Akbar-The man behind the mask

Originally posted by: myviewprem

The last talk by Akbar and Jodha in morning is so layered it reveals Jalal's personality

Akbar told Jodha- Aapne abhi tak humme jaana nahiii

Meaning that Jodha is yet to understand the true Akbar, the real jalal.

People are so layered in life that many times we do not fully understand people whom we lived with for ages. Humans are always unpredictable and very rarely do humans show their complete 100% self to any human be it parents, wife, friends, kids or siblings. The way a human behaves as a son is different from how he behaves with a wife and the same man is different with his kids and completely different with his siblings or friends and a different human at work altogether. Even at work the way a person behaves with subordinate is different from how he behaves with boss or higher up or a colleague. A child too behaves in a different way with their family then friends and teachers etc. All humans right from childhood put masks based on circumstances and situations and with whom we are dealing.

With Akbar its no different. With his mother he is a obedient son who maintains his silence as mark of respect and bends his head and stands when he feels he is wrong or out of respect(though this is a new thing in serial), a child carving for attention and love.

With Salima he is an husband who respects her because she is a good advisor but because she is elder to him in age. In india a husband always has superior status to wife but here Akbar respects her for being his elder cousin, for being his khan baba's wife

With Ruqaiah he is a friend a childhood friend. We all feel most comfortable showing our true selves with our childhood friends. Just think of that school friend who knows us in and out. We do not say sorry to them if we sneeze, we do not care about tezeeb, adab etc in front of them. We reveal our raw self only to them. That is what Akbar does when he is with ruqaiah no fear no adhab or tezeeb to be followed.

With jodha he is the lover boy. Her smile makes him happy her tears make him sad, her mistrust breaks his heart etc. He is a total lover boy with her a teenage lover boy at that. He wants to please her any how like a teenage lover boy.

In Atagah jalal searches for a father. The world says a child cannot live without a mother. I beg to differ in this cruel patriarchal society a father is much more important than a mother to gain society respect. India is one such place. A fatherless child gets abused right from house among relatives, targeted at school, finds it difficult to gain a footing in society in any sphere exceptions are there. And Akbar lived in such a world. As soon as humayun died all were baying for his blood. A father has two roles one to protect child from a preying society and a person who lends the child stability in life and helps to develop character. That is when Bairam Khan protected him from this cruel world and Atagah lent stability by giving him love, care, playing with him etc. Even today only atagah knew he was acting not anyone else. Usually this is role of a mother but since Hamida is too nave and maham too toxic atagah has assumed that role in jalal's life I guess.

In maham Akbar always searched a mother a loving mother who cared for him who was happy in his success sad at his failure. Initially maham was that may be or Akbar was innocent as chiold to recognize her true self. Today Akbar said a brilliant line- I am your son and it is a son's duty to stop his mother from committing crimes. You have committed many already so to prevent further crimes I put you in house arrest. 👏👏 Indeed it is a sons duty to ensure his mother does not commit crimes in her interest. Akbar is not angry that his milk mother tried to kill him he is angry because his mother is committing grave crimes that will endanger his other family, citizens, empire. He I scared that she has to face a higher king once she dies and he does not want her list of grave crimes to increase so much that there is no redemption. No matter what sort of husband, king etc Akbar was he was a great very great son to all his foster parents. In this age where daima is treated like a maid and just paid and thrown out once her job is done Akbar is a role model child.

Akbar the friend and Akbar the father are yet to be shown in this serial. But going by history let me analyse these roles.

Akbar the friend of Man Singh, Aziz Koka, Abul Fazal, Faizi, Birbal, Tansen etc. Many people were angry that Man Singh had a important role and always told against him. But Akbar the friend always understood that this was jealousy speaking and ignored. There is a famous painting in akbarnama Akbar and man singh wrestling in court. The incident was Akbar was something like he was drunk and may be he spoke rudely so man singh slapped him and they both fought in court. But Akbar totally forgot and never felt how dare this guy slapped me etc am emperor. That is friendship, one moment you slap, fight get angry and next moment you forget and forgive. Only true friends can do that. Then came Akbar-birbal, birbal was his PM and known to be shrewd he almost overshadowed Akbar. But Akbar never mind his friend over shadowing him. Akbar saved his life twice while playing polo when elephant charged towards birbal he came in front not fearing his life and saved him. He could easily think I am emperor let the PM birbal die. But true friends can risk their life for each other. The best part about Akbar the friend was none of his best friend were his equals they were all his subordinates. Think of 21st century which company owner will become friend with employee, which rich person will go to his diver's marriage etc and here was an emperor.

Akbar the father- need I say more in jehangirnama jehangir says not a single day his father called him salim he only called him sheiku baba. To Akbar salim remained a baby a small child all life and Akbar who did not have a childhood ensured his sheiku baba had a great childhood that extended till 37 years of age. Of course like parents of that age he was strict he did not allow his sheiku baba to marry his love meherunnissa(what a great reader of character Akbar was he knew nur jahan's nature and how she would dominate his son because of his innocence) he stopped him from drinking excessive(finally jehangir died early because of that habit) and may be put some restrictions that he felt will make salim a great emperor. Buttt you can never fault the great father he was to salim, walking barefoot from agra to ajmer is no joke in the hot sun on sand. And salim was lucky, such fathers are one in a billion. Salim failed to understand that when he was alive.

All children are the same they fail to realize parents importance in life and think they restrict and are over disciplined etc. But when they become fathers/parents they have much more expectations of their kids what double standards. 😲 The same is true of all children especially sons across all generations. Shah jahan rebelled against jehangir killed his siblings for throne but when It came to his kids he want dara to become emperor and all to obey his wish.

Kyunki baap bhi kabhi beta tha 😆

Humayun must be thanking his stars he died when his son was young(with all the wars bet Akbar, hakim, mah chu chuk etc)

and babar must be thanking his stars that among askari, hindal and Kamran he had a son like humayun

and the remaining generations well they must be wishing they never had sons only daughters like jahanara 👍🏼

Originally posted by: Donjas

thanks a lot

but this is my first post of depth

I have not written any post of this depth for longgg which other post did you refer?

Originally posted by: Donjas

You are being too modest, almost all of your posts involve some introspection on the part of the reader. An example is the Ode to Atgah Khan.