Friends, today those of us who were hoping to see the conclusion of this case of "Adham versus the State" must be feeling a bit miffed that we've been left at a cliff-hanger stage, awaiting the outcome only on Monday! Even so, I thought the episode was quite interesting - and the good part of it for me was that Jalal seemed in control of the whole situation, he seemed to have some clear ace up his sleeve that he has been privately planning, and he seemed to be taking the initiative in solving the case.
Some of us were a bit upset over the last few episodes that Jalal looked as if he was beaten and at the mercy of advice and rants from the "ladies club" around him, and that he looked like he had no answers and no personal drive. Some others among us were also ready for Jodha to show some solution along with Kanha's help, especially as she had shooed away Moti from her room saying "I know who's at fault" ... and she had looked liked she would try to find some innovative way out of the impasse to help Jalal and befriend Ruq again.
On Monday I expect this case will finish real fast. If that happens, we may have this new "romantic letter track" by Monday/Tuesday itself. (We heard today about this new spoiler that Jodha will write a letter to thank Jalal for the law change, which he will mistake for a love letter and start making some advances towards her. The spoiler asks if Jodha will reciprocate or clarify that the letter was about gratitude and not love.) I also expect the already poisoned Ruq to get all worked up even further by the "love letter" thus maybe leading to a romance-cum-jealousy tamasha of sorts next week. Let's see!
Jalal's scenes with his near ones -and how he prepared them for his decisions
a. The scene with Ruqaiaya:
Jalal was seen pacing about in his room thinking about this whole case, when Hoshiyaar literally fell into the room, calling him in haste to attend to a Ruqaiaya gone out of control. In her room, Jalal found Ruqaiaya throwing things around and ranting that her life was in similar shambles. She refused to calm down at his bidding and said "You are the great Shahenshah who can change laws for Jodha, and give a hearing to Adham, but what have you done for me? I've given my whole life for you from childhood, being your wife, friend, guide and confidante in personal and political issues. And what you have now given me is a question mark over our marriage? Do you value me at all?"
Jalal replied: "Don't' please reduce your own standing with such talk. I have great hopes from you. I can have many begums but only one Mallika, and that is you."
Then in a slight change of tone, Ruq softened a bit to ask Jalal "After so much has happened how can you be and feel the same as before. What can we both do to get some peace? Will you really send me away from yourself?" Jalal just pulled her roughly into his embrace and soothed her. Flashbacks of their childhood came to him and to her. As children he seemed to have hated to study, but she had promised that she would study if only to be able to help him run the Sultanate. Ruq continued from that memory that she was then and even now always with him.
Jalal then endearingly put his forehead to hers and said "I still have faith that you will always be with me. You've always understood me and I want you to understand me this time also. What I am going to do is going to hurt you, and will look unforgiveable from a husband annd friend, but it is needed to be done as a Shahenshah."
To Ruq's credit she immediately and unnreservedly said "I know you will do what's good for the people and the Sultanate. But just promise me that you will punish this Adham ruthlessly!" And as loud sobs racked her body, Jalal held her close to him.
The scene was extremely sweet, and we got to see how close these two friends are, how trust of each other tinges their relationship, and how for every decision in adult life, they always reference it against their childhood memories. Sometimes that past is itself a bottleneck preventing their growth, yet at times like this that past is also something that gives them mutual strength in a crisis!
I would hate to see this relationship break, but what happened later in the episode (when Maham wound up Ruqaiaya like a top against Jodha, and Ruqaiaya bolted like an automaton to Jodha's room to fight with her) made my heart sink. Ruqaiya may be very close to Jalal, but if she loses perspective and is vulnerable to manipulation she will lose Jalal's friends - and thereby lose Jalal himself - at some point! How sad that would be!
b. The scene with Jodha:
In a later scene, Jalal is again seen all alone, in thought, on the terrace of the palace, quite symbolically near the tarazu. He imagines himself and Ruq being weighed on the tarazu's plates, when Jodha slowly nears him. He doesn't need to know she is near for he seems to sense her presence and he says "Look how God has brought me back to this same tarazu now!" Jodha says "I came to remind you that you once told me at this same spot never to weigh human relationships, and yet why are you putting your marriage with Ruqaiaya on the scales? You made good laws for the welfare of the people but if that same law were to affect your marriage with Ruq is it worth it? Why let Adham's deeds ruin your life? No law can be greater than the one who makes that law?"
Jalal then replies "If you remember on my birthday you made me wear peasant's garb and get in touch with my people. I went in similar disguise again and found out that Tasneem was being sold by her parents from greed and she was being coerced into marriage with Adham." Jodha interjects "In that case why not punish Adham for this crime and prevent the marriage?" Then came the real big argument of Jalal's - the argument of principle. He said "That was not all that I saw. I also another very small girl of about 8 years being carried away in a marriage doli by a man five times older. What you told me about this malaise in society is true. I can stop Adham at any time from his marriage but by doing that I would not be rooting out this societal blot. I now feel impelled to save these young girls trapped by an outdated meaningless practice.That's why I am so particular about this law."
Jodha insisted "But for the sake of this law, putting Ruq's life at stake is not OK by me." Jalal replied "I too don't like it, but a King has to set an example.There's a story I've heard about how a King once plucked a fruit from an orchard, and seeing him his whole army then ransacked the whole garden mercilessly. If I don't follow the law, then how will my people?"
He then added something that stole my heart! He said "You told me something so true, that women are being used as "goods" - sold, exchanged, traded, gifted, treated as trophies of war or coerced into marriages for political alliances. And its not perpetrated by just the Adham Khans but also by the Jalaluddin's. I know you are still bearing that pain of having been forced into marriage with me, despite your hatred for me, just to save your kingdom and keep your father's word. And Tasneem's doing the same today. Why should this practice continue?"
Jodha voice is barely hheard as she chokes back tears. "I have no answers. All I can say is that today's law cannot be expected to change the past. Ruq loves you, and I don't ever want you to trade her happiness for giving Tasneem justice". And with that Jodha walks off.
What a beautiful scene again. Jalal did not embrace Jodha physically the way he held Ruq close to himself. But his words wrapped themselves around her soul! Especially the part where he showed such remorse for thieir marriage which had been nothing short of coercion. Jodha too showed her readiness to forgive that by saying "Let the law not try to reshape what's gone. Let the past be past and please look forwards." That moment to me was in no way less than the physicality I saw in the Ruq scene. In fact I felt as if souls had hugged silently!
It also made an impact on me that Jalal had not been able to talk so much to Ruqaiaya today, as he talked with Jodha. In his relationship with Ruq he was the older one, cajoling, soothing, protecting her, the younger one. In his relationship with Jodha they were easy as equals, respecting each others views. In the earlier scene Ruqaiaya was doing most of the talking. But here Jalal was feeling so utterly comfortable talking about every little detail in his mind to Jodha , explaining, reasoning, expressing feelings and exposing his bitterness as well as his zeal. And he was most of the time looking directly into her eyes as talked and listened. I have never seen Jalal so eager to talk and at such length, and I have never seen Jodha so eager to listen without needing too fill the silence with her own voice. It was sensationally lovely!
c. The scene with Hamida:
The mother son dialogue scene was short but quite poignant. Jalal, did very little talking because it was mostly about Hamida's worry for her son. She wanted Jalal to make a wise and well-thought out decision and she was worried that the family should not lose one more daughter, Ruq, like they had lost another daughter Bakshi Bano.
To those of us who felt that Hamida had not supported Ruq enough through this crisis these words must have been like a balm. Anyway, Jalal then calmed his mother's fears by saying "Trust me, I will do what's right and needed as a Shahenshah, and I will not let you down."
The scene was not spectacular - but I am glad the Creatives included it because if they hadn't we'd all have said "Where's Hamida in all this? Doesn't she have something vital to say as the head of the family?" What little she had to say was very well put, and I am glad she referred to Ruq as a daughter and she did not sully the dialogue by bringing in anything about Jodha at this juncture to lessen the feelings and concern she showed for Ruq.
Maham is back to maniplutaing Ruqaiaya and doing her "chance pe dance"
Maham was seen in one scene first laughing away and talking to Resham about the "fateh" that she now envisaged no matter how the chips fell in the Adham case. As she explained it was a "heads we win, tails you lose" sitaution for Jalal, Ruq and Jodha. If Jalal didn't divorce Ruq, then Adham could marry Tasneem and thus Jodha would lose. If Jalal divorced Ruq, then Ruq would lose.
Having thus congratulated herself I thought Maham would be satisfied with how things were. I hadn't bargained for the fact that she would then feel it necessary to go and wind up an already broken Ruqaiaya to drive home her advantage even further. It struck me as I watched Maham "chaabi" Ruq that Maham hated Jodha more than Ruq, because Jodha had demonstrated that she had Jalal's ears and was now too close to Jalal for Maham's comfort. Ruq was a nuisance but Jodha was a threat. This whole new marriage law was a clear case of Jodha being able to swing Jalal to new levels of thinking - and a thinking Jalal was not good for Adham's prospects!
With all this in mind, Maham told Ruq that Jodha, and this new law she had made Jalal enact, was the cause of trouble for both Ruq and Adham. Ruq's marriage was on the line because of this new law and not because of Adham's case! In fact what wrong had Adham done if he loved Tasneem and wanted a child that Javeeda could not give him? And now thanks to this law, he couldn't get what he wanted ... while Ruq was also about to lose what was most precious to her - her marriage to Jalal!
To demonstrate how Jodha was actually trying to eke out Ruq from the family and occupy a strategic position herself, Maham took a glass of water and said to Ruq: "If this is the harem, and my finger in the water is you, watch what happens when the finger is removed. The place the finger occupied gets filled. Its just a matter of time before your removal from your position will be filled by those coveting it (i.e. Jodha)". Wound up like an automaton, Ruq then rushed directly to Jodha's rooms to interrupt her prayers with a loud "Bas! I know your game!"
Okay, in all this dialogue today I thought Maham had left one small loophole: she had dismissed the out-of-town Javeeda totally to Resham as an idiot with no brains who didn't count for much, as Adham could marry many times. I am not so sure she should have done that, because what if Jalal has some plans up his sleeve now that include Javeeda in some way? I am keeping my options open on this Javeeda. (I always thought she was a smart cookie masquerading as an idiot and playing clever games of her own!)
Ufff Yeh Love Hai Mushkil
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