Friends, last week in one of my posts I had tried to reply the many, many other posts that were flying at me decrying the way Jodha was hanging on to her "ghrna" to the point of extreme idiocy and viewer irritation. I had requested a lot of people then not to do this continuous Jodha-bashing (for her obstinacy in holding her "ghrna" against Jalal) and I had requested that we should all stop for a moment to see if there could be a very important reason why the Creatives have chosen to portray Jodha thus. Yesterday I was vindicated in this stand, when I was able to see how it was after all not Jodha's "love" but Jodha's "ghrna", that helped the young boy king Jalal with his roughness to become Akbar the Great with his extraordinary secular tolerance and magnanimity.
In my posts last week I had written:
"If you see the character of Jodha as the woman who tamed Akbar and taught him to love (i.e. the fictionalised TV story version which we are seeing) then Jodha's character with all its flaws may very well be exactly what is required to tame and mellow Akbar! It may well be that her "ghrna" is what changes him rather than her "love". It may also well be that because she was so preachy, and self-righteous and prickly (as a result of this "ghrna") that Jalal was not able to easily conquer her - and distance from her is what eventually made him crave closeness with her and he started to question her hatred and seek to find ways to make amends to her. What I am trying to say here is that the "ghrna" and the flawed traits of Jodha (however irritating to us) may well have been the powerful reasons why Jalal was forced to consider changing his personality to a mellow, loving, kinder man. It is not always necessary that Jodha must be a perfect woman, it may well be that her imperfections also had a hand in changing Jalal. That's why again, I am staying clear of complaining too much about Jodha's shortcomings. I'm going to wait and watch ..."
I still believe, folks, that the Creatives are applying mind to this story and are doing their characterisation of Jodha in a particular "ghrna-bearing obstinate" way for a definite purpose, because their object seems to be to show how Jodha's deeply-scarred heart and her holding onto her hatred was the thing that really moved Jalal to try and become someone greater than he was. The Creatives are not giving us a standard-issue love story where "her syrupy love melts his heart". Instead they are giving us her "scarred obstinacy" as the point around which his persona transformed into something remarkable!
Having said this let me now turn to the four scenes that made most impact on me yesterday ...
Jodha's hatred gets a full opportunity to vent itself out of her system
When the temple pandit endorsed Jalal's view that to bow one's head before God is the same thing as offering a cut head, for a moment it seemed to Jalal himself that he had fulfilled Jodha's wish and prayer and thus let her off her hatred against him. But then when she sang for the aarti puja with fervour and he listened, he probably got a longer moment in which to continue to wonder whether he needs to know why Jodha wanted his head so much. So when she finished her aarti, he outright asked her: "Why do you hate me so much? Why did you want my head?" It was extremely satisfying to me the way he asked this question and then the way she replied to it with heartfelt emotion, holding nothing back. Even as she faltered, his genuinely-meant questions kept prompting her to continue ...
She said "You ask as if you don't know. This beautiful Kali moorthy you see was one very grandly decked and revered idol of worship before, had you only seen it! It was looted relentlessly, and this place was savaged. Why I cannot say, but by whom? By your armies! Don't look at me in surprise, its not a story I've heard, I was myself an eye witness here on that day! There was reckless vandalism and my childhood friend Moti was molested. Just thinking about that day makes me wake at night in a cold sweat, and even now as I recount it to you, I quake. You may even remember this incident? (And he did!) And what's more in the war against Amer, when our soldiers were only guarding their own freedom as they had a right to, their savaged and mutilated bodies were heaped and their countless funeral pyres that night burned so bright, that night looked like day. The bloodthirsty talwars of your men seemed to have no ethics. These are the reasons why I hate you! In fact can you show me one reason why I should not hate you?"
Out came all the "ghrna" in unabated splendour. Jalal stood before Jodha, listening intently, feeling her every word and emotion, and even at the end holding an angry unshed tear in his reddened eyes! He was moved beyond words, for he had seen the innermost part of her heart, and he could see how deep her scars were and how they still were so raw and unhealed.
Jalal's heartfelt remorse becomes a silent commitment before God
Jodha clearly expected that Jalal would know of all the doings of his men. But she didn't seem to know that, unlike her father, who was a small king of a small pranth, a huge emperor of a huge Hindustan may seem to have greater power - but he actually has less direct control as his power gets decentralised, the greater his kingdom gets.
But even though this argument could have helped Jalal's case, as to why his men were degrading both his own honour and his kingdom's name, and Jalal could have tried to tell Jodha this, he made no attempts to try and justify the behaviour of his army. Jalal knew that nothing could ever justify what had been done here at this temple, because it was no ordinary loot of gold ornaments, it was a violation of the religious sanctity of a God-loving people, and a crude unforgiveable invasion of their house of prayer, where countless people came every day to share their life sorrows and celebrate their life happinesses with a God they believed in and trusted to protect them. Jalal was clearly extremely unhappy and particularly ashamed after hearing of the disgraceful behaviour of his men directly from Jodha - an eye witness to the heinous crimes, no less.
Soon after Jodha's outpouring, the pandit distracted Jodha and she went back to her "duty-bound princess-mode", but as the pandit blessed her and Jalal, with long life, happy marriage and healthy progeny, it hit Jalal even harder, I think, that the prospect of a happy marriage and progeny was so far from reality with a womam so hurt by the barbarism of his men. Further when the pandit blessed Jalal himself saying: "May your name shine forth as great in the future", the irony must have hit Jalal hard, for that very "name" of his, as the great ruler of the great Hindustan, was such a laugh in the face of what Jodha had told him. I loved the way Jalal then took leave of the temple and of Kali Mata with an extra moment of prayer to her with folded hands and closed eyes. I got the feeling that the future Akbar the Great had arrived in that moment and had made a commitment before Kali that he would change things - and he would begin by changing himself!
Jalal gets the message that he can't be great unless he is good
The scene between Jalal and his adviser Agta Khan was a seeming continuation of the disturbed Jalal seeking answers to all that he had heard at the temple from Jodha. It is remarkable to me, that rather than try to soothe Jodha immediately for the hurts she felt, as a husband would do, Jalal started first by questioning his own role as emperor, seeing a link between his being a better king as the route to making Jodha happier as his wife!
He asks Agta Khan the very questions every head of every business or political empire needs to ask: "In spite of my power, why am I the last to get the real information that matters? How does one stop one's own men from seeing all others as enemies, such that they then see us as enemies? It may happen in every kingdom, but it shouldn't happen in ours!If we don't change the way we rule the Mughal Sultanate soon, we stand to get a really unsavoury reputation. After wars, we have a right to our victory spoils ... but loot? If even one man does it, the shame is on the Emperor! I am very very upset. After coming here I find nothing but utter hatred for us from these people here and a justified hatred too - for they have lost so much to our rampant ways.I am responsible ultimately, as you too are! I want this issue investigated and a solution found as to how to prevent our men from looting temples. It's true that these corrective measures need to wait till the Amer shaadi is over, but in the mean time, God knows what more we will get to hear that shames us!"
Jalal had begun thinking like Akbar the Great. His self-questioning here is the key to the way he then goes on in history to transcend his field-successes as a boy-king and become one of history's most respected "rulers", in the true sense of the word.
Herein, I also thought, lay the truth of the statement I made at the start of this post: that Jodha's "ghrna" worked on Jalal to make him Akbar the Great - even before Jodha's love" could make him a better and more loving husband! Had she merely "loved" him he would have probably become a nicer husband and returned her love. But its because she hated him, and clung to that hate with tenacity, that he made the real effort to transform into a greater emperor. The important thing that Jalal seemed to have understood about Jodha here is that her "ghrna" was not for him as a person or a husband, but she actually hated the "barbarism-tolerating-emperor" that he was! He no doubt realised that he could always make Jodha love him, but to earn her respect he needed to be an Emperor with real control, and for that he had to do more than just wipe her tears. He had to act decisively for his own name and for his own good, and for his own goals. He had to wear down her "ghrna" with the same tenacity with which she was holding it!
Jalal reinforces the new message to himself via advice to Maham
The exchange between Jodha and Maham was good because eventually Jodha carried the day. Maham was at her aggressive best, railing against Jodha taking Jalal to the temple and spoiling his image as as Islam-follower. Jodha tried placating Maham with a glass of water but after continuing bellligerence from Maham, Jodha just told her where to get off - she told her to go ask Jalal why he went to the temple, and even offered a maid's assistance to help her find Jalal! Maham stormed off only to find herself further insulted with "security checks" before she could enter Jalal's room.
But the exchange between Jalal and Maham was again, to me, a continuation of Jalal's already running trend of thought of becoming a greater Emperor to redress the "ghrna" of his wife and her peoples. When Maham accosted him with the fact that he should never have given Jodha so much quarter by going with her to the temple, he first told Maham the logic behind it: "If Jodha could show her magnanimity in coming with me to Ajmer Sharif, I too needed to show my magnanimity by going to her Kali temple." But he then could not stop himself from giving voice to something that had been working in him since morning. He said: "Going to a temple does not mean I have given up my own religion.My religion is everything to me. But in addition to being a Muslim I am also a King with the mission to unite all of Hindustan under one flag. Many kings before me have failed in this. The reason? They tried to impose themselves and their ways.But by helping Sukanya marry in her own community, and by going to the temple today, I want to rule Hindustan by showing people that I can rule their hearts and minds."
I don't know whether Maham immediately buckled down to his argument from being convinced by his logic - or because she saw that gleam in his unwavering eyes that brooked no opposition. In the earlier weeks I would have thought that Jalal is doing his usual number at Maham (i.e. using his "political expedienncy" argument to cover his decisions in favour of Jodha). But yesterday, I thought I saw Jalal use the "Hindustan ka dil jeetna" argument with the fresh fervour of a newly reborn Emperor, who saw his own internal change as central to the grand changes he wanted to make to become the great ruler of a great land.
Thanks Jodha for your "ghrna". Thanks for holding stubbornly it even in the face of viewer distaste and name-calling! Thanks for being your cussed self that so many loved to hate. You had every reason to feel the way you did and for so long, because you never got a chance to heal the raw wounds in your heart, Too soon after you got those hurts, you got married to the very emperor whom you could not forgive for those hurts. It was like being hurt twice over!
Yesterday, I hope you felt better after you aired all your wounds to a man who had the sensitivity to hear your spoken and unspoken feelings. And you have won the biggest prize for your honesty: you have helped convert a small man into a great one in your one spectacular moment of personal grief-shedding! You both have grown yesterday in front of our eyes.
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