces were getting close to Agra to be ready to help Shehnaaz.
At Kabul again, Mahchuchak decided to sample her future husband and learn of his behaviour first hand. What sort of man was he? She started touching his baby face and he shuddered at her touch as he tried to keep a straight face. But the wicked witch then went a step further and scratched her sharp nails (claws?) on his arm till blood started oozing from the scratches. "Hmmm ..." she said, "you are not as tough as you ought to be as a man." And then she added a sentence that pronounced her a true sadist. She said "To some people, love and war always is more enjoyable when it begins with a lot of pain!" Haider sat transfixed as she then left. What had he got into and what sort of animal was she?
Adham meanwhile was in his room having entirely different thoughts about Shehnaaz than his mother had. Adham hated Shehnaaz ever since she had tightly slapped him when he tried to get fresh with her. He was thus nursing his hate for Shehnaaz when his wife entered the room and tried hard to remove all his clothes he was wearing - just to check if it was poisoned. Adham could bear no more and walked out leaving a wailing Javeeda.
In the last scene of the episode, Hamida had made food with her own hands for Jalal and had invited him and all his wives and Maham too for the lunch. But when Jalal arrived and was about to eat Jodha, alarmed, cried out to him to stop. She then offered to taste the food he was about to eat to check for its safety. "Don't mistake me Ammijaan" Jodha said "but if someone could enter my room at night when I slept and poison the crown, they could easily have hoodwinked you too and poisoned the food". Maham and Ruq immediately fired at Jodha for suspecting the hand of Hamida in poisoning her own son. But both Hamida and Jalal did not look angry. The episode ended there but I suspect in the next episode they will both laud Jodha's concern for Jalal and say it shows her deep love for him!
In the precap there were two scenes. First was a scene of Todarmal stalking Shehnaaz, which she then saw and started to hide from him watching his moves. In the second part of the precap there was a scene of Todarmal holding both of Shehnaaz's hands and talking to her in muted tones, which unfortunately Jodha saw and got the totally wrong impression from! "What's happening here?" Jodha said tersely, when Todarmal hastily took leave without explanations!
My comments on this episode:
Everything in this episode seemed calculated to create the impression that Todarmal lost a bit of propriety-consciousness in his eagerness to nail Shehnaaz as the culprit. It happens to the best of men, and he is a fine man usually with a great sense of decorum and he knows exactly how far to go with any lady and how far not to go. But it was unfortunate that in this instance, in his excitement about solving the crown-poisoning affair, he put himself in a position once or twice that could easily look a bit suspect to a bystander watching him with Shehnaaz.
I doubt if Shehnaaz herself would have thought of Todarmal as taking advantage of her and holding her hands a bit too long, for Shehnaaz was herself very jittery at being found out and her hand scar being seen too closely. So the idea to nail Todarmal for rape may not have even occurred to Shehnaaz in her state of nervous fear.
It's my belief that in the coming episode Todarmal will again do one or two indiscretions like maybe again hoding Shehnaaz by the shoulders to rattle her and get the truth out - or by holding her scarred hand in both his hands giving an impression of something coochey-coo going on between them. This time Maham may see this and get the brainwave that Shehnaaz could easily nail Todarmal on a molestation and rape charge. Or maybe Shehnaaz goes to Maham to say that Todarmal has got suspicious after seeing her hand - and Maham may have got the rape charge idea.
Maham has two axes to grind with Todarmal. Firstly he is a Hindu in the Jalal coterie whom she wants to get rid of. Secondly he is investigating Adham's financial dealings and needs to be off Adham's back post-haste. Using Shehnaaz to nail Todarmal would suit Maham admirably, for she cares neither for Shehnaaz nor for Todarmal. Additionally, if it hurts Jalal to be sacking a HIndu gentlemen, given his love for his Hindu wife Jodha, all the better for Maham.
OK ... so now let's assume that in today's episode this rape charge will be levelled at Todarmal and all hell will break loose at Agra. Jalal, as per the spoiler will not be able to believe Todarmal to be this sort of guy, and Jodha, although she too has personally seen Todarmal be a bit too forward with Shehnaaz, will still probably give Todarmal the benefit of doubt while feeling terrible for the "poor helpless childish Shehnaaz".
My question now is: Given the circumstances we will have by the end of today's episode what then will happen to shift the blame from Zakira to Shehnaaz by Saturday, so that the mega episode becomes a showdown between Jodha and Shehnaaz and swordfight takes place as the promo suggests?
Earlier I was thinking that Zakira may overhear Shehnaaz and Maham or do some silent "low-level" jasoosgiri of her own to nail Shehnaaz. But that probability has gone out of the window after Zakira has now been put in jail from where she cannot do much jasoosi. The only other hope is that Todarmal will also go to jail, so he and Zakira may come up with some lateral plan to nail Shehnaaz.
But the spoiler we saw a few days ago also says Jodha will discover the real face of Shehnaaz, and as is the custom with our Creatives, they like to make Jodha the heroine that saved her husband Jalal. So then what will happen to make Jodha find out the real plan of Shehnaaz? After Todarmal too has gone to jail, maybe Jodha will spot Shehnaaz acting a bit furtively and follow her and find out a few things about her? Or would Moti be on Shehnaaz's trail and report some suspicions back to Jodha? Or would Jodha suspect Maham of some chaal when she catches Maham and Shehnaaz deep in some private conversation? Or would Adham who hates Shehnaaz find something to blame Shehnaaz with? Or would that paigam that shehnaaz received somehow betray her? (By the way how come the sipahi of maham brings a paigam from mahchuchak? What's the connection between Maham and Mahchuchak?)
I am a bit intrigued on how exactly Shehnaaz's true face will be revealed to Jodha. I haven't got too many ideas yet and want to hear from all of you on your predictions. Let's have a contest and see whose ideas come true. Give me all your guesses guys!
HOW WILL JODHA COME TO KNOW THAT SHEHNAAZ IS THE CROWN-POISONER WHO HAS BLUFFED ABOUT TODARMAL'S RAPE ATTEMPT?
Contest starts now ...
