Friends, yesterday's episode had just one character as far as I was concerned: It was Jalal!
It was a day for me with just Jalal, Jalal all the way. From end to end of the episode, from frame to frame, it was either him - or about him! There are lots of ways to look at the part he played yesterday, but I have chosen to look at his role like this:
Jalal's "state-of-heart" has started concerning his near ones!
There were a couple of early-on scenes where Jalal himself was not present on the frame, but the aura surrounding his reactions to the missing Jodha was palpable. Maham opened the Theatre of the the Concerned by telling Resham and Adham why it was a disaster that Jodha had run away. She first said it was all a huge black mark against the Sultanate and Jodha has sullied the name of Jalal and his Kingdom. But then out came Maham's true apprehension. It would have been far better for her if Jodha had returned to Amer, for then not just Jodha but Jalal would be free! Now that Jodha has run away, it has made Jalal soften up like never before in Jodha's cause to try and run behind Jodha. Maham was already seeing visions in her mind's eye of a Jalal united with Jodha and that vision was completely unacceptable to her.
This mental mode of Maham's then gets amplified when she goes to Ruqaiaya (after both she and Ruqaiaya have seen an agitated Jalal jump onto a horse and bolt like the blazes after Jodha). Maham tells Ruqaiaya the exact same thing on her mind: "You are a bewakoof. You should have let Jodha die instead of telling Jalal she may attempt suicide. Now see what you have done. You have made him swing after her like never before. Don't come crying to me again one day soon if you lose him totally to Jodha." Ruqaiaya, the ever-blissful one, confident of her hold over Jalal, refutes this by saying: "Jodha cannot make Jalal do anything. She has no hold over Jalal. She has run away, can't you see". And Maham says: "Yes, but can't you see that she has the power to make Jalal run after her? He is already halfway in love with her, if you aren't careful ...". Ruqaiya, by now a bit more than shaken, replies defiantly (but not as confidently): "Jalal will never fall in love with Jodha. He has no heart and I hold sway over his mind".
Maham looks at Ruqaiaya disdainfully and with dismay seeing her losing the battle over Jalal even without realising that a battle for him was on, while Ruqaiaya goes from being a highly wound up electric toy to one whose battery was swiftly dwindling within the space of five minutes!
Jalal, the one absent from the scene, but ever-present in the minds of these two women, was by then already riding across the wild country on his horse with an anger - and a passion - like no one at Agra had probably seen before. Both Maham, with her astuteness, and Ruqaiaya, with her stupidness, were aware in their own ways, no doubt, that they were both talking about closing the garage door after the horse had bolted. Literally. Their arguments were different but both faces were similar in their expressions of being unable to fuly accept the truth that Jalal looked way too much attracted to Jodha already and was today demonstrating just how far he was gone!
How Jalal whipped himself up to go and find Jodha!
The scenes where Jalal got himself ready - and into the state of mind - to find Jodha were as interesting as the chase scenes themselves. He first goes to shout at Jodha's maids and assistants (including Moti). He asks: "How could she have disappeared from the middle of her room when all of you were hovering here?" And then he asks even more unreasonably: "Even if she asked you for privacy, why did you give it to her and leave her alone?" This second sentence was very revealing because it was totally unreasonable and showed his state of mind. He barked out at the already broken down Moti who was quivering with worry and fear. Then Moti did the one thing that I thought revealed Jalal's soft side utterly to the public yesterday. She wrung her hands, and folded her hands in prayer to Jalal saying "Jodha was so distraught, she was so down, she has gone God knows where, please go and find her, and you can cut my head later on ... but please personally go and find her ..."
Jalal's eyes and face showed he had been touched at a very vulnerable spot by Moti's entreaty. I think it was her "Please personally go and find Jodha" that did it. Jalal then moved at lightning speed as if his personal fuse had been lit. He was next seen at the gates assessing with his horsemen the direction of Jodha's likely departure. That Jodha would not have used the secret surang or the back gates he was sure. The guards at the gate confirmed she had just grabbed a horse and that they could not stop the Begum of the Shahenshah for they had not the powers to oppose her. Next thing we knew was that Jalal himself was on another horse, kicking his heels into the sides of the horse to make a swift move on.
Ruqaiaya and Maham watched from the parapets how even without his body armour or helmet - just in the home clothes he wore - he gave no second thought to anything but the search for Jodha. The family were left behind to wonder what he would do if he found Jodha, but to Jalal himself no such thoughts entered his mind at that stage. He had no idea what Jodha was up to except that he did not at all like even the thought of the "ultimate sacrifice" theory. He rode out like a maniac - and I saw some of the most beautiful shots of Rajat on horseback with the wind in his hair, and with his fierce but burning expression to find Jodha. I loved what I saw! It is always thrilling to see the hero of a story give everything he has to find the running-away heroine. It is thrilling when the hero forgets to use his mind and gets driven by the dictates of his heart, even if he is as yet not sure what those dictates are. It makes you wonder how far his heart has come! It was the stuff of legends!
The waterfront scene: Jalal betrayed his innermost angst!
This scene was sensational for the dialogue of Jalal after he dived into the water and saved Jodha (by giving her a good hug in the process and by landing on the rock slab near the shore almost atop of each other, her hair on his shoulder!) Jodha, after a moment of catching her breath, snarls at him: " Why did you save me? What are you trying to prove?' That my life and death is purely dependant on your will? I cannot live my life as I please...I cannot die as per my will...I neither belong to Amer nor Agra...you've forced me into solitude...and now, you've snatched death from me too! Why did you save me? JUST LEAVE ME ALONE!"
This is when Jalal has had enough. He launches into a a dialogue that was fit to scald anyone, much less the heaving and breathless Jodha. His dialogue was a long tirade, but I am going to break it up into parts for you all here, because in that flurry of words Jalal betrayed his innermost compulsions completely, if you carefully examine his trend of thought:
a. He showed Jodha that her tirades against him have hurt him
"That's enough! Not a word more...not one more...you taunt and complain all the time - that I've done this to you, that to you...that I've stolen your rights...your life..."
b. He showed Jodha how much he has already done for her
"... however...till today you've only done EVERYTHING you wanted to do...said everything you've wanted to say ... I accepted all of your conditions...allowed you to follow your wishes...why, I'd even permitted you to return to Amer..."
c. He showed Jodha how much he cared (that almost sounded like a lover)
"but, now I cannot allow you to commit this act of foolishness..."
d. He showed he rued that his control over her was limited (and this caused him angst)
Jalal's masterly finesse in closing out the episode!
How Jalal then wrapped up events after Jodha was rescued was also an object lesson in kingly crisis management - and it showed just as well how he himself was keen to have the situation understood by one and all! He chose to quickly put Jodha on the same horse as himself, before his men on the field could get a scent of what happened. Then off he went with Jodha at a speed that made his men feel he was urgently heading back to the Palalce with Jodha and they could follow at a less frenetic pace.
People on the wayside looked up in surprise at this twosome, and though Jodha and Jalal noticed this attention, it did not deter Jalal. He took Jodha to the mouth of the secret passageway that led into the Palalce, and although she demurred at first, and he had to physically pull her in after quelling her protestations, once inside the surang I liked the way he took the trouble to explain to her that this passage led into the Palace. He did care that she knew what he was doing!
He secreted her back in her chambers, presumably, before riding out again on horseback to the gates of the palace where an eager family awaited news. Various people showed various reactions when they saw Jalal alone on a horse without Jodha. Hamida was dismayed, Maham was cautious, but Ruqaiya (by now quite conditioned by the Maham lecture, no doubt) looked pleased to see Jalal alone!
And then in a blatant lie, Jalal told them all that Jodha was safe, but he had put her in "solitary confinement for her misdeeds", and no one - but no one, not even Hamida - could meet her! He had given Jodha the space and time to recover! To the sobbing Moti however, Jalal's scowl left his face and he gave her a very soft and lovely assurance: "Jodha is safely back. She will shortly be able to talk to you. But not for today." How beautiful was that! And what does it say for Jalal's feelings for Jodha? Moti was the surrogate of Jodha here, I feel, and in understanding Moti's distress at Jodha's disappearance and her state of depression, and in later taking the trouble to reassure Moti on Jodha's well-being, Jalal seemed almost as if he were talking to a Jodha (who was not the shrew he knew but the one he had a soft corner for in his heart)!
Jalal and his impending departure to Ajmer
In a typical Hamida-like event we saw a pirbaba summoned to the Palace to give a prophecy and advice on what the family should do next! He obliged Hamida by saying Jalal would shortly face troubles for which a trip to Ajmer is mandated - and that too with one chosen Begum, who would be chosen by the Gods! How? By shining the first sunbreams of the next day on her! Wow! I've never heard that kind of one before!
Jalal, again in absentia was as much part of this scene as all the others in this episode, because he was the centre of Hamida's thoughts, no matter how much Hamida was worried about Jodha! All these happenings of an unpleasant nature were happening to her son, and she wanted a way out for him!
It is important to note that, unlike what most of us thought yesterday, Hamida was not trying to engineer closeness between Jodha and Jalal, with this Ajmer trip ... she was merely and solely worried about Jalal and his recent unrelenting troubles and his impending prophecied misfortunes! Which of his Begums went with him to Ajmer did not seem to matter to Hamida at all yesterday.
It is interesting though that suddenly a competitive spirit has eneterd Ruqaiya's mind. Gone is her super-confidence and in its place we see a girl now desperate to convince herself that she still matters to Jalal and his life and his trips to Ajmer etc. If Ruqaiya is setting things up in her mind that the Ajmer trip is a sign of her continuing importance to Jalal, then she is herself digging a hole to get into. Because if she doesn't go (and we know she won't) then where does that leave her? As far as Ruqaiya is concerned I have always had a feeling that Jalal won't change towards her even if he falls for Jodha. But Ruqaiaya may herself score some self-goals by devaluing what she already has from Jalal and expecting the same feelings from Jalal that he has for Jodha, and in asking for more, she may end up getting less!
Anyway, some of the Forum members have pointed out that in the precap it was seeming to be a generally cloudy day but just at the moment when there is this slip-and-catch scene by Jalal and Jodha a ray of briight sunnshine seems to fall on Jodha, and so she may be chosen as the begum for the Ajmer Trip. I must confess I couldn't see it ... but maybe the forum members are right and that's what the Creatives intended to show in the promo.
Anyway, we await today's episode with more expectation and we are licking our chops.
And here's a tiny prediction:
I think, after telling everyone else not to disturb Jodha in her room as she is in solitary confinement, Jalal himself will surely go to meet her today and they will have a private moment together. He may scold her more, or he may do a total U-turn and show concern for whether she has recovered from the escapade and whether her heightened depressive feelings have abated. He will want to reassure himself about her welfare.Only when he is sure she is stable and has her wits about her again, will he unleash her on the others, I feel.
I am eager to see how this scene goes. Will he shout again because he is still angry? Or will he shout to cover up his concern? Or will he not shout at all and surprise me with some other emotion. I wait!
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