Friends, we have all started expecting so much rubbish in the track now that we are now getting exactly what we feared. Today's episode was just more of the outrageous kind of behaviour from Jalal that we anticipated - but this time, we had some running commentary on his motivations and actions from no less a personage than the great Benazir herself. (Reminds me exactly of the way Maharana Pratap was giving running commentary during the Hawai episode).
Jalal today found at least two different chances to belittle and humiliate Jodha. First was the anklet returning scene. Then came the swordfight scene. In both scenes Jalal behaved - as expected - atrociously. He acted besotted and mesmerised with Benazir and even gave her back hugs when teaching her swordfighting (yech, blech!).
But it then took Benazir herself to remind Jalal that his eyes were more on Jodha than herself, through both those scenes, even if his words of admiration were all about Benazir. To make our disgust complete we even had a bathtub scene with the voluptuous Benazir displacing almost all the water out of the bathtub. To her dwarf baandhi (wearing a strangely nasal voice for comedy value?), she was again seen expressing surprise that despite the world falling at her feet for her sultry beauty, this Jalal seemed only to have eyes for his own Begum Jodha!
In all this I must confess that I never saw Jalal actually really giving Jodha the glad eye. I too had to rely on Benazir saying he did so - because the cinematic direction was so poor that we did not get some genuine or lengthy shots of Jalal looking more besotted with Jodha! If at all he was seen giving Jodha the onceover, the shots were so fleeting and out of the extreme corner of his eyes, or he was so filled with his usual smirks and self-congratulatory half-smiles, that it was tough to tell if he was indeed looking at Jodha more than Benazir!
Anyway, apart from these scenes of supposed jealousy-creation between Jalal-Benazir-Jodha, there were two other trends visible in today's episode.
One, was the continuing theme of Ruq giving Maham the royal brush-off despite Maham trying very hard to co-opt Ruq in her plans to oust Jodha. Maham even tried telling Ruq that if she wasn't careful, Benazir may well take Jodha's place in Jalal's life, for he did seem genuinely intrigued by Benazir. But Ruq just declared Benazir to be another khilona for Jalal annd refused to rise to the bait. However I did again get a very strong suspicion that something was working in Ruq's brain silently! She was noting every one of Maham's responses and sizing her up.
Two, the Tansen-Jodha friendship seemed to be building up as a force supportive of Jodha's interests. It started yesterday at the concert when Jodha was introduced to Tansen, and it continued today at the temple of Ambe Ma where both began to sing in tandem - literally and figuratively. Tansen was seen as wondering whether to feel sad or happy for this lone Rajvanshi girl caught in this world of Mughals at Agra ... and although he said he was leaving Agra that day itself, I have a strong feeling that seeing Jodha's situation and wanting to support Jodha, Tansen may well decide to stay back in Agra as Jodha's protector! This is just my hunch. It became more confirmed when Tansen began playing off Jodha against Jalal openly regarding the "going away gifts" he got from both of them. He clearly seemed to favour Jodha more and seemed to be giving a subtle hint to Jalal that he was in Jodha's corner!
Beyond all of the above comments I want to highlight three topics that caught my interest today ...
Benazir eyes Jalal ... and Jalal eyes Jodha?
There were three scenes that seemed to highlight the fact that Benazir noticed Jalal looking more at Jodha than herself. (From these we are to deduce that the Creatives' idea is to show that Jalal is not actually besotted with Benazir, he is simply using her to get back at Jodha!)
The first of these was the scene where Jodha walked into a room where Jalal was smoking the hookah. She arrived with a small jewel box in hand and said she wanted to return the gift he had given her - an anklet to wear for the jashn - for which she had no use any more. (We were then treated to a flashback scene where Jalal had in fact given Jodha such an anklet! It looks like this whole anklet scene was an afterthought, if the Creatives had to create a matching flashback scene for it!)
Jalal at first was rude to Jodha asking why she had come at all, and when she mentioned the return of the anklet, he suddenly seemed distracted, and looking at her began extolling her beauty - only for Jodha to realise that he had been looking past her to the lady behind here who was the "Big Built Benazir"! The sultry siren gave him a slitted-eyed look of coyness and exclaimed at his admiration. She then thanked Jalal for her attire - or what little there was of it - for he had given it to her as a gift, apparently.
Jalal then, in front of a simmering and teary-eyed Jodha, proceeded to give the anklet to Benazir and even admired it on her foot, saying "Are you happy?" Jodha who could bear to watch no more walked off in a huff, but the perceptive Benazir was then seen asking Jalal "Is she your favourite Begum? Looks like it, for you seemed to have eyes only for her as long as she was in this room!". Jalal seemed to have no straight answer, and indeed after Jodha left, he couldn't even bear to look at Benazir at all ... so he just walked away in seeming disgust! (Thank God we were at least shown that he is unable to stand this Benazir in private!)
Benazir was then seen in a bathtub scene, with her dwarf baandhi giving her a massage (poor small baandhi having to massage such huge biceps!). Anyway the theme of Benazir's dialogue with her baandhi seemed a continuation of the anklet scene. She was ruminating on how the Shahenshah seemed not at all impressed with her own glamour - which had successfully felled so many men - and that he was only always looking at the beautiful Jodha as long as she was in the vicinity. The baandhi was seen asking if Benazir herself had an eye on the Shahenshah now that she had sat next to him at the concert in the place meant for a real Begum. Tantalisingly Benazir left the idea open, as she continued to marvel at the way Jalal looked at Jodha.
In a third scene later we had Jalal practicing his swordfighting when Benazir was watching him with what looked like naked lust in her eyes. He then offered to teach her to swordfight, and when she said she didn't have the clothes for it, he did what to me was unforgiveable. He summoned Jodha's swordfighting clothes for Benazir to wear and proceeded to teach her how to hold a sword by literally hugging her from the back. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jodha on the sidelines fuming away at her clothes being thus gifted to Benazir and at the way Jalal was conducting himself. But then in the midst of making the swordfighting moves, Jalal realised that Benazir already knew how to use the sword, for she soon had him held at a disadvantage. She confessed she knew swordfighting but reserved her eyes for felling men than using a sword. We are to assume from all this that Jalal got bested by Benazir actually because he was so caught up in studying Jodha rather than concentrating on the fight! Anyway Jodha again left in a huff, and Benazir asked Jalal "Were you teaching me or trying to impress Jodha?". Again Jalal was without an adequate answer and looking at the ground!
In all these scenes, as I said earlier, there was a lot that was very poor in cinematic direction and taste. Firstly the direction was so bad that we did not really get the feeling that Jalal was actually mesmerised by Jodha - until Benazir started her running commentary saying he was looking at Jodha. Secondly, it was in such bad taste to give Jodha's swordfighting clothes to Benazir. I thought that was such a lack of elementary decency!
Four women and four types of reactions
I thought it was an interesting contrast of styles between the four women we saw on screen in various scenes today - Hamida, Maham, Ruq and Jodha - so I'll say a little about each one.
First was Hamida, telling Jalal he should not have done what he did at the concert. He absolutely should not have aired his private husband-wife fight in public by asking a common dancer to take the place next to him where his begum Jodha had a right to sit. Jalal tried fobbing off Hamida saying it was his private business, but Hamida would not let go the point. She later also did some self-talks that she was getting very tired and anxious about these Jodha-Jalal fights!
Then came Maham who tried hard to instigate Ruq against Jodha, insinuating that Benazir had made Jalal attracted to herself, and she was soon going to replace Jodha in his affections, and so Ruq should be careful of both Jodha and Benazir. But Ruq continued with that unruffled look of yesterday, and told Maham that Benazir was nothing more than another khilona for Jalal and she was neither threatened by Jodha nor by Benazir. But I sensed that Ruq was very silently absorbing everything that Maham did and said, and I also got a feeling this this very nonchalance of Ruq was nettling Maham as well. The more Ruq looked unaffected, the more strident became Maham's voice - and her anxiety to get Ruq to feel something like jealousy was getting patent.
Friends, Ruq is certainly up to something! I can feel it right down to my bones. She is unfazed by Maham because she has sized up all four players in this affair - Jalal, Jodha, Maham and Benazir - and I suspect she knows exactly what she is going to do to break open this situation. Whether Ruq feels for Jodha or not, she will certainly do whatever it takes to help Jalal, even if it means going against his Badi Ammi. But Ruq will not openly fight Maham, I feel ... she will rather counter-use Benazir against Maham. How, I cannot say. It's my strong hunch though!
Then finally let's analyse Jodha. She seemed to be getting the raw end of the stick from Jalal all the way today. The anklet returning scene and then the swordfighting scene saw Jodha making a very tentative and tearful appearance. But folks, I didn't see why Jodha needed to come and return the anklet herself - or come and watch the swordfight. She could have sent the anklet through Moti, or avoided being on thescene at the swordfight, instead of gaping like a hapless spectator. She too needed to show some self-respect, some stand-offishness, instead of acting like some ready victim of his cruelty! Why put yourself in a position where he could belittle you? Why do it again and again? Anyway the saving grace today was the Jodha-Tansen scene, where I suspect Jodha has found a supportive Hindu friend in Tansen!
Tansen and Jodha: the potential jugalbandi?
I want to write a little about this Tansen -Jodha encounter. It was at the Ambe Ma temple in the city bazaar when Jodha was singing a pretty bhajan in her sweet voice. Tansen seemed very moved to hear her sing, and I loved the way he then joined in. She then expressed delight at his singing with her, saying what a privilege it was. She touched his feet.
The two then got talking about Jodha's musical background and Jodha told him her teacher's name and he asked her to continue her practice without fail. He then told Jodha he was due to leave Agra that day itself, as he had only come on the bidding of his own Maharaja and didn't want to stay on. Jodha said she wished he would return more often so they could all hear him sing again.
This mutual admiration society then ended with Jodha taking her leave, but Tansen was then seen thinking to himself "Should I feel happy or sad for this lone Rajvanshi Begum caught in the midst of all these Mughals at the Agra court?"
I have no doubt that he was thinking at the time also of the way Maham had asked him to sing to bring Jodha and Jalal together (as they were not on good terms) to get a waaris for the Sultanate. Seeing Jodha at the Ambe Ma temple all alone, singing to her own God, must have reinforced the idea to Tansen that she is a lone girl caught amidst some political sharks like Maham at Agra, and not also having the support of her husband, the Shahenshah. He must have got the feeling that people like Maham were hoping to manipulate Jodha's feelings and her relationship with the Shahenshah to use her as a waaris-bearing machine.
I am not sure what exactly Tansen may have felt for Jodha but I have feeling now that he may decide to stay on in Agra, if not to sing more at the Mughal court, then at least to give Jodha some additional paternalistic protection?
In the precap of the episode, Tansen is even seen comparing the huge gifts of gold given to him by Jalal as a departure gift, against the small gold chain and OM pendant given to him by Jodha, hinting the latter has actually given him the greater universe than all the gold can buy! Jalal's face fell at this comparison, which I suspect was exactly what Tansen wanted to see. He knew of the strained relationship between Jalal and Jodha, and even if he did not know it was all worse now, or the reasons for it, he must have known that he had to make Jalal realise the true worth of Jodha ... and I suspect he tried to do his bit today to show Jalal that like her small gift was of limitless value, so was Jodha herself!
Advocate Anjali Awasthi
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