Well, folks, after 3 episodes on the trot, it is still difficult for me to think of anything much in them worth analyzing. So please bear with me if this post seems disjointed at times, and do not fail to note where my tongue is for the most part - firmly in my cheek!😉
Amer: Let us dispose of the Amer end first. One can discount all the wedding preparations in Amer: the rather apathetic sangeet, the chausar games, the fatuous talk about time going faster in a family with girls (here there are 3 of them, so presumably it went thrice as fast. Would that the story would also move at least half as fast!), the advent of the Bhanpur rajpurohit, and even Shakuni Bai's umpteenth sybillic pronouncement.
The last, however, varied the proceedings this time by adding a very sinister peal of mocking laughter, while Mynavati, who would win any a competition for rolling one's eyes hands down, looked ready to burst a blood vessel. I wish she had actually done so, thus sparing us the sight ot her permanently agonized face for a while at least.
I was relieved that the CVs did not commit a major anachronism and play Mere haathon mein nau nau choodiyaan hain at the sangeet, though that might have made things a bit livelier!
When Raja Bharmal was listing out all the livestock to be supplied to Suryabhan as part of Jodha's dowry, he mentioned Suryabhan's weight in gold . I could not help thinking that if the weight taken has been Bharmal's instead, Suryabhan ki to chandi ho jaati!😉
The Amer royal family seems to model itself on the Borgias, seeing the ease with which Jodha's mother produces a vial of poison out of a box - the bottle as elegant as a perfume flacon by Givenchy - and hands it over to a bemused Jodha.
For Rajput royals, the Amer lot seem to be temperamentally so defeatist that the bahus start planning the jauhar even before their patidevs have ridden out of the castle gates. I was glad to see Jodha bucking this gloomy trend and actually believing that her bhaisas will win. She of course forgets about her other bhaisa, and all that he knows about Amer's military secrets.
The so-called battle scenes were like comic opera. The Amer defenders did not seem to have heard of lookouts at all, for they appeared shellshocked when the Mughal forces came literally up to the castle gates undetected!😉
It was unclear how Suryabhan landed up there almost instantly, unless he was alerted by pigeon mail and covered the distance from Bhanpur to Amer by apparating in, like Harry Potter and his Hogwarts pals.😉 There was no indication of what had been accomplished on the first day of battle before the Sharifuddin-Sujamal combo retired to their tent for the night.
The only point that made me sit up was when Sujamal insists, for sentimental reasons, that Jodha's fianc Suryabhan not be killed (he has already personally spared one of Jodha's brothers) . Now Sharifuddin knows that Jalal wants not only Amer but Jodha as well, which is why he goes along with Sujamal so readily in the first place. The last thing that he would want is a live fiance for Jodha, as a major roadblock for the Mughal emperor, whom Sharifuddin wants to please at any cost.
It remains to be seen who sends Suryabhan to the other world tomorrow. My bet would be on Sharifuddin, who could present it as done while saving Sujamal's life. I do not see how it can be Jalal, who is still in Agra, weeks away by road, unless he too does a Suryabhan and parachutes himself into the battle on the second day.
Moreover, he would be busy sorting out the mess after his Khan Baba's sudden demise, plus there is his marriage to Salima Begum as well, which would have to precede his descent on Amer to hold it and the royal family to ransom for Jodha.
If, despite all this, it is Jalal who kills Suryabhan, that would add another thick layer of hatred to Jodha's already rabid hostility towards him - she was going on again today on the familiar Jalal ka sar theme, like an LP stuck in one place. Perhaps the CVs want to use that to spice things up further between the two.
Agra: All the action, physical, psychological and emotional, was there.
Jalal:The scene of Jalal bidding farewell to Bairam Khan was openly and unashamedly emotional on both sides. It was also genuinely cathartic, and this later saves Jalal from a deep, corrosive sense of guilt about Bairam Khan's death.
It was noteworthy that Begum Saridon's attempt to console her son after Bairam Khan had departed met with a blunt rebuff, as Jalal wiped his eyes and walked off, ignoring his Ammijaan. Mahaam Anga was, till then, busy showing us what 'crocodile tears' really means, but at this snub to the Malika-e-Azam, her lips curled in a secret smile.
Later, as Jalal reeling from the shock of his Khan Baba's murder, Rajat pulls out all the stops in a bravura display of unbridled grief. As Jalal falls to his knees, throws his head back, and screams aloud in unbearable agony, I was reminded of Hrithik Roshan as Altaf in Mission Kashmir, traumatised by the death of his foster ammi in a bomb blast meant by him for her husband. At least here, Jalal has to cope only with loss and grief, not with the heavy burden of guilt.
As he prays for the repose of his Khan Baba's soul, Jalal also seeks the strength to become an exemplary ruler. Not for himself, but in order to fufil his mentor's last wish, thus showing once more that he has the capacity to care more for someone else than for himself. This quality, which is thus already there in the bud, so to speak, will come into full flower when he learns to love Jodha.
Mahaam Anga: She has slipped effortlessly into Bairam Khan's mojvis, and Bahadur Khan is nowhere to be seen as she, and she alone, counsels Jalal on the Malwa expedition. And soundly as well, except that the wisdom of sending Adham Khan against Baz Bahadur is open to question as yet.
She is superbly hypocritical, and most convincingly too, while supporting Jalal as he collapses after learning of Bairam Khan's death. She knows the value of maintaining appearances, of never being caught on the wrong foot and exposed. In this, she is aided by her invaluable ability to weep buckets to order, without having to feel an iota of real sorrow.
When she swears loyalty to a petulant Ruqaiya, and later, when she advises her, with remarkable prescience, to have more of a care of her husband when he needs her if she is not to be displaced one fine day, Mahaam Anga seems to be genuine. Perhaps she is paying Ruqaiya back for the ehsaan she did her by supporting drastic action by Jalal against Bairam Khan. Their alliance might be tenuous, and Ruqaiya might be unbearably haughty at times, but Mahaam Anga knows that she will never be a threat to her own hold on Jalal. So, when a real danger appears in the person of Jodha, this alliance is likely to get a fresh lease of life.
At one point. I felt almost sorry for her, saddled with such a aaiyaash fool for a son, not to speak of a nattering idiot of a bahu. She must have raged internally against having to depend on such a defective instrument as Adham Khan, a lazy lout, but also an unguided missile whose erratic fits even she cannot foresee. She must have been shocked by his unexpected display of Chanakya neeti to dispose of their arch enemy Bairam Khan, but she knows him well enough not to expect an encore!
Ruqaiya: My worst fears are being proved right, as the new Ruqaiya, her face totally expressionless whatever the situation, muffs her opportunities with remarkable consistency. She not only has no genuine feeling for her childhood friend Jalal when he is in such distress, but she does not even have the smarts to fake it .While Mahaam Anga kneels tearfully by Jalal, and consoles him convincingly even as her heart is secretly jumping with joy, Ruqaiya goes off to settle a harem squabble. She had done similarly foolish things earlier too, but then Jalal was not in such agony. Now, her neglecting him so callously is, as Napoleon said of a tactical misstep by one of his generals, worse than a crime: it is a blunder. And a blunder that will come to haunt her in the future, as Mahaam Anga's ominous warning comes true.
The new Ruqaiya is past praying for, as everything that made her interesting has been leached outl leaving only a cold-hearted, petulant and foolish Malika-e-Hind.
As the precap shows Jalal telling his Badiammi (mistakenly called Ammijaan here) what it is that Amer has that is so rare, one can hear a deep metallic sound repeating itself. It is the bell tolling for Ruqaiya Sultan Begum.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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