Friends, today I am really pushed for time so I am just going to make some quick comments on the episode yesterday. It was all about the whole army of kids now floating around the Palace, and we got to see the personalities of these kids individually from their dialogues and behaviour.
I have six brief comments to make here:
One, Salim comes across as a gentle and very charming boy. He is very soft-hearted and a sweet combination of Jalal and Jodha. At the moment he is more Jodha-like than Jalal-like.
Folks, I liked the character of Salim as they are currently showing him to be. He seems like a soft-hearted, kindly-eyed, gentle soul, easily hurt by the hurts of others, and his kindness to even birds and animals is a sign of how easily his heart melts. I also love the idea that he is shown to be so apart from all the other kids in his personality and character. In fact, he is not so kiddish as the other kids and seems to have an interesting tinge of some grown up maturity in his ways - there's a streak of the adult in him already.
It's no wonder then that he can feel some of his feelings as strongly as an adult can and this is the part of his personality that the Creatives are perhaps using to show that he has "feelings" for Anarkali.
A very tell-tale aspect of his "adult feelings" in the body of a child seemed to come to the fore for me when he told his grandmother he would marry her to wipe away her tears at the loss of Humayun. A kiddish kid would have said perhaps "Don't cry grandma" or something to minor and superficial effect. But the idea of giving succour to his grandmother by "marrying her" is a sort of semi-adult response of a child in whom you would not expect to see this level of personal maturity at nine years.
I also love the way he has taken on the personality characteristics of both Jalal and Jodha, where he is veering more towards Jodha in his stronger characteristics and towards Jalal in his weaker characteristics. What I mean is that in the area where he takes after Jodha he has very strong marked development of his "dil". (As Jodha said she too had saved a dove at Amer and a hiran at the forest when Jalal and Ruq were on a shikar trip.) Now Salim has done something as similar with the same strong passion for saving the dove that Jodha has often exhibited. Where he seemed to take after Jalal currently was in his "slow dressing up". Now this is not a sign of a strong characteristic inherited from his father, it is just one of his father's quirks. So I wouldn't be surprised if Jalal later finds that the boy has not inherited too much of his own fierceness needed for managing a kingdom and running wars, and thus becomes possessed - or almost obsessed - with the need to "toughen up" Salim, getting overly upset at seeing him mooning around Anarkali as a "lovesick calf".
I suspect that once Jalal sees that his own qualities of being an aggressive King are not strongly stamped on his son, Jalal will deliberately begin to push his son to become more physically aggressive and verbally ruthless just to show that his father's aggresive characetristics are also there in him somewhere. This may account for Jalal being so encouraging with his son's demonstrations of aggression in the promo where he says sitting on the throne "uska sar kalam karo" or tries to throw rank on the sipahis who are helping him mount a horse.
It is usual that when a child, especially a son, takes too clearly after a soft mother, the rough and tough father begins to want his son to show enough aggression and force to demonstrate that he is a piece of his father's flesh as well. History says that later when Jalal wanted to separate Salim from this mooning over Anarkali he sent him off for toughening up by training with the regiments. I can foresee that building the "manliness" and "aggression" in Salim is going to become an fulltime passion of his father soon!
Two, the parentage of Murad remains a mystery, and I wish we could get clear on it. His jealousy of Salim is palpable. Could that be a sign he is not a step brother but a saga bhai?
I am on tenterhooks that yesterday the Creatives did not clear out this mystery of who is really Murad's mother. Just because he veered towards Salima for airing all his grievances and called her Ammi Jaan is no guarantee that Salima is his biological mother. There were enough cues from Jodha also saying Murad is Salim's "brother" ... but the term "brother" can be used loosely as well as accurately and so we don't really know how close a sibling Murad is to Salim. Is he a step brother or a real brother born of Jodha, but only being brought up by Salima?
For my own sanity I want it to be that Jodha is his mother and Salima is just helping bring him up.
One other reason I felt was that Murad may be Jalal's own brother born of Jodha ...if you see the intensity with which he is jealous of Salim, it may be a clue. A step-brother would have been told from Day One that he is only a step-brother and cannot lay claim to everything Salim has. He would, sort of, know his limitations. But the vehemence with which Murad is wanting everything Salim has suggests that he cannot perhaps understand why when his parents are the same as Salim's only Salim is getting so much more than himself. In other words, the stronger the sibling rivalry, it gives me a stronger feeling he is Jodha's own son.
But then the Creatives have again tweeted yesterday that they have "researched thoroughly" on Murad's parentage, so does that mean they are saying he is Salima's son? I wish they would quickly clarify this issue for all round peace of mind.
Three, I was shocked by the level of anger and hatred that Haider nurses for Jalal who killed his father and imprisoned his grandmother. He has his father's anger and grandmom's canniness.
Folks, I was thrown by the level of violence in Haider's voice as he disrespectfully lashed out at the Shahenshah to his mother Javeeda. He was not just resentful of Jalal, he seemed to be nursing active and unbridled hatred for Jalal along with a sense of personal hurt and anger. He also seems to be channeling that anger into a "siding with Murad" sensing that Murad hated being the second fiddle to Salim! So Haider is not just an angry young man like his father Adham, but he also seems like Maham in the instinctively astute way that he knows which side to fuel up in a conflict between Salim and Murad! He certainly is not a nutcase like Javeeda, he is a boy we have to watch out for because he is both canny and burning with angst!
Look at the way he said derisively "This Shahenshah has a roomful of shikar trophies and stuffed animals and here he tells Murad not to do shikar!" And later he says "He killed my father and imprisoned my grandmother" with such resentment in his voice, that it sounds like the small boy is ready to go and do battle with the grown Jalal if he is given just half-a-chance. He also seems big built and beefy for his age and has that Adham sneer, so we have to wait and see if villainy is running in his blood, despite his mother abruptly trying to bottle him up!
Having said that, he was not alive when both his father and grandmom died, so everything he must have heard about Jalal comes from second-hand sources. Can it be that Javeeda herself has stuffed him up with stories of being wronged by Jalal? If so, then we should watch to see if Javeeda herself is nursing a latent anger!
Four, I love the way Rahim Khanekhana looks and has turned out. And I love Mansingh's new moustache too! These are the "ladies' men about town" now!
I absolutely love the way two promising young men have turned out.
One is our little Rahim who has now become the man with the big name - Rahim Khanekhana - who is able to meet Jalal eye-to-eye in a swordfight. He's got "hero" good looks and the word "dashing" seems to fit him now so well that I won't be surprised if the girls of the kingdom don't find him irresistible.
As for Mansingh, he seems now to have ascended the avuncular pedestal for the whole bunch of little boys in the Palace. Did you all see his new twirled moustache, in keeping with his "mama jaan" status?
Both Rahim and Mansingh are looking like terrific warriors and are becoming the backbone of Jalal's muscle power, in an army where Todarmal is already looking a bit too old for energetic antics. I think we saw a bit of Aziz Koka too yesterday, but I am not sure ... he too has the makings of a ladies' man. In addition to the nine year olds at the Palace, we now have the three musketeers with enough ammunition to make the ladies swoon. What will these three heart-breakers get up to? Hope we have some more interesting glimpses of them and they are not reduced to escorts of Salim!
Five, the indications are clear that Salim nurses no extraordinary love or respect for Ruq. She was spurned ruthlessly when Salim favoured his own mother! Salim seems firm when he is needed to be so!
Folks, my happiest moment of the episode was when Salim openly and abruptly and uncompromisingly rejected the clothes and jewelry that Ruq brought for him and said he only wanted to wear what his own Ammi Jaan Jodha has bought for him. He seems to address Ruq as Badi Ammi, so we do have Ruq occupying the "Mahamanga slot" here, I guess?
I was really looking out for some signs to see if Ruq would succeed in making a slave out of Salim, but I was so thankful yesterday that despite his natural softness, Salim was ruthless in spurning Ruq's overtures. He knew his mind exactly and did not fear speaking it. The same soft boy who wanted to wipe his grandmother's tears when she cried for Humayun by offering to "marry her" was so cut-and-dried with Ruq when she came with her goodies to try and woo him.
I also liked the possessive way Salim said he wanted to wear only the clothes bought by his own mother Jodha. Chldren can sense adult agendas pretty sharply, and I think Salim is on safe ground for he has demonstrated that he knows where his wafaadaari should lie, and who will be trying to exploit him!
In the end Ruq had to put a smiling face on her defeat and walk out with as much grace as she could show, but all said and done she had been shown her place by a nine-year-old who knew the difference between being loyal to his own mother and being careful of "Greeks bearing gifts".
I have no fears that Salim will steer clear of Ruq and the Creatives have given a sanket yesterday that Ruq is not going to find it too easy to make a pawn of Salim, so my atma is in shanti on this one! Ruq will keep trying, of course, but Salim is not going to be a sitting duck!
Six, the Salim-Anarkali love seems to be given some different nuances with every episode. The Creatives are now slowly making it look more like a "compulsive obsession" in Salim!
I want to say one thing about the Salim-Anarkali love that I saw yesterday that hit me sharply. In the previous episodes the Creatives had done their best to show the Salim-Anarkali bond as "divinely blessed" and "pre-ordained" ... we had all that taveez tying, stomach caressing, baby head-kissing and other shabby but patent clues that the Creatives had given to make it sound as if Salim was "tied to Anarkali" from birth as his life's love. The love between Salim and Anarkali in the previous episodes was given that quality of being "God-destined" and "inescapable".
But in yesterday's episode I saw a subtle change in that quality of love that Salim showed. He showed intense attraction and was being magnetised , as it were, by Anarkali dancing, but the quality of his love in the episode and later in the precap (when he wanted to keep going back to see Anarkali) had more of the tonality of a "grand obsession" rather than a "real compelling love".
He is still a little boy so it's hard to tell if what he feels for Anarkali is "love" or whether he is pulled by an "obsession". But as he grows we have to see whether it is "true love" or just a "consuming obsession".
The dictionary defines "obsession" as "the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.", whereas "love" is defined as "a feeling of warm profound personal attachment or deep affection for another". See the very slight difference in the quality of "love" from the quality of "obsession". "Obsession" dominates one's mind whereas "love" does not make one mindlessly attached.
Why am I mulling over this? Well, it intrigues me whether what Salim feels for Anarkali is an "obsession only" because when his father later separates them and sends him to the Army, his obsession turns almost relentlessly worse.
To me it's just interesting as a psychological lesson to see what pulls Salim towards Anarkali - is it "love" or is it an "obsession"?
Okay, so much for the learnings I got about all these kids yesterday. Here then is all that happened in the episode yesterday:
Salim carefully dresses the wounds of the dove and says the bird is his for saving it - but Murad claims the bird as his shikar as he hit it. Both boys get into a fight and Haider (Javeeda's son) takes Murad's side. Sipahis then separate the boys who go to Abbu Jaan for mediation.
Jalal is enjoying fierce swordfight practise with Rahim Khanekhana, now a teenager, and praises his skills. Just then all the little boys come and tell Jalal what happened and ask his solution for the bird issue. Jalal tells Murad that shikar is okay if an animal attacks you - but here Salim gets the bird for the life-saver has more huq on innocent bird.
Jodha then tells them all to stop fighting as they are all brothers and gives them all prasad to eat -including Jalal. Jalal says all should get ready soon as they are celebrating Humayun's birthday that day. Murad goes and complains to Salima about Salim always winning and she says "Remember he is your brother, but also the shehzada."
Meanwhile Haider shouts to his mum Javeeda that the Shahenshah is awful. He says the Shahenshah does shikar and his room is full of dead stuffed animals but he stops Murad from doing shikar. Haider says the Shahenshah is hateful as he killed his father Adham and imprisoned his grandma Maham. Javeeda tells Haider to shut up.
Salim while having his bath gets advice from Jodha that he should not fight with Murad his brother.
Meanwhile as Jodha dresses up, Jalal comes and applies a kaala tikka as he finds her beautiful. They both laugh that Salim is still not ready and is as late as his father in dressing up. Jodha says he's more like her though for he takes after her in matters of his 'dil'. Jodha says she too saved a dove in Amer and later saved a hiran when Jalal and Ruq went hunting. Jalal laughingly says "Yes he takes after you too".
Ruq comes there with new clothes and jewelry for Salim but he insists he wants to wear only the clothes his own Ammijaan Jodha bought for him and his Badi Ammi leaves her gifts and goes away bowing to his wish.
Hamida is praying to Humayun when Salima comes and says Jalal has arranged a tulaadhan with Salim in the tarazu. Salim comes and hugs Hamida and says since she is crying for Humayun and he can't be here, he will marry his grandmother to make her happy. He says "If the Shahenshah can marry my mom then I, as the Shehzada, can marry my grandmom." Hamida laughs and tells him it's not possible.
Later Salim is in the tarazu when people come and pile jewellery and money against his weight. Murad is jealous and Salima has to explain to him that this is Salim's haq as the waaris. After the tulaadhan, Mansingh and Rahim are put in charge of Salim who has to distribute all the collected wealth to the poor. But as Salim enters the city streets for the distribution he hears a dance class in practice.
He asks his elders for permission to see what is happening and they allow him to go and look as they are following him. He peeps from behind a curtain and sees a classful of girls in dance practise. Anarkali is at the centre of the group, wearing pink - and Salim is enchanted. Anarkali spots him and smiles and he smiles back.
In the precap, Salim tries to leave the palace alone by persuading the guards to let him go to return a ghungroo to a girl in the dance class. Meanwhile his parents are both alarmed as he is missing from the palace and can't be found and Jalal wants to send out sipahis to search for him.
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