Friends, today's show seemed like the starter episode of a whole new phase in the lives of the people at Agra, including Jodha and Jalal. There were four different streams of events starting to take shape today, which may lead either concurrently - or in some sort of sequence - into the week to come.
The four streams I am talking about today were: the Jodha-Ruqaiya mutual levelling; the Adham Khan-baandhi saga; the Bakshi issue continuing to irk and yet bringing Jodha-Jalal closer; and, the revelation of the real reasons behind Sharif trying to split Jodha and Jalal.
Although all these four streams seemed like separate story flows, there is one thing common to them all. That one thing is Jodha. She is the common thread running though all these four issues.
In two of these issues Jodha is likely to become a natural adversary without actually intending to be one. For example, with Ruqaiaya Jodha is an adversary even if trying hard not to be so. With the Sharif issue too, she is the victim of his sense of entitlement about her, she is not the one taking any stand against him yet.
But there are also the other two issues where she is likely to be in an active anti-position. On the Adham issue, spoilers have said that Jodha will try to vehemently intervene. And again in the Jalal birthday invitation to Bakshi, I fully expect her to get vocal and even pushy, as the precap already seems to hint.
I thus have a feeling that in the coming weeks, the storyline would become a sort of "Jodha vs. issues", thus making her centrestage of most events but finding herself in an isolated position. That leaves us with what Jalal will be doing while Jodha thus gets embroiled willy-nilly in all these upcoming events.
My feeling is that Jalal is already showing signs today of becoming more and more attracted to Jodha, and in the days to come it looks like he will make his attraction more physically visible. Today he already showed a kind of new "awareness" of her in the kite scene, and their banter and eye contact seemed to hit a new kind of tone that I have not seen before. Again in the precap, he seemed momentarily but bodily "affected" by her touch on his shoulder. Further, if he hears of Sharif's desire for Jodha via some informant, his feelings of jealousy over Jodha may also get activated with some physical manifestations of possessiveness. And on the issue of Bakshi, I think Jodha will manage to reach out and help him feel his own heart more actively.
In the coming week I will thus be looking to see if Jodha will find herself isolated in the middle of events, and whether Jalal will start acknowledging and expressing new feelings for Jodha as he supports her through her situations.
Meanwhile here's more on what happened today ...
Jodha and Ruqaiya: a discussion on what is real love?
The episode opened with a very interesting scene - of Ruqaiaya actually waiting with some heightened anxiousness to the arrival of Jodha in her rooms where she had in fact "summoned" Jodha. Offering Jodha a seat, Ruqaiaya seems to waste no time shooting a direct question at her: "With no baby in the offing now, what exactly are your feelings for the Shahenshah? Yesterday you seemed to emphathise with his tears? Do you fancy yourself in love with him? Do you wish he had entered into relations with you that stormy night?" Jodha, did not seemed too taken aback at all, but she certainly seemed to think deeply before she answered: "I am not in love with him and never want to be. But its true that I do not feel "ghrna" for him any more, in fact I feel "abhari" - but that's because he did the upright thing by me and stood with me through this crisis, even taking things upon himself. And yesterday he was a good king to his praja too. But you needn't fear, he likes you more than he can like me."
Ruq looked partially gratified, but it seemed she felt the need to press the point again: "I don't mind Jalal sleeping with any one, but he can only have mohabbat towards me." Jodha I think caught Ruq's weak point. Ruq's statement seemed not to be about her feelings for Jalal, it was about Jalal needing to show that mohabbat for Ruqaiaya!
Jodha then neatly turned the tables on Ruqaiya saying: "I too have question for you? Are you in love with the Shahenshah?" Jodha in fact asked the same question twice! The first time, an enraged Ruq almost shouted: "Of course, I am the Begum-E-Khas, aren't I?" and then the second time she shouted again: "And I am Jalal's childhood friend, aren't I?".
Jodha then said with calm firmness: "You have not answered my question directly. You are unable to say if you love him or not! I ask again: if he were not the Shahenshah, and you were not the Begum -E-Khas or even his friend, would you love him even without his audha? And, by the way, kisi ko chaahna' is a whole different ball game than kisi ko paana'." By now Ruq was getting close to hyper and so she hinted it was time for Jodha to leave. Jodha left with a parting shot: "Think at your leisure - if not for him, for yourself - whether you love him, or you love who he is and what he comes with."
The beauty of this whole dialogue for me was two things:
a. It was a revelation to see this new Jodha airing her very recent lessons in "love" learnt from Bakshi and Salima, to the hapless Ruqaiaya, who had even less familiarity with "love" than Jodha had had in the last few months! But it at least showed us that Jodha has started thinking of the subject of love in earnest now, and her confidence in being able to talk on this subject to Ruq, without any of her old hatred for Jalal showing itself on her face and demeanour, spoke for her own comfort now in discussing this whole touchy subject of "mohabbat for Jalal".
b. Ruqaiaya seems to be, on the other hand, rattled by the events of the last week. She appeared very unsure of her standing with Jalal, because even though events showed that Jalal had not slept with Jodha, it has become clear to Ruq that Jalal saw fit to lie to her that he had slept with Jodha! And he kept that lie going till the very end, when Ruq herself was forced to find out from Hoshiyaar about the truth of the situation. Also in the bath, the other day, Ruq had said she would now go to Jalal herself, and ask for forgiveness in mistaking him. But look what she has chosen to do instead: she has called Jodha over to deal with Jodha rather than deal with Jalal. Today Ruq betrayed her growing distance from Jalal by seeking to hear from Jodha about Jalal's state of mind!
Bakshi: the topic around which new feelings are growing!
The beleagured Bakshi Bano seems to have suddenly become the one thing that most irks Jalal, and yet is bringing Jodha and Jalal closer than ever before.
Today there was a very nice kite scene in which things began to show signs of changing between Jodha and Jalal, and I loved that scene because for the first time I saw an entirely different tone to the banter between Jodha and Jalal and I also saw some terrific "speaking with the eyes" between them.
Jodha was tending to her tulsi plant in the garden, when nearby Rahim was unsuccessfully trying to fly a kite without a friendly wind to help it rise into the sky. Jalal appeared there just then to teach Rahim that flying kites without a favourable wind was what mastery was all about. He then managed to get the kite soaring - when a duly impressed Moti told a keenly watching Jodha that Jalal seemed to have all kinds of "dor" in his grip! The look on Jodha's face as she watched Jalal helping Rahim was something new! Her eyes were riveted on his face and she had a "fan-girl" kind of expression! Then Jalal, leaving the dor in Rahim's hands, turned to speak with Atga Khan, when Rahim lost control and the kite wavered, about to descend.
Jodha was up in a trice, jumpping to Rahim's rescue and she helped him get the kite back into the higher skies. The kite was a nice symbolism (as Jyoti said to me) of how Jalal was flying the kite high while she was taking care it doesn't fall!
But the best surprises in the scene came for me in the banter between Jodha and Jalal taking turns with the kite. Jalal said to Jodha: "Are you trying to get closer to me by suddenly dropping your feeding of the birds and now handling the kite? Or is it your usual attempt to get talking to me on some pet peeve?" Jodha tried to steer the subject to Bakshi Bano (now that she'd been given an opening), but Jalal stopped her: "I don't want to talk about her. I want to forget the whole issue. Please don't rub salt into my wounds, and I suggest you forget the issue too."
He then turned to go, but he didn't go actually. He instead stayed back and kept looking at her! And what d you know, she was supposed to be flying the kite, but instead she was watching him back! I have never seen this level of attraction between them so far and felt as if I was seeing the first signs of a big change!
Later in the precap, Bakshi again seemed to be the subject causing Jodha to actually reach out tentatively and touch Jalal on the shoulder in an effort to convince him to forgive her. But the moment of the touch was very interesting. Jalal's face showed a sudden "awareness", a frisson of some physical feeling, at her touch, that we've never seen him ever betray before. Then of course he said his usual sentences that he could not forgive Bakshi and asked Jodha not to give "dakhal andaazi" while she tried gently to tell him that he was giving the "dand" to the wrong person!
To me today, Bakshi herself was incidental to all this by-play between Jodha and Jalal. I expect that in the coming week, with Jalal's birthday approaching, Bakshi (and her non-invitation) is going to be more and more discussed between Jodha and Jalal, with more opportunities for Jodha to help heal the hurting and silently weeping Jalal. To see a man cry is wonderful, somehow, and not at all unmanly! I want to see Jalal let go the tears and find comfort in Jodha's caring!
Adham and the baandhi girl: the unsavoury side of lust!
I have some nasty sentences to say about this piece of rubbish called Adham Khan today. He is a paedophile of the worst kind. My blood boils at the way he seduced that child today with a necklace and carefully plotted and planned to get her into his bed in slow and steady stages! He did it all with a finesse that I never associated with him, and that's what makes it all the more ugly!
He has a nutcase for a wife that doesn't even seem to sense that her husband wants to bed a small girl child and is handing over her necklaces to woo this unsuspecting child before having his way with her.
I am in fact somewhat surprised by the spoilers that say Adham asks to "marry" this child, and Jodha stands in the way. How is it that Adham has become at least as honourable as contemplating marriage, rather than just ruining the girl without any legal arrangement with her? What makes Adham ready to marry her? That is a puzzle.
As for Maham, she smells a rat, but now it remains to be seen whether she will side with Jodha to dissuade Adham from any such horrendous marriage with a minor, or whether she will try her own tricks to stop Adham before Jodha can make him look like a worst kind of creep.
Incidentally, another dimension also strikes me here, that maybe the laws in the Mughal Sultanate are not against this kind of child marriage (or the marriage of Jalal and Ruq may never have had its sanction). So the age of the girl seems no bar, but perhaps the fact that there is such difference in their ages may be a cause for general consternation! I am eager to see what arguments Jodha uses to try and quash this marriage, and what Jalal then decides to do about the situation.
My hunch is that the situation may boil up, but before Jalal has to give his faisala, Maham may succesfully end the sitaution by probably crunching Adham under her own heel! I think Maham may neither object to he girl's age nor to Adham's age, but her worst nightmare would be that Adham is unable to raise his matrimonial sights higher than baandhi-level!
Sharifuddin guns for Jalal's treasures: the takht and Jodha!
Okay, for those who wanted self-talks from Sharif to know why exactly he wanted to separate Jodha and Jalal, we got our back-story!
Sharif, it seems was all along in some sort of delusion about his entitlement to Jodha as part of the prize for winning Amer. He has half-heard Jalal talk of Amer and Jodha as hyphenated terms, and thought that if he delivered Amer to Jalal, he could have Jodha as the prize. As Chugtai Khan much later told Bharmal, Sharif it appears has always had a less than decent eye for Jodha. Today we saw flashbacks of him lusting after her portrait hoping to land her one day as his own begum.
We are also given an idea of why Sharif used that spear in an underhand and unethical way to pierce the body of Suryabhan in war - and later took the abundant precaution of even beheading him. Sharif had heard of the engagement of Jodha and Suryabhan and decided to eliminate the man that stood between himself and his prize catch Jodha!
But the nasty blow to Sharif was when Jalal himself married Jodha and foisted a lesser prize on Sharif via his own sister Bakshi Bano! Could this explain why Sharif is so cruel to Bakshi? It may not just be that he doesn't like her, but she also daily reminds him of the woman he wanted instead and could never get?
Now, aside from knowing the reasons why Sharif was so determined to split up Jodha and Jalal, the implications of this revelation of his back-story today can be threefold:
a. We have to see what Sharif wants more: the takkht or Jodha, and if push comes to shove, and he can try to get only one of these two things, then where do his priorities lie? That can tell us a lot about what strategies he many use to get Jalal out of his way!
b. I wonder if Ekta will elaborate on this Sharif coveting Jodha to create some fictional kidnaps of Jodha or some such tracks not present in actual history. Could Sharif still use Adham (who is still in the Agra palace) to try out of some of his non-military but subtle campaigns against Jodha and Jalal?
c. Will Sharif now try to play the Sujamal card? Will he try to impute an unsavoury colour to the Jodha-Sujamal relationship? Considering that Jalal has never met Sujamal, he may well be hoodwinked into thinking Sujamal may be some old boyfriennd of Jodha's.
In the movie version we have Maham bringing Sujamal in as Jodha's suitor and thus raising Jalal's disappointment in Jodha, causing him to bansih her to Amer. But in this Ekta version, could Sharif be the one who brings Sujamal into the story now?
Ye Hai Mohabbatein
Mangal Lakshmi
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