Friends, OMG!!! Here we all thought that the matter of Adham Khan and the new anti-child-marriage law would be simply solved - by the praja protesting to Jalal against its retrospective application. We thought that was all it would take for Jalal, to then follow public pressure to make the law future-facing, so that the divorce from Ruqaiaya would not be needed any more. We thought Jalal would get away with the "divorce ploy".
But it seems Jalal and all of us missed out one key point: that the public doesn't know WHY all this had to happen! They don't see the reason behind the new law and hence all they see is that Jalal has brought a new law whimsically and applied it to himself to now force them to follow suit! So we now have a complication created by insufficient public communication!
The public are not aware that all this fuss about the new law became necessary because Adham insisted on coercing a child-bride into submission to marry him. The public did not know that this was what forced Jalal to ban child-marriages and create the new liberal law. The public does not know that Adham then challenged Jalal to apply the law retrospectively to himself. And the public do not know that this is the reason why the whole kingdom is also now forced to follow Jalal's example.
In short, the public does not know that it is Adham who is the root cause for all this fracas - and it is not a whimsical Shahenshah just enunciating new laws with arrogance and disdain for the public. Jalal's example set by his own divorce-readiness has perhaps got misunderstood as something just done to somehow get the public to do the same thing!
It's no wonder then that when Jodha, after seeing Ruq's anger directed squarely at her, decided to talk to Jalal about it, he was in no mood to hear her out - because his plan had seemingly not worked out as he thought it would! Instead he was being seen as the villain of the piece and he was unable to go to the public and say it was all due to Adham. The proceedings at the Diwan-e-Khas were not public as they would have been if they had all happened at the Diwan-e-Aam! And probably Jalal too has this dilemma of how far to make public a matter that is private within his own family!
a. Jalal and Ruqaiaya both continued to be distraught, but Jodha came again to Jalal's rescue with an idea of how to set right the public perception - and thus make the public themselves turn against Adham and prevent the divorce of the Jodha-Ruq marriage. Jodha gave him the idea that Ruq should address the public, if he won't!
b. Jalal got Ruq to execute the Jodha plan (though he didn't tell her it is Jodha's plan!) ... and Ruq talked to the public to expose the fact that the new law had to be created to quash the evil child-marriage coercion designs of Adham, and she too was a victim of Adham's evil as she now had to face divorce herself!
c. The public got so enraged with Adham that the unrest became uncontrollable. It gotbigger and worse than expected with Maham having to hide Adham in the surang from an irate public, while she herself got hit by a rock thrown at her as a missile. The Palace and its inmates were left aghast at the scale of the riot and Maham's wounds, while Jalal seemed to lose control himself - seeing revenge against the public as his way now instead of pacification!
Eventually I think Jodha (tomorrow) will manage again to show Jalal where his priorities must lie - and say that he has to go and talk to the people himself to get them out of this agitated state! And I think he will follow her advice ... because in the precap he is seen much calmer and in control and he is seen delivering an ultimatum to Adham: "Either you do as I say or else I'll turn you over to the public baying for your blood!"
One, the "love letter track" seems to be indefinitely delayed! God knows when this public riot and its consequences will get ironed out and calm will return to the Palace. The precap only suggests that Jalal is issuing an ultimatum to Adham - but it does not say how fast Adham may buckle, how fast the public will be assuaged, or how fast the new law will then get accepted by the public. I hope to God, it doesn't take all week! And worst of all I hope they don't give us a scene on Friday precap where Jalal is opening Jodha's paigam but we are not told what's in it till Monday!
Two, there's another very important issue here that should not escape our notice. As of today Jalal has not told Ruq that this whole plan to make Ruq speak to the public (and thus save the divorce from happening) was given by Jodha. There's one possibility here that when Jalal makes this fact known to Ruq, she may be actually ashamed that she shouted at Jodha and she may become sorry or contrite. But then there's also the opposite possibility. If Jalal praises Jodha to the high skies for giving such a great idea that saved his embarassment and his marriage to Ruq, it may well make Ruq even more jealous that Jodha is managing to score points with Jalal every which way! Ruq may hate being obligated to Jodha for saving her marriage!
Jalal's complications ... and Jodha's solution to the rescue!
Jalal seems to have two complications in his life presently, and both of these came into play today. One was visible in a scene with Ruqaiaya (the divorce complication) and the other in the scene with Jodha (the praja misunderstanding complication).
The Ruqaiaya-Jalal scene was a continuation on the theme of the impending divorce. The opening scene today began where yesterday's episode left off ... with the Ruq-Jalal hug! There was a bit more of the same drippy melodramatic dialogues of Ruq from yesterday when she told Jalal that they may only have memories of each other hereafter, and they should make the last night they had together one of their best memories of each other! That tearful pronouncement got her yet another hug! Fortunately for all of us Jodha-Jalal fans the scene was short and so we were able to withstand two hugs in the space of two minutes with some measure of self-control!
Yesterday we all thought it was strange that Jalal was looking sad about the separation with Ruq despite knowing that it was just a "divorce ploy". However today's episode seems to clarify that Jalal may actually have really thought he had no choice but to divorce Ruq ... especially if that was the only way to get the praja to follow his example and accept the new law, without having to give too many explanations. The reasons why he was unable to tell the praja with clarity about Adham being the cause for the law-change became more apparent in the subsequent scene between Jalal and Jodha.
The Jodha-Jalal scene came as a result of Jodha having had another face-off with Ruqaiya today. Jodha was seen going in search of Jalal since she decided that something has to be done about this divorce situation and it cannot be allowed to fester like this, creating bad blood between herself and Ruq. Jalal apparently had sequestered himself in the armaments room and asked not to be disturbed by anybody, but Jodha barged in nevertheless.
At first he was a bit surly, but Jodha turned his attention towards herself when she asked: "Do you remember your birthday? Do you remember how the public loved and praised you that day?" Jalal turned towards her and replied that he did remember that day - but unfortunately the same public that praised him have now turned to cursing him for the new law that was disrupting their lives.
Jodha then reminded him "But the new law is in place because of Adham and not because of you!" Jalal replied: "I know that, but I am unable to tell the public that because the ultimate responsibility for the new law rests with me." Jodha then said "In that case why don't you tell the public, in all honesty, that this law had to be brought in because of Adham Khan. If you come clean with the public you can win back their praises". But Jalal again countered that saying "I still can't do that because it will be perceived as my weaknness that I am blaming someone else instead of taking the responsibility for the law upon myself".
Jodha then came up with a masterstroke of her own. She said "You cannot tell the public, but surely Ruq can? The public love her and love your marriage to her. Let her make an appeal to the public and come clean with the facts on Adham being responsible. This way your information will reach the public without you having to face them!" Jalal saw the full import of this plan and decided it was a good one! He was then seeing tutoring Ruq on what to say and do.
Ruq then made a good speech before the praja - she was emotive but also forthright and she came through as a success, because the intended effect on the public was achieved. The public rose in anger and turned their wrath away from Jalal and against Adham. Thus Jodha's strategy worked for Jalal. What went out of control, however, was that they had all not counted on the extent and intensity of public anger, and the situation started getting out of hand and violent.
The two scenes above were again a reiteration of the same points we had noticed in the last couple of episodes. Jalal's interactions with Ruq are getting to be more and more personal, sentimental, related purely to their relationship and marriage. On the other hand Jalal's interactions with Jodha are getting to be more and more about strategy, values and priorities, management of crisis and winning the war of public perception. In fact, until Jalal made Ruq speak to the public today, and tutored her on what to say, she would not have done so on her own initiative. She did a good job, but it was not her own thinking and planning that made her do it. It was Jodha's.
No prizes for guessing which of the two wives is going to have a greater influence on Jalal's thinking going forward. The shift from Ruq to Jodha is already happening subtly, to my mind. Jalal used to use Ruq previously as his sounding board even in his political affairs. But I suspect Ruq could advise on all aspects except the most important one - Ruq simply does not have the people-understanding that Jodha has! And going forward, if Jalal has to become Akbar the Great, people-empathy and people's perception management is going to become paramount, for which he may lean heavily on Jodha.
The Ruq-Jodha relationship deteriorates and takes uglier twists!
The less said the better about the Ruq-Jodha interaction today. I didn't like the scene or the idea behind the scene. In this scene, Ruq grandly met up with Salima and Jodha giving it the air of a "last meeting". She then handed over her Begum-e-Khas Mohur to Salima thus annointing Salima as her official successor. And then she asked to be left alone with Jodha as she had something important to say.
Here I was thinking that she would again give Jodha some bileous diatribe, but instead I was shocked to hear Ruq's idea! She wanted Jodha to dress her up for her last night with Jalal! Her explanation? She said "I heard that you were an expert on dressing up your beauty? Till now trying to be beautiful was never my priority since I valued my brains more than beauty, and any way to appreciate beauty Jalal needs a heart which he doesn't have. If he had a heart he wouldn't be speaking of divorce! But anyway here I am asking you to do this ... its because this is the last night I'll have with Jalal thanks to your guile and machinations to oust me and get my position and title and everything I have."
I kept thinking: "Is this some kind of back-handed compliment to Jodha's beauty that Ruq wanted Jodha to deck her up for Jalal? Or was this some sanket that Ruq knew that Jodha would win Jalal's heart very soon and saw it as because of Jodha's superior beauty?" I guess I'll never know why exactly Ruq came up with this idea, unless it was to belittle Jodha by making her do a dassi's job?
There is again another fleeting scene of Ruqaiaya and Jodha after Jodha has given Jalal the idea to make Ruq talk to the public. Jalal of course doesn't tell Ruq that it was Jodha's idea, so when Ruq and Jodha meet, Ruq is still full of venom as she tells Jodha "I will ruin your life the way you have ruined mine!". I wonder if she would have said that if she kew that the people-speech idea was Jodha's? In fact if she knew the idea was Jodha's would she have even agreed to speak to the public at all, or would she have again assumed that Jodha was trying to shame her in public or reduce her audha by making her beg and plead her case to the praja?
Adham's downfall begins ... he's a hunted man and Maham's liability!
I never thought I'd see that "surang" again till Maham desperately started pushing the hulking Adham into it! But the cries of the public were growing so loud and so vehement that Maham started breaking out in a cold sweat ... and despite Adham's last-minute defiance, I think Maham knew that real danger of death faced Adham if he got lynched by the public.
I don't think Maham even anticipated that Jalal (via Ruq) would actually expose Adham to public anger by saying that Adham was the real cause behind this new law having to be put in force. As Maham stood behind the latticed window listening to Ruq's speech, I saw her face fall, and real fear started gripping her. Then Resham came running with the news that all hell was breaking loose at the palace gates and people were baying for Adham's blood. Maham had no options but to try and hide Adham, which she did before praying he would stay in there and not come out!
Then she herself went to a window to see the goings-on first hand - when a stone thrown by one of the members of the public hit her head andshe began bleeding profusely. Jodha was to hand in a trice trying to help her. As Jodha helped her into the room where Jalal and Atga were discussing how out of control the sitaution had become, Jalal was thrown completely to see Maham awash with blood. Jodha tried telling him that the people were so mad they could have thrown stones at anyone in their anger, but it is to the credit of the deep feelings Jalal still has for Maham that he started taking this as a personal injury by the people to himself and the ones he cares for. He started swearing revenge on the praja for doing this!
The Adham-Maham situation today seems to show two things as a result of this Tasneem case: Adham's stock with Jalal is falling steeply, while Maham is actually ending up getting "saved" as it were by the adverse events that are taking place. The riot by the public and their stone-throwing at Maham is making Jalal again blind to her faults and vulnerable to his "feelings" for her. He seemed as if he was shrewdly testing her at the Diwan-e-Khas yesterday, but by today the sympathy-wave generated by her wounds has helped her recover her position as his Badi Ammi in his eyes.
There's no getting rid of these villains in these serials. Somehow they survive and thrive - as Maham will!
Pyaar Kii Ye Ek Kahaani
Indias Got Talent 11
Cricket
