Folks,
I am out of sorts and very worried about those of my friends and relatives in rain-deluged Chennai whom I have not been able to contact . I only hope what that city is going thru will help concentrate the minds of the delegates to the International Climate Change Conference now under way in Paris, but I would not be sure of it at all. I am inflicting this one on all of you largely to take my mind off Chennai, so if it is somewhat disjointed, please bear with me.
Well, in the last 4 episodes, the only theme that stood out was what I could call constructive deviousness, spectacularly in Jalal, though by the end of Episode 96, we had not got to the end of this as far as he was concerned, and less so but still there in Jodha. Whence the title of this post.
Then again, my reaction to Jodha defending the Shahenshah in front of her own family was, even in 2013, different from the roseate romanticism that was then almost universal across this forum. In any case, once one decides that all of Jodha's acts of commission and omission are governed solely her hidden pyaar for the Shahehshah, which she is held to be deliberately masking, when with him, with her arrogance and her obtuseness, there is nothing that one cannot explain or explain away😉! There is no arguing with this approach, for it is a self-fulfilling one.
By the end of episode 92, my state of mind was perhaps best summed up in what I wrote somewhere in 2013: I think one can twist oneself into knots trying to explain the Jalal and the Jodha one saw last night, and still get nowhere.She was appalling, and he was inexplicable in his sudden swing from controlled bitterness to what has been aptly described elsewhere as chichorapan. From there, one comes to Episode 93.
Episode 93: 'I' stands for Inconsistency:
This one was partly dismaying, partly reassuring. To my mind, the one thing the Jodha-Jalal scene is Episode 93 showed is the total inconsistency of characterisation for both Jalal and, even more so, for Jodha.
The scene the day before was very unpleasant, but it was in a way mature in its very off putting harshness, like something out of a Who is afraid of Virginia Woolf- lite. Here, one had the two of them doing a Govinda-Karishma Kapoor impersonation.
I was more startled than anything else to see Rajat do a Govinda without any warning, and I, frankly, as an old fuddy duddy of GenPrevious, who feels awkward with double entendres and the like, did not like it. It could have been so easily scripted sensually instead of like a version of sarkailo khatiya jaada lage, but it was not.
The choice should not be between Virginia Woolf, and Govinda or Riteish Deshmukh. Plus Jalal's sudden switch of persona, not to speak of tactics, was odd, to say the least, and if it worked that was because there was a corresponding and equally sudden switch in Jodha as well. The Jodha of even 2 days ago would never have gone along with all that heavy breathing so easily, but with all that mock roothna, she in fact seems to be enjoying it!
I never watched Is Pyaar Ko Kya Naam Doon but the odd episode, but I can visualise how Arnav Singh Raizada would have wooed a reluctant bride. Not like this, I am sure. It was not too vulgar, and Sandhya, I would concede that it was quite funny, but I would definitely have preferred more intelligent if even more aggressive sensuality.
Of course Rajat was marvellous. As he suddenly advances on Jodha, takes her hand, looks at the mehendi (which is, despite all the hype, pretty poor, with no intricate patterns at all), and then turns the hand over and remarks about the wonderful khushboo, all of it is done with a relaxed possessiveness that visibly unsettles Jodha. Then there is his unfazed insistence that Aapke nafrat bhare dil mein hamare liye mohabbat jaagne lagi hai! There is the wicked, unashamed flirtatiousness in his dark, gleaming eyes as he looks up at Jodha who is asking him futile questions like Aap aisi gehri gehri saansein kyon le rahe hain?, before stomping off in a huff. But what is new there? The boy is a perennial source of wonderment to me.
I was very happy that Jalal was, for once, dominating, unsettling, and even, as Vicki put it so well, predatory. Anything, even the Govinda act, is better than Jalal as a doormat to be walked over.
This comical take-off was also partly reassuring because, and this came to me as a profound relief, Jalal did not turn into a lovesick poodle (that was reserved for later), as I had feared, nor did they make him do a Salman Khan in HAHK , with a dupatta over his shahi pagdi! Yes, yes, I know that would never have been an option, but given the shock that Jodha gave me the day before with what she said to her husband, I have become profoundly distrustful of what might be suddenly dumped on the unwary viewers!
I did hope, in 2013, that after superb scenes like those in Ajmer and the Kali mandir in the past, something better would have been envisaged for the rest of Jalal-Jodha's progression to romance than such kurta phad ke, khatiya tod ke and other such dubious gags that properly belong in Comedy Circus and not in Jodha Akbar. As it is, the scenes of Jodha endlessly massaging Jalal's assorted body parts were getting to be very boring! Thankfully, Jalal was not made to do a Govinda again, but bar that, there was no improvement in the Jalal-Jodha romantic scenes, except of course for the marvellous Badal-Kajri track.
Inconsistency: This said, the total lack of consistency in Jodha's characterisation was bewildering. Watch her in the yahan se chale jayiye, taki aapke saath kuch bhi anhonee ho jai, to wo hamare Amer mein nahin ho scene, lecturing him on her life and his, and look at her the very next day!
Obviously there is to be neither progressive track development nor intelligent romance. It has to be the icebox or the khatiya, it seems, nothing in between. Alas for my hopes of a Jalal-Jodha between whom there is mutual caring and affection developing, slowly but surely...an edgy friendship morphing, insensibly, into love, with all its yearnings, its restlessness in the absence of the loved one, the misunderstandings, the jealousies, the protectiveness and the possessiveness, and beneath it all, the undercurrent of a hidden sensuality.
I suppose I should be grateful that Ekta did not decide to graduate from this adult comedy template and borrow scenes from her other horror shows like the 2013 Kya kool hai hum for the later episodes!😉
Episode 94: 'I' stands for Integrity:
The outpouring of relief and joy across the forum in late October 2013, after Jodha's ringing endorsement of the Shahenshah's refusal to hand over the Ratanpur fort, was directly proportional to their residual worries, the Govinda-Karishma stunt notwithstanding, that there would be a reversion to the cold war between them over this issue.
There was a near unanimous attribution of her endorsement of Jalal's stand on the fort to her caring, if not love as yet, for him, and her protectiveness of him, and never mind if neither of these was anywhere in evidence the day before. She was just keeping them carefully under wraps, you see!😉
As for Jalal, the bulk of the forum was in ecstasy over his referring to her as hamari Jodha Begum.
My own take on this episode is rather different, and if you consider it carefully, you just might agree with me that this take is more consistent with Jodha's yoyo like behaviour over the last week.
To my mind, nothing of what Jodha - or Jalal for that matter - does in this episode is dependent on the current state of their relationship. It is solely a question of the personal integrity of each of them.
Jalal would have called her hamari Jodha Begum in any case, for that is what she is. Remember what he tells Maham in that quasi-soliloquy about ek hi kashti mein sawaar? She is his legally wedded wife, and so is entitled to all the public and private respect that goes with that position. As for the possessive adjective, what else would she be but his Jodha Begum? He would not refer to her as if she was some casual outsider.
Jodha: Personal conviction: As for Jodha, let us first see what she says to her parents, her brothers, and her Dadisa.
Shahenshah ne swayam koyi vachan nahin diya, yeh baat satya hai..Shahenshah poore man se chahte the ki Sukanya ka vivah ho jai. She then details all that Jalal did, from arranging the match to coming to Amer with his whole family bringing anek amoolya bhent, and finally, staying calm even when Hawai was drugged, kyonki wo chahte the ki Sukanya ka vivah theek se ho jaaye.
She then switches to another tack, which she repeats at least thrice, that Jab durg par Shahenshah ka adhikaar hai, to use Samadhisa Amer ki sampatti kaise samajh sakte hain? She even reacts pretty sharply when her Daadisa, uncharacteristically, starts lamenting that bahut bada anarth ho jayega if the wedding does no go thru. To aap Shahenshah se kya apeksha rakhti hain, Daadisa? Sharifuddin aur Samadhisa ke beech jo samajh ka fer hua hai. uska bhugtan Shahenshah kyon karein? Jo vastu unhein priya hai, jis par unka adhikar hai, wo kewal Samadhisa ke hath ke liye unhein de den? Yeh kahan ki parampara hai?
After animadverting bitterly against the Samadhisa for focussing more on the kanyadhan and less on the kanya, Jodha rounds things off with characteristic vigour: Bapusa, unse keh dijiye, yadi qila chahiye to yudh kijiye aur jeetiye!
It is also typical of Jodha that she cannot understand what Bhagwan Das tries in vain to put across to her: that the main point at issue now is not who has the right to the fort, but that when the Shahenshah's close relative and representative gave such a promise, it is as if the Shahenshah had himself given it. So, when Bhagwan Das patiently explains this point, adding that the samadhis feel that unke saath chal hua hai, she immediately retorts: Humein to lagta hai ki chal Shahenshah ke saath hua hai!
Then she comes to her main point, asserting with total conviction: Jo bhi ho, Shahenshah bhi vachan nibhane mein hum Rajvanshiyon se kam nahin hain! Yadi unhon ne vachan nahin diya hai, uska arth hai ki unhon ne nahin diya hai! Aur is prakaran mein hum Shahenshah ke saath hain!
Paridhi did splendidly in this segment. Attagirl!, I said to myself. How I wish Jalal could have heard you defend him in such style!
The reason why: At total odds with 90% of the forum, I felt then, and I still feel now, that Jodha defends Jalal so categorically not because she has grown to care for him, but because her sense of right and wrong is always very clear. She now knows that he is a man of his word, and so she backs him by saying that he did not give this promise. This need have nothing to do with her having attained a greater understanding of what it means to be an emperor, as many were happily concluding. In fact I am pretty sure it does not.
To my mind, it is not just a question of Jodha's personal integrity, but of her assessment of the Shahenshah's personal integrity as well. She knows that he has kept every promise he ever made to her, even when it was something that went completely against the grain for him. As he never tires of repeating, the Shahenshah's zubaan is patthar ki lakeer. So, it is but natural that she defends him on the promise issue, affirming that if he said he had not given that promise, it meant that he had not done so. This does not need any new and warm personal feelings for him on her part at all; it is her objective assessment of Jalal's persona.
The only change now is that she does not deny or contradict , as was her habit earlier, whatever good she has learnt about him from his behaviour, and dismiss it by saying "Isme bhi unki koyi chal hogi" As no one can prove a negative, she was home and dry, and did not need to face up to facts at all.😉
But she now takes it all at face value, that he has been a man of integrity in the matter of Sukanya's marriage as well. The elaborate statement of backup arguments to buttress her affirmation is the same, though in a different context, as the arguments she once offered against the execution of Abdul.
That she perceives and accepts Jalal'a integrity is obviously the cumulative impact of a number of recent happenings: his not having uttered a word of blame to her for the narnaal fiasco, his epiphany at Ajmer which makes her conclude that he too is a man of God, and finally what he did to fulfil her sankalp during the Kali Mandir visit. But still, at the end of the day, it comes round to her faith in his integrity, in being what he appears to be.
Marching to a different drummer:Secondly, her stand against the demand for the durg need have nothing to do with anything she feels for Jalal, any more that Pratap's identical reaction has. She thinks such extortionate and improper demands are disgraceful, and that the Dhawalgarh lot have no right to demand as part of the kanyadhan something that does not belong to Amer and is thus not theirs to give, and she says so.
As for the promise having been given in the Shahenshah's name by his accredited representative, and thus being binding on him even if he had not given it personally, as noted above, Jodha simply does not see things that way!
There is nothing new in her opposing her father and her own family. She did it even for Abdul, remember? She marches to the sound of her own drummer.
So do both Jalal and Pratap. The latter was superlative here, but I shall discuss him a little later.
Jalal: Imperial hauteur: Jalal was all Emperor at long last. I loved his sudden explosion of fury, followed by a tight-lipped warning to the Rat King*, when the latter accused not just Jalal's behanoyi and his doodhbhai, but his sacrosanct Badiammi herself of lying:
BAS!! Ab ek labz aur nahin! .. Humein nahin maloom ki Sharifuddin ne aapko zubaan di thi ya nahin, par humne hamari Jodha Begum ko zubaan di thi ki hum yahan koyi fasaad nahin khada karenge.Isliye humein uksayiye mat! Kyonki hum jung ke pehle na dushmanon ki ginti karte hain, na jung ke baad hum laashon ki!
____________________________________________________________________________
* The Dhawalgarh Raja, Achal Singh, looks like a character out of Ratatouille. There is something very ratlike about his face, wouldn't you agree?
______________________________________________________________________
Then, after Bharmal' s plea that the decision about the fort is for the Shahenshah to make, Jalal stands up, and states: Humne faisla kar liya hai. Hum Ratanpur ka qila... The whole hall waits with bated breath as he pauses for a long moment. .. kisi bhi haal mein nahin denge! Sukanya ke liye koyi aur Rajvanshi ko bhi dhoond sakte hain, jaise isko dhoonda tha! And he sweeps out of the hall, leaving Bharmal in despair.
Jalal's looking across at Jodha just before he leaves the assembly, a look that conveys both his inability to do anything else and his regret at that, is his only concession to his personal ties to those involved.
All this said, I am getting to be rather tired of all this parsing every look and every word of this couple in 9 columns, as we used to do in my schooldays in English grammar classes. This seems, increasingly, to be all the more pointless as the character graphs oscillate wildly from episode to episode, as far as the Jalal-Jodha equations are concerned.
But their sense of personal integrity is a constant. It is like the difference between those grossly misleading promos and a precap. I thus prefer to base myself on this integrity angle to try and explain what each, and especially Jodha, does.
No inner voice scenes: I have long felt , and written in 2013 and now, that this absence of such an inner voice in the solo scenes for Jodha, showing her arguing with herself or mulling things over, about Jalal and otherwise, is a definite lacuna in the script. This gap was always a roadblock when the viewers tried to understand what made her tick. The only exception to this was the Green Jodha /Yellow Jodha scene, but that was a one shot affair, never repeated. Jalal has the occasional scene of him ruminating and thinking aloud. Jodha, never, bar that one exception.
This lapse was not rectified till the end of the show. This was, I think, not because the CVs were not sure of themselves, but rather because they wanted to keep open the one step forwards, 2 steps backwards option. Otherwise, how could they have churned out 500+ episodes?😉
Episode 95: Predictable setback
I have not touched on the Jodha-Wajendra meeting at the end of the last episode, nor on her playing Nancy Drew (a girl detective, who featured in a large number of American detective stories written for children) in this one, because you would all have watched these parts, and there is nothing to analyse in either.
Jodha looks exquisite in that yellow and gerua costume, even with so little jewellery. It occurred to me that she would make a good Meerabai, provided she cultivated a sort of inner stillness to tone down the assertiveness that comes naturally to her.
This apart, this kind of adventurousness is right down the alley of our Amer ki mirchi! Though of course she is spared a close encounter of the unpleasant kind with Adham and Sharifuddin only thanks to the quick-wittedness of her Daadisa. I could not understand why Jodha did not move away at once from outside the room after she had finished listening to the vital parts of their conversation, instead of standing there like a lamp post, lost in premature jubilation!
Jodha's flop show: Jodha's meeting with Jalal, aimed at briefing him of her momentous discovery re: Sharifuddin, and making him understand that his behanoyi was lying to him, and had in fact promised the fort to the Dhawalgarhis, ends in total failure. It is fact like a re-run of the time when she tried to get Rahim to tell Jalal what he had seen Maham do with the ark ki dibbi . This time too, given the circumstances, anyone at all could have predicted what would happen, and of course it did!😉
Jodha never has any use for diplomacy, and this interaction with Jalal would, in any case, have been a tough one. She starts off in her typical, hectoring style when Jalal initially refuses to discuss the matter. Aapko sun na hi hoga ! Aap Shahenshah hain, aap satya se bhaag nahin sakte! Agar baarat laut gayi to iske peeche un logon ka haath hoga jinhein aap apne keh rahe hain! No wonder Jalal warns her not to test his patience!
But having done that, he does not shoo her away, but contradicts himself by beginning to argue with her: Aakhir Sharifuddin jhoot kyon bolenge, Jodha Begum? A very difficult question to tackle, and Jodha flubs the answer, for her saying that he wanted Sukanya's marriage not to take place is hardly convincing.
I wondered why Jodha, having listened to Sharifuddin gloating about the Jalal aur Jodha ke beech ghamasaan that he thought was sure to come about, does not repeat that to Jalal. Or even give him a succinct account of her Nancy Drew adventure . If nothing else, it would have caught Jalal's attention, and might even have convinced him. But Jodha refers baldly to Wo satya jo humne swayam Sharifuddinji ke muh se suna tha, without explaining how she had heard this, and still expects him to believe her at once!
Lack of imagination: The problem is that Jodha does not allow for the overwhelming possibility that Jalal would feel that she is a prejudiced party, and that she is cooking this up to get him to hand over the Ratanpur fort and thus save Sukanya's marriage. As he says: Koyi saboot hai aapke pas jis se hum yeh na maan lein ki yeh koyi mangadanth kahani hai?
Here one can hardly fault him. After all, just 2 days earlier, Jodha had told him, in one of the worst worded pleas I have ever heard, that he should leave Amer, because there was a clear threat to his life and if anything happened to him in Amer, it would jeopardise her sister's marriage and affect her family and Amer itself. In effect aap yahan se chale jaayiye, taki aap ko kuch bhi ho jai, to wo Amer mein nahin ho.
When this was the apparent extent of her caring for his life in comparison with this wedding, why would he not believe that she would implicate Sharifuddin to get the marriage back on the rails? That too after Jodha does a Rahim with Bakshi Banu?
For Jodha to repeat the Rahim fiasco with Bakshi Banu was a display of the same rank ineptitude, viz of dragging an unprepared and frightened witness in front of the Shahenshah without any warning, and expecting them to tell the truth , with no thought given to that person's own interests. In Rahim's case, that the Shahenshah should not punish him for stealing, and in Bakshi Banu's, that her husband should not get into bad, and possibly fatal trouble.
Jodha should have anticipated that Bakshi Banu would be what is called in legal parlance a hostile witness. But then she neither has any imagination, nor the ability to put herself in the shoes of another and try to visualise that person's likely reaction. Which is why she always comes a cropper, till she decides to play a different game, that is!
To revert, that Jalal dismisses Jodha far more gently this time, with a kind of weary patience rather than anger, shows how much indulgence he has towards her, and how much he understands her emotional compulsions vis a vis her family. The expression in his tired eyes as he gazes at her retreating form speaks volumes.
Finally, going back a bit, it is interesting that Jodha does not plead with Jalal that he should hand over the fort. What she says is carefully calibrated: Bakshi Bano se satya jaan ne ke baad, aapko koyi aisa hal nikaalna hoga jis se hamari behen ka sambandh na toote! Of course this lays the onus for discovering this hal squarely on Jalal.
Sukanya; Lambent wisdom: This is a lovely segment, as revealing of Sukanya's innate wisdom, and her ability to assess character, as the earlier snippet, in Episode 93, when she asserts, citing Jalal's amazing forbearance when Hawai was drugged and driven wild in Amer, Maine dekha hai..Jijasa ne saabit kar diya ki unke pas bahut bada hriday hai.
Sukanya here shows that she is far more mature than Jodha. For she is, even when faced with the worst disaster she has ever encountered - the collapse of her wedding and the prospect of being condemned to the unmarried status of the rest of her life - capable of overcoming this crushing load of despair and pain, and focussing on the likely damage to Jodha's marriage if she persists in defying her husband. What Sukanya grasps about the malefic power of the legion of Jodha's ill-wishers who are close to Jalal, and the fact that if Jalal turns against Jodha because of her opposing him time and again, these forces would have a field day, and would lose no opportunity to destroy Jodha's marriage and make her life not worth living, would have done a much older woman proud.
Right now, however, all that Sukanya's wise advice does is to plunge Jodha even deeper into hopeless gloom. Till Maham arrives, that is!
Episode 96: Chanakya's child
As is often the case in Jodha Akbar, what stayed with me last night was the very last shot.
Jalal, in his suite, looks at the ants swarming over the pile of sweetmeats on the table (which does not say much for Ameri hospitality, how is he supposed to eat the mithayi?😉), and remarks that they take it for granted that no one else can even touch what they have been lucky enough to land on. He summons Atgah Khan and tells him to send away the 5000 odd troops he had brought with him to Amer. The Minister protests: they are here for the Shahenshah's safety. Aur hum Mughal sultanat ki hifazat ke bare mein soch rahe hain, Atgah Saheb replies Jalal.
So the troops will go, ostensibly back to Agra, but in reality to Ratanpur, for Jalal intends to retake the fort which he has just been, in effect, forced to hand over to the Rat King of Dhawalgarh by, as he believes, a devious piece of chicanery. He will ensure that his word to Bharmal is kept, by officiating at all the rites at Sukanya's wedding. The wedding which has been made possible only because he, the Shahenshah-e-Hindustan, has had to bend in public to the king of a tinpot little riyasat who has cheated him out a prized fort thru emotional blackmail. Then, once Sukanya is safely married, he will teach this upstart a sharp lesson : Hum phir se apne qile par kabza karenge, jis se un logon ko yeh paigham mile ki Mughal sultanat par dabav daalna aur Shahenshah se zabardasti kuch lena namumkin hai!
As he says this, Jalal's face is a study in sombre amusement - which Rajat shows need not be a contradiction in terms. His eyes are still and expressionless as they look, not outwards but inwards, as he contemplates this exercise in the ruthless art of statecraft.
Chanakya, that master of strategy and rajaneeti-kootaneeti, looking at his latest pupil from over 18 centuries ago, would have approved. Here is a student after his own heart. Chanakya's child, perhaps even more than the original one, Chandragupta Maurya, the first Chakravarti Samrat or Shahenshah, of Hindustan.
So would Kunwar Pratap, whose virulent contempt for the Rat King and his ways, and his satisfaction at seeing his prediction fulfilled, might override his distaste at this left-handed manoeuvre that he might not contemplate himself. His prescience in this matter is amazing: Moorkh hai Raja Achal Singhji! ..Ek durg paakar apne aap to ajeya maan baithe hain! Yeh kyon nahin sochte ki jis Jalal ne ek durg ke liye sabke saamne apni talwar kheech li thi ( this is another remark, both by Pratap and by Jodha to Jalal, that puzzles me. When did Jalal draw his shamsheer in the assembly? He only bangs the tip of it on the floor), usne achanak se apna nirnay kyon badla? Avashya hi iske peeche koyo shadyantra hai..Phanse phenk kar saamnewale ko ek chaal se jitaaya hai, par baazi wo hi jeetega. ..Bahut door ki soch hai uski! *
So, from over a century into the future, might Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who went into an ostensibly friendly meeting with Afzal Khan armed with the baagh ke naakhoon that he used to kill his treacherous opponent before the latter had made a murderous attack on him.
That the hapless Rat King was not guilty of anything but an excess of greed does not change anything, for what matters is what Jalal believes about him. So Jalal, having dismissed Atgah Khan with these confidential instructions, half smiles in secret triumph.
*NB: Uncorrupted sense of honour:I simply loved the tongue lashing that Pratap gives the Rat King, about his bargaining at his son's wedding like a merchant, as also what he tells Bharmal later as he is leaving Amer in disgust. It was a quintessential distillation of Rajput honour and Rajput morality, the codes by which this great warrior, and patriot of his janma bhoomi , lived and died, and it gladdened my heart to listen to him.
Especially these parts: Hum apni bahu betiyon ke sammaan ke liye apne praan tak de dete hain. Unhein saamne rakh kar kray vikray ka khel nahin khelte! Yeh jo ho raha hai, yeh to vivaah nahin vyapaar hai!...Durg!Durg! Durg! Yadi durg chahiye to ek sachche Rajvanshi ki tarah yuddh karein, cheen lein use!... Aap Rajvanshiyon ki maryaada ko dhool mein mila rahe hain!..
Kanyadhan daan hai, use sar jhukakar grahan kiya jaata hai, hat karke use maanga nahin jaata! Veer bhogye vasundhara. Dhara uski jo us par shasan kar sake, aur durg uska jo use jeet sake!
And later to Bharmal: Humein dukh hai ki yahaan haath jo uth rahe hain varpaksh ke, wo talwar uthane ke liye nahin, ek di huyi vachan ki duhaayi dene ke liye uth rahe hain! Vida hone tak yadi hum yahan rukh gaye, to kayi kaayar is duniya se vida ho jaayenge! No prizes for guessing which kaayar he meant!😉
______________________________________________________________________________________
A breach of faith?: This chaal of Jalal's - taking back with the left hand what he had given with the right - might look like a breach of faith on his part. But that is not what it is, from his perspective, and that is, in this case, the only one that counts.
Firstly, once Jalal, in a force majeure situation decides to hand over the fort, taking it back becomes mandatory. Not to do so would - as Maham, who understands the arithmetic of power in a way that the mofussil-rooted Jodha does not, rightly asserts - send out the message that the Shahenshah can be made to yield even by such a petty opponent. This would dent his image, which is a major component of his power and influence, very badly. So the demands of his empire make this move essential.
Secondly, seen from Jalal's side, it is perfectly justified. It is merely paying the Dhawalgarhis back in their own coin.
We know the Rat King and his son are honest, but how would Jalal know that? He thinks they are lying, and as for the "Rajvanshis never lie" mantra, that is a non-starter. No community can be given such a blank cheque for all time to come; like all rulers down the ages, at least some of them must have lied at times, and not just the traitor Jaichand.
So, it is not that Jalal trusts Sharifuddin blindly, whatever he might have said, for form's sake, to Jodha. It is rather that he cannot see what the latter would stand to gain from such a charade. At first sight, no rational person would be able to understand WHY Sharifuddin would want to take such an enormous risk for no visible gain. In fact, I too found it very strange that he is doing it merely to take revenge on the Amer royals, plus damaging the Jalal-Jodha relationship, but at a potentially fatal risk to himself if ever he should be found out.
It is the same with Jalal. He is absolutely logical in what he says to his mother. For him, it is one man's word, his brother-in-law's, against the two others, for there are no other witnesses, and he does not know the Rat King and his son as people at all. And in contrast with Adham,whom he does not trust at all, right now he has no reason to distrust Sharifuddin.
The change of heart : Why then does Jalal relent? It is because Jodha - inspired, in a delightfully ironical twist, by Maham's gloating lecture on her assorted follies - does an about turn and asserts, in a remarkably candid and courageous public display of repentance, that she will, from now on, see herself first and foremost as his begum, only then as the daughter of Amer, and that his family will be hers and will always come first for her. As he tells her later, she gave his family izzat, and so he had to reciprocate in kind and salvage Sukanya's marriage in the only way it could be salvaged.
But for the Shahenshah, there are separate compartments in his mind, and they are watertight. Jodha and Amer fit into one compartment, shall we call it that of the heart? The others, right now the Rat King and his son, fit into the other, that of his brain. That one is laser sharp, inflexible, and knows only one imperative: the interests of the Mughal sultanate and his own prestige and power as the Shahenshah, both of which merge seamlessly.
Whence the secret smile on his face as he looks at the visibly moved Jodha after he has given the fort away, and again as she is leaving his chambers, unsure of his real motive and frankly skeptical that he did it for Sukanya's wedding alone. The Shahenshah does what he has to do for the empire, and he is accountable for it to no one else.
Serendipitous realisation:As for Jodha's Grand Apology, let us begin at the beginning.
Jodha's spirits are - after her conversation with Sukanya, who adjures her not to damage her relationship with the Shahenshah for the sake of this marriage, and Maham' s descent on her - at their nadir. Maham has just swept triumphantly out of Jodha's room after gloating over her parlous plight. She contrasts Jodha's opposition to what her shauhar had decided to the unstinting support Mughal wives, including Bakshi Banu, invariably gave their husbands, and she mocks Jodha's naivete in expecting that Bakshi Banu would actually testify against her husband and thus sign his death warrant.
Squaring the circle: But then things suddenly start looking up, and this not externally, but internally.The look on Jodha's face as wisdom dawns on her is wonderfully done. It is like watching the sun rise, the first rays illuminating space, and then, as they gather strength, tinting it pure gold. It is the same with Jodha's face, as it lights up from within, stage by stage, as it comes to her, out of the blue, what exactly it is that she must now do to square the circle that has been staring her in the face ever since her meeting with Bakshi Banu.
Paridhi is superlative in the emotionally demanding scene that follows, helped by the fact that she can cry any amount, and in the most controlled fashion, and still look gorgeous. The beautiful eyes swim in tears that are just short of spilling over, creating an impression of helpless pathos that is most appealing and convincing.
Jodha folds her hands with total sincerity and repeatedly seeks kshama - from the assemblage for interrupting their discussion, and then from "Badiammi" (itself a first for Jodha!😉), from Sharifuddin, from Jalal, and finally, to round things off, from hamara parivaar ( 7 times in all, including the opening apology for the interruption!😉).
The eloquent and telling phrases that roll off her tongue are calculated, no matter to whom they are addressed, for maximum impact on her Target No.1, the Shahenshah.
Agra hamara pehla parivaar hai, Amer nahin. Hamara dharm banta hai ki hum hamare parivaar ka saath dein... Apne hi pati se kiye gaye anuchit maang ka hum samarthan nahin kar paayenge, phir chahe wo Rajvanshiyon ne kyon na ki ho!.
Then a direct promise to her husband, her eyes still brimming over and her face streaked with her tears: Isliye aapke har nirnay mein hum man se aapke saath hain!.. Aur hum aapse vinati karte hain ki aapko kisi ke bhi dabav mein aane ki aavashyakta nahin hai. Chahe kuch bhi ho jaye, kisi bhi mulya par aap apne qila Achal Singhji ko nahin denge! Iske kaaran baraat laut jaati hai to laut jai. Humein poora vishwas hai ki aap hamari behen Sukanya ke liye koyi sur yogya var dooondh hi lenge.
She rounds this mindblowing performance off by once more folding her hands in front of Maham, and asserting: Hum ab pehle Shahenshah ki begum hain, aur phir Amer ki beti. Shahenshah ke man aur shabdon ko mahatva dena hamare liye adhik aavashyak hai.
End of a coup de maitre (masterstroke), at which Acharya Chanakya would again have rejoiced!
Maham: a rout!: The shot of Maham's face as Jodha advances on her and hugs her most unexpectedly is to die for! I was collapsing in helpless laughter to see Madame Devious, for once, rolled up, lock, stock and barrel, by the girl she had proclaimed to be a novice at the power game. Chaal, sheh, aur mat!
Finally, it is a classic touch that even when Jodha has turned away and is leaving, and the assemblage cannot see her face, she does not permit herself even the slightest relaxing of the tearful repentance that she has sought to project. A very pleasant change from Maham and her ilk winking and nodding at the audience whenever they have completed a similar exercise in emotional blackmail!
This has another advantage: it leaves open the question that comes up just below.
Another Chanakya's child?: Now the question that arises is this: is Jodha sincere in her profuse and apparently heartfelt apologies, or is she also a Chanakya's child in the making? Jalal is not quite sure: his face as he watches her, especially as she comes up to him in the end and assures him that she will be with him in all his decisions, is a study in complex emotions. He is trying to read her mind, and his reading is clouded by his own siyasati proclivities. Is she sincere, or is she putting up a show to salvage her standing in Agra?
In the end, he settles for the former, and all the rest follows.
Much as I personally regret it, for I would have loved a siyasati Jodha outwitting the foxes of Agra at their own game, I know that he is right, for Jodha will never be a disciple of Chanakya. She is too straightforward, if foolishly bullheaded most of the time, too much given to seeing things, and persons, in black and white.
This dilemma, between Sukanya and Bakshi Banu, was perhaps the first time Jodha came face to face with a problem that could not be easily slotted into white and black, right and wrong. As I have repeated in the past, there are, in an emperor's life, mostly greys of various depths, two wrongs of which the lesser has to be chosen. Jodha, so harshly judgmental of him thus far, has now learnt this the hard way. In the end, she publicly chooses her husband and Bakshi Banu, over Sukanya and her loved ones in Amer, even if this means swallowing a huge lie and apologizing to the man she knows to be a villain.
I for one am sure that this is all a ploy to make Jalal change his decision and thus salvage Sukanya's marriage, which is, for Jodha, the paramount consideration, to be secured at any cost. The fascinating thing is that she manages this by stating the exact opposite to Jalal & Co.!😉
Understandable triumphalism: When this ploy of hers pays rich dividends, as Jalal relents and Maham fumes and rages in impotent fury, Jodha is back in her black and white framework, convinced that, as she tells Maham in a pardonable fit of triumphalism: Hum apne pati ke viruddh nahin gaye, balki humne unhein apne saath kar liya hai.
She does see that the handing over of the fort will have a politico-military fallout for the Mughal sultanate, but she leaves that to the Shahenshah to handle.
As Maham continues to protest that this might be Begum Jodha's victory, but it is a shikast for the Shahenshah, Jodha's retort is a classic: Shahenshah ka man kaun pad paaya hai aaj tak? Unhon ne jo bhi nirnay liya, soch samajh kar hi liya hoga! Then follows a deadly crack; Humein vilamb ho raha hai. Shahenshah se kuch mahatvapoorna baatein karni hai humein! .. Maham must have destroyed the enamel of half her teeth by grinding them!😉
Nagging doubt: For though it might not seem so most of the time😉, Jodha's mind is more astute than that of most royal women of her era and her upbringing. Thus, after noting Jalal's half smile of pure mischief as he catches her eye while leaving after handing over the farmaan about the fort, she begins to have doubts.
So she lands up in Jalal's rooms, not, be it noted, to thank him for agreeing to give away a prized possession, and looking more aggressive than grateful, with a question that he anticipates: Jab aapne vachan diya hi nahin, to aapne Achal Singhji ko durg dena kyon sweekar kiya?
She does not buy his izzat for izzat explanation: Aapne yeh tyaag Sukanya ki vivaah ke liye kiya hai, is baat ko hum nahin maan sakte. Avashya koyi aur baat hai!
Jalal is amused and impressed by this evidence of her perspicacity: Bahut hoshiyaar hain aap, Jodha Begum! Par itni nahin ki humein muqammal taur par samajh payein! He looks at her, and his gaze is level and almost gentle as he tells her not to worry her pretty head about what she cannot understand, and instead to focus on the preparations for the wedding:
Aam khayiye, Jodha Begu, gutliyaan mat giniye. Ratanpur ka qila dene ka faisla humne bataur Shahenshah kiya, to use Shahenshah ki soch tak hi seemit rehne dijiye. Dimaag par zor mat daliye, Jodha Begum, aap kabhi nahin samajh paayengi ki yahaan - and he points at his head- kya chal raha hai. .. Apne walid sahib se keh dijiye ki unke damaad ne unke dil ka bojh halka kar diya hai!
Jalal's dark, deepset eyes are alight with ironic amusement as he turns away in dismissal.
But Jodha is still doubtful as she leaves Jalal's rooms. Aakhir Shahenshah ne qila kyon diya? The question is still buzzing inside her head, like an annoying and persistent bumblebee.
Soon she will learn why. So, if her looking back just as Jalal too turns and looks at her reminds you of the famous Palat, palat, palat! Palti! scene from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge, remember that this is not Raj and Simran.
This is Jalal and Jodha, and their path to eventual trust and love will not be as easy, or as quick, as racing thru a field golden with sarson ke phool, straight into the other's arms. It will be a stony path, littered with thorns, and their love will get to its manzil only slowly, painfully. It will get there, but not any time soon.
That is it, folks. Alvida till next week.
Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
377