Friends, what a sensational surprise of an episode awaited me yesterday! Here I was thinking Jodha and Jalal would be hoisted in a net by Abul Mali's or Begum Mahchuchak's men during their return from the mandir trip ... and I thought Jodha and Jalal would cut themselves out of the net and go into the surang where they may find Chand Begum. So much for my wild imaginings!
What did we get instead? We got one of the most spectacular episodes of this serial, where Jodha and Jalal fought with swords as equal partners against brutal enemies unleashed on them by the hulking and sulking Adham Khan.
Jalal completely and blindly trusted Jodha's sword skills (that he had already seen in practice sessions), as he threw a sword at her and challenged her to "go and give it to them". And then he, the legendary swordsman himself, took on the rest of the enemies. And as husband and wife they tore the enemy to shreds, staying remarkably lightly wounded themselves after having unleashed some stupendous joint terror on the hapless enemies. And then in the end it was oh-so-gladdening to see how they compared notes ... they were so remarkably impressed with each other's mega prowess, as they finally found themselves alone, dusting the dirt off them and then caring for the wounds of each other in a never-before twist to on-screen romance.
What can I say? We have seen so much romance on screen in other serials where the lead man vanquishes foes single-handedly, while he pushes the simpering helpless screeching wife to stand aloof in a corner shielding her chastity and shedding copious tears and wearing a stricken "defenceless-poor-girl" look on her face ... as the villain and the hero go round and round the room clashing blades. But no, not in this serial, for neither is this heroine chicken-hearted nor is her husband afraid of exposing her to the enemies. She is a Rajvanshi brimming with warrior blood, and he is the ruthless Great Mughal. Jalal had such tremendous courage and conviction in Jodha's proficiency that he simply said "Now defend yourself, while I get the rest" and she obliged him by not just holding her own but actually unleashing deathly blows on the enemy about to strike him from behind, and then she slayed the enemy by plunging her sword right into his body. Not for a moment did husband and wife flinch at anything.
In fact it looked like they were hugely enjoying themselves! There were two moments that showed me just how much this "double trouble" King and Queen relished danger and were up and ready for it, participating in the moments of greatest emergency with the greatest romantic panache.
Up they were lofted above ground level inisde the tangles of a net and yet he cut himself out of it, with the dagger she drew out from his cummerbund for him ... and then he slew all the enemy sipahis left there to guard them. Seeing that the space was safe he then tossed his dagger high into the air to cut the net from above with a magical flourish, and out dropped Jodha ... into his waiting arms. And then what do we see? The eager young husband, standing in enemy territory and finding some privacy in a space filled with dead enemy bodies wants to hold his wife close and romance her! What a man! She looked tempted too, I suspect, but there were other enemies to watch out for so she quickly diverted his mind back to the more mundane things such as continuing the fight and reaching home!
Then there was this other out-of-this-world moment for me, when after slaying almost all of the enemies, there were just two enemies left and Jalal and Jodha were back to back facing these two guys who were encircling them. Jalal pumped up with success was smiling broadly as he asked Jodha "What do you say? There are just two of the left ... kya khayal hai? Shall we take one each?" And she replied " I am thinking ... why don't II take both into my kitty". They both went simultaneously for the kill and the matter was over in seconds as they figuratively blew the dust off their sword blades and then moved together as a team to sit under some tress to catch their breaths and tend their wounds. And then followed such tender mutually caring moments of mud application on each other's wounds that it was hard to think that this cutie pie couple could actually have unleaashed such lethal fury on the enemies just minutes ago. What a duo, flitting from ruthless war one moment to tender loving care in the next moment!
By far the most beautiful part of it all for me was the way the beaming Jalal was so utterly proud of his wife. He could not stop praising his courageous sweetheart to the high skies to all those who wanted to listen. He told Atga, "Stop worrying about me. Meri saath poori fauj thi" as he looked at the hard-braething Jodha, sword in hand and ready for more! He then told Jodha herself "Couldn't believe this fierce woman I have privately seen would be letting hell loose like this on the enemies." And much later when they all reached home and Hamida was concerned about the hurts on Jodha, Jalal said to his mother "Fear not for her, fear for me ..." and to Jalal's immense pride and happiness Atga finished the sentence by saying "Kamaal ki sipahi hai Jodha Begum!". In the precap, you don't have to ask how thickly Jalal was laying it all on in front of Ruq that if ever he goes out again he will make sure Jodha is always near him as his bodyguard!
Honestly, the whole episode took me so much by surprise that I had no words left after I saw it. I wanted to see the whole episode again and again ... and I did, about seven times! It was awesome. I have never seen such beautiful romance blossoming through the teamwork involved in the midst of a lethal swordfight and yet here were these two people we love giving us just that. They were from start to finish an inseparable, equally alert, equally capable and perfectly in tandem pair. Just made for each other. Each had unlimited belief in the other's abilities to give off the best of their artistry under the most arduous conditions. If the background music were not so warlike and we had seen the whole scene and episode with the music of some lilting waltz, it would have looked like a choreographed dance of sexually-charged movements! It was simply breathtaking.
Before I run out of adjectives, let me give a blow by blow account of the whole episode to those who missed the action or those who want to live through it again ...
What all happened in the episode:
Jodha and Jalal were stepping out of the mandir after completing their pujas, when it was time for them to go to the orphanage for poor children where they intended to distribute goodies. Jalal told his sipahis that they were not needed, as the children at the orphanage would needlessly get afraid to see them, but the sipahis protested that the wrath of Atga would fall on them if they let Jalal go ahead alone and unattended. So eventually Jalal compromised by allowing just four sipahis to go with him while the rest awaited their return at a designated spot.
Thuis Jodha and Jalal walked on ahead towards the orphanage while the four sipahis trudged behind them. "How did you think of this orphanage visit?" Jalal asked Jodha. "I heard of this place from Moti Bai and thought that serving the poor kids there would earn their good wishes for our child", she said to Jalal - and he beamed in approval. As they walked on they talked of how loyal Atga was to them both and then suddenly a thorn went into Jodha's foot and she winced. Jajal was immediately on his haunches ready to get the offending thorn out of her foot, when she protested that Rajvanshi women don't let their husbands touch their feet. But Jalal was so firm with her as he said "Show me your foot now!" that she obeyed almost instinctively with her mouth shut. After the thorn was removed they walked on, thinking their sipahis were following them - but unknown to them an enemy posse of soldiers was bumping off Jalal's sipahis one by one, till there was no one left except Jalal and Jodha blissfully unaware of the goings-on behind their backs.
Meanwhile Atga had arrived with even more soldiers and was stunned to see the larger part of Jalal's bodyguard brigade standing in the middle of the forest while Jalal had slipped off with just four soldiers to the orphanage. Atga was furious that Jalal had left himself unguarded and set out to find Jalal. He went a few hundred paces and saw tell-tale blood markings on the ground - and then lo and behold, the four soldiers of the Jalal bodyguard crew were all found dead in various spots around that place. By now Atga got wind that something horrible was afoot.
As Jodha and Jalal, meanwhile, walked on, suddenly the ground under their feet looked soft as they tread on some dead leaves and within minutes they realised they had walked into a trap, both of them together. When their trap was hoisted above ground level, they found they had walked into a net and were now at the mercy of their captors. It looked like they were both tangled in the cross wires of the net with very little space between them, and were somehow up above ground level in a room that belonged to the enemies. Jodha asked "Where are we? What is happening?" as Jalal muttered under his breath "We have been trapped by enemies and we are in danger!" Jalal then ranted at his enemies below saying "I am the Shahenshah of the Mughals and you guys better watch out for what I will do to you when I free myself". But the rantings were to no avail as long as Jalal was still hanging up at ceiling level.
He then got an idea and asked Jodha to extricate his dagger from his cummerbund, which she did deftly and gave it to him. Within seconds he cut through the strands of the net just enough to jump out bodily from the net down to the ground beneath. Once on the ground, his dagger work was precise and uncompromising. He slashed the enemy sipahis into ribbons and then looked up at Jodha proudly giving her his triumphant smile. And then realising she was still up in the net he did a classy Errol Flynn manoeuvre and threw his dagger ceiling high to cut the whole net from above. Out dropped Jodha into his waiting arms ... as the Amer music began playing and we realised that in the midst of all this danger we were actually having a romantic moment!
Then putting Jodha to the ground, Jalal started pulling her close to make full use of the privacy in the room to maybe exchange some coochey coo, since there was nothing and no one around them but for some strewn dead bodies. Trust Jalal to romance Jodha in the middle of captor territory! But Jodha demurred saying this was not the time or place for such things and they should hasten out and home again. Jalal then said "Wait!" as he extricated a sword from one of the dead men on the ground and gave it to her. "I've seen your prowess in practice sessions, now let's see how you do in real warfare", he said and she immediately asked "Is this a challenge?". He replied "Yes, think of it like that!". She said with determination, "OK then, let's go !" and she walked out with him , her head and sword held high.
After going a small distance, Jodha and Jalal spotted more of the enemy sipahis crowded in a small forest area and they hid behind a tree to take stock. Jodha thought they should just duck the soldiers, but Jalal said "What sort of Shahenshah would I be if I left these alive? We can't go till we finish the work of finishing them off!" He then told Jodha "OK now you take care of yourself while I see to them" and he went off right to the middle of the group to start cutting and maiming them with his phenomenal moves - he truly was a class apart in swordsmanship!
Jodha watched from behind the tree, but her big moment to enter the fray came when she saw Jalal fighting one sipahi while another was treacherously moving to backstab him from behind. Jodha jumped in at the right moment to parry the backstabber's sword., and then she turned and said to Jalal, "There are so many of them, how will you manage?" and he replied mid-fight shouting through his gritted teeth "I have full faith in you!""
Jodha then lived up to that faith and more. With a huge heave she had her enemy unstable and tottering as his sword rattled in his hand. She vanquished him with some short moves, and then when he was swordless she plunged her sword into his belly with the ruthlessness that you wouldn't think her capable of. Jalal continued to fight more and more men, killing them with clean strokes as he turned to see his wife making an exhibition of some high kinds of swordsmanship.
Eventually there were just Jodha and Jalal left standing back to back with just two enemy soldiers circling them. Jalal by now pumped up with adrenalin said to Jodha "What's your idea ... there are just these two left? Let's take them on, one each?" and she replied "I am thinking I'll take both of them!". They both slashed valiantly and within seconds it was all over, just as Atga and his retinue also arrived on the scene.
Atga, out of sheer worry, had a lot to say to Jalal and bit his ear soundly. "What is this you are doing Shahenshah, if something were to happen to you what would happen to the Sultanate?" he said with fatherly love and also a loyal defender's fervour. Jalal contritely agreed that he would no more try to cross the lines drawn by Atga for his safety. But he also made sure to tell Atga, "You needn't have worried, for I had a whole army with me!". He looked at Jodha and smiled to show that he meant her! But Jodha was a bit speechless looking at his face full of wounds. "You are hurt. Come with me. Let me find something to dress the wounds with," she said with concern in her voice and she led him to sit beneath a nearby tree as she found some mud to apply on the wounds.
In some very tender moments between them we then saw her putting mud to his wounds and blowing cool air on them - and they exchanged the kind of smiles that pass between hearts that are in deep love with each other. He then said "You have a wound too" and he turned her hand over to expose her wound. He put some mud on her wound and blew cool air on it too and then held her hand in his for a while, both drawing comfort from it.
Meanwhile one straggling enemy sipahi who had escaped being killed ran as fast as he could to his master - it was Adham - to say that Jodha and Jalal had slain all the siphais of their group. Adham was so upset with the messenger that in an instant he mercilessly killed the poor man who came to give him this information.
Atga meanwhile told Jalal and Jodha to return to the palace with some soldiers while he said he would go with one group to try and locate the miscreant behind all this hungama. Soon Atga came upon the siphai of Adham whom Adham had just killed minutes before. His blood was still warm suggesting that Adham may be still somewhere near, and the markings of his hand seemed to confirm to Atga that he was one of the enemy crowd. Atga easily deciphered what must have happened ."The man he reports to has obviously killed him to avoid any future leakage of information about this plot" Atga said to his men. "Spread around and try to look for this man's master!"
At the Agra Palace meanwhile word had spread that Jalal and Jodha were attacked when all their sipahis had been killed too. Hamida ran out into the courtyard followed by all the womenfolk, summoning Maham. "In the absence of Atga, as Wazir-e-Aliyah it falls on you to do something right now" Hamida barked at Maham, and Maham looked at her obediently, for she was after all the Marium Makkani. Then Maham ran into the palace in fear because something of this whole plot smelt to her like Adham! She only found Javeeda inside unable to tell her much about Adham's whereabouts, as she was trying some make-up on in these trying circumstances. But Maham walked away from Javeeda still very very scared for Adham, for she knew that if Jalal knew of his hand in this whole plot Adham would be dismembered!
In another part of the palace, Shehnaaz was looking on with happiness that Jalal had been attacked and hoping he'd been killed. But soon Jodha, Jalal and the whole entourage appeared at the entrance gates, a little worn out after the battle, but not even half as wounded as she expected. Hamida was all concern seeing their wounded state and especially seeing Jodha wounded. But between Jalal and Atga they told her proudly what a "kamaal ki sipahi" Jodha was. Hamida positively beamed with pride. Jalal said "Some beewakoof tried pulling this stunt on us, but we have finished them off!"
Maham stood there watching Jalal and said "Thank God you are well." But Jalal was in no mood to listen to her trying to get familiar with him. "Yes it's all thanks to Jodha being by me" he said forcefully making the point that he and Jodha were inseparable ... and Maham had the slightly ashamed look of one put in her place. Shehnaaz meanwhile changed her mind "On the other hand, thank God Jalal is not killed by whoever did this," she said to herself, "because I want to be the one that kills him".
In the precap, Jalal is by Ruq in her room singing the praises of Jodha standing next to him. "Hereafter I will go nowhere without Jodha - for she's as good as my bodyguard!" he said to a sour-looking Ruq.
My comments on this episode:
When two people are married they usually take vows that they will stick by each other through "thick and thin". In most ordinary people's lives this "thick and thin" is usually about life's everyday difficulties like financial troubles, mishaps to the family, inter-relationship troubles and so on. I almost forgot that in the life of a King and Queen not only are there all the ordinary types of family troubles, but the "thick and thin" can actually involve also life-endangering physical battles with lethal enemies.
Yesterday when Jodha and Jalal fought shoulder to shoulder against inimical forces, where they trusted each other to hold up their ends of the fight and also to protect one another, where they took pride in their warrior blood and royal upbringing, and where they actually wielded deadly weapons and killed men around them like they were pesky ants, I saw what the marriage vows really meant to them.
It is not easy being the King and Queen of a whole Sultanate forever surrounded by assassination-driven enemies gunning for your life. In the real life of a King and Queen there cannot be room for physical differences between man and woman when death hangs outside every door and there is no place of safety, not even home. In fact the most treacherous of places is their home. With so much to ward off as evil and inimical, how can a Queen afford to be less than the greatest sipahi to really protect her King, her husband and her suhaag?
We have heard high tales of women who burnt themselves after their husbands were killed in war and that is often cited as the heights of bravery among royal women. But what Jalal challenged Jodha to do yesterday is to not give away her life after he went - but to fight for her life and to fight for his life too ... in the same way that he fought for himself and for her. Fighting to live is far more courageous than dying to ward off evil.
All this talk of women being inferior, unequal or weak was not a story that this great man was going to buy. He had a wife in a million and he knew just what she was capable of. He would not have let her cower from fear behind a tree yesterday. He gave her a sword in her hand and said "You do it during practice. Now show what you can do in real war. Go for it!"
In the 16th century such equality between men and women was rarer, for sure, but look at the world we live in today. Such equality between men and women isn't even found in the present century when women are still being preyed upon as helpless creatures.
But think of the progressive mindset of Jalal that actually allowed him to encourage his wife to be equal to him at a moment when he knew her life was in danger and he was sending her into the lion's den as it were. If we are commonplace romance-cravers and have lily-livers we would all say "Ooh, what kind of romantic man is this that makes his wife fight, when he should be the protective one, the defender of her, the one that takes the blows and pushes her into a safe corner". But folks, I salute the man that Jalal is, because he is not that kind of ridiculous romantic that carries a picture in his head of women and men being unequal. He doesn't need a wife he has to protect and shield. He openly shows to everyone that he wants a wife that he can respect for her abilities to not only shield herself but shield everyone close to her, including himself.
Think for a moment, what would have been the situation if Ruq was in the place of Jodha in yesterday's episode. We would have had a melodrama queen, screeching blue murder at the enemies but not doing a single valuable act in the cause of vanquishing them. Ruq would have run for safety and started distracting Jalal with all kinds of unwanted advice to do this or that ... without so much as lifting a finger herself. If anything she would have been a liability around Jalal's neck instead of being his dependable support. If I remember correctly, she didn't even know the front of a sword from its back!
But look at the wife Jalal has in Jodha. She is in every way his ardhangini. She is not the woman separate to his being the man. In fact here we have a relationship where the woman is perhaps being given a higher place by the man than he gives even himself - and it's the man himself who is saying to her "Inside the word "woman" you will find the word "man"! That's who I want you to be, and that's where I want find myself in your life!"
Look in the end how much Jalal relished the prospect of seeing Jodha at her warlike best in this whole episode. Look at the sheer pride in his voice as he showed off his wife's prowess to everyone saying she was as good as a whole army. And look at the love that flowed from him when she was tending his wounds as he said to her "I knew how good you were, but I never thought you'd make short work of all those men!" At every turn he was making little of his own skills and putting her above himself as his bodyguard!
I must thank Ekta and her crew for giving us this episode that showed us the real calibre of our lead pair. Let us forget the cribs we had that we want more "passion" in the romance. What we got yesterday was not just "passion in bed" but the "superior animalistic passion" of two people battling it out for each other against real enemies using real weapons and standing as equal with the enemy ranged against them. We had a display of a marriage that really works even when the times are very life-threatening, and not just merely unbearable.
I am really very glad that this story has now gone from two people fighting each other to two people fighting for each other. I think the children of such parents will be supremely blessed because of the kind of blood that runs in their veins. It will be a mixture of sheer Rajvanshi valour and great Mughal ruthlessness. It will be the blood of a father who knows how to treat the mother with love and the kind of respect that makes her a Queen equal in every way to his being King.
Remember folks, that scene when Jodha in Amer was once told by her mother that the King always walks ahead and the Queen follows. And Jodha said to her mother "But Mother the King and Queen should walk together so that the praja can follow them." Yesterday I saw a King and Queen walk together and I will never forget this feeling of pride I got that in this world there are some men who know how powerful womanhood really is. Thanks Jalal and Jodha. And thanks Ekta!
Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi 2
Anupamaa
