Friends, I couldn't help enjoying writing the headline of this post: "Elephant goes mad after misleading promo!" I thought it covered all events that happened yesterday in one neat sentence ... and I also got to write my own misleading headline! Do I have your applause?
I have never been so utterly pleased that something did not happen, and this is the second time I feel this way about the promos shown in this serial. The first time I felt this way was when we had a nasty and misleading promo showing Jalal himself, in war armour, killing Suryabhan in war. I remember watching that promo in horror thinking "What future do we have if the hero is a murderer of the heroine's fiance?". Luckily it was then Sharif who killed Suryabhan, and Jalal was nowhere near the war front!
The promo two days ago of Jodha spurring on Jalal to "go and prove his mettle against the elephant" comes close to that war promo in terms of "tain tain fiss".
Anyway, barring that happiness of a promo gone "phut", here's my take on the rest of the episode:
(Accha, before I start let me say that now I have also seen the new promo: this is how it goes. Jodha is doing a few twirling dance steps, when Jalal sneaks up there to look at her. She says to him: "You are here? Looking at my dancing "chori chupke"? Iske liye hum aapko avashya dandh deinge ..." So the banter continues but it's getting less and less about any real issues and more and more about "hichkichaahats". And do I hear a collective "Oooh, what will the dandh be?". Have control, folks, you will soon find out!)
The Adham-Sharif combo and its sinister machinations
There were four scenes yesterday that seemed all about these two clowns. First there was the Sharif-Bakshi Bano scene where they discuss gifts for Sukanya, when Sharif tells Bakshi finally that the gifts are sure to return soon as there will be no shaadi! Then comes the scene of Adham and his henchman drugging Hawai (the elephant) during its mealtime. The third scene involving Adam-Sharif comes when both are trying to say whose plan will work better: Adam's elephant plan or Sharif's "fort" for the Sasurji plan! And finally there is one more scene where Adham in the guise of trying to calm the elephant himself, makes sure he incites it further with a red rag!
None of these scenes were momentous, but there are two points that struck me as worth mentioning in relation to these two scenes:
1. The Creatives deliberately showed Jodha as overhearing the part where Sharif tells Bakshi that the gifts will soon return.. she asks why but gets no reasonable answer, and she leaves with a lot of suspicion on her face regarding Sharif's faked "silkiness".
2. In the precap of the episode, Jalal mentions to Jodha "Tell me what you would do in my position. If I run from Amer, I'd be a coward that my enemies will think they have chased away. If I stay, I will be prey to murder attampts by Rajvanshis or maybe even Mughals." That last bit of the sentence in the precap suggests that Jodha's overhearing of Sharif may have had something to do with Jodha and Jalal's later conversation regarding possible Mughall hands also behind the elephant incident and the safety of Jalal.
The girl sailing down the stairs in the green dress
For romance lovers this scene was out of fairytales. It always is so cliched that the heroine of a fairytale love story sails down a flight of grand stairs and the hero looks up mesmerised as she enters his vision. The scene yesterday was one such typical love-story cliche, for sure, but no matter how many times you see this kind of scene, in several different movies or serials, it never fails to grab attention and sighs of satisfaction. It seems like it is every girl's dream to walk down a stairway and find the hero's eyes on her! What is it about grand staircases and descending down them in a fabulous dress that has the girls romanticising about the moment? Khair, let's get on with it ...
This heroine was ostensibly in a colour she hated to wear, but the hero had gifted her this green dress that she wore (as he said, despite her "inkaar!) and he then crowned the moment for himself, and the viewers by saying "She wore it for me. I love green and especially on her!" The heroine, by now used to a bit of sarcasm from the Shahenshah, did not know if she had received a compliment or not. Neither did we. But I, the romantic, would like to think he did like her in that green dress and since "their music" was playing as she came downn the stairs, I will assume it to be an echo of the strains of music in his hidden heart, and that he said the words he genuinely meant without any sarcasm at all! There, that satisfes me ... and all those who love to love a fairytale! May our tribe increase! (Those who wish to think of themselves as more "realistic" can feel free to think he was full of "biting sarcasm" if it makes them happy!)
Maharana Pratap's career as a commmentator has not much hope
The elephant-quelling scene had Jalal as its centrepiece, no doubt - he ran towards the rampaging elephant in the sabha, then he called its name to calm it as best as he could, but the elephant was still in a mad rage, and tossed Jalal to the ground before he could climb its trunk, perch himself atop of it and then caress its head to bring its madness down and make it a pussy cat!
But the hero of this scene (or rather the buffoon) was Maharana Pratap and his running commentary. (Just before this scene, we must remember, Pratap had seen Jalal in playful banter with the halwa maker, holding his throat and asking him to make the best halwa ... and Pratap from a distance had thought Jalal was strangling the Rajputs to give them dhamkis! We must understand that Pratap was coming into the elephant-taming scene with this perception of Jalal in mind!)
It is not surprising then that a verbal volley was just waiting to escape Pratap's mouth. Pratap thus became "switched on" immediately when the mad elephant entered the dancers' arena! He uttered with glee that Jalal may not abe able to quell Hawai, and started giving out his own step by step recipe for "elephant-calming" to his impressed sidekick, only to find that Jalal knew all those tricks and was one step ahead of his commentary for the most part, doing the self-same things Pratap was saying he should. The sidekick then made Pratap look better than an out-and-out buffoon by saying "Both of you must have had the same guru!" to which Pratap remembered his guru's advice to take the true measure of his enemy, and replied "This Jalal is really good!"
Knowing Pratap, I am not sure if he remembered to breathe once in the middle of this diatribe, but I hope he did at least take a breath after that last sentence. One of these days he may die of asphyxia!
The precap sounds wonderful - Jalal has started conferring with Jodha!
We don't yet know what exactly is to happen in the precap scene when it airs in today's episode, but it does look like Jodha has shown some concern for Jalal's safety and they have both been discussing who is behind these series of disturbing events and what can be done. It looks like Jalal has replied Jodha by putting his crown on her head and giving her his shamsheer and he has then asked her: "Put yourself in my position. If I run from Amer my enemies will have the satisfaction of having moved me out. And if I stay the Rajvanshis - or even the Mughals - will continue to target my life. You tell me, what should I do?"
He sounds exasperated, and it could well be that he is put out by events and Jodha's questioning. But my only takeout from this precap is one of satisfaction. Jalal has asked for Jodha's opinion, however exasperatedly, which is a sort of first!
Maybe they were only arguing and maybe he was asking an argumentative question for which he didn't expect her answers. That would be one way of looking at it. But again, being a romantic, I would like to believe that Jalal was in a genuine dilemma, and was looking to find a friend in that moment who could bring a new perspective on the situation.
I do hope Jodha gives him an answer that he can work with and be very glad for. I also hope this is the beginning of a more consultative phase between them. I like to see that kind of interdependence develop! If this happens, then Ruq and Maham may slowly cease to be his closest confidantes over the next few months.
Udne Ki Aasha
Anupamaa
