Friends, this is a very short post today because the episode yesterday was the pits! Jalal was positively indecent in his behaviour - and there was far too much hugging and caressing of Atifa for me to put up with. I am sick to the bottom of my stomach, and especially when Jalal said to Atifa that Jodha has now been relegated to his past and he no longer loves her as he loves Atifa, that was the lowest point of the already low episode.
However, being the optimist that I am by nature (am I still?), something in me hangs on to the hope that Jalal is faking all this. There were certain things that Jalal did that still make me wonder if he's acting in front of people as if he has fallen for Atifa. For instance, before he gives Jodha those words of hate, he turns and pauses ever so slightly that make me wonder about his motives. And as Diksha noted to me last night, when he talked to Sharifuddin about once again becoming the jallad there seemed a lot of palpable pain in Jalal. I also believe that the Creatives will not hurt religious sentiments by showing Jalal actually at his debauched best in the "paak-mahina" of Ramzan.
So the hope that he is faking it all lives on in me! In fact, I have decided that until I am actually proved wrong, I will continue to hold this hope for my own sanity, otherwise watching the episodes is becoming a genuine heartbreak.
Now further to all this some pictures of Atifa's husband have appeared showing him to be a khwaja sera. So who is he really? Definitely not a real husband, I assume. Perhaps he is really a khwaja sera disguised as a man and as Atifa's husband? Probably he is a hakim of sorts too, who knows about mixing up potions and concoctions?
I don't want to say anything more here. I am trying hard to keep a stiff upper lip and soldier on with my daily posts till the episodes turn for the better. But pardon me, folks, if this post is not up to the usual mark. I am mentally tired watching episodes of such utterly crappy quality that my mind is not functioning properly and my heart is sinking to a depth I never allowed it to before. In short I am feeling battered!
For all those who didn't see this episode - or don't want to - here's the short update I sent out to my list of friends by SMS last night ...
Jodha tries to meet Jalal after that freedom of life given to Khyber. But Todarmal says he's in violent sword practise with Mansingh and its not advisable to talk to him in such angry state of mind. Jodha meets Hamida too who says she should give time to Jalal to cool. "You insulted his authority in public. He needs time to reconcile to that and forgive you." says Hamida.
Atga meets Atifa's husband secretly and is happy to hear he plans to leave with his wife immediately after Eid. Atga gives him money for going away. Sharif happens to see this and knows that Atga may be trying to get Atifa out of Jalal's life fast. Sharif plans to add to Jalal's discomfort on this topic.
Jalal comes to Jodha's hojra, very angry, and ready to pick a fight with her. She tries to touch him but he recoils. He shouts that she has insulted his guroor in public. She says all Rajvanshis value their pati's maan and sammaan, but Jalal shouts back that she is unfit for his love and freedom and her goal was always to use his "wish" against his him and his honour.
Jodha cries bitterly after Jalal goes. As Jalal goes back angry, Sharif sees him and adds fuel to the fire by saying that his own Begum has made him look foolish in public. Jalal swears that all this happened as his "dil" has made him weak. He will again become the barbaric, merciless, jallad that he used to be before.
Jalal then goes to Atifa's room and meets her behind the curtains as her husband is asleep inside. He cannot stop touching, hugging and caressing her all the time, as he says he loves her and cannot bear to be away from her. He says "I thought I could love only once with Jodha ... and now I know I can love again with you. Jodha is in the past for me now."
Jodha is searching for Jalal and almost reaches where Jalal and Atifa are ... but Atga comes there and she stops to talk. Atga talks in metaphors to Jodha that the weather is not good - and people and relationships also change like the weather, so she should be careful. Jodha is alarmed by his words and starts thinking more about what Atga said.
Moti meanwhile hears the harem ladies gossiping that Jodha is no longer close to Jalal as he now favours Atifa. Moti wonders how to tell Jodha this. Jodha on the other hand tells Moti she hopes Jalal will be back to normal in two days. Meanwhile Jalal and Atifa share a deep long hug ... which Maham sees!
Next morning Atga tells Jalal at the DEK that Mahchuchak is creating more bhagawat in Lahore - but Jalal says he does not want to fight her as it may hurt Mirza Hakim. Regarding Khyber, Jalal tells Sharif "I let him off without death, but I will now punish him cruelly. Put him in a dark cell near the kuan and give him too little food and water so he dies of weakness."
Maham meanwhile goes to Ruq and tells her everything about the Jalal-Atifa hug she saw. Ruq is angry at first - but then gets some brainwave and gives an evil smile. She summons Atifa to her hojra.
Jodha then goes to mandir for peace (as when she prayed to Kanha her kangan gifted by Jalal falls off as an apshagun). En route she sees Khyber being taken for his cruel punishment that's worse than death. Episode ends there.
Precap: Jalal and Atifa hug again as Atifa's husband sees the hug. Jalal looks caught but belligerent. The husband looks miffed and Atifa looks afraid.
My comments on this episode:
Folks, it looks to me like this track may last out all of this week and also all of next week. I say this because we are already into the middle of this week and till now we have just got to the stage where Jalal is hugging Atifa and swearing love ... and he still has to get to the stage when he says he wants to marry Atifa and upset Jodha ... and Jodha has to want to run away from Agra whereupon someone also knocks her unconscious and Khyber carries her to the forest blah, blah, blah.
As of yesterday, I am firmly believing in the spoiler that Diksha brought to us (on my yesterday's thread) where an ex-Balaji employee had touched his old colleagues still working at Balaji for footnotes - and given Diksha some idea of the contours of what may happen.
For those of you who missed reading that Diksha spoiler, here it is again.(Read it and believe it at your own risk, as Diksha says!)
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Everybody in general at the Palalce is upset with Jodha (perhaps over the Khyber saving issue) and this is a very bitter let down for her. To make matters worse, Jodha gets to know about Jalal's new "love" for Atifa, and when she starts questioning him about it, he starts blaming Jodha in turn for her soft attitude towards men like Khyber. (In other words, I suppose he accuses her of adultery with Khyber too?) Ruq finds it convenient to support Jalal and to blame Jodha further.
Jalal then declares that he wants to marry Atifa and make her his Khas Begum ... and so he announces his marriage. Jodha becomes so upset by this that she decides to leave Agra. (Meanwhile, I got it from another source that Khyber himself feels love for Jodha and decides that he should take her away from the Palace or he will not be able to be with her. So he decides on a second kidnap.)
Just before Khyber does this second kidnap, someone else who wants to finish off Jodha administers something to Jodha to harm (kill?) her and the babies ... and this makes Jodha unconscious. (My hunch: it's a collaboration between Ruq and Atifa and her hakim-cum-khwaja-sera-husband ... and also SBS hinted at Ruq trying to kill Jodha).
Anyway, this Khyber picks up this unconscious Jodha and carries her to the forest and tries to wake her up. In a strange way, this Khyber kidnap actually perhaps saves Jodha in time from being killed by more of the stuff that has made her unconscious.
Jodha gets back consciousness at the forest but gets scared of seeing Khyber and therefore throws mud on his eyes and makes good her escape from Khyber but she gets stomach pains as she runs (courtesy SBS/SBB).
Jalal gets news of Jodha's disappearance and Khyber's second kidnap, and runs to the forest with Mansingh and some sipahis to find her. There he comes across Jodha and Khyber and a huge fight ensues between Jalal and Khyber.
But as this fight goes on, Mahchuchak meanwhile sends her sipahis to finish off Jalal, and so Jalal now has to fight the Mahchuchak men, in which apparently Jodha helps him to save himself.
Khyber who sees that Jodha wants to save Jalal then crowns his role with glory by putting himself in danger's way and getting the attack upon himself and thus saves Jalal for Jodha. It's possible that Khyber may be shown dead at this point (unless his popularity is so TRP-record-shattering that the Creatives want him to live on and continue in the serial).
Meanwhile Jodha's stomach pains will become worse, and Jalal will rush her back to the Palace where the hakims may declare that her own life and the lives of both her babies are in dire danger. And that all three may not survive.
It is at this low point that Jalal will finally discover that Atifa was actually a plant set up at Agra with the mission to kill Jodha and her babies. (It's my suspicion that this Atifa was not sent by Mahchuchak, because Mahchuchak is actually trying to use Khyber to kill Jodha. So my feeling is that Atifa is an old family connection of Ruq, whom Ruq has deliberately brought to Agra as a refugee, so that she can kill Jodha and the babies. Ruq has the most to gain if Jodha and the babies die, right?)
Accha, at this point when her game is up, Atifa goes missing or is perhaps killed by Jalal. Jodha is saved - but she is so embittered that she decides she wants to go to Amer. Jalal is shattered. (Here we are not to assumee that Jodha actually goes to Amer - but she may be wanting to go to Amer. Whether Jalal will manage to placate her and keep her back and will be remorseful enough has to be seen).
Folks, it is also my hunch at this point that it will be revealed that Jalal knew fully well about Atifa since he and Ruq had some childhood connections with Atifa. So it may be shown that whatever Jalal did was his drama just to trap Atifa - and thus the Creatives may redeem him in the eyes of the audiences.
The Creatives may show Jalal was faking it all not because they love us audiences and want to satisfy us ... but because they can't afford the religious backlash, I suppose, if they say Jalal lost his morals and decency in the holy Ramzan month and he cheated on his love of Jodha and did all this jiggery-pokery during the "paak-mahina" when honesty, mercy, marital faithfulness and ethics should be at their highest and exemplary best in the eyes of his praja and his whole Sultanate.
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This above scenario is 90% from Diksha and about 10% intermingled with the promos and snippets from SBS/SBB and some little bit from other very reliable sources who have accessed some actors to know about their roles going forward.
This is more or less what is going to happen, folks, over this week and maybe even the whole of next week, since our dear forum member, TheThinker, had given us a clue a few days back that this track would extend for 10 episodes counting from Monday 4th August.
OK, bye for now, I am going to my temple to break coconuts that at least by Aug 15th this miserable track will be over and we can all get "independence" from Jodha Akbar!
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