Well, folks, this one, on the very charming Episode 89, is not going to be one of my 4 pagers. For one thing, it was like one of those pink, spun sugar candy confections that vendors at a mela sell to kids, melting scrumptiously in the mouth, but with nothing much to sink your teeth into and chew over. For another, Lashy's account of it on her thread -which should be required reading for the forum - is so thorough that one can almost see the visuals!
Still, I have some supplementary points to make and a few comments to offer, which I am putting down here, to stimulate discussion over the weekend. As it seems likely that the Sukanya Vivah, which I would call Shahi Shaadi Lite, is going to be ever more long drawn out than the original, there will be plenty of time for that! In doing this, I am assuming that all of you would have seen the episode.
Jodha-Sukanya:
1) Jodha does acknowledge to Sukanya that her sankalp (re: the infamous Jalal ka sar) had been fulfilled. She has no time to elaborate on it, but it is clear that she sees the issue as having received closure thanks to Jalal's matha tekhna. Sau sau koti dhanyavaad Devi Maa ko, ki is sarphiri ladki ko itni sadbuddhi to pradaan ki aapne!😉
2) She feels driven on the backfoot when she is, after some fruitless dodging and feinting, forced to confess that her marriage is hollow, and in trying to salvage the situation, she makes 2 explanatory comments.
One, the difference of religions excuse, for which some might criticise her seeing the generous, unconditional acceptance of her Hindu identity by both Hamida Banu and Jalal. But I do not feel that she means to convey any contrary impression. It was rather that she has to say something that would sound at least halfway convincing to Sukanya, and she cannot think of anything else right then.
Plus she does not want to rake up her ghrina mantra now, when Jalal has made such a major gesture for her sake (or so she would assume, not factoring in the Hindustan ka dil jeetna angle) , and run the risks about which Mahaam has since briefed her in stentorian tones.
Two, she offers the our marriage is still very new excuse, thus clearly hinting, and this to herself as much as to Sukanya, that her present alienation from her husband is but temporary. Given Jodha's attitude to her marriage this far, this is no less than a quantum change in her mindset.
3) Jalal & the elephant: I think Adham will, on the next such occasion, have done something, like planting a thorn in a sensitive part of its body, to enrage the elephant just when Jalal is trying to pet it or to get on to its back, or maybe when he is riding it, so that it runs amuck. Adham would be hoping that it would throw to the ground, trample on him and kill him. The perfect crime!
Of course Adham's track record will be maintained and it will all go wrong. I dare say because Jodha will be revealed to have one more hunar - she can speak the elephant lingo and thus control the rampaging tusker!😉
This apart, seeing the obsession of the CVs with the film, I was looking out for the elephant angle to make its appearance. Lo and behold, it has arrived!
Jalal-Jodha & the chhoti fauj
4) I was glad to see that at least something out of Mahaam's tirade about the risk to Jalal from the temple visit has penetrated into Jodha's normally firmly closed mind. When she voices unprecedented concern about the fallout for Jalal of what he did in the temple, he should have been elated at this first ever sign that his begum cares about any potential troubles for him. However, he seems too tired to even notice that, not to speak of pulling her (undoubtedly pretty) leg about it.
5) There were so many very funny and charming moments in the Jalal-Jodha segment in their bedroom, but my own favourite is still the one in the precap yesterday. As I wrote elsewhere,it reminded me of nothing so much as a wife waking up her husband at 2 am on a cold winter night and asking him to investigate a noise in the basement.
Jalal's face, as he looked at the khanjar his begum had handed him, accompanying it with nayanamudras straight out of a Bharatanatyam recital, to encourage him to get on with it, was an unalloyed delight!😉
6) The heart of a child: Jalal delights in the company of children, whether little Rahim in Agra or the chhoti fauj here in Amer, because their affection and admiration for him are both unconditional and unstinting, without any ulterior agenda. All the other relationships in his life so far have been barter deals: caring and affection, yes, but in return for what he can provide. Remember the time when Ruqaiya (the original one) admires his get up (at the time of the Farida affair) and he asks at once What do you want?
But when the littlest one here says that she came just to see him, because aap itne sundar hain, he basks in her admiration like a sunflower in the sunlight (that Jodha, with a side glance of proprietary pride at this point, looks almost as pleased as Jalal does is another matter altogether!).
That the children delight in his company moves him as very little else, which is why he speaks later, with touching candour, of the sunheri yaadein he will take away from this time spent with them.
There is, somewhere inside the Shahenshah, the heart of a child.
7) Chudail shehzaadi: The bedtime story is unadulterated fun, and as Jalal goes on and on about the gussail shehzaadi jo hare rang se nafrat karti thi ( he never misses a single trick, does he?), the fluctuating expressions on Jodha's face are a treat to watch. I was as pleasantly startled as Jalal must have been by her sudden, rippling laughter. The last time we saw her laugh so much was after his offer of the talaq-e-khula, and then it was awash with pure bitterness. Now it is unclouded amusement, and she looks so joyful and so pretty that Jalal's breath must have caught in his throat. After all, this is what he had been striving for for weeks now, that she should be comfortable with him, at ease and relaxed.
Perhaps because of this newfound confidence, when she asks him to sleep comfortably and not fall ill, for that would worry her Bapusa, his standard complaint Aap ab bhi apne walid ke bare mein sochthi hain, hamare bare mein nahin! , has a new sound to it. As he tilts his head back against the bedstead and looks up at her, his words have no tinge of sarcasm, or even of teasing. His gaze is direct, and his eyes are asking a question.
Her eyes look fully into his for one long moment, and though she says nothing, there is something in their depths that was never there before. A hint of a smile, as if to say Kitne bewakoof hain aap, Shahenshah! Har baat kahi nahin jaati. Kuch baaten apne aap samajhni padti hain!
This is perhaps the first insider joke between our Odd Couple!
6) Teerbazi: I was relieved to see Mansingh in some action at long last, and greatly amused by the Jalal-Mansingh man to man joking about Jodha's bossiness.
Interestingly, what Jalal tells Mansingh to do, to become one with the arrow while aiming at the target, is exactly what Maharishi Vishawamitra teaches the young Rama, and Dronacharya teaches Arjun. It is the essence of concentration, with a focus so laserlike that it shuts out everything else around but the archer, the arrow, and the target.
Lastly, does Jodha have to pull a 1970s film heroine stunt at least once in every episode? What was it with the bee stung face and sarcasm after Jalal had praised her various hunars with such evident sincerity ?
That there seem to be far too many of these hunars is another matter altogether. Does she have to be such a sarvakalavalli? All that remains is for her to walk on water!😉
To revert, she looks ridiculous and sounds worse. But because she laughed so prettily the night before, I will cut her a bit of slack, and pass it off as payback for his chudail shehzaadi crack!
7) So, the precap that followed immediately thereafter, with Mahaam giving Jodha a much needed taste of her own medicine, delighted me no end. One for the Wazir-r-Aaliya, who rubs it in good and proper!
Joke of the day: The ragtag bunch of Rajvanshi chamchas of Kunwar Pratap, looking for all the world like the villain's 5th to 8th sidekicks in a 1970s film togged out as downmarket royals, arguing loudly, right inside the Amer stables, about their proposal to bump off the Shahenshah. Whatever Bharmal's suraksha prabhand might be like, his intelligence network is kaput. Otherwise, the first securityman masquerading as a stable hand would have rushed to him with the news of this Keystone Kops venture!😉
Shyamala B.Cowsik
Udne Ki Aasha
Anupamaa
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