Friends, phew! Give me some time to catch my breath because I have run the 100 metres dash with Usain Bolt today trying to catch up with the speed of the episode. All of the latter part of last week and the first half of the this week we forum members must have collectively written at least 100,000 words on who will be the culprit, what will be the saazish, why will someone want to target Jodha, why is Jalal doing what he is doing, who is gaining what from the fracas ... and look what we got at the end of it? We got the exact 2-line Tatasky spoiler in a 22 minute format!
The episode today can't even be split up into parts comfortably for my analysis, because it was one long 18 minute "saazish unmasking" scene ... with some two smaller intervening bits: one bit showing us some varied facets of Ruqaiaya's personality, and the other bit was a short end scene with a stunned and wronged Jodha and Jalal staring at each other in disbelief-cum-silent seething! The culprits were the expected suspects, the motive was the least elaborate one we could think of, and the whole pregnancy-cum-saazish track ended in just one episode, where we had at least expected another three before the track would be wound up.
I thought Rajat was spectacular throughout the episode, and all marks to him for in fact carrying the episode on his shoulders. He was the star on whom my eyes were riveted, starting from the moment the jashn began (when he was searching the room for the culprit with his eyes), to the moments when he accosted Bakshi Bano (with a mixture of brotherly love, questions, frustration, anger, despair, rage and then fury), and then to the end with Jodha (when he dropped the bombshell news on her that she was not pregnant). His Urdu dialogues were not always easy to follow because he was modulating his voice a lot and often running his sentences into one another to get his emotions right ... but his agitated manner beautifully portrayed his inner turbulence as he raved and ranted at his sister , for being the last person he would have suspected to have done the deed that had caused such utter distress to Jodha and himself, exposing them both to public humiliation and ridicule!
Now Sharif, the culprit, has bolted in the classic manner of all cowardly villains, leaving Bakshi to face Jalal's wrath and punishments, and the real story of Mughal history books beckons. The much-vaunted face-offs between Jalal and Sharif, which were supposed to be protracted and bitter battles, are about to start. In this new context, the epic love of Jodha and Jalal will no doubt evolve to a new level.
Here's how I would anaylse what happened today ...
The saazish ends ...and so does the divide between Jalal and Jodha
The whole scene began with Jodha and Jalal entering and taking their places at the jashn. From that moment on, three pairs of alert eyes - of Salima, Jalal and Atga Khan - were trying to look at every female hand wearing bangles to try and spot some green coloured "kadas".
Women like Hamida, Gulbadan and JiJi Anga all came and gave gifts to Jodha for the arrival of the non-baby! Salima brought her gift too, but spent more time thinking about Jalal than about Jodha. She saw nothing but goodness in Jalal, that despite his own sorrows at not having a real baby at the heart of this jashn, he was going through the fake-motions of pretend fatherhood, with a determination to get to the bottom of the saazish, and save the honour of Jodha and himself.
Then came the turn of Ruq who came to offer kesar milk to Jodha - and I noticed particularly that Jalal also looked hard at Ruq's hand for that green "kada"!
After a chaddar ka rasam, and a short interlude scene between Ruq and Jalal, the lady with the green kadas finally appeared in the room carrying a tray of drinks and immediately a set of eye signals passed between Jalal and Salima! The lady in question was a baandhi. Jalal asked his guard to get the baandhi for a private session with him (which Jodha, in true form, suspected to be one if his "ashobhaniya" requisitions without concern for due propriety during a jashn!)
Jalal went into a separate room where he asked the lady to show her pir ka dhaga as well, but when she said she didn't wear one, he got angry and demanded how she got the bangles. The lady said she had been given the bangles by Bakshi Bano as a gift for services rendered. And then came slow shock washing over Jalal's face as the real import of those words hit him!
He sent the baandhi to summon Bakshi Bano and all the while he waited for her, he wore the look of one stunned by events and unable to swallow what he had pieced together so far! Bakshi arrived slightly nervously (and behind her, her husband, frightened by the reasons for her being summoned by Jalal, decided to follow in hiding to see if he could overhear the goings-on).
Now here comes the best part of the scene: Jalal started by caressing and kissing Bakshi's head with brotherly love. Try as he might, he couldn't help the love he felt for her, even when he knew that his next question to her was going to be ruthless: "Aren't you the one who's been feeding Jodha with ark to make her look pregnant?". This direct attack seemed to get Bakshi's eyes to brim over in silent acknowledgement. Jalal then said in a voice that was full of controlled menace:"You knew that Jodha and I had not slept together. You knew she could not be pregnant and that if she did have the symptoms, she would suspect me and I would suspect her of infidelity. And yet you went ahead with dosing her the ark? Why? Because she was a Hindu? What motive could you have had for doing this?" Even to this point Bakshi remained silent. Then Jalal's voice grew louder: "You have also mercilessly killed the poor Hakim?"
Bakshi was forced to then speak up because this was scary news to her as well. She said: "I swear I had nothing to do with the Hakim's death, I am hearing it from you for the first time." And then when Jalal started shouting at full volume, raving and ranting at her, and asking for reasons for the whole saazish, she broke down visibly - and said everything that there was to be said. The sum and substance of it was that she had done what she did under the orders of her husband, whose motive it was to ensure a split between Jodha and Jalal.
She recounted the whole story of how Sharif had had threatened her with divorce if she didn't follow orders, and how he had made her feed the ark to Jodha every day to keep her pregnancy-like symptoms alive. She talked of how she had done the first dosing of the sherbet to Jodha at her birthday ceremony, and then sustained the dosing via the milk in the kitchen. She also talked of losing the ark when the bottle broke and having to approach the Hakim for more supplies. She said she'd been spotted by the Hakim and therefore had to run away after pushing the Hakim down. She'd then gone to her husband to say she'd had enough of all this, for she had been spotted by the Hakim - whereupon Sharif had then presumably commissioned the murder of the Hakim ...
All through Bakshi's "vomiting" of the sordid tale, Jalal stood stunned, with only his face and eyes changing expressions every second. There was incredulity, indignation, frustration, desperation, dismay, anger, rage, fury, and a sense of being deeply wronged flitting across his face . Time and again he had to close his eyes to achieve some self-control before he could listen to more. He looked like he didn't know who was more wronged - himself, Jodha or even Bakshi Bano, the blackmailed pawn in a sinsiter game by her husband.
Sharif meanwhile was overhearing everything through the latticed window he was hiding behind. It didn't sound good at all!
By the time Bakshi was through and fell silent, Jalal said ina voice filled with deep revenge: "This is not just a saazish, it is "bhagawat" and there's a murder to reckon with too. The Sharia law says an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. I have to execute Sharif now and you too need to be punished which I will take care of tomorrow".
Bakshi fell at his feet begging for pardon saying she loved the man she was married to and didn't want a widow's life again. Jalal, standing with his sword unsheathed and rearing for Sharif's blood seemed to find in himself some corner of sympathy for Bakshi as he put his sword back, but within seconds came the news that Sharif had fled Agra moments ago with a few horsemen.
Jalal swore retribution at a later date, for he had other more important business to finish before he could end his talks with Bakshi. He led Bakshi by the neck to Jodha's room, and stunned Jodha there with his violence towards his sister. A surprised Jodha rounded on him for explanations when again, with deliberate abruptness, he bit at her: "Do you know you are not pregnant? You are not! And Bakshi here will tell you all!"
Jodha listened dumbstruck to the whole narration of Bakshi (in mute) ... but her eyes never once left Jalal's eyes. She looked at him stunned, and his eyes looked almost derisive as he stared back at her. Suddenly it was as if the two of them who had gone through so much in the last ten days were feeling the anger drain out from them to be replaced by a seething sense of feeling wronged by each other. Jalal just walked out of the room and Jodha's face numbed, her eyes filled with frozen tears!
Later in the precap we were shown a Jodha who let the tears fall copiously as she realised that she had wronged Jalal with her accusations of him. She was a picture of remorse. My only sadnes at the end of this episode was that I had not been shown what Jalal was feeling about his accusations of Jodha's infidelity. But I think I can wait one more day to know Jalal's feelings, because I have had to work my way through a lot of emotions in everybody today!
Ruqaiaya shows us some different sides to her personality
In the midst of this unraveling of the saazish there was one separate issue of interest in the story: Ruqaiaya. We had already seen in previous episodes that she, who was normally reluctant to turn up for jashns of other people, made sure she would attend this one for the sake of "her Jalal". At the jashn, she made sure she greeted Hamida with a smile, even if she told herself it was an effort to try and look happy.
Today, as Jodha and Jalal entered the jashn together, Ruq's eyes flashed some unmistakeable signs of jealousy and hurt. She could not stand the idea that Jalal and Jodha were the centrepieces of the show while she was on the sidelines.
Then came the moment when she went to offer kesar milk to Jodha whiich Jodha graciously accepted without Ruq needing to taste-test it. Jodha said magnanimously: "I trust you, for this baby is as much yours as mine". Ruq did some very interesting self-talk just then. She said to herself: "The Jodha that I've heard so much about does not square with this one I am seeing".
Then came the chaadar rasam when Ruq, as the Begum-e-Khas had to hold up one end of the chaadar, while Jodha and Jalal stood under it, as the maulvi recited Koranic verses. It all seemed too much for Ruq to take, so she left the room in some hurry to not betray her tears. Jalal saw her dropping mood and followed her outside, where she let go the self-control and said half-crying: "I so wanted to be the one to give you our first waaris, but it was not to be". I am sure Jalal must have bitten his tongue at that point to avoid blurting out that there was no real baby between him and Jodha, but he didn't say anything. Ruq then said :"You have to go inside where you are needed more", and she left before he did.
I thought it was a short but remarkable scene, because Jalal felt for her - he sure did - but he knew that he had to stay silent a little while longer for the safety of Jodha! Such is the life of a man with many wives!
Much later in the precap we see a Ruq back in very high spirits, sitting in the bath. She looks like a person who has heard that Jodha is not pregnant after all, and so "her Jalal" was back to being "hers only". She is seen saying: "No one can take Jalal away from me", perhaps with a bit of undue haste, for she never seems to factor in fickle Destiny!
This swing between extremes seems to be the hallmark of Ruqiaya. She is either overly despondent and jealous, or overly exuberant and over-confident. She is thus a sitting duck for knocks from Fate!
A Zee tweet has appeared today asking "Will Ruq now become fast friends with Jodha?" ... so maybe there is something likely to happen to bring both Jodha and Ruq closer? We'll have to wait and see how that pans out ...
I am now looking forward with anticipation to the Jodha-Jalal encounter tomorrow which is sure to be about accusations that went horribly wrong, and efforts to set them to rights. We have had more spoilers saying this whole incident will being them closer than before ... so again we have to see "how close". I just hope it's a nice and long scene, without bitterness and with more honesty and empathy. So till tomorrow folks ... maybe we will have a couple of romantically-designed days of TV viewing on Thursday and Friday this week, before the next big storm breaks in the coming weeks!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
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