The Wedding: It was appropriately rich is tone and texture throughout, even though the venue was restricted and the rasams were far fewer than I would have liked. In fact, leaving aside the wedding proper, there were only the ceremonies at the entrance of the groom at the beginning, and the jootiyan churana at the end. It would have been far better to have included a few more Rajasthani customs, instead of wasting time and footage on Sujamal skulking around in the most improbable fashion, attempting to masquerade as a waiter right under the noses of not just Sharifuddin but the Amer royals, and worse, the even more improbable Mahaam Anga and Adham Khan shouting match.
It boggled the mind to see the astute Mahaam Anga slapping her criminal dolt of a son (for such a short woman, she sure has a solid forearm action, for the huge Adham reels sideways every time she has a go at him!) and yelling at him, barely 20 feet away from the wedding havan kund. And this not only for eyeing the maids but also for having hatched the plot to assassinate Jalal! She might as well have shouted all this out in the town square. Why on earth would she not wait till they were alone in their khema that night?
The one point of note here is Mahaam's apparent devotion to Jalal and to protecting him, for all that she will not expose her son for the murder attempt, or indeed do anything more than warn him not to be such a fool that he would take them both down thru his idiocies. Not that he will heed any of her warnings, whether about the maids (it was side-splitting that his fancy alights on Motibai, who is very far from being attractive. It is clear that he is going to fall foul of Jodha very soon by making passes at her) or about Jalal.
Sight of the day: Jalal's bewilderment when faced with a kneeling saas-to-be with two matkas on her head! And again when she is apparently measuring him from toe to top with a red cord, and brushing him around the head with a branch of neem leaves to ward off the evil eye. By now, Mynavati seems far more at home with her javaisa, and Jalal the Jallad seems to have faded away.
And yes, I forgot the startling spectacle of Adham Khan doing an aarti of the bride, after his technique was suitably corrected by the pandit! The most noteworthy point here was Sharifuddin's obvious jealousy when Jalal asked Adham, his foster brother, to stand in for his father. However, he soon realized that it was a public place, and rearranged his face to make it look passably pleasant.
The jootiyan churana episode ended on a very charming note, with Jalal picking up his littlest saali, showering them all with gifts, and triumphantly looking back at Jodha when one of the girls declares, in ringing tones, that jeejaji is not just bahut achche,but also gore chitte! This last gave rise to a momentous development, the first glance, as distinct from glare, exchanged between Jodha, who seemed taken aback by this unexpected side of her patidev's persona, and Jalal.
But the initial anger displayed, when Jalal's jootis go missing, by both Sharifuddin ( who digs up the infamous foot chopping episode; this was obviously meant by the CVs to further stoke Jodha's revulsion against Jalal) , and by Jalal himself (in a kind of throwback to the first two episodes), was excessive and uncalled for. Jalal's Amer inlaws seemed paralysed with shock and dismay at this explosion of wrath, and no wonder.
Equally curious and inappropriate was young Mansingh admonishing the Shahenshah for what he takes, quite wrongly, to be Jalal ridiculing this custom. As Jodha swallows in nervous tension, Jalal reacts with surprising gentleness and patience. He does have a soft corner of the kid, and his nazrana for Mansingh might well be to take him to Agra with him.
The costumes of the bridal pair were suitably gorgeous, especially Jodha's , in glowing yellows, with an identical zari applique of mango patterns on both the lehenga and the chunari. As you would have seen from my last post, I was sharply critical of her burning the Dacca mulmul shaadi ka joda, but that regrettable act too had a silver lining, it seems. The yellow and gold outfit she eventually wore suited her far better than the Dacca muslin would ever have done!
Wedding rites: I am not au fait with the details of Rajasthani wedding customs, but in the traditional saat phere, the groom goes first for the first four pheras, and then the bride takes the lead for the next three, as she intends to confront Yama himself, were he to turn up,and protect her husband's life like Savitri did for Satyavan. But here, Jodha went first for 4 pheras, and then Jalal for the last three. And in the saptapadi, the man usually takes each of the 7 steps first, and the bride follows him,but here it was the opposite. Then again, there was no mangalsutra, which is almost universal in the rest of India, and the maang bharna was taken as the final seal of the marriage.
I have also never heard of the bride taking any vows, though I dare say they might have dug this custom up from somewhere. The point obviously was to get Jodha to voice her gratification at having him for her dev! Jodha had by then got over the reluctance that made her pull her hand away from Jalal's earlier, and she spoke her vows fairly firmly, despite being acutely conscious of Jalal''s amused attentiveness.
As for the hand angle, once Jodha's hand had been firmly placed is his by Mynavati, the mischievous Jalal rammed the point home by imprisoning it for a little while between both of his, in order to enjoy her discomfiture. This apart, he seemed to be enjoying himself thoroughly right thru, and he was relaxed throughout, not reacting even when Jodha pulled her hand away. He did nothing, and simply waited till Mynavati sorted it out for him.
Jalal, when confirning to his entourage that this wedding would be entirely according to Hindu customs, assures them that the Mughal ceremonies would be held at Agra - he cannot afford to give them the impression that he has caved in to all of Bharmal's requests. Despite this, Mahaam Anga, who is constantly riled by Jalal permitting these Hindu rites, jumps in to add a Muslim one by tying a taveez on Jodha's arm, statedly to ward off any problems that might face her. As Mahaam intoned these words, I was thinking Par sabse badi takleef to aap hi hain! Jodha too seems to be decidedly skeptical as she peers up at Mahaam Anga as the latter is tying the taveez.
The assassination plot: This seemed far too pat and amateurish to be credible, and if there had been even a halfway effective investigation, Adham Khan would have been exposed at once. Jalal sounded naive when not just excusing but actually commending Adham Khan for killing that Aslam Khan on the spot before he could be forced to identify his employer.
But what stayed with me was the supreme self confidence with which Jalal asserts that even if he had been sleeping in the room, nothing would have happened to him. It reminded me of his telling Abdul, before they leave for the Amer adventure, that death itself fears and avoids him. This tremendous self belief, and faith in his manifest destiny , are the true marks of a great ruler, and no wonder Jalal became Akbar, or The Great!
Fate's soldier: During the sentimental reminiscing in the beginning, Myanavati gives Jodha a very sound, and indeed inspired piece of advice. Destiny, she asserts, chooses its soldiers, those who will not run away from their fate but accept it and build on it. She tells Jodha to accept this marriage as a ruling of fate, do her best to make it work, and also fufil her duties (karm) in her sasural. This advice will definitely have a major bearing on Jodha's future relationship with Jalal, by helping to smooth out its roughest edges.
Already, the shrewd Mahaam Anga, spotting, even from behind his sehra, the way in which Jalal watches Jodha unceasingly, has begun to suspect that for him, she is no run of the mill begum. Knowing Jalal inside out as she does, she senses that there is something different this time. Something disturbing. Something unsettling. One can be sure that she will try her best to nip this in the bud, and to trip Jodha up in Agra, probably by recruiting Ruqaiya too for this task.
The precap: It is unintentionally comic, implying, as it does, that Jodha hoped to hold off a warrior like Jalal with that gift khanjar. The only question now is whether he has cut his hand. As for the rest, there is no room for any doubt, for Jalal would never force himself on any woman, not even one he wants to tame. It remains to be seen how this plays out. I hope they handle it with finesse.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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