Friends, I cannot write much today because, to be honest, my heart is not in it, and the episode I saw yesterday did nothing to lift my spirits. If anything yesterday's episode just left me cold, down and out!
There are three things in particular that caught my attention in a so-so way, and so I'll put them down here to see if you all feel the same way as me on these topics.
One, Jodha and Jalal played right into Ruq's hands and it all seems to be going according to the ugliness of history!
In yesterday's episode, as Jodha and Jalal were in a happy and celebratory mood bringing home their baby Salim to Agra, Ruq made a theatrical production of getting a maulvi to read her own death prayers and then pouring globs of mud on herself in an imitation of the burial procedure. She was apparently burying her "dead old self" and taking birth anew as a new-fangled Ruq.
I didn't know what to make of this scene - for after the unholy ritual, she looked every inch her old self. But it appears, she was burying the Ruq that wanted the MUZ title and she was now a new Ruq that had shifted her goal post.
What that new goal post was became apparent in the next scene. Jodha and Jalal were rocking the cradle of Salim and enjoying each other's company when Jodha said "Why has Ruq not visited us and seen the baby yet?" Jalal (in a hoarse voice with which he barely managed to whisper) gave Jodha the gist of what had happened in Ruq's room in the previous episode. He gave Jodha to understand that Ruq still hated her for having killed Husein and wanted Salim in compensation, but he had agreed to none of that! Lo and behold, our saintly Mother Jodha said to Jalal "I can fully understand Ruq's deep pain as a mother who has lost a child".
Just then Ruq walked in (after washing all the mud off herself, I presume) and acted as if she had no face to see the baby for she was so thoroughly ashamed of her behaviour in snatching Husein from Jodha and then accusing Jodha for his murder. She said the talk with Jalal when he had told her she was to blame for the children's deaths had worked on her, and she was utterly ashamed of herself and in deep remorse. She begged Jodha for forgiveness. Jalal all the time looked suspicious of this fake turn of her countenance - but as usual did not give voice to his suspicions. The Saintly Jodha then told Ruq "Oh, not at all my dear, I forgive you here and now. You are as much the mother of Salim as I am, and in fact I am going to teach him to value you higher than me. You will be his real Ammi, his Badi Ammi!"
So there you have it ... the Saint herself annointed Ruq as the mother of Salim, what more do we need? Anyway after that Ruq took the baby in her arms, moved a slight distance away from Jodha and Jalal and did some vital self-talks to the baby. "I will make you mine, my boy, you will be mine alone. Instead of taking from Jodha her MUZ title, I will rob her of something more precious ... you! You brought your parents together and now I will use you to split them apart. I will make you call me your Ammi and I will make you address Jodha just by the empty title of Marium Uz Zamani!" she said to herself and the baby. And with that it appears her plan to arrogate the child to herself and bring him up as an out of control spoilt brat who cared a whiff for his own mother was articulated. Salim now, even before the Salim Anarkali sequel begins, already has the stamp of a spoilt-rotten young man, with a father who will allow him every unseemly licence to be arrogant and a Badi Ammi who will instigate him against the principles that his own natural mother wants to give him!
Folks, what can I say ... I cannot even blame Ruq here for all that happened in yesterday's episode. Jodha just handed Salim on a platter to Ruq, with Jalal standing by silent as usual ... and Jodha gave Ruq exactly the freedom and power she needed to make Salim her own "bigda" product! More than this I cannot lament for I do not have it in me to cry. But all I can say is that Ekta is leaving no stone unturned to show us all the reasons why Salim turned out to be the kind of uncontrollable young man that he became. It was already in his stars that he would live by his "dil" and not always use it wisely, added to which he has become the apple of his father's lenient eye, and is shaping up nicely to be the bone of contention between his two mothers.
Diksha tells me that as per history he always did call Ruq his Ammi and did call Jodha just by her title as the Marium Uz zamani. How sad!
How thankful I am that I don't intend to watch this sequel with Salim as disrespectful as all this to Jodha and doting on Ruq - in a story where Ruq becomes the all-powerful vamp destroying Jodha's peace and life!
Two, could the tabalchi and his dancer wife be the parents of Anarkali introduced into the story? The age of Anarkali does not seem to match!
Okay, here's another turn up for the books. There was a young poor couple introduced into the story yesterday - the man was a tabalchi and the lady a dancer - and instantly by their professions, and the way the guards at the Palace gates treated them, we were given the inference that they were of low birth.
The two of them sought audience with Jalal and the young Prince Salim, but were turned away saying they could only meet the King in two days' time at the Diwan E Aam. The man's wife was heavily pregnant! The wife then handed a taveez to the guards to be given to Prince Salim and they left to find shelter for their two days before meeting with Jalal.
Now this taveez eventually went to Jodha via Zakira who explained that a poor couple of artistes had given it as a gift for Salim but had not been allowed entry despite the lady being pregnant, since they were unfit by birth to set eyes on the Prince Salim. Jodha scolded Zakira for such caste stereotyping and said there should be no such divide between people of high caste and low caste - and a dancer was not to be condemned as unfit for the Prince's eyes. Jodha asked Zakira to tie the taveez to Salim's cradle.
I suspect that this couple were actually the parents of Anarkali and the child they were about to deliver would be the famous dancer Anarkali. But I think every argument that Jodha gave about their status being not inferior enough to be spurned by the Prince Salim will later come to haunt her, because Salim will fall for this girl Anarkali.
In fact in the precap, Jalal is seen being led with his sipahis to a lonely house where it looks like he is looking for someone. I am not sure if some turn of events made him search for this couple and seek them out? Could it be that he was actually looking for this couple? But then why would he? It's a fuzzy bit of the story for me - the precap.
Anyway at this point I want to mention that, from what little I know of history, the ages of Salim and Anarkali don't match, because Salim is already born here, whereas if the dancer's child is Anarkali she would be born after Salim. From what I have heard of history, Anarkali was a concubine kept by Akbar himself and the mother of one of his sons Daniyal. Salim later fell for her and thus fell out of favour of his own father.
But the ages of Salim and Anarkali were disparate ... she was much older than him and the mother of his step brother! This is what I have read! So the question in my mind is whether Ekta wants a younger Anarkali for her naatakiya rupanthar and is thus starting Salim-Anarkali the Sequel also on a totally history-distorted note?
If indeed this child in the womb of the dancer is meant to be Anarkali who later grew up to be a very beautiful and graceful dancer herself, then the taveez brought by her mother as a gift to Salim is significant. Could it be the force that bonds Salim to Anarkali despite the negative vibes from his own parents?
Three, Sharif is back with his murderous behaviour to Bakshi's disgust - just when we were all asking if the serial would end leaving him in limbo!
Accha, now coming to that wee bit of the precap that showed us the face of Sharif screwed up with anger against his deaf daughter and his crying wife Bakshi ... he was, if I am not mistaken talking of finishing off the deaf child and Bakshi was crying in horror!
Yesterday many of us we asked for him saying "Where the hell is he? Are we going to end the serial with no sign of Sharif at all?" Well, your prayers are answered, folks! We are going to see maybe a big fight between Sharif ... and Sharif fleeing ... and probably also the death of Sujamal. These are the small crumbs that Ekta is probably going to throw our way to finish the serial with by end November.
So do be prepared for another speed train which will deal with the ouster of Sharif and the death of Sujamal.
Keep your eyes peeled ... for at the going rate, it may all happen within 5 minutes tucked as a small aside in one of the "Salim-and-Ruq-centric" episodes!
All that happened in yesterday's episode:
As Jodha brings her child to her hojra she sees the curtains she drew across the Kanha murthy when she lost Hasan and Husein. She draws back the curtains and places Salim at Kanha's feet and says "I left you but you never left me. Please now bless my child". She lights a diya again. Jalal enters the room and adds that he too never left Kanha and Jodha and will never leave them again. They both pray to Kanha.
Meanwhile Ruq makes a maulvi read death prayers for her - and she covers herself with mud to imitate a burial of her old self. She says she is a new Ruq now, and the old one is now dead. Resham and Hoshiyaar cry at seeing this.
Jodha and Jalal are rocking Salim's cradle in her room when they discuss why Ruq never came to see the baby. Jalal says cynically that she hates Jodha and is asking for Salim in place of Husein - which he didnt agree to. But Jodha says she understands Ruq's pain. Finally Ruq comes and deeply begs forgiveness from Jodha for all her sins. She says she has no face to see the baby.
Jalal looks at Ruq a bit suspiciously but Jodha is very good to her and forgives her - and says you are the Badi Ammi and the baby is as much yours as mine. Ruq takes the babyin her hands, but self-talks "I will make you mine. I will take from Jodha not the audha of MUZ ... but what is more precious ... her baby. I will make you call me Ammi and call Jodha just by her title - MUZ". Ruq further says to the baby "You brought your parents together - but now I will use you to split them up."
Meanwhile outside the palace a poor man and his pregnant wife want to enter but the guards stop them. The man says he is a tabalchi and his wife a dancer. The guard says they can see Jalal only in the Diwan E Aam after two days. The lady looks sad and gives a taveez to the guard to give Prince Salim and then they go .
Meanwhile Ruq makes Tabassum paint a portrait of Jodha dressed as ann MUZ with Salim in her lap. Jalal loves the painting and Ruq says it's for his hojra. She tells Hoshiyaar to see that the painting is not spoilt before the paint dries.
In Jodha's room the baby cries but stops when Jodha carries him. Shamshad says already the baby is getting spoilt with too much love. Zakira then comes with the taveez and says a tabalchi and his pregnant dancer wife came to give it but they were not allowed near the prince. Jodha tells Zakira to tie the taveez to the cradle. Jodha scolds Zakira that no difference must be made that a dancer is a low quality person unfit to see the prince.
Jalal comes in meanwhile and Jodha gets distracted as he whispers to Salim the Gayatri Mantra. She says she also taught him the Kalma. Both are very happy with the new baby in their lives, and Jalal says he will be a bigger and better Shahenshah than he himself is.
In the precap, Bakshi is distraught as Sharif is angry and wants their deaf child to die. Meanwhile Jalal, Mansingh and other sipahis are shown a lone cottage by a lady. It looks like they are frantically searching for someone there.
Seriously folks, I am so down that like a death-row prisoner I find myself saying "Be done with hanging me, Ekta. I cannot bear the wait any longer. Have mercy and kill the serial fast - or kill me!"
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