Jodha Akbar 170-174: The magic of Camelot

Originally posted: 12 February 2014 at 5:43am | IP Logged

Jodha Akbar 172-73: At long last, Camelot!

https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/jodha-akbar/3919341/jodha-akbar-172-173-at-long-last-camelot

Originally posted: 14 February 2014 at 4:20am | IP Logged

Folks,

This one is again not a chronological analysis, far from it, but a collection of linked themes. And as I often do, let me begin at the very end of these two episodes.

Jalal and Jodha are on their knees in front of Sheikh Salim Chisti, in their Seth-Sethani garb. He sees through this disguise at once and welcomes them by their real names. Jalal is not surprised, but Jodha, though her face is uncovered and the saint has seen her before (when he had come to Agra, immediately after their marriage, to bless them), seems taken aback.

Jalal makes an infinitesimal sign with his head to Jodha - this has by now become a habit between them, which is very significant in itself - and she joins him in doing a matha tekhna before the saint.

He praises Jalal as one who will change taarikh (history) by willingly assuming the garb of an aam aadmi (to ascertain their woes and give them relief and succour). The warmth in Jodha's eyes, and her half smile, reflect her proprietary pride and pleasure in seeing her husband so described.

I was reminded of a line I had written in one of my old posts, about the Jodha I had long wanted, and had now got at long last:

A Jodha who would look at her magnificent husband with radiant pride and say, as Cleopatra once said to Julius Caesar "But for you, the world is full of little men."

Or, to borrow some lines for the famous poet Sumitranandan Pant's Tum aur main, somewhat reminiscent of my comparison of Jalal-Jodha to the deep, turbulent ocean and a clear, burbling brook:

Tum tung Himalay shringa, main chanchala gati sur sarita, Tum naad ved omkar saar, main yuvati nupur dhwani, Tum Shiv ho, main hoon Shakti.

(You are a high Himalayan peak, I am a fast flowing stream, You are the essence of the resonant chant of the Vedas, I am the gentle tinkling of a maiden's anklets,

You are Shiva, I am Shakti.)

Saanjhe raaste, saanjhi manzil: They both have of late faced grave vicissitudes, the saint goes on, and have both triumphed over them, though hers were extremely difficult. Such trials are meant for you to find a saathi, he adds, looking now at Jalal, and I see that this saathi has already been found. Jalal looks across at Jodha's serene face, half hopeful, half still wondering if this is true.

The Sheikh then turns to Jodha Begum, and announces, the level tone of his words belying the momentous import of his vision: You will show a new path to the Mughal sultanate.

Jalal looks pleased but somewhat confused. "What new path? ", he seems to be asking himself, and not getting an answer.

Then comes the second line : By becoming the Mariam-uz-Zamani.

I was profoundly relieved to see that Jodha's eyes are still and tranquil, almost as if she was in a trance. There was not the slightest hint of the hidden distaste, the instinctive withdrawal, that one saw there when the same prediction, that she would bear the heir to the Mughal throne, was made by the saint soon after their marriage.

She seems now to be receiving the prediction not as an imposition, but as a benediction. A benediction that was but an affirmation of her new realization of her own destiny.

Jalal's face, by contrast, is a study in rapidly changing emotions.

First, an expectant stillness, as he waits for the answer to the question in his zehen, Kaunsa raasta, aur kaise? Next, as he hears the words, his eyes light up, fleetingly, with a surge of incredulous joy - as from an inner glow. But he immediately lowers them and looks down, as if to contain his heartbeats and his joy alike: Kahin kisi ki nazar na lag jaye!

He does not look across as Jodha, as he does so often these days, for confirmation and empathy. No, his delight at this sudden gift from the Almighty is, at this moment, his and his alone. For it is the fulfillment of his two most fervent desires. The one, the yearning for an heir, and the other, the craving to be willingly accepted and loved by the woman to whom he has now given his long lost heart. He is limp with relief and gratitude, but he cannot, as yet, share this with anyone else. Not even with her who will, he hopes now, fulfil both these desires .

Then again, there is perhaps the old hesitation, the doubt as to how Jodha will receive this prediction. For Jalal would not want even his long awaited heir to be from Jodha if the child was not as much a source of joy for her as it would be for him. I wish he had turned at once to look at her face. He would have got all his answers.

NB: Saanjha means "common", in the sense of "shared", like a saanjha chula,at which everyone in the family or community can cook

Shades of Laila Majnu: For this is not the Jodha of old.

Do you folks remember the tale of Laila and Majnu? When Majnu was whipped, the red weals appeared across Laila's back as well.

Jalal and Jodha are not quite at this level of aatmaanubhooti, the perception of soul-connectedness, as yet, but they are working towards it. When her hand touches the hot tawa by chance and she winces audibly, Jalal reacts instantaneously as if it was his hand that had got burnt.

As Jodha applies the lep to the deep sword cut in his back after his victorious battle with the bandits who attack Todar Mal's village, she exclaims aloud in empathetic pain, making him remark Ghaav humein laga hai, Jodha Begum, aur siskiyaan aap bhar rahi hain! He is right, for in her reaction at the sight of the wound , there is nothing of the detached do gooding of old with which she used to tend to him, describing it as her seva to a ghayal. Now, her gasp is one of shared hurt, and of pain which is perhaps even sharper than his.

Sangini in the making: Jodha has also developed a degree of understanding for Jalal's feelings even when they might be not hers, or at odds with hers. And a degree of wifely concern for what troubles and angers him.

Thus, when, on seeing Sher Shah Suri's portrait in Todar Mal's residence, and hearing him say that it was he who had defeated the Emperor Humayun, he clenches his right fist in suppressed fury, the immediate concern on Jodha's face is striking.

Later, when she is tending to his wound, she unhesitatingly asks him about this, adding a typically wifely, inquisitorial query: Aap hamse kya chupa rahe hain? His rage and his frustration at having had to accept the hospitality of an enemy of his father's boil over as he talks to her of what his Khan Baba had told him about Todar Mal. She listens silently, for she does not know much about this slice of recent history. But she does ask him, a little later, why then he had saved Todar Mal's life.

Jalal's aswer, that as the Shahenshah, it was his duty to come to the aid of everyone anywhere in his realm who was oppressed, touches a chord in her. She registers silent approval, both then, and again as he speaks of having to pay off the debt of gratitude to Todar Mal for having sheltered them for the night.

But what struck me was that when he announces, fiercely, that he will come back here as the Shahenshah to punish Todar Mal for the harm he had visited on Jalal's family, Jodha is visibly apprehensive and does not approve of this at all. The old Jodha would have immediately launched into a bhashan about the need for forgiveness and about the quality of mercy that is not strained (apologies to Shakespeare). This new Jodha stays discreetly silent, for she understands where he is coming from and his rage, even if she does not share it.

These days, she consults him with an enquiring glance before doing anything - whether it is going off with the banjaran to the women's section, or going indoors at the Todar Mal residence when the dacoits attack. He too accepts her advice, as when she feels that Todar Mal is trustworthy and they can accept his hospitality.

Again, when Todar Mal offers them a palki for Jodha, she might well, footsore and tired as she must have been from all the unaccustomed hardships of the day before, have longed for that bit of comfort. But she knows that Jalal would not want to be beholden to Todar Mal for anything more, and so she turns the offer down gracefully.

It is equally revealing, and touching, that Jalal too does not jump the gun and refuse the offer on his own; he gives her the choice in the matter, whatever his own reservations might be. I was delighted with both of them!

Jodha is also learning the essential art of coaxing Jalal to do what she wants, instead of haranguing him about it. Though Todar Mal has refused to take his guest, Badal , with him to fight the dacoits, when his wife is weeping in an agony of apprehension about him, Jodha wants Jalal, who is standing there in sullen anger, arms crossed across his chest, to go to his aid. But she does not know if he will want to do so, given his visible anger about something she does not as yet understand. So, instead of asking him openly, she looks at him over her shoulder, in a fleeting look of mute entreaty. It registers, and though he looks as angry as before, Jalal nods and moves off.

She continues to be fiercely protective of her husband, When Jalal is threatened with the lash in the jail, Jodha, who has been temporarily silenced by Jalal's kasam and has been shunted off the podium ( the flare up rage on Jalal's face as the guard drags Jodha off roughly is instinctive; he cannot bear it if anyone mistreats her), comes alive in a surge of fury. The sudden strength with which she seizes the whip and throws it aside is powered by this protectiveness.

She is a wonderful companion in hard times. Unfazed by any troubles, big or small. Ever cheerful and uncomplaining. Ready to sit on a dirty floor in a crowded jail without any fuss.. Unwilling to let Jalal take so much trouble with wood gathering for the fire to keep her warm. Ready to walk on despite her swollen, and undoubtedly painful feet.

In short, to borrow a modern term, a very good sport.

The scene of Jalal trying to tend to her poor sore feet was so gentle and charming, even if he could not stop himself from camouflaging his latent hurt about the past rebuff with a tart Rajvanshi auraten apne shauhar ko kya kya nahin karne deti hain? followed, bitter laughter catching in his throat, by his 7^th reference to The Dhakka in recent times.

She is coming along nicely, is apni Jodha Begum. No wonder that Jalal, in the precap to Episode 173, after making it clear to a supercilious Ruqaiya- with a masterly and unerring grasp of her nature - that if she wants to accompamy him for the rest of his journey, she has to do it his way, as a common riyaya, adds: Jodha Begum ko dekhiye, kitni khush hain!

No prudent man would have made such a disastrous faux pas, but then, this is a Shahenshah. As he looks at his Begum-e-Khaas with weary patience, it seems clear that he simply does not care if that riles her, as it assuredly will!

The Shove vs The Handhold: The single most delightful scene in this segment was undoubtedly that of The Handhold. Jodha is now acquiring a new hunar, the gentle art of flirting with her husband, though in a tentative fashion, as in only natural in a novice in coquetry. Or at least so I hoped then! At all events, she is here becoming quite direct in handling him.

There was the Aap mere pati hain na? To aap mujhe baahar nahin le ja sakte? in Episode 169, when you could have knocked me down with a feather in sheer shock. Here, I was better prepared as she got up, threw away the sticks he had gathered for the dying fire, made gentle fun of a Shahenshah so concerned about the wood , and then, to his bewilderment., took his hand and dragged him off to sit next to her. Once there, as she assured him that there was no need for him to be so concerned about her, she held his hand firmly clasped between both of hers. It was not till Jalal pointedly looked down at their entwined hands that she (had to) let go of him and move slightly aside.

(Courtesy Shagun, aka Akdha_Lover)

What followed was at once sidesplitting and very revealing. Jalal, ever on the ball, and having decided to abandon his dhakka mantra, got back at her for all her earlier stree ke liye lalasa taunts, though with gentle mischief. He now realized, he asserted, why she had thrown away his sticks. It was not that she was concerned about his exertions. Not at all. It was really because:

Aapko bahana chahiye tha humaare paas aane ka, humein choone ka, hamare haath to pakadne ka. Aap ne sochaa, raat kaa andhera hai, aas-paas koi nahin hai, mauka hai, mahaul hai, dastoor hai, to kyun na in sab baaton ka faydaa uthaya jai! Shahenshah saamne hain, aur aapne bina jataye yeh sab kuchh kar diya! Waah !

Jodha, caught unawares by this wicked broadside, neither lashed out in angry denial nor moved off to sulk at a safe distance.Instead, she tried to recover lost ground by rushing to pick up the sticks she had thrown away, merely noting, in a somewhat proforma manner Aisa kuchh bhi nahin hai, her body language seeming to convey merely exasperation at having been caught out, and at Jalal's refusal to play along instead of exposing her little trick.

I have been repeating this too often of late, but indeed , how much have things changed!

The Teddy Bear & his Sethani: While we are on this topic, whatever anyone else here felt about it, I loved this Seth-Sethani gig, every single bit of it. I did not care if Jalal looked even more like a teddy bear, especially when Jodha was imagining him capering about with unaccustomed gusto as as the banjara musician. Incidentally, Jodha looked gorgeous as the banjaran , as she danced with svelte abandon, and the banjaran costume suited her to a T.

There were so many charming vignettes of them both in these episodes that I have lost count.

There is the open amusement in Jodha's face and the quizzical look in Jalal's as the fellow jailmate describes their jodi as kauwe ke chonch mein moti. She is no end pleased at all the talk of the Shahenshah having acquired such a beautiful begum who was ready to sacrifice her life to save his ( I must say the grapevine in the Mughal sultanate seems to rival the internet in both speed and reach!) .

Her laughing at herself after imagining Jalal as the banjara musician, and responding to Jalal's standard issue gripe about not understanding women (strange, but men are still sayong the same 450 years later!) with a smart putdown Agar samajh nahin sakte, to samajhne ki prayaas kyon karte hain? Accompanying that by a little pout, and then tilting her face with a satisfied smile.

Her bustling over to the oven, and persuading the banjaran, Kaki, hamare bartar ke liye roti banani hai, and then settling down to the chapati making without a belan. A quintessentially wifely desire to cook for her husband. Not to pay off a debt of gratitude, as when she made that fancy lunch for him in Agra, but out of simple caring.

The way she sits next to her sethji on that charpoy, one leg bent at the knee and the other folded under her, proferring the rotis and the water. Exactly like the way a farmer's wife sits down next to her husband in the field and produces his lunch. And watches with proprietary pleasure as he eats it.

When he enquires about the burn in her hand from the tawa, her candid pleasure at his concern, and her gratitude for it, is charming in its sincerity. Jodha Begum has now learnt to value this husband of hers, jo use har waqt palkon par bitatha hai.

And I simply adored the way in which he calls his Sethani Bhagwan. I would have suggested Ramu ki Maa, but perhaps that would have been too much even for the new Jodha!

So, I am not one of those who turn their noses up at the Seth-Sethani segments, deriding them as corny. How else would we have ever got to see such charming domestic scenes between Jodha and Jalal, thanks to the mahaul and the total privacy?

Moreover, these scenes are like a series of stepping stones for Jalal and Jodha to get across a morass of misunderstandings, doubts, lack of faith, and all the malevolent attentions of several denizens of the Agra palace. And reach the other shore safely, to a genuinely happy togetherness. Or, to be accurate, they should have been, but never mind! They were pure pleasure while they lasted.

Jalal: Imperial traits: I am sure that like Sandhya - jiski aankhen Jalal ki shamsheer ko jung mein dekhne ke liye taras gayee theen - the rest of the forum too was in the seventh heaven after Jalal's unexpected and savage display of shamsheerbaazi (even if the shamsheer was borrowed one!). Rajat was as agile and ferocious as ever, and I loved it too, though the shaky takes robbed it of the clear cut, raw physicality of the similar display when Jalal was escaping from Amer with Abdul.

For the rest, two of Jalal's scenes stand out.

The one, in the jail, after Jodha pays the teerth kar with her jewellery and prevents Jalal from being whipped. Jalal says to her Apni hi mukarrar ki gayi sazaa ko kaatna bahut kam shahenshaon ke naseeb mein hota hai, Jodha Begum. Aapne hum se yeh mauka cheen liya.

The bitter sense of shame he feels at the injustice being done to his subjects under his rule, his desire to assuage his sense of guilt by taking the very punishment decreed for them in his name under harsh and unjust laws, plus the unstated determination to set things right at the earliest - they are all there in Jalal's eyes and face as he looks at a troubled , unsure Jodha. The deep regret and the (temporary) helpless frustration are dissolved in the final Khair.. as he leads her away.

It was an unbelievable display of deep, complex emotions conveyed with a single look, and thru the deep, frustrated tone of voice.

The other is when he is bidding farewell to Todar Mal and his wife. Never was the duality of Badal and Jalal more evident than here. As Preeti.r had pointed out with remarkable perceptiveness on my original thread of February 12, 2014, even earlier, while asking whose portrait is the one on the wall, he is all unsophisticated curiosity as Badal. Once he learns that it is Sher Shah Suri's. his voice cracks like a whiplash: Yeh yahan kya kar raha hai? It is pure Jalal, and Todar Mal must have been startled, and possibly alerted to the fact that this is no Sethji.

He takes leave of Todar Mal as Badal, but when he receives the Shahi mohar, inspects it, and comments on it, the tone of voice and the quick assertiveness are Jalal's.

Finally, after listening with unwinking attention to Todar Mal's exposition of his personal code of chivalry and war, when he says that Todar Mal is a bhalmanus, he is pure Badal. But in the same breath, whem he assures his host that he will remember the lesson he has learnt from his for the rest of his life, he becomes all Jalal.

This scene also brings out, once more, Jalal's ability, like the swan of myth, to separate and drink only the milk and discard the water. Akbar kept up this trait all his life, no matter from whom he learnt something useful. It was one of the special attributes that made him Akbar.

Todar Mal: Subtle wisdom: He is calm, dignified, perceptive, astute, and has a flair for doing exactly the right thing at the right time. He turns Jalal's hostility towards him into acceptance and appreciation by gifting him the shahi mohar of the Emperor Humayun. With that one stroke, he achieves three things.

One, he shows his profound gratitude to (the supposed) Badal for saving his life.

Two, he defuses Jalal's enmity towards him by telling him how he got the shahi mohar.

Three, he makes it clear, thru the very special nature of the gift, that he recognizes who Badal really is. At the same time, by preserving the Shahenshah's incognito, he displays his impeccable discretion.

No wonder that Jalal dockets him away in his mental card index as a very valuable find, whom he will summon to Agra at the soonest. The Navaratnas are slowly taking shape.

Precap: I feel sorry for Ruqaiya from time to time, especially at this point, seeing that she is pathetically ill-equipped to cope with what is going to hit her very soon. But here I was very sorry to see her land up so soon. I wanted more of the delightful Badal-Kajri duo, and I felt highly irritated at the prospect of being shortchanged.

My hope that she would baulk at the prospect of traipsing with Jalal-Jodha on foot on bad roads, and would push off in a palkhi while our Seth and Sethani meandered leisurely across the countryside communing with nature and the riyaya, was of course belied.

Which was a great pity, especially as I had, in my 2014 post, tacked on a hopeful prediction about their entourage being extricated from prison by Ruqaiya and her escort. The prospect of that daroga facing the Malika-e-Khaas would have been too delightful to be missed!😉😉

Shyamala / Aunty/ Akka/Di

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Jodha Akbar 174: Shadows over Camelot

http://www.india-forums.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=3921891#p101417033

Originally posted: 16 February 2014 at 11:51pm | IP Logged

Folks,

Let us begin where we left off in Part 2.

As Shaikh Salim Chisti, looking at Jalal and Jodha kneeling before him, intones Taarikh badalne ke liye betaab hai, aur aap donon ke chehre par khuda ke noor ka taap hai, it is not Jalal who, finally setting aside his fears about her reaction to being declared the future Mariam-uz-Zamani, immediately looks across at her.

She looks across at him first, her eyes soft and shadowed with a hidden contentment at what she now knows is to come. Eyes that are lit up with a slow smile that is neither shy nor hesitant, but open and warm, full of a welcoming acceptance of their saanjha kal.

As they both do a maatha tekhna before the saint and receive his farewell blessings, and Jodha smiles once more, this time to herself, it is evident that they are both full of a quiet joy that needs no words.

It is their first truly shared emotion as husband and wife.

Ek hi dhaaga, ek hi mannat: When Jodha goes to tie the mannat ka dhaga in her turn, there is a very beautiful detail that sums up their new relationship. Not so long ago, at the dargah in Ajmer, Jodha had tied her dhaaga separately, at some distance from Jalal's, and sought peace and well being for her loved ones. Jalal had prayed for Jodha's dua to be accepted.

This time, Jodha carefully ties her dhaaga right over Jalal's, on the same khoonta, so that they become, in effect, a single thread. And she does it with a kind of gentle deliberation, as if, just as her dhaaga is entwined in Jalal's, so too are her fate and her dreams for the future now entwined with his. As if, with that gesture, she was merging herself, out of her own free will, with him and all that is his.

Jalal seems to understand this, if only vaguely, for his face, even in profile, reflects unexpected delight.

It is the same with their respective wishes, which are in effect the same: that they should be companions for life. In a revealing mirror image of his dua at Ajmer, Jodha now wants nothing for herself, but only that Shahenshah ki manokaamna poori ho.

Which is in effect herself, her saath all thru the journey of his life, but does she really know that? For Jalal makes his wish soundlessly, and if she knows his man ki baatein, as she claims, she has become clairvoyant where he is concerned!

Jalal ki dua: This little scene is pure delight. When Jalal immediately asks her, as before, what she had sought in her dua, Jodha protests and declares, Hum aapko nahin batayenge! But there is such shy coquetry in the little pout that accompanies this statement, and in the cheeky tilt of her chin as she eyes him, that Jalal, if he was not so preoccupied with trying to learn what she had prayed for, would have been on to this new ada of his Jodha Begum in an instant.

As it is, he is still in that groove. So he next proposes, with the shy eagerness of a little boy trying to discover what is inside the gift boxes at the foot of the Christmas tree, Agar hum aapko apni murad batayein to kya tab aap apna batayengi?

It was so utterly charming and childlike that I was in stitches, and for two pins, I would have dived into the screen and hugged him, as if he had been my Sasha in a similar situation. And if I had been 40 years younger and in Jodha's place, I would have hugged him at once, if in a different spirit😉, and told him not to worry, that he would get everything he had prayed for.

Jodha of course, being a sanskaari 16^th century queen, cannot hug her husband in full public view, however much she might have wanted to😉. So she does the next best thing, and proceeds to tease him, by declaring that she knew what he had wished for, Kyonki , Shahenshah, aap man mein bhi itne oonche swar mein bolte hain ki hamein sab sunayi de chuka hai!

Jalal is torn between his dil , which wants to believe that she can read his mind, and his dimaag, which refuses to do so. So he begins with Jhoot hai, aap sirf baatein bana rahi hain! But as she insists, her eyes fixed unwaveringly on his, that she is not fibbing and she does know what he wished for, he ends up (despite her dodging his demand that she tell him) with a wistful, hopeful Kya aap wakayi jaanti hain ki humne kya maanga?

As he watches her eyes fall slowly and her lips widen in a smile, there is a sudden flutter of eagerness in Jalal's face. Next, the eyes rise again, the eyebrows arch in mischievous assent to his question, the head nods in sync, and the lips smile teasingly. As Jalal watches this new roop of his Jodha Begum in astonishment, she hides her face with the end of her dupatta, bites it, and flees in shyness and charming confusion.

It is the typical gaon ki gori ka lajaana sharmaana act that has been shown any number of times on the big and small screens, where it nowadays evokes only a yawn. But when Jodha does it, and so very prettily, it is so unexpected from her that it seems as fresh and appealing as if it had never been seen before.

Plus, it shows up the core of what is new in her. For when does a girl feel shy in front of a man, that too a nakchadi (ex-)chudail like Jodha, ever ready with aggressive retorts to Jalal in the past?

As for Jalal, he seems unable to believe his good fortune, for he is now convinced that she does know his dil ki baat, which can thus be now safely revealed to her without any risk of a rebuff. He goes after her to do just that.

Unfortunately for him, Lady Luck, who is a capricious female, has by now decided that she has done enough for him of late😉. So she trips him up neatly just as he is getting set, after a chummy exchange of views with Jodha about the spiritual merits of this retreat, to finally open up to her. Jalal is just telling Jodha about his hope that their duas would be fulfilled when they both look up. There is Ruqaiya Sultan Begum, barring their path, with an expression of mingled disdain and resentment on her face. The sun is still shining, but shadows have fallen over Camelot.

Nascent possessiveness: How does Jodha react to this sudden invasion of their togetherness? Why, with distinct dismay. I rewatched that sequence frame by frame, and in the last shot of Jodha, it is clear that she is more than disappointed at having her little idyll with Jalal so rudely disturbed.

For this is not the Jodha who was shooing Jalal off to Ruqaiya not so long ago. Not the one who, when Ruqaiya arrived while she was giving Jalal a head massage, promptly got up and left. When she now leaves Jalal and Ruqaiya alone, it is not because she feels that Ruqaiya has a superior claim to Jalal's time and togetherness. It is rather because she fears that Ruqaiya is all set to make a scene, and she does not want Jalal to be embarrassed by her presence.

And when, late that night, she leaves that khema declaring to Jalal, with a little catch in her voice, that she prefers to sleep in the open air, there is in her tone the hurt and the resentment that comes with nascent possessiveness. Not the kind of possessiveness that demands exclusive rights to his time and his attention, but the kind that seeks unfailing regard and caring from him.

I was very pleased to see that Jodha is no longer going to automatically defer to Ruqaiya when it comes to Jalal, but will stand up for herself, even if in the most understated and civil manner possible.

Hamari zid samajhiye ya hamari khushi: Unlike many in the forum in 2014, I was also pleased when Jalal, while laying down his rules firmly regarding the return journey, also reassures Ruqaiya that she is his dearest friend and he would be very pleased to have her with him for that journey.

He is obviously dismayed and displeased to see her land on them, and that too with such abysmal timing. His thoughts are still fixed on Jodha, and as he looks at her thru the lattice, his eyes are dreamy and far away. Ruqaiya can see this.

If now he was off putting and tried to pack her off, it would be a tauheen of what is perhaps his oldest relationship, the one of lifelong friendship and camaraderie with her. And Jalal, who has had very few real relationships in his turbulent life, values those he has, and he will never wilfully damage any of them. Least of all this one, where there is genuine affection on both sides. And this no matter how tiresomely Ruqaiya behaves, for he knows that he is all she has ever had or ever will. I love this trait of his.

Thus, while he schools her with his hamari zid samajhein ya hamari khushi pronouncement, tells her bluntly that with her lazazmi (pomp and show?) she had spoilt his plans to make this trip as an aam aadmi, and sends her off alone to make her obeisance to the Sheikh, he will never even hint to her that she is unwelcome.

He is also used to her overbearing nature. So, in the hut, when Ruqaiya complains about the insects and the mahaul, asserting that she is not used to this kind of life, he listens impassively, merely pulling her leg a bit, though he does point out, now as earlier, that Jodha and he, who are as unused as Ruqaiya to such hardships, are nonetheless enjoying it all.

Jodha understands all this instinctively, and accepts it as part of him, something with which she needs to help him cope. Which is partly why she is now so indulgent towards Ruqaiya, responding to all her impertinences, big and small, with unwavering calm and good sense. She will not compound Jalal's problems with any flare ups of her own; so there are now none of the smart retorts with which she used to face down a rude, overbearing Ruqaiya in the past. There is merely the smiling, gentle reasonableness with which a grown up tackles a troublesome child's temper tantrums.

Thus she reassures the distraught Ruqaiya, almost in tears over the charring of the first ever roti she had ever made, and that too with such childlike pleasure,that the Shahenshah will appreciate the effort and affection that she has put into even the charred roti. Jalal sees this, and he is grateful for it. And he reacts exactly as Jodha had known he would.

I had hoped that with this moral support, Ruqaiya would have felt reassured and secure enough to be at least civil to Jodha. But that was a hope belied, and her nasty streak resurfaces at once, and in full strength, while she is making the bed in the khema .

Nutty scenario:I do not propose to speculate about why, having this luxurious khema at hand, Ruqaiya was bemoaning her not having a chatai to sit on inside the hut, and shoving Jalal back as she appropriated a good chunk of it. Nor why Jalal, so intent on being an aam aadmi, does not send the khema packing as soon as he sees it.

Nor why travelling as an aam aadmi has to mean sleeping in ramshackle barns. Why can they not stay in a proper sarai, modestly but in relative comfort? An aam aadmi does not have to be literally on the roads! Next, the seth looks prosperous enough, so why can he not have some ready cash for buying provisions for dinner? How long is he planning to live off Jodha's head ornaments (for the necklace, bangles and earrings are gone, to pay the teerth kar)?

The whole scenario is plain cuckoo. It was aimed, in the first half, solely at promoting the Jalal-Jodha relationship, and now at sketching out for Jalal the skills he will have to acquire to balance his 2 khaas begums. Plus being a comedy track, such as in Ruqaiya's roti-making session.

For the rest, the latest segment is clearly part of a plan to paint Ruqaiya a deeper shade of grey. As this seems to be a given, and we have to discuss a character as given, there is no point bothering about it.

I will also pass over all the glaring holes in the script I have listed above; there would surely be many more. Maybe the CVs like Swiss cheese, which always has lots of holes in it!😉

Shades of Panchavati: Before you start wondering at my sudden geographical (and mythological) leap, from Camelot to Panchavati, let me explain.

I listened to Jodha tell Jalal, beginning with a gentle Aap aise to mat kahiye!, how happy, indeed blessed she feels to have been able to come here and have the darshan of such a very holy man, and how grateful she is to him for having brought her here.

Later, I watched her hurry after him into the hut, exclaim about his having stretched himself out on the bare hay-covered ground, and look around for a spread to make him more comfortable even as he insists that he is just fine. Hasten to spread the chatai offered opportunely by the banjara. Settle herself, quietly and companionably, next to him on a corner of the chatai, while taking care not to disturb him.

I watched her make out at once, from seeing him look across at the banjaran cooking on the chula, that he is hungry and needs to be fed. Hustle off at once to cook something for him, dismissing his saying that he did not need it with the mischievous observation that she knew he liked to eat a little every few hours. Jalal is obviously chuffed up by this evidence of her caring for him and his needs, and this surfaces in his teasing her about doing jasoosi about him as she goes, smiling widely, to buy the necessities from the banjaran with an easy friendliness that shows her innate kindness and common touch.

As she begins to make the rotis, she turns and smiles at him, and there is, in that smile, all that has now changed between them.

Watching all this, and though the parallel, is a loose one, I was suddenly reminded of Sita during those 13 years of exile in the forests with Rama. It has long been accepted wisdom that Sita had made a great sacrifice in abandoning all the comforts of the palace to face the hardships of exile with her husband, but I have never felt so. It is true that Janaki had never before set foot on the hard ground or had her feet bruised by stones or pierced by thorns. She had never had to subsist on fruits and roots for years on end.

But yet, she had made a clear-eyed choice driven as much, indeed more, by her personal desire to be with the husband she loved above all else,than by the concept of the dharma of an ardhangini. I am sure that Sita was as blissfully happy in exile with her Raghunandan, all the privations in the forest notwithstanding, as she would have been wretchedly unhappy without him, in the luxuries of the palace at Ayodhya.

Of course Jodha is, as yet, no Sita in her total, unquestioning devotion to her husband. It is far too early for that. But still, when she constantly looks out for Jalal, when she is sensitive to his feelings, to what hurts him, what angers him, when she wants him not to worry about her comfort, when she does all these little caring things for him, when she tells Ruqaiya, with total sincerity, that she has never felt so much anand on any other journey as she felt of this one - the jail episode, the biting cold, the swollen feet, the dacoit attack notwithstanding - it is the same kind of affection and loyalty and sense of belonging together that she is moving towards.

In fact, one gets the feeling that this Jodha would have been perfectly happy traipsing around the countryside on foot with her sethji for weeks on end, making jowar ki rotis for him on a chula and then contentedly watching him eat! I had to keep pinching myself to make sure that it was all for real!

Andar-baahar: I never used to trawl the forum, basically for sheer lack of time, but even on my own last 2014 thread, I could sense the outrage among some at Jalal for what seemed like his inexcusable lack of concern and caring in having let Jodha sleep outside in the cold, while himself sleeping in the comfort of the khema Ruqaiya has forced on him.

For a moment to begin with, I shared this feeling. That Jalal should have put his foot down and told both his begums that Jodha cannot sleep outside, she is not well and it might not be safe, even if Hoshiyaar and the baandis Ruqaiya had brought along would be there (the soldiers escorting her would have been left behind). That they could all sleep in here on 3 separate bistars.

But a bit more of consideration produced a different interpretation. Jalal has always, even when he was very angry with Jodha, been very careful about her welfare. He risked his life to save her from the tiger. On this trip, with the newfound closeness between them, usne Jodha ko har waqt palkon par bithaya hai.

Nor is it as though he cannot put Ruqaiya in her place when he wants to. He did assert himself when nullifying Ruqaiya's orders and returning her hoojra to Jodha , He also insisted now that Ruqaiya could come along only if she came as a commoner (with 2 baandis, Hoshiyaar and the khema, of course!).

So it would be strange and totally inconsistent if he were suddenly to leave Jodha, who is now so close to his heart, to her own devices outside. In fact he would not have done it even if it had been any other begum of his.

It is thus far more likely that Jalal, not having listened to what Ruqaiya was saying to Jodha, assumed that it was Jodha who would not have wanted to share the khema with him and Ruqaiya. It is a perfectly plausible assumption to make. He might also have assumed that Hoshiyaar would have arranged a proper bed for her outside, even if it was in the open, with a fire to keep her warm. That is after all what would have been the case for all of them but for Ruqaiya and her khema. Except that instead of mosquitos, they would have had Ruqaiya's constant complaints to keep them awake!😉

He must have gone out very soon to persuade Jodha to come back into the tent, using the arguments of her health and safety to overcome her reservations, and found her already uneasily asleep, tossing and turning on the hard ground. The slight, sudden smile of tender amusement which twists his lips as he stands there looking down at her tells its own tale. He must have been saying to himself Humne to theek hi kaha tha ki ye to adiyalon ke sultanat ki malika hi hongi! Achche khaase bistar ko chhod kar, apni zid ke liye yahan aise leti hain!

Anyway, that whole khema scene was a farce. She wakes up and looks at him, and he goes on looking at her, and the next shot is of Adham Khan chewing out his failed minions! One has no idea what happened, whether he stood/sat there out in the open all night or not. It was ridiculous, all for the lack of a couple of lines showing Jalal pressing Jodha to come in, and her refusing and saying that she is very comfortable where she is (and she has a blanket).

As for Jodha's unconditional supporters of yore, who were all set to tar and feather Jalal, when their aaradhya herself does not seem to mind at all, judging from her rooh babbling in 2014: Hum aapse door kahan the, Shahenshah? Humne to is safar mein apne aap ko aapke atyant nikat paaya. Yahan tak ki humne aapko pa hi liya!, what would they have to complain about? Jab miyan biwi razi , to kya karenge biwi ke tarafdar?

Nor does Jodha (as distinct from her rooh looking on at that event from 450 years away) seem the least bit bothered about the andar baahar (she was nicely wrapped in a blanket/shawl, by the way). On the contrary, back in Agra the next day, she seems as chirpy as a skylark in spring, and her bubbling happiness and contentment make her look all lit up from inside. No wonder that Mahaam notes that at such catty length!

Joyous homecoming: When the Gang of Four arrives in Agra, Jodha waxes eloquent with a long, exultant response to Hamida Banu' query, in which she does not forget to add Shahenshah ki seva karne ka bhi avasar mila, as Jalal looks on happily and Hamida beams. Even before that, when he replies to Hamida that the trip had gone off very well, he is looking sideways at Jodha and she at him, and they both look as pleased as Punch.

Not just that, but Jodha stands there for a while after Hamida, Ruqaiya et al have left. She and Jalal look at each other, and only after he nods his head as if assenting to her leaving does she also nod her head and push off.

Her new habit, in the whole of this track, of always seeking Jalal's approval before doing anything big or small - I had specifically mentioned this in Part 2 above - is very charming. It is NOT subservience, it is just a desire to please him by consulting him in advance. Any more than her visible pleasure in cooking for him and feeding him is a sign of subservience. Young Tripti (Mallika-e-Bhais) had some doubts on this score during this track, centred on what she assumed were cultural differences between the, as she saw it, subservient Hindu wives and their less obliging Mughal counterparts, ie between Jodha and Ruqaiya, and I had tried to lay those doubts to rest with the following explanation.

"Tripti, my poppet, while I am about it, let me tell you that any woman, Rajvanshi, Mughal of any other race, always wants to do things personally for her husband and her children. See how Hamida is now talking of knitting something for her hoped for grandson! I am sure Salima would have cooked something in a trice for Jalal or for his Khan Baba. And all aristocratic ladies did fine embroidery and tapestry, though not common sewing. There was nothing demeaning about it.

So this cultural difference explanation does not really hold water.

Moreover, ALL women in those days, including Mughal princesses, were subservient to their husbands. In fact, because of the provision that their husband could give them a talaq without having to justify it, whereas a Hindu wife could not be divorced by her husband, the Mughal wife was more at a disadvantage and less secure than her Rajvanshi counterpart.

Ruqaiya is a lazy, pampered brat, that is all, which is more Hamida's fault,seeing that she brought her up from the age of 6, than her own. She should never have been allowed to become so self-centred. arrogant and selfish, and so badly behaved towards all but Jalal. If she had been straightened out early on - and of course I am talking here of the onscreen Ruqaiya, not the historical one - she would have been ok. Her positive traits - and she has some - would have been enhanced and the rough edges smoothened."

Nazariye ki baat!: Finally, look at the unprecedented PR build up Jodha gives Jalal later, first to Moti and then to Hamida and Salima!

To Moti, she lists all sorts of hunars of Jalal's of which would have taken even him by surprise. Saamanya aushadi ka gyan because he knew that swollen feet need to be fomented?! And praja le liye praan bhi dene le liye tatpar? Her claiming that she made many sharp remarks to Jalal but that he always replied in a way as not to hurt her feelings is a fib of major proportions. When does she say anything acidulated during the whole trip? She rounds off this adulatory peroration with a resounding, and re-iterated: Wo bahut hi achche Shahenshah hain!

To top things off, she tells Hamida Unhone to kisi bhi samasya to hamare nikat bhi aane nahin diya!, when the truth was that he led her on a long footsore trek, and exposed her to the dangers of a dacoit attack on the road which they escaped only thanks to Todar Mal, not to speak of sleeping in dilapidated barns!

The girl is now besotted with her erstwhile ghrinit pati, that is all there is to it!😉😉

Lastly, for those wondering why I am so uncommonly kind in my takes on Jodha during this track, and in fact during the latter half of the Benazir track as well, it is not I, but she who has changed. For me, the first priority has always been my boy Jalal. If I am so warm towards Jodha here, it is because she has now learnt to care for him and is so good to him in so many ways, that is all!

Future plans: OK, folks, all good things have to come to an end, and so it was with this scintillating Badal-Kajri track. I hope you will find the whole of the Sikri pilgrimage episodes as much of an addictive delight as it is for me, and that these posts of mine will add to that relish.

There are still a few Jalal-Jodha scenes over the next few weeks that were charming, though nowhere near this level, and I shall put in mini-posts about those on this thread as and when they turn up on Zee Anmol. Then, the last one of my rebooted analyses, my Shakespearian Heights post at the end of the Sujamal track. With that, I can finally write finis to my association with Jodha Akbar, and await Rajat's return to the small screen, hopefully by this coming summer.

I am also still completing the comprehensive list of all my Jodha Akbar posts - the episode analyses, that is - and I plan to post that here as a separate thread, with live links to all of them, so that they will be readily accessible to anyone who would like to relive the excitement that we all went thru in 2013-2014.

Though I did all these 3 parts over the last 4/5 days, it has taken a good bit of effort to finalise them. My hands will need at least a day's rest right now, plus a lot of massaging. I shall thus reply to any comments on this thread beginning Wednesday. Bye till then, folks!

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

No.of viewings in 2014: 15283

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