Jodha: Flawed beauty, perfectly imperfect

Hi All,

I wanted to write this for some time now. 😃 And finally found time. Please have patience since it is going to be a looong post and please don't hit me. 😳

My interest in this serial is mainly because of the characters than the actual story. And here is my observation of the character growth of Jodha. Before I start with Jodha, I would like to share my personal experience too. This may help understand Jodha better and also why I can empathize with her.

I have seen abuse (both physical and emotional) very closely in my home. I spent my first 10 years in such an environment. Even though the abuse was not directed at me, indirectly it still left an impact on me. This impact exists even after 20 years (I am now 30 years old). More often people like me have trust issues, and anger issues. With this background I can understand Jodha better (this is why I got fascinated with the serial too). I can understand her anger and trust issues as she was abused.

Moving on...here is what I think of Jodha.

Characteristics: Loyal, Honourable, Fierce, headstrong, pampered, loved by the family, sheltered life, judgemental, rigid in her beliefs, has bit of temper, she will break but she will not bend, always thinks in extreme (love or hatred), she will be loyal and love people who are good to her and complete opposite towards people who are bad to her, opinionated, cannot stand injustice and will fight no matter the consequences and most importantly, very prejudiced. Jodha is the classic example of Elizabeth Bennet.

When we first saw her, she was a sheltered princess of Amer. She grew up hearing about Moghul atrocities and their crime against ranjvanshis. Whatever rumours she heard are obviously an exaggerated tale of the events, but still they were not entirely untrue. She grew up hating them.

Her first face to face with them was during Kali Temple massacre. This reinforced her beliefs and her hatred. Now she has a name to associate her hatred; Jalal. Thereon she was herself a victim of Moghuls. War against Amer, her fiance was killed by them. Biggest of all her marriage to Jala whom she hates to the core. All her dreams shattered, all her wishes crumbled to ashes and forced to marry an enemy to save Amer and her family. Now the hatred towards Jalal was personal.

After marriage, Jalal repeatedly kept manipulating her, never gave her the respect a Wife deserves and hence no respect from others too (except HB). He kept telling her that he hates her and wanted to own her, break her pride, and that is why he married her. That he does not even like her and she is just a puppet. She was accused of Ruku's miscarriage. Even though the evidence was against her, Jalal's reaction was totally extreme. She felt his hatred, his anger. May be for the first time, she was scared of him. No wonder she kept on hating him to the core.

A person can take any abuse, any situation. But what hurts the most and affects the most is the loss of Dignity. Jodha's dignity was compromised in Agra. She was made to feel small, less of a person. And she just wanted to get out of there. Go back to a place where she felt safe, and protected; her home.

Her mother asking not to come home was the last straw. This made her to commit suicide. And what does Jalal says after saving her? That he did it to restore the pride of the moghul sultanate, and that he still hates her. We as viewers know later on what is in Jalal's mind, but not Jodha. She still thinks that he hates her. But this was the turning point of their relationship.

Here onwards she saw a better Jalal. He was more considerate, treated her with respect, and kept his words, made sure she is alright. However, part experiences are hard to forget. What if this is a new method of manipulation? She does not understand what is happening with Jalal. She is scared to face the same hatred again and again. So she kept her distance, pushed him back, anger was her best weapon and a defence mechanism. She can see the nicer side of Jalal, but does not want to believe it.

Here credit goes to Jalal, for his understanding of her mindset. Even through her repeated anger, and her mask of hatred, he kept pushing her back. Through the series of incidents in durga yatra, amer wedding, and subsequent issues in Agra, he was by her side. What did not help were her flaws. Her deep rooted prejudice and rigidity in her beliefs added to her anger and hatred.

What he did in Kali temple had an impact of Jodha. No doubt about that. She started acknowledging his nicer side there onwards. But Jalal had a long way to go w.r.t. her hatred and anger. Only when her dignity and respect was completely restored in Agra, that she let go of her anger and hatred, and now her trust in him as a husband and as well as king is beginning to find roots in her heart. Now she feels safe and protected in Agra with her husband. Now Agra is her home and Jalal is her husband in true sense. She is cleansed of all negative emotions. She is ready to fall in love...

Please do let me know your views on this. I wanted to write about Jalal too, but this is already a long post. I will make a separate post on him.

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Please do go through the 2nd part of this in page 3.

I am unable to post any link.😭

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Originally posted by: aanchal_c

loved ur analysis,what i also like abt jodha is that she is not perfect,bcoz perfect is boring..she also is human so yes she has falts but at heart she is good,selfless,that is what jalal needs in his life...both jodha-jalal are perfectly imperfect and therefore complete each other.

Originally posted by: Pals2411

Great Analysis. Wonderfully written. In fact I completely agree with you with respect to all points. In fact I loved this analysis, since you have really captured Jodha's mindset and all the reasons regarding why she held that hatred and anger for long. Finally found someone who has justified Jodha's stance (despite there being numerous posts that bashed Jodha and why she still did not develop trust towards Jalal inspite of him trying to favour her lately). Great work buddy😃

Originally posted by: Sandhya.A

" We as viewers know later on what is in Jalal's mind, but not Jodha. She still thinks that he hates her"" What if this is a new method of manipulation? She does not understand what is happening with Jalal. "

True, I've been irked by Jodha's behaviour myself of late. But these points of yours may be right after all.👍🏼 Perhaps, it the superiority of the character of Akbar or the actor who plays the part but I've always viewed things only from Jalal's point of view. Maybe, Jodha doesn't deserve to be censured as much as she has been. But I only wish she stops her terrible bhaashans and adds more grace and elegance. Even Moti speaks the same shudhdha Hindi but it doesn't sound dreadful.

Originally posted by: kmmdesai

Thank you. May I know your name? 😊

And we really cannot say the Jodha or Jalal for that matter right or wrong. They are the products of their childhood, their experiences, circumstances, their environments.

And Jalal described her aptly; Bhagin. An wounded tigress at that. And what does wounded tigress do? lashes out at people and gets offensive to save themselves. 😃