Friends, after the turmoil and turbulence of the previous episode, especially on this Forum, what sweet vindication yesterday's episode was - especially for those who had kept their sanity and balance, their tails up in positive expectation, and their analysis of that previous episode within acceptable limits!
I think my lesson from the intense angst that went round yesterday is that, I, as as viewer need to keep faith in the Creatives and in the storyline ... for what I may see as a "deeply negative event" on the screen may have not been meant to seem as such by the Creatives. The scene yesterday of Jodha saying to Jalal that she cares more for her family than him was not big eventually for Jalal. He was as playful and as sweet as he could be to her, and he found that this sweetness pays dividends with her and not sarcasm. And she too found that she could have lighter moments with him to enjoy than always being in a self-protective shell.
I want to add one more point about the previous episode before I go on to the Thursday episode analysis. Someone pointed out on my thread yesterday, that when after the suicide attempt Jodha told Jalal: "Why did you save me, why not let me die?" he replied: "For the good name of the Sultanate" ... he did not say "Because I cared for you!". So why should we feel so disturbed if in response to his: "Why should I run away from Amer for my life?" she replied: "For my family's sake" ... and not "Because I care for you!".
My personal takeout yesterday is that if we believe that the eventual story if about two flawed (and therefore normal people) finding their way towards a true and beautiful love that changed them and changed history, then the end result will be all the sweeter because they are both flawed to start with. And when the story deals with "flawed protagonists", then "viewer maturity" and "viewer faith" is one of those principles that surely pays! I am personally doubly determined to maintain my standards of positive anticipation even in the face of negative events in the episode. I want to enjoy the serial and not shoot myself in the foot, each time an episode, event or dialogue does not match my expectations.
Okay, so that's off my chest ... now let's go on to the cute fun we all had last night:
The push-ups may not have done much for fitness, but it worked on the romance
I loved every single second of the whole scene, starting with the dance and going right up to the moment when Jalal says "Shabbakhair" to a departing Jodha! There was not just cute fun but also a dose of sexual innuendo that tinged the scene with a depth that we never expected so soon in the serial.
Firstly, he sneaks up to the room where the women's dancing is going on, and standing behind a barely-covering pillar, he gets an absolute eyeful of Jodha twirling around. But the loveliest moment for me was when the music of the dance subtly changed to "their music" and her hair came loose, for at that moment the stalking-husbannd seemed transported into the realm of intense sensual attraction for Jodha! She also stops midway as she first senses his presence and then actually catches him peeping, only to lose sight of him as he slips off.
But she seems to know where to find him again because she stomps straight to the bedroom. He at first feigns surprise, but she says she knows he's been peeping in on the dance. Now comes the utterly sweet part where the "one that should be punished for transgressing" actually actively solicits punishment! She is reluctant to give him punishment for his gunah in entering the ladies' chamber, she in fact exonerates him because he once exonerated Maan Singh in the harem. But Jalal insists on punishment because his gunah was deliberately done ... and oh, my goodness, he said :" If you don't punish me, I'll assume you have fallen for me!". He then starts inspecting the fragrance of mehndi on her hand as if to give her time to recover from that new twist to his angle of approach towards her!
That talk about "assuming she was falling for him" took me aback, I don't know about Jodha! She then hastily gave him 500 push ups to do, for which he elaborately removed his clothes and then with heavy laboured breathing he started doing the push ups, threatening to bring the whole palace there with his "grunting" to see what was going on. When she tried to stop his further push-ups, he asked for a shoulder massage and she had to insist he wear his clothes again, because he thought even that could be done better if bare-bodied. He then gave more "audible sighs of satisfaction" through the massage, and then explained to her that people hearing him may think : "What is this physical stuff that Jodha is demanding from her husband, that makes his breathing so hard?"
The naughty boy knows for sure that Jodha is beginning to feel something strong for him and with his bare-body displays, and his sexual innuendos and his talk of her "falling for him" he is showing her that he knows that she is well on the way to feeling a lot for him already. So if we put this knowledge of his today with his easy brush off of her causticity yesterday, we can now see why it did not matter so much to him when she said "Go away from Amer for my family's sake". He knows she cares for him a good deal somewhere inside ... even if she cannot admit it! He has started to care for her, so he is looking for signs of reciprocity!
I am not surprised that she stomped off with a mock-anger on her face. If I were her I would have split the room, and then held my stomach and laughed my guts out! He was incorrigible.
The baaratiyon ka swagat became a silent communication of eye signals
OMG, the baaratiyon ka swagat scene was lovely too. It started with Jalal and Jodha both having some fleeting flashbackks of their own wedding. At least the flashbacks looked like Jalal's thoughts, even if I am not sure whether Jodha had those flashbacks herself. But through the rasams he was looking at her through the corner of his eye to see how she was reacting.
Then came the "language of eye signals" spoken by both of them in a half-fun, half-romantic style, that absolutely gave me the thrills. She kept hinting at sindoor on his nose that he tried to rub off in vain ... till the small saali had to be commissioned to go and do it for him by Jodha (who referred to Jalal as a "buddhoo"). He then returned the compliment by sending more dire eye signals to her suggesting she too has a smut on her nose and he thoroughly enjoyed seeing her rubbing her nose hard till it went red with the rubbing. The small saali further told Jodha that she's been taken for a ride by Jalal, and then ... oh, those absolutely divine smiles passed between Jalal and Jodha. He was openly mischievous in the way he looked at her discomfiture while she was reluctantly forced to see the fun of it although she tried hard to hide it. Lovely moment!
Overall both the romatic scenes occupied close on two thirds of the whole episode and were so beautifully directed that not one word seemed out of place. Every gesture and nuance was delightfully arranged and choreographed like a "dance of romance", and the residual impression it all gave me was one of satisfation that the romance is heady and headed in the right direction. Most of all I was thrilled to bits that the chemistry between Jodha and Jalal was just perfect for my taste!
The new sasurji throws a fit about the fort as Jalal is faced with Muughal treachery
Okay, in the last bit of the show, as Adham and Sharif were anticipating, the fireworks began. Bharmal listed out the gifts for the new dulha, whereupon the dulha's father butted in asking for footnotes on the Ratanpur Fort he was promised by Sharif. As I expected, Sharif denied his ever making such a promise, and as it turns out the fort belonged firstly to Jalal, and secondly it was one of his treasured possessions with a lot of historical meaning for him.
Bharmal asked the Sasurji why the the fort was so important to him, where again the Sasurji went all over the "prickly issue" of Jodha having married into the Mughals, and he said he did not want either the Mughals or even the Rajvanshis to attack him after his alliance with Bharmal and hence he needed the fort!
I can imagine what Jalal was feeling. I can also imagine what Jodha was feeling for Jalal. Sharif has so far been enjoying himself by denying the whole promise and waiting to watch what happens after that.
I think we all know that Jalal will get exasperated enough (as shown in the precap) and hand over the precious fort. The scene where Sukanya is dressing and tells Jodha : "Jalal's heart is so big, he has contiinued with my wedding despite the elephant episode" was a sanket that Jalal may continue to be big-hearted and not let the fort issue also affect the wedding . The key part of this Jodha-Sukanya dialogue was that "Jalal has a heart" and if Jodha has not already seen it, when he hands over the fort, she surely will!
As for the precap, I am not sure how Maham becomes one of the three accused by the Sasurji, and whether Jalal says "Bas!" because he doesn't want Maham to be accused - or whether he is generally exasperated with the Sasurji and has made up his mind to end the argument and give the Sasur the fort. Let's wait and see ...
