Jodha Akbar 111-113: Of human bondage - Page 8

Originally posted by: sashashyam

My dear Ritu,

Welcome to the gang (of my newly acquired nieces, that is)! I am delighted to have one more, as I have just the one son, who is 29, and no daughters, so to have a bunch of lively nieces, without having had to bring them up😉, is indeed manna from Heaven! I am very touched by their affection and their indulgence towards me, and now I have you as well, with your pronounced bent for tucking your tongue firmly in your cheek.

Like Moontide, whose posts are an invariable delight, as you will find out for yourself, I am a devotee of the immortal PG Wodehouse, any anything that tickles my funny bone is very welcome. That is why I loved your post: it was genuinely funny, but not over the top, nor did it contain any dubious double entendres, which I cannot stand.

You are new here, and you will soon find that a taste for humour, especially of the satirical variety, is not too common. I once wrote that Jodha deserved a dozen of the best with a stout slipper - which is a straight lift from PGW - and someone actually thought I was advocating violence, and wrote very solemnly, of course without naming me, that she was completely non-violent and did not approve of such suggestions! I was so flabbergasted that I did not know what to say, and I wisely left her alone. Of course she did not mind my other comment, when I was exasperated with Jalal for hanging around a snooty Jodha like a hopeful poodle, that he should be kicked with a pair of hobnailed boots. So you see, there is non-violence, and then there is non-violence!😉

I hope you will continue to think of even funnier topics to write about. And as for this one of mine, I liked it too, which is not always the case, and the stream vs the ocean comparison especially. I love words for their own sake, and at times they are extra kind to me, and then these felicitous ideas occur to me.

Ah, Rajat! The boy is a marvel, an absolute natural, to the camera born. Watch him in yesterday's scene with Jodha (and the kite and the pigeons). His depression lifts for a brief while as he watches her with the kite, and he comments Aap hawa ka mizaz achchi tarah samajhti hain, which is double meaning, and she looks doubtfully at him. She is not sure if it is a jibe, but still, there is none of the usual acidulated expression on her face, nor are her eyes narrowed in instinctive hostility.

When Jalal asks her why she has left the pigeons and come to him, and mentions 2 possible reasons, the first is a leg pull, and the second shows how easily he can read her now. But in neither sally is there any of the old flirtatious teasing of similar instances in the past; he is as if extinguished. This is not the old Jalal. Bakshi Banu's treachery has hollowed him out, and it shows.

When Jodha retorts that neither reason is correct - which is a bluff, for the second in the real reason - Jalal nods his head in tired, dismissive acknowledgement, as if to say So what else is new? When she then says, with unexpected familiarity, ham aapki begum hain, the old Jalal would have smiled wickedly in ill-suppressed glee at this unprecedented progress. Not now. He merely lowers his head in a half nod, and then asks her to continue.

Again, when, while appearing to be solely focussed on reviving the udaan of Rahim's kite, Jodha steals a backwards glance at Jalal, he too is looking at her, but openly, without dissembling. But there is no smile of pleased satisfaction on his face, it is sombre and closed as he regards her for a long moment before turning away. He is taking her in only peripherally, it is the hurt of betrayal that clouds his spirit.

It is the nuances Rajat brings to this little scene that lift it well above the ordinary. Again, in the precap, his voice thickens and almost becomes suspended with unshed tears as he warns Jodha to stay out of this matter,which is exclusively personal to him. Rajat's voice control is extraordinary. I always say that he can make his eyes do whatever he wants them to do. Now I see that he can do the same with his voice.

Shyamala Aunty