Friends, today's episode did not show us clearly what Jodha's gift for Jalal was ... rather, it led us towards a hint of a guess as to what that gift could be! But we still have to wait till tomorrow to know for sure. I am not sorry about this suspense, and I am prepared to wait, because this episode today had so much of great value in it for me that I am still feeling the after-effects of the full impact of what I saw!
Largely it was a single dimensional episode. It was 90% about Jodha and Jalal going on a trip towards her gift ... and about 10% focused on Ruqaiya and her anxiety, Rahim and his clever manipulation of words, and Adham and his less-than-savoury mind!
The most important aspect of the whole episode, that I want to emphasize, is that yesterday we saw the interesting but slightly childish treasure hunt of Ruqaiaya. I had written yesterday that Ruq seemed to be taking Jalal back into childhood through her own childish feelings and was thus stymying his ability to "feel" and also his potential ... whereas he needed actually to grow out of his difficult past into a future full of real feelings and limitless potential. Today, in a strange way, we saw an entirely different kind of treasure hunt from Jodha that was the direct opposite of the Ruqaiaya style of treasure hunt.
Ruq's treasure hunt was a homely game constructed with simple fun clues, and leading to people within the family and to places within the palace, in search of a gift that would undoubtedly be purely personal and meaningful for Jalal alone, but not for many others around him. Jodha's treasure hunt for Jalal, however, used real clues about the real world outside the palace, leading Jalal into real villages with real people and their real problems. At the end of it I fully expect that the gift that will come to Jalal from Jodha (via his people) will probably be the love of his people - and perhaps even their loving bestowing upon him the title of "Akbar"! This gift too would be personal for Jalal, but it would far surpass what Ruqaiaya has gifted him, because it would be powerfully meaningful to both him and the world.
(At this moment I am not 100% sure the title of "Akbar" will surely be bestowed on Jalal by his people tomorrow because I am not 100% sure of the historical position. In the movie he got the title after he retracted the taxes on Hindus to visit their pilgrimage places. But there's no reason why Ekta may not change the story to make it possible for Jalal to get that title now itself! My hunch is that if he does get the title of Akbar now it would fit with his self-talks yesterday that this birthday would be momentous and life-changing! But even if he doesn't get the title, he would at least know how glorious it feels to get the love of his people rather than be feared by them!)
The precap today clearly shows a furious Ruqaiaya, smarting from the fact that she has been completely upstaged by Jodha in the gift-giving game, and swearing that she will never let Jodha usurp any more of her privileges. But I fear that anything Ruqaiaya may give Jalal personally can never compare with what Jodha may give him from his people because the people represent power, appreciation and collective love of a far greater magnitude! It's a no-brainer!
And so, the journey of Jalal towards "Akbar" seems to be set on course with Jodha's gift tomorrow. But meanwhile let's meander through the episode we saw today to relive some of the highlights ...
Jalal acts eager for his gift ... while Jodha plays cool and canny!
Since the whole episode was virtually centred around the Jodha-Jalal trip today, there's a lot to say about it. When I look at the whole interaction between them, I saw two things happening:
Jalal seemed overly anxious and eager to hear birthday wishes and get a really great gift from Jodha - he was in fact asking about it at every turn! He was almost willing Jodha to show more feelings for him on his birthday, expressing visible joy for him via warm wishes and a really well-thought-out and outstanding gift. Especially since he had taken trouble to give her a gift of such preciousness, he was looking very enthusiatic and almost impatient to see what she was going to give him in return. At first he seemed put out a bit that she had not wished him as warmly as she should have (and needed his prompting), and the gift did not seem to be on her mind as a priority! But later, when she said she would lead him to the gift, he followed readily, because he was by now as intrigued as he was enthusiastic.
On the other hand Jodha seemed to be cleverly playing it all extremely cool. In hindsight, we have to realise that she was acting cool because she was being very canny! She must have planned everything very carefully in advance for the village trip, and done a lot homework, because when she had to take Jalal on that trip to the village, to lead him towards his gift, it all had to go exactly to plan, so that he would get the exact message she was hoping he would get! The timing, the people, their natural responses and the sequence of the trip had to be all perfect for the idea to work! And it did! So a lot of credit is due to the way Jodha handled it all from start to finish! She gave nothing away at the beginning so that he was left to discover at his own pace what the message of the trip was! Clever, clever girl!
The sequence of events went like this: Jalal went up to Jodha at the tulsi plant, half-thinking that Jodha must be part of the Ruqiaya treasure hunt! In the Hindu style that he has learnt well by now, he cutely took aarti. Moti was then quick to wish him for his birthday, but Jalal had to ask Jodha if she too wouldn't wish him, when she did it in a quick and short way! He then asked her about being part of Ruquaiya's chain of clues, and realised soon that Jodha knew nothing about that treasure hunt (even if he had lingering doubts whether she was acting innocent?). Jodha then asked him for leave to pray to the tulsi, and said her Gayatri Mantra, whereupon Jalal asked her the meaning of it.
Jodha said "Just as Chandragupta Maurya was the greatest among kings, the Gayatri is the greatest of mantras". Did Jodha deliberately add that bit about Chandragupta Maurya, just to evoke in Jalal all those feelings of personal power? I think she did, because later she wanted to show him how power without people's love was nothing!
Jalal proudly said "Let history decide who was greater, the Shahenshah or Chandragupta Maurya!" Jodha then asked him to follow her if he wanted his gift! She took him to her rooms and gave him a set of peasant clothes to wear as she also wore a peasant's sari, and then looking like a pair of ordinary folk they made their way to Jodha's planned destination: a remote village. Jalal was told that this trip would help him get to know the real people and their real problems, as a pre-condition for receiving his gift!
At the village, Jalal's men doled out birthday sweets to the village folk who all chanted slogans in praise of the King that they they did not recognise in their midst in his peasant garb. Jalal told Jodha that he would be no less than Chandragupta Maurya if he had on his usual kingly attire, but soon a few stragglers sighted and recognised him even in those drab clothes which made him all the more conscious of his impact as a King! Jodha then said to him: "Even in these clothes, if you had your pagri and sword, people would have recognised you - but not for your popularity but out of fear for you!" Jalal did not quite seem to see her point yet - that the sword and the pagri were symbols of fear and not power, and he said he saw no reason to feel any less powerful if people feared rather than idolised him!
He then said he was thirsty, at which point Jodha told him that was exactly the point of bringing him here. She took him to meet some extremely poor people huddled at a tombside, and asked them to tell the Shahenshah their problems. They talked of thirst, lack of wells and water in the village and their extreme hardship. They said they had tried to reach their King but had not been given access! A visibly moved Jalal then immediately declared that a well would be dug there, and henceforth they would all have free and direct access to himself! Jodha said "You are yet to get your gift this evening, but you have given a gift to these people!"
As they walked back to the palace, Atga Khan was issued orders to ensure the well was dug in that village, and to everyone's surprise, Jalal and Jodha walked though the gardens of the palace in peasant garb that didn't look like birthday wear - and yet Jalal seemed to wear it quite proudly as Jodha's "quasi-gift", in anticipation of the real gift she promised him would be his by the evening , as a grand finale of his trip out with her! Jodha also told him to go and handle Ruq's "adhura" treasure hunt first, as Ruq had the first right to give him her gift.
This was a super confident Jodha talking! She knew she had had a tremendously successful day out with Jalal, everything had worked like clockwork, and she had impressed upon him at least 50% of the intended message. The rest of the message would follow in the evening when he would be able to put it all together - and discover he had received the finest gift of his life!
It is interesting that Jodha thus sent Jalal off to go and see Ruq's gift first, and the episode ended with him being very impressed with it! From the way that room he entered was lit by the abundant sunbeams, it looks like Ruq's gift must have been an awesome sight to behold! But the Creatives have, I think, taken the trouble to show such an elaborate gift from Ruq only to show later that Jodha's gift was even greater. Jalal must have been thinking by evening that nothing could top Ruq's gift when the full import of the Jodha gift would be ready to hit him.
Tomorrow's episode beckons. If my hunch is right, Jalal may find himself being called "Akbar" by the love of his people. And he will know without a shadow of doubt the real calibre of Jodha in the way she staged and presented this gift of his people's love to him. How can a man resist loving a woman who cares so much to bring to him the love of hundreds and thousands of his people?
Ruq's childishness is also reflected in her poor planning of the treasure hunt
The treasure hunt of Ruq is the other issue I want to write about. Yesterday I described it as a very cute but childish concept.
I had written: "Did you all like me feel that somehow Ruq showed her childishness with a game like this one for Jalal? The idea of the treasure hunt was very sweet, per se, but if you noticed Ruq and her childish eagerness for Jalal to play this "game he's always loved from childhood", I got the distict feeling that this girl has never grown up at all. Behind all the gestures friendship, there was not an ounce of passion. The game, the idea, the way she spoke of the rules, the way they both interacted, it may well have been a 12 year old boy and an 8 year old girl enthusiastic about a treasure hunt "surprise birthday gift"! The game was interesting as a creative ploy, but as an interaction between a grown husband and wife, the idea seemed to have more childish fun than adult depth!"
Today I could see that not only was the game itself childish, but Ruq's planning skills were also pathetically amateur. For the success of any plan, it is well-known by even the most average of planners that the final link in the chain needs to be the strongest, since that final link has to lead directly to a successful end-result. Here we had Ruq put Rahim at the last and final slot of the treasure hunt, leaving all of her well-intentioned plans at the mercy of a less than five-year-old?
Not only was Rahim too young to remember his clues even with all that mugging up, but as a child he was also prone to distraction, and its no wonder that he saw Jodha at the tulsi plant and substituted the word "tulsi" for "neem", thus leading Jalal into an entirely unplanned direction at the penultimate stage of the treasure hunt.
Ruq then did exactly what Jodha and Jalal had both said should never be done ... she took her eye off Rahim, and later, after finding Jalal missing for hours, she had to scour the palace to find Rahim just to know if he had delivered the clue properly to Jalal or not! (This was exactly the opposite of the "eye-on-the-kite strategy" that Jodha and Jalal were now the official spokespeople for!)
Finally the errant Rahim was found via a trail of some half-eaten dates he had strewn around and he was located hiding behind a sofa eating more dates. Ruq then added to her woes with a pathetic interrogation style that can never work with an oversmart kid (which Rahim was!). Rahim looked many shades savvier than Ruq and seemed no muff with manipulation of words. He convinced Ruq of his reliability, even thwarting Ruq's attempts to carry the tale to his mother. (Later, you will remember, the same Rahim even tried hoodwinking Jalal into thinking it was he that got "tulsi" mixed up with "neem"!)
Anyway the plans and the game designed by Ruq looked ripe for disaster till Jodha remided Jalal that he had to get to Ruq's gift first (as that was her right!) ... and he then got enough out of Rahim to get himself back on track!
Don't get me wrong. Ruq is a sweet girl, with her own loyalty and deep fondness for Jalal and a streak of utter fairness that surfaces whenever there is a real crisis. But the less said about Ruq's ability to plan and execute a campaign the better. Contrast this with the way Salima handled her campaign on the pregnancy issue, and the difference will be seen as "sheer inexperience and incompetence"!
Adham plans for the unsuspecting Tasneem and her family are put in motion
The small but most uncomfortable scene for me today was the one where Adham rode out to the impoverished home of Tasneem, money bags in hand, clearly planning to exploit her poverty to entrap her into a marriage between unequals - all for the satisfaction of his unseemly and unsavoury lust!
He saw the little girl making clay pots for a living (her face looked even younger than her purported age!), and as she invited him in, he entered the ramshackle house. His earlier gift of the necklace to Tasneem had made him a recognised and trusted subedar in that home, and had undoubtedly softened his "targets" to receiving his well-planned suggestions with unsuspecting naivete.
Tasneem's mother then talked of them being in very difficult circumstances thanks to her drunkard husband wasting away whatever was earned, while his wife and daughter toiled. Adham sensed that the situation was entirely to his benefit. The parents could be bought by money and lures of a relocation to more prosperity in Malwa, while the girl could be available for the taking!
With cold ruthlessness, Adham handed over the money to the greedy hands of the lurching father, (even as we saw signs of the uneasy mind of the mother), telling them to get good clothes for Tasneem and to bring her to the jashn that evening at the palace. The trap was set, the prey were hungry for the bait, the hunter was shaping up for the kill! How disgusting!
OK, so much for today. Let's hope Jalal becomes Akbar tomorrow ... or if not quite that, let him at least enjoy the unstinting love of his people thanks to Jodha! Let him get to see what "love" really means, wherever it comes from! Soon he'll want more of it from her!
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