Folks,
I should, by rights, not do anything about the Monday episode, for there was nothing in it to analyse. But some kind young friends have asked for this, so here is a brief take, in the form of a series of questions that we might be left asking the CVs, or ourselves.
1) Jalal (and Ruqaiya) would have set my teeth on edge but for my trusty kaleidoscope, for both outdid themselves yesternight. Kamala and Alakh have identified assorted medical disorders that Jalal and /or Jodha might be suffering from, with PPD and OCD jostling for primacy, and they may well be right. But that is not what concerns me, for I have had enough of explaining their respective psyches. I now simply take both as given, and I would, for what it is worth, recommend that you do the same.
What I am still left wondering at is the almost impossible job the CVs have set for themselves. How on earth are they planning to get Jalal out of this deep hole - he digs it deeper with each tiresomely repetitive and childishly vicious exchange with Jodha , who seems nowhere near likely to attempt anything bright and snappy in return; I am tired to thinking of responses for this useless girl!😉 - without losing his dignity as an emperor? Like a parent apologising for having wrongly punished a child, he has to be able to climb down without crawling. It would never do for him to become a common, garden variety of lover, pleading for forgiveness from a haughty wife.
So, however much the vengeful brigade in the forum, waiting for him with belans, jhadoos, saucepans and assorted lethal implements, wants to pound him into pulp, the fact is that we have to make do with Jalal for the rest of the show, and I for one do not look forward to him becoming a doormat for Jodha to walk over. It would be painfully commonplace. That is why, every harsh scene between the two of them makes it all the tougher to get over the transition gracefully.
So Question No. 1 is How are the CVs going to square this circle?
2) a)How can the dibbiwala identify the 'man' from the harem who collected the dibbi from him? One presumes, though this part is mentioned by him in the passive tense , that the same person placed the order as well. I cannot imagine how a complete outsider can identify a harem inmate and describe him (he must have been an eunuch, as the man says is was an aadmi).
b) The poor fellow is obviously petrified, and round-eyed with fear, but why? There is no one else there that we could see, except for Ruqaiya and Hoshiyaar behind the curtain. He has already seen Hoshiyaar, who fetched him, so it is not Hoshiyaar. Why then is he so scared, and of whom?
3) What was it with 'Hindus killing Hindus' - a line that seems to have caused considerable dismay in the forum as likely to rile the Rajya Sabha MPs further (more of that below) - as if that was something unheard of in the annals of Rajputana?
It is ludicrous to pretend that there were never any wars among the Rajputs and they never killed each other. In fact it was quite the opposite; the Rajputs , specializing and rejoicing in suicidal courage, were constantly at war with each other over real and imaginary slights. They were so disunited that any invader (Mohammed Ghori in 1192 is one prime example) had it much, much easier to defeat then than if they had formed a band mutthi. Jodha's Dadisa refers to the neighbourhood rajas coveting Amer; would their attacks on Amer not have involved bloodshed and Hinduoon se Hinduoonka sar kalam karna?
The CVs' IQ seems to match that of the Amer princes. They have completely failed to put across the real importance of what Jalal is doing in the Sujanpur 'war', Instead, they are reducing his taking the Amer princes to that battle to a pathetically vicious supplementary move by him to humiliate the Ameris/ Rajputs, and to add another swipe to the death by a thousand cuts that he is apparently planning and implementing vis a vis Jodha. Of course he baits Jodha by presenting it as such, and she promptly obliges him by looking even more woebegone and protesting to her Bapusa about the paap that her Bhaisas will be forced to commit, but that is merely a minor side issue.
What Jalal is attempting here is a political move with far-reaching ramifications for the Mughal empire, and not an attempt to make Hindus kill Hindus on behalf of the Mughals, as the shallow minded Ruqaiya imagines. He is here testing the waters for the experiment he had outlined to his ministers when he was explaining why he was marrying Jodha.
If it fails, and the Ameris were not to be relied upon, not just to fight against other Rajputs, which they did all the time, but to fight against them for the Mughal invaders, Jalal's whole, broad strategy of melding Rajputana and the Rajputs, as equals in respect and prestige but also as loyal upholders of the his regime, with the Mughal empire, will also fail. With that failure, the Mughals will never be able to belong to Hindustan . They will forever remain outsiders, and Akbar's dream for a blended Hindustan will also be stillborn.
4) What is it with the tafteesh that Jalal was supposed to be undertaking? Not only is it still up in the air, but the starting point for the 10 days seems to be constantly receding. One is used to stupidity and short memories, but this takes not just the cake, but the whole bakery😉.
I will leave you with these questions to ponder over, and add just one footnote, about the demand by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Najma Heptullah that Jodha Akbar be banned as it defamed Akbar by showing him as marrying Jodha forcibly and keeping her in Agra by force.
Well, folks, we now have a balance between those protesting at the way the Rajputs are being shown and now those protesting against the way Akbar is being shown.
Actually, I was waiting for this from the other side. If a counter protest was really warranted, it would have been about the distortion in the depiction of Ruqaiya, but that would not get anyone het for none of the MPs would have heard of her!😉
Akbar is different, he is historical icon, along with Asoka the Great, and anything about him gets headlines.
Nothing much will come of this in practical terms, for the basic charge that Jalal married Jodha by force and was keeping her in Agra will be immediately shot down, being factually incorrect.
That is, if at all the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting gets around to looking into it. It is not at all sure that they will. But even if they do, this particular charge cannot be sustained.
Moreover, the I&B Ministry have never before banned any serial on any grounds; to do so would be opening a Pandora's box, with any number of copycat demands against other shows. It is only the odd, raunchy ad that has been banned, and the odd fashion channel that was shut down for a week or so for obscenity. So nothing will happen to Jodha Akbar.
But I hope Ekta and her CVs get a bit of a jolt and tone down this raving, ranting Jalal. He gives me a headache, even with my kaleidoscope, and without it, it would have been a full blown migraine!
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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