Folks,
It somehow seems entirely appropriate that the half century of Jodha Akbar should be celebrated with what can only be called a super-superlative episode. I would have preferred that marvellously apt term coined by Mary Poppins, but whenever I have tried to use it, the IF resident censor declares that I cannot post with such unknown words!
Episode 50 was a layered delight - like the millefeuille beloved of Austrian patissiers, or even better, our own sohanpapdi. One took off layer after layer, as scene followed scene from the beginning to the precap, and each was better than the last. It is meant for repeat watching, savoring known pleasures with fresh appreciation: I have already seen it 4 times and I need more.
Ah yes, the pas de deux of the title. As in the ballet, this too had the now forward now backward movements of the classical romantic dancing duet, except that here only we knew that it was all, if not quite romantic, decidedly pre-romantic.
Let us take the scenes in chronological order, thus avoiding the tricky task of grading them.
The Fencing Duel - Conclusion: The easiest way to ruin a lovely scene is to botch up the ending. Here, it was the opposite; the end was so beautifully and so delicately done - sassy, mischievous, and withal admirably candid - that it enhanced the appeal of the ferocious duel that had preceded it.
The ubiquitous Jalal ka dil motif was there all right, but only to provide a neat opening for Jodha to return Jalal's shamsheer with a couple of cheeky lines to accompany it. She looked very handsome while pronouncing them, which must have softened their edge for Jalal!
He shows how good a loser he is by acknowledging that she had got the better of him, which not many men, not to speak of emperors, would have done. He caps that by generously praising her as a behatareen sipahi, which is, to my mind and surely to Jodha's as well, a greater compliment than being called just a yoddha, for a soldier has to have not just technique, but concentration and discipline as well.
For those who are wondering why Jalal asks her, for the third time during the bout, why she had not killed him, it is because he is trying to get her to say that he is her pati and so she cannot, as a dutiful wife, bump him off. But Jodha does not oblige, and he is instead treated to a reiteration of the Rajput code of honour, plus a put down of the practice of killing others as a way of showing off ones own prowess.
Jalal, unfazed, listens to this little homily with a slight smile, and as he turns to leave, he delivers his coup de grace. When he says that never before had his shamsheer let him down, but it was not its fault, Jodha fully expects him to add that it was because of her fencing skills, and she puts her little chin up in anticipation.
Jalal, however, is the master of the unexpected. Kasoor aapki khubsoorati ka hai...and this is said with no emphasis, no change of tone, just as a simple fact. And he turns away and leaves, without a backward glance.
Not quite, perhaps, for maybe he did look back from farther away.He would have been pleased with what he then saw, for Jodha is standing absolutely still, with the oddest expression of muted satisfaction on her face, like someone rolling a delicious but unfamiliar sweet on her tongue and savouring it to the full.
Ruqaiya flubs it: I was moved to pity on seeing what a mess the supposedly astute Ruqaiya was making of the latest Jalal-Jodha contretemps. As comic relief, it was, right from her unavailing struggle to unsheathe the shamsheer, very good. But it was also a sad display of unbelievable incompetence, and ignorance of the male psyche. To my fellow Austenites, did it not remind you of the equally hilarious exchanges, in Pride and Prejudice, between Miss Caroline Bingley and Mr. Darcy, at Netherfield, when Elizabeth arrives, all muddied after walking across the fields, to visit the sick Jane?
Ruqaiya should have praised Jodhas martial skills to the skies, thus making herself look good in Jalals eyes, while simultaneously hinting, very discreetly, that fencing was not quite ladylike or appropriate for Shahi Begums. Instead, she produces a litany of negative comments about Jodha, every one of which is not only immediately countered by Jalal, but only results in his becoming even more fascinated by all the new fans that he is discovering in Jodha every time he, or rather Ruqaiya and he, in that order, try to humiliate her and fail.
If any woman of average intelligence had a husband who openly wondered about what else he would discover next in another woman, all the red signals would be flashing and all the alarm bells ringing in her head. Not so for Ruqaiya, who still boasts smugly of ruling the harem thru her dimaag! Even there, Jalal has fresh praise for Jodha's dimaag, and one should, by rights, have heard Ruqaiya's teeth gnashing in impotent rage. No such thing happens, which was when I gave Begum Ruqaiya Sultan up as a lost case.
And Jalal continues on the path he had taken during the fencing bout, of trying to make out what makes Jodha tick - her dil or her dimaag - what she is all about, and what more unexpected discoveries about her lie in store for him. He too is well on the way to becoming a lost case, though of quite a different kind!
The Rescue of Rahim: While the most satisfying part of this whole affair was Mahaam Anga falling, yet again, flat on her face, she did make a quick recover with Jalal, apologizing to excess for her latest bout of anti-Jodha nastiness, which she predictably passed off as an unthinking fit of rigid adherence by her to the norms of Mughal tehzeeb.
I was glad to see that Jodha, far from being taken in by this sophistry, was looking daggers at aapki Badiammi ( I loved the savage emphasis on the aapki !). I was gladder to see that when Jalal, after recovering from the shock of what had nearly happened to little Rahim, begins to explain his initial reaction, and gets to the stage of praising her for saving the childs life, Jodha cuts him off before he reaches the apology stage and walks off in an obvious huff. Attagirl! I said to myself, that is the stuff to give him and his Badiammi!
The initial part of this segment, between Jodha and the bansuri chor Rahim, is very sweet and endearing. One hopes that Jodhas Kanha got his bansuri back; it should not have been too difficult to recover it from that still water body.
Hamari Chotiammi: This one too is a delight, if in a different way. Jalal's unaffected affection for and indulgence towards little Rahim, and his readiness to halt the proceedings of the Diwan-e-Khas till he sorts out the childs problem, are utterly charming and, more important, revealing of the inner man behind the Shahenshah.
They form a counterpoint to the silken smoothness, that of an iron fist in a velvet glove, with which the Shahenshah deals with what he knows will be a recalcitrant Sharifuddin, commanded to disgorge all the ransom he had extracted, after the defeat of Amer, from the hapless Bharmal. Jalals Hamein ummeed hai ki hamare hukum ki tameel hogi is not an ummeed at all, but a veiled warning, and Sharifuddin, after an instant when his eyes are red with baffled rage, falls in line at once and promises full compliance with his orders. He even schools his countenance to an indulgent smile as he watches Jalal play with Rahim. But as Shakespeare would have said, Jalal has to beware of one who smiles and smiles again, while harbouring black villainy in his heart.
That Sharifuddin would once again take his suppressed rage towards Jalal out on his sweet, fluffy wife was predictable, but not that he would go so far as to hit her. It was an ugly little scene that soured the taste of the episode, but only a teeny bit. I foresee Mahaam Anga making use of this the next time it happens, to try and get Jalal to get rid of Sharifuddin and replace him by her (even worse) progeny, Adham Khan. Incidentally, is there some unwritten rule that such despicable husbands should have such sweet and compliant wives? It seems to hold for both Adham and Sharifuddin.
To revert, the best line in this segment is the very last one, as Jalal, ruminating over Rahims new Chotiammi-cum-dost, easily identified as Jodha, says to himself, without even a hint of mischief, Rahim ko waqt dena hi padega. I was in stitches every time I rewatched it, saying to myself Young man, you are in the suds now, good and proper! You are not even going to know what hit you😉!
Hamari Begum ka Dupatta: This was really the piece de resistance of the whole. A scene full of newly soft sentiments barely hinted at but still clearly there, of all the traditional panoply of courtship, and this on both sides, ending with a revelation that is bound to ease the path to the future for this Odd Couple. It was like a perfectly done souffle, light as air and as insubstantial, but for all that, a melting delight for the tastebuds.
To begin with, Jodha is actually waiting for Jalal to come to see her and, presumably, complete the apology that he owes her for the Rahim fiasco of the morning. Which is why, when she is on the way to her rooms (and here, the way in which she gracefully acknowledges salutations from right and left, as she continues on her way, hints at a new found ease in her surroundings ) and the Shahenshah's arrival is announced, she pauses and looks back for a long moment, setting off again only just before he appears in the distance.
She then positions herself at a window, with her back to the room, a stance carefully calculated to convey her total indifference to the imperial visit that she is sure will materialise😉. When she senses Jalal in the room, she tries to look back out of the corner of her eyes without making it obvious. The field of vision is not right, and so, when her dupatta is tugged at, she assumes that it is Jalal. Her expostulation is a classic in its own way - the remonstrance is so patently fake, with its reference, not to her dislike, but to his having sworn that he would never come near her! Jalal, a good 6 feet away, must have been chortling in suppressed glee as she turns around!😉
Her reaction to Jalal's mischievous comments to her, via Rahim -Tum bade hokar mere jaise hi banoge (I asked myself at this point: Kisme? Dupatta kheenchne mein?) - accompanied by a sidelong look up at Jodha, then Agar tum chote na hote, to hamare Begum ka dupatta kheenchne ki gustakhi ki sazaa milti, with another upward glance - show no anger or even distaste. On the contrary, there is a sort of hesitant shyness in the way she looks very briefly at the duo on the floor, and when Jalal picks Rahim up and leaves, there is a hint of disappointment that he did not say anything to her. For any normal couple, these would have been insignificant signs, but for our Kate and Petruchio, they are nothing short of revolutionary!
Finally, while Jodha is still mulling over what has happened, the conversation between two other begums reveals to her that Jalal loves children as a whole, and not just Rahim (who she still thinks is his son). It is said that the British can forgive much to a man who loves dogs. For Jodha, read children. The revelation that the kroor Shahenshah actually loves kids is the first breach in the wall of hostility towards him with which she has surrounded herself. It will be very interesting to watch this breach being widened as new revelations about Jalal surface, till one day, it brings down the whole wall.
Jodha ke paak kadam: The precap has a jubilant Hamida Banu in full flow, attributing some new good fortune that has befallen the Mughal sultanate to Jodha ke paak kadam, which, she adds, have done her inlaws nothing but good ever since she came to Agra. As she winds up her peroration by stating her conviction that Jodha has been sent expressly by Khuda to herald the apogee of the Mughal empire, and Jalal smiles in self-congratulation, one sees a slight haze in the background. It is the smoke emerging from Mahaam Anga's ears.😉
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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