Friends, there's not much to say about yesterday's episode, except that it was thankfully lighter on emotions and therefore a huge relief from all the high drama we have had in the past few weeks. At the Agra Palace, there was still some of the aftermath of the Maham-Atifa issue being felt, but it was by no means heavy. Maham was jailed in the Kaala Kotri, where Adham visited her and swore vengeance on Jalal for her incarceration. Elsewhere Jalal was still a bit off-mood occasionally regarding Maham's role in this whole Atifa affair - and Jodha, Ruq and Salima decided to lighten his mood with a secret "family only" potluck cookout and games.
Jalal was not supposed to know that such a thing was being planned for his pleasure when Rahim "manfully" shared all the secrets with him, saying that while the women were entitled to their secrets, the men too had to stand by each other. For this he got a "manly hug"!
The high point of the episode came when Jalal told Atga at the DEK that in return for all the loyalty he had shown over a long time, he could now have one of the subehdaris vacated by Maham/Adham. Just in time to hear this Adham walked into the DEK fuming and ranting ... and he was woefully disrespectful of Jalal. He said that he himself had never raised a weapon against Jalal and he could not be faulted as his mother was. But regarding his mother too, Jalal was an ingrate, since he had conveniently forgotten that his mother had nursed him throughout childhood, even letting her own son go hungry but doing her duty by Jalal. There wasn't much more substance to Adham's rants than the fact that in return for what his mother had done for Jalal in childhood, Jalal had not even considered all these as mitigating factors when pronouncing her sentence in the Atifa affair. Adham knew he was touching a raw nerve in Jalal regarding his failure by Maham despite her "childhood help to Jalal" , and had Adham stopped with that perhaps Jalal would have also have accepted his rants as natural and felt great remorse. But Adham went a step too far saying in the end that all this was because Jalal was under the influence of "that Rajvanshi" ... which I think became Jalal's tipping point.
Jalal instantly and with great fury immediately announced that Adham was hereby stripped of all his rank, power and subehdaaris and could go out as a man free of all his positions and prestige. Atga was a bit astounded, as was Todarmal. They both told Jalal it was foolhardy to turn Adham out scot free, for he could turn nasty at any moment ... but Jalal only said "I owe it to him to have snatched his mother's attention in childhood that was his by right! At any rate I think he is not clever enough to start planning saazishes on his own."
What a big mistake Jalal has thus made from his own sentimentality will be seen this week ... when Adham trounces Todarmal and actually slays Atga.
At that moment in the DEK yesterday when all this fracas happened with Adham, neither Jalal, nor Todarmal nor Atga may have had an inkling of how brutal and destructive Adham was really feeling and what he was readying himself for. But we audiences got the drift because we had seen him first visiting his mother and saying she made a big mistake in not ruthlessly killing Jalal. His mother however said "You are free now for I am in jail, but remember I never want to see Jalal killed!" Adham didn't like the sound of that!
Later we also saw Adham drinking heavily and dragging Javeeda to the throne room and sitting on the throne himself to get a feel for his own desire for it. He swore again to kill Jalal, and said he was unlike his mother who always hesitated in taking that final step with Jalal. He swore to himself that he would one day occupy the takht and tear apart all the courtiers loyal to Jalal.
It was clear to us via all these scenes that Adham was nursing no ordinary hatred and he was actually now itching to "go for the kill", and nothing less. His extreme anger had made him "bloodthirsty".
I think in this deep and abiding and murderous hatred for Jalal, when Adham gets caught on the issue of financial fraud by Todarmal, it will be Atga who may accost him of the state of affairs and ask him to start accounting for his messes. Unbridled by Maham, as she is in jail, I think Adham will "see red" and slay the first person in his path in a bid to finish off all those loyal to Jalal and eventually get to Jalal himself - and that is how poor Atga may lose his life.
When I see Adham in this kind of savage itch to kill, I am reminded of a passage written by Nenia Campbell in the book "Bleeds My Desire", where there is cold-blooded advice for a killer on the loose ...
"Remember how it feels, Silent One. That murderous rage, and how it makes your blood boil. Remember, and let it carry you the rest of the way ... only, learn to freeze it, as well, because the best killers are those who can put their desires on ice."
Unfortunately Adham is not the one able to put his desire on ice and wait for the opportune time. He looks more like the one who feels the compulsive need to scratch the slaughter itch the minute he feels it! I cannot help but feel sad that the murderous intent that was intended for Jalal will be delivered to Atga, not so much because Atga was such an intolerable enemy of Adham, but simply because he was inconveniently in the way to the murder of Jalal that Adham was champing at the bit for.
Apart from watching what happens between Todarmal, Atga and Adham now, there was another small incident that was "taken care of" in yesterday's episode. The lingering issue of the Hindu Rajkumari not wanting to marry Aziz (Atga's son) was finished off by Jalal in just one sentence. Jalal simply said to Jodha, "It's okay now, it's all done and dusted. I sent Aziz to meet the girl, she fell for the handsomeness of the Mughals, and they are to be married now!" In that connection Jalal couldn't help but mention that this was totally unlike another Hindu Rajkumari who had taken a year to see how handsome the Mughals were. I liked that joke on Jodha, and Jodha and Hamida had smiles too!
Another small bit of the episode yesterday that stuck in the mind was how Ruq was making halwa not for Jalal but for Jodha because "she helped me so much". I guess she meant the help that Jodha gave when Jalal was scolding Ruq in front of Atifa!
Apart from all this there was not much to analyse in yesterday's episode but it's the start of things so I guess we have to watch this week for the boil up of the whole berserk rage of Adham.
What all happened in the episode today:
Maham is jailed. She remembers all that Jalal abused her in the DEK and sees the dismal life now at Kaala Kotri. All she has is a paak koran with her, holding which she sheds tears of anger and sadness.
Mean while Jalal, Jodha and Hamida are greeting many friends for Eid in the garden. Jalal hugs Tansen and says hope you forgot all my insults. Jodha jokes to Tansen "Make your worst raag and bore Jalal for the whole evening as punishment".
Atga comes with his son Aziz. Jalal introduces Aziz to Jodha - and Jodha says "Sorry I had to promise the Hindu Rajkumari to follow her own wish and not marry you. But she had written to me that that was what she wished and I could ask her to change that!" Atga intervened that it was the girl's father's wish more than the girl's own wish that she should marry Aziz. But Jalal says he changed all that by sending Aziz to meet the Rajkumari and she couldn't help but admire Mughal handsomeness, and they fell in love instantly ...unlike Jodha who took one year to say yes to a Mughal! Jodha smiles at this as Hamida gives a hearty laugh!
Then Ruq, hHamida and Shehnaaz also arrive to exchange hugs and greetings and Shehnaaz tells Jalal that she doesn't want the takht any more. "I just want my mom happy after what all Maham did to her" Shehnaaz says. Jodha sees Jalal very upset at the very mention of Maham's name.He moves away from the crowd standing there to privately nurse his grief over Maham.
Next morning Jodha, Ruq and Salima decide to give Jalal something to cheer up about. They plan a small family meal which they will cook themselves and have some games over - and it was just for close family but it must be secret. Also no Begum should tell the others what she was cooking so that even the menu would be a surprise to all.
Adham meets his mom in jail and rants about the way Jalal is abusing her, despite his childhood owed to her. Maham says "You are now free to do what you want for I am in jail here and cannot control you, but remember this - I still love Jalal." This makes Adham even more angry to hear his mother's continuing fealty to Jalal, and he then goes to DEK to abuse Jalal.
At the DEK Jalal specially mentions Atga as one of his most trusted courtiers who has time and again saved his from several saazishes. He gifts Atga one of Maham's subehdaris now fallen vacant. Adham walks into the DEK in a great huff and abuses Jalal roundly and soundly for his mother's state. He says while it's true that Maham has got caught for this saazish, Jalal has clearly forgotten all her goodness to him as a child, when she even sacrificed her own hungry son to feed Jalal. He says he himself never raised weapon against Jalal or Jalal would have jailed him too. He is very abusive and gives Jalal no respect at all. He is fact says that the reason Jalal has become this inimical to his mother is all due the influence of "that Rajvanshi" on Jalal!
Jalal is frightfully angry by now at Adham rank disrespect and abusive language. He declares Adham stripped of all powers and subehdaaris and says Adham is free of all responsibilities and can go free. Atga and Todarmal are aghast. They tell Jalal he should not allow Adham to be left free for he may turn nasty any moment. But Jalal says "I owe him for the childhood rights of his mother's attention and care which I took from him. At any rate I think he is not clever enough to start palnnning saazishes on his own."
Jalal then privately in his room gets all childhood thoughts of Maham the way she had saved his life, fed and brought himup and had lavished care on him and built his morale to become what he was. Unable to bear the torture of such recurring thoughts, Jalal goes to Jodha's room to share his woes.
In Jodha's room however. He finds her missing andinstead Moti Bai gives a pathetic explanation of where she might be. Jalal then plans to go to Ruq's room, when Hoshiyaar meets him midway saying he himself can't find Ruq. The sSame thing happens in Salima rooms. By now Jalal has got wind of the fact that "something is cooking between these three wives.
Jalal finally bangs into little Rahim who unfortunately cannot keep a secret. He says to Jalal "The ladies are planning this secret but as men we should tell other,right?" Jalal agrees, that they are men with a duty towards one another. Rahim then tells all to Jalal about the secret mission of all this his three mothers, and gets a manly hug. Jalal then pries into the kitchen without himself being seen - and sees Jodha, Ruq and Salima all cooking away with Hamida supervising ...and he grins secretly.
Jodha has made a Mughlai korma that she wants Hamida to taste ... while Ruq is making halwa. Ruq especially tells Gullbadan that the halwa is for Jodha and not for Jalal - as Jodha helped her a lot in the Atifa issue.
In his room Adham drinks heavily and is cursing his fate and his mother's as Javeeda comes in. He grabs Javeeda's hand and takes her to the throne room and sits on the throne himself saying that he is the future king. Javeeda says it doesn't suit him at all and he gets very angry. But he vows that the day is not far off when he will (unlike his hesitant mother) finish off Jalal summarily and ascend the throne himself.
In the precap, Jodha is telling Jalal about how he twice lost to Ruq in a chess game - when he covers her lips with his hand to stop her talking ... and she and we wonder what is coming next.
The precap of the episode seems to be hinting at a lollipop love scene!
Since Jodha is talking to Jalal about losing games to Ruq, and Jalal then gets distracted by Jodha's lips that he covers with his hand, I have a feeling that if Ruq sees this scene suddenly the good mood and the halwa will both turn sour ...
... so as far as Ruq is concerned we'd better be prepared for the worst!
Anupamaa
Cricket
Health and Fitness
