Jodha Akbar discussion corner! - Page 37

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Jodha Akbar 6: Amer ki pukar

Folks,

This one had only 2 scenes worth analyzing: the first one right at the beginning, between Jalal and the kiledaar of Jodhpur, with Bairam Khan as a silent partner in the goings on, and the other right at the end as our D'Artagnan rides at breakneck speech responding to the Amer ki pukar, and the as yet unknown kashish that draws him there.

shyamala dearest since i am not watching the show regularly as per zee anmol therefore cannot keep track of the episodes but i am watching the dvds and now i am on number 4 where lavi just took over as rukkiya and i am already missing smiley! but after reading your wonderful analysis i am tempted to go back to those scenes to read between the lines and your well written analysis gives a new meaning and excitement to those scenes, and believe me your hard work is not going waste, we your admirers are enjoying your analysis to the fullest..aren't we lucky to have you dear🤗..thank again for being with us!

Trust unbounded and unwise: This is of course the trust of Jalal in his Khan Baba. At this point, it is still endless and unconditional, and this is the major reason for Bairam Khan's swelling arrogance. In the whole of this segment, his body language is far more important than what he says, for he says nothing, after his initial blunt dismissal of the kiledaar from his post, except for one word in response to Jalal's question as to whether he had sacked the man. And that is a very emphatic Beshaque!

The first thing to note is that Bairam Khan does not think it necessary to rise when the Shahenshah approaches him, nor does he ever address him by his title even in public. In fact, as Jalal poses that query to him, his Khan Baba does not even bother to look at him when he responds with that one word. In anyone else, this would be the height of arrogance and insult towards the emperor.

But why would Bairam Khan bother with even these surface amenities vis a vis the Shahenshah ? Jalal is, for him, a toy emperor whom he has created, a dummy who can fight superbly and win, and whose mohar he needs so that he can rule in his name and pursue his policies of conquest and subjugation unfettered by any contrary opinions.

So he sees no need to add anything to his Beshaque!, much less to offer even a minimal explanation of why he sacked that chap. He could not have gone down that road in any case, for the real reason is that he wants to totally control the access of any of the Mughal officials to the Shahenshah except thru him and with his permission. It is on this control that part of his power rests, but he can hardly explain that even to this supine Jalal!

So he says nothing, remains seated while the emperor is standing next to him, and simply awaits developments. I looked for some tension in his profile, betraying at least slight uncertainty as to Jalal's reaction, but there was none.

In the event, Bairam Khan was right to be as cool as a cucumber, for Jalal's reaction must have exceeded even the wildest expectations of his Khan Baba. The kiledaar was rash and uncontrolled in the tone of his complaints against the Khan-e-Khana, and he would have done better to have taken a couple of discreet lessons from Maham Anga in h0w to do Bairam Khan down without your hand showing at all! But Jalal, faced with his factually valid complaint, was so overflowing with blind faith in his mentor, that I felt like clobbering him as he railed at the poor chap with his shamsheer at his throat, while Bairam Khan's profile radiated arrogant smugness.

After this display of puppet-like behaviour from the Shahenshah-e-Hind, we were next treated to another put down by Bairam Khan of Jalal's eager decision that they should immediately wage war on Amer and the Rajput assemblage there. He does make a token gesture of letting Jalal down a little lightly by calling his jazba kaabil-e-tareef, but the end result is that he nixes the idea bluntly, asserting that they should not think of war just now, but sahi waqt ka intezaar karna hoga.

Adiana and Gargi, where are you? Undoubtedly grinding your teeth at this Urdu version of uchit samay ki prateeksha karni chahiye!

And Jalal yields without even a token protest when Sharifuddin's more carefully worded vote for caution is accepted by Bairam Khan (who, it be noted, has more and accurate information about what is going on in Amer) over his own vote for war. Not then, nor when his Khan Baba declares that he will decide when the sahi waqt will be there, and that he is now off to Jaunpur to settle some mansabdari issues, while all that Jalal has to do in the meanwhile is apna khyal rakhna.

Of course Bairam Khan sees no need to consult Jalal about these issues - whether of war or of the mansabdaris - for he does not seem interested in training him in hands on administration or even military strategy or tactics at all. Again, why would he, when all he is interested in is Jalal as a never failing fighting machine? So he looks on indulgently as Jalal smashes into a rock with his freshly honed shamsheer, and declares rhetorically: Jab Jalal apni shamsheer chalata hai, to chattan bhi raasta deti hai! But when he adds: Ab ek hi raasta hai: jung!, he is promptly shushed and put in his place!

BK took jalal for granted it seems, and i am just wondering if it was not because of MA's constant reminders if jalal would have come out of BK"s cocoon, but i think he came out of BK's cocoon and fell into MA's but his inner self is what emerged as a winner at the end, he realized that he should listen to himself and do what is right!

A creation of gratitude: The sum and substance of this very revealing scene is that just as Jalal is, at this point, almost entirely Bairam Khan's creation, this arrogant, self-aggrandising Wazir-e-Sultanat is almost entirely Jalal's creation, due to Jalal's almost boundless sense of gratitude and loyalty towards his Khan Baba.

Incidentally, this gratitude for anything good done to him is one of Jalal's most endearing qualities, for all that it is pushed to excess here. For this is a concept almost alien to most of royalty, who have a very pronounced sense of entitlement, and take such loyalty and services from others for granted.

and that is what makes him different and worthy of the title great!

Admirable forbearance: Another small point that highlights Jalal's unusual forbearance towards his servants. When the swordsmith is unable to hone the edge of Jalal's shamsheer to the desired razor sharpness, he does not snap at him or kick him for his failing. He simply says that the dhaar is not good enough, and proceeds to complete the job himself. How many absolute monarchs in that, or indeed any age, would have been so accommodating of such a failing?

it also shows that jalal trusted himself more than anyone else in getting the job done in a perfect way..no wonder he was a workaholic, instead of leaving and relying on others he used to find out on his own whether the work is being done or not and whether his level of perfection is achieved or not and as you mentioned he also had the ability to show them how to perfect the task by demonstrating it himself!

NB: It is interesting to note that even though Bairam Khan is standing next to him by now, Sharifuddin addresses his report about the Amer situation only to the Shahenshah. Probably he remembers the feel of Jalal's khanjar at his throat!

😆

Amer ki pukar: This is an intensely romantic segment, though not in the conventional sense. Jalal is romancing something here , but it is not Amer, though it looks like that at first sight, nor the Registan ka gulab. He is romancing a boyish spirit of adventure, of untrammeled freedom to take risks, to indulge in the kind of rakish derring do that he has perhaps never been allowed to do, hemmed in as he has always been by (the very real and justified ) concerns of his guardians about his safety.

As Jalal stands in his tent and calls imperatively over his shoulder Abdul!! , his face and eyes are already alight with the anticipation of what might come. And there is in those eyes also a smug certitude that he can pull off this adventure without any hitch, and cope with whatever challenges it might throw at him. It was a fascinating expression.

Here again, there is a glimpse of the special consideration that Jalal shows to those who are loyal to him. When Zaheer, having saved the Shahenshah from the rearing snake, raises objections to his Amer plan, citing Bairam Khan's strict injunction, Jalal - who does not even bother to acknowledge Abdul's vocal reservations about this reckless plan - does not slap him down verbally and tell him to get lost.

Instead, he goes out of his way to explain to Zaheer that while he understands his objections, Zaheeer too should have faith in him, say that he had gone for shikar, and trust in his Shahenshah's promise that he would return before his Khan Baba got back. But fate decrees otherwise, with terrible consequences. But of that later.

maybe he earned wafadaars through his many such qualities!

The road to a dream: The whole sotto voce narrative by Jalal during his breakneck journey to Amer is worth going over once more, so beautiful and evocative is it.

Amer mujhe pukar raha tha. Na jaane wo kaunsi kashish thi jo mujhe apni or kheench rahi thi..Raasta lamba tha, par manzil ki chah itni ki na din ka khyal tha na raat ka.. Na dushman ka na mausam ke mizaz ka.. Bas tha to sirf ek jazba, Amer ke sarzameen ko choone ka, uski tapish ko mehsoos karne ka, use paane ka.

Amer ki sarzameen hamare kadam choom rahi thi.. Amer ki taqdeer hamari taqdeer se jud rahi thi..

Now what can one make of this reckless young man, pursuing the dream of he knows not what, pulled along by barely understood and even less acknowledged emotions, riding straight into the lion's den, and for what ? Not for waging war, at least not yet. Not for scouting out the terrain preparatory for waging war, for that is being done by the spies of Sharifuddin and Bairam Khan far better than Jalal, dragging a crippled Abdul along, can ever hope to do. What then?

I would like to believe that it was the pull of Jalal's kismet, of Fate that was to bring him face to face with his own destiny. Not Amer, but Jodha. Otherwise, for an emperor who has already conquered many kingdoms far larger than Amer without a single backward glance , where is the question of Amer ki taqdeer ka uski taqdeer ke saath judna?

So we have Jalal standing on the promontory overlooking Amer, where the Gangaur festival is at its height on its last day, and exclaiming to himself : Amer ka pehla deedar hua tha humein - and this said with the arrogance of a would-be conqueror looking at the his target - ab sirf us Rajkumari ( not shehzadi ), ke deedar ki chahat thi! Famous last words!

In his Rajput attire with a large red tika, Jalal looks, to use the correct word, smashing. As he grasps a handful of the soil of Amer and holds it close to his face, the sharp planes of his features stand out and his deep set, lambent eyes glow with a hidden fire.

how can i ever forget rajat's jalal in that scene..uff

Mystical act of near homage: He whispers: Ai zameen, aapko Jalal ka salaam.. Jalal aapko haasil karne ki kwahish rakhta hai.. It was an almost mystical pronouncement from a young king normally so brash, as if, while declaring his intent to make Amer his own, he wishes it to sound like a declaration of homage, not one of aggression. And as he hurls the handful of earth as far from him as he can, leaves his shamsheer with the fearful Abdul, and somersaults down the steep slope, only to rebound on to his feet like a circus gymnast, the surreal quality of the scene is complete.

My favourite shot in the whole episode is the very last one, of Jalal smiling widely in delighted anticipation of what was to come. Thus might D'Artagnan and his swashbuckling musketeer friends have looked at the instant of going into battle, against the enemies of France or, in times of peace, against Cardinal Richelieu's guards!

marhabba

Jodha: emotion over reason: I am not going into all the spiel of a raging Sukanya, a placatory Jodha and her unsuccessful demarche with Bharmal in favour of a Suryabhan -Sukanya wedding. But two things struck me here.

One is Jodha's markedly traditional outlook towards marriage; she takes it for granted that her parents will choose her groom, and her assent would not enter into it at all. The oblique way in which she enquires about her would-be groom's identity is charmingly conventional: Humein apni mehndi mein kiska naam dhoodhna hoga?

The other is her being alien to logic and rationality. She is concerned only with getting Sukanya what she wants, and not for an instant does she pause to consider that Suryabhan has chosen her, Jodha, so why would he agree to marry Sukanya instead? And if as a result of such an Ameri switch proposal, if he were to sheer off the whole idea of marrying into the Amer royal family, what would happen to her father's grand plan of uniting all the Rajput kings and getting them to pull his chestnuts out of the fire lit by the Mughals?

It is the same much later with her persistent advocacy of the Salim-Anarkali marriage, despite Anarkali being a rakasa. Not for an instant does it occur to her to look beyond their prem, and understand that Jalal to Jalal, there is no way the awaam would ever accept a rakasa as the Mughal empress.

At least Jodha does not lack consistency, even if it is consistency in illogicality and a lack of commonsense!

Ok, folks, this is it for now. Take care, and let us look forward to a wonderful week ahead as Jalal sets Amer by its ears!

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

Jodha Akbar 7: Parwaan chad chukha tha

Folks,

This whole episode had the strange, will o' the wisp quality of a dream. It could just as well have been one of those fantasy sequences in films, only set in Amer instead of in Switzerland, with the hero gazing spellbound at the peerless beauty of the heroine and losing his heart to her in a nano-second. Only it was not.

Then again, our hero is not a lovelorn wannabe Romeo. He is, as he informs the cutlery seller with wicked relish, Shahehshah-e-Sultanat Jalaluddin Muhammad, on a swashbuckling adventure like a boy escaping from his dull school routine. And as the episode begins, he is yet to see his lady love-to-be. And she , luckily for him, has no notion that he is floating around!😉

Right now, he is wandering about, hands crossed behind his back in true royal style (when I wrote my first post here on June 30, 2013, I had to explain that this stance, far from being "stiff" , was the way royalty, especially Mughal royalty, moved), twirling his moustache with pride. His eyes, as keen as uske khanjar ki dhaar, scan the Gangaur scene of unbridled colour and gaiety. He is captivated by the light-hearted enjoyment of the crowds, and no wonder, poor boy, after having had to look at his eternally sour-faced Khan Baba day in and day out!😉

The palkis of the royal ladies of Amer appear, but he is not interested. Not, that is , till there are cries of Rajkumari Jodha ki jai! In that instant, his head snaps around, and his eyes are immediately raised to the palki now arriving, trying to penetrate the sheer pardha and catch a glimpse of the Registan ka gulab.

Waqt rukh gaya: Then begin I minute and 53 seconds of sheer magic. Or rather, 1 minute and 53 seconds when time stands still. I was reminded of a sher that captures to perfection what Jalal was feeling:

Waqt do hi guzarein hein mujh par yeh saari umr mein, Ek tere aane se pehle, ek tere jaane ke baad.

The words of his bedazzled sainik echo thru his mind: the bedaag chehra ( curiously enough, the makhmali twacha is omitted!)), the lacheela badan ( which could hardly be made out thru the parda, and that too when Jodha was seated in the palki, but who cares?). To me, Jodha's bepanah husn (the narrator, whose verbal clumsiness is beyond belief, pronounces this as hansna!) seems to be more an article of faith than of fact at this point of time, but then I was not looking at her thru Jalal's eyes!

Tham gayi thi aanken, rukh gayi thi saansein, bezubaan ho gaya tha Jalal, intones the narrator, and then falls back once again on bezubaan, while I felt like hitting the inarticulate chap on the head for getting in the way, and that too so clumsily. In the way, that is, of my gazing at Jalal's eyes and his face.

First he walks along the side of the path towards the palki, on its right. Then he stops, and as she comes parallel to him, and he moves backwards for a moment, there is a shot of his face that can only be described as priceless.

His eyes, once so sharp and cutting, now look different. They are bold and rakish as they gaze up at Jodha with an unhesitating curiosity that comes from Jalal's imperial lineage and his inbuilt sense of entitlement. But they are also at once seeking and questioning: Is this possible? Can there be beauty as flawless as this? The eyes soften, and for an instant the look in them comes close to adoration. The mouth twists in a half smile of pure satisfaction: Us Rajkumari ke deedar ki chahat poori ho gayi thi!

The narrator babbles on of history having decided to link Jodha and Akbar, but I was not listening. I was lost in the rapture on Jalal's face, a rapture that was reflected in his eyes. He was lost too, in a dream of his own, and as he comes to a halt and the palki starts moving away from him, there is a very curious expression on his face. I could not make it out: was it satisfaction or was it a craving for more?

One minute and fifty three seconds of enchantment were over, and time started moving once again.

The face in the water: Yes, yes, we will get there, But after a moment to remember.

This is when Jodha arrives at the site for the Gangaur pooja and prepares to alight from the palki. Suryabhan has come trotting up, and has placed himself where he thinks Jodha can spot him. But Jalal has other ideas, and he smoothly cuts him off and takes up a position between Suryabhan and the palki. I did not pause to wonder why the former did not shove this impertinent commoner aside, for I was too busy trying to read Jalal's eyes.

The whole face is tight and drawn, and the eyes look almost angry. Is it a nascent possessiveness already at work, that no one but he should gaze on Jodha's beauty? Is it the same raw emotion that later makes him threaten the folk singers against ever singing praises of Jodha's physical perfections? It might well be so.

After Jalal cons the Ameri guards into letting him into the inner enclosure, he walks parallel to Suryabhan but behind him, on the next higher step. Hands behind his back, the body bent slightly but completely at ease, the eyes once again sharp and focussed on Jodha's face, fascinated, devouring.

Whereas Suryabhan, who is in the know of things, looks concerned at Sukanya's storming away after a squabble, Jalal looks amused.

Jodha, told by her mother, Kehte hain jo diya tum paani mein bahati ho, uski roshni mein, ek pal ke liye, tumhein tumhara aanewaala pal dikhta hai, looks half disbelieving, half sweetly compliant, and altogether charming. She bends down, launches her diya on the water and questions the Goddess, He Gangaur Maata, batayiye kya hai hamari kismet mein? ( and I thought kismet was pure Urdu, and this should have been bhavishya!).

The Maata responds with unexpected celerity. A sudden wind comes up, blowing leaves and earth all over the place. With perfect timing, it blows away even Suryabhan's heavy, zari doshala just as Jodha is bending to catch the promised glimpse of her future. For a man so keen that she should see him, and him alone, in the water, Suryabhan behaves idiotically, for he bends low and fumbles for the doshala for what looks like ages. And the bird of opportunity flies past him and disappears.

Jalal, on the other hand, stands still, unmoving and unmoved. So it is his face, dazzlingly handsome even upside down, that Jodha gazes at in the water for a long, long moment. A face that is now tilted back as its owner smiles with pure pleasure.

But as she looks up, wanting to make sure of this man who is her future, the wind and the rain make him just a blurred, shadowy presence, a will o' the wisp that is there but almost not there. Jodha aur Jalal ka pehla milan has the curious, intangible quality of a dream. A dream that is to haunt her in the days ahead, as she sees that bold, handsome face in the water even when its owner is not there.

Parwaan chad chukha tha: Ah, yes, the paayal! We have got there at long last.

There is nothing so charming as a paayal of the girl you adore. A lovely piece of work, made lovelier by the fact that it graces her shapely foot. And there can be nothing so delicately romantic as the act of the lover replacing the paayal of the beloved, fastening it with hands that tremble at her touch ( of course one hopes that she does not have cracked heels, for to have to apply Krack cream would have hardly been romantic!😉)

In the event, Jalal has no such notions, and as he looks at Jodha's lost paayal lying in the puddle of water, he seems for a moment unsure and puzzled as to what he should do. Then he bends, one arm behind his back, hesitates once more for a long moment, and then picks it up with his right hand.

There is a certain stiffness in this movement, a rigidity that seemed, in June 2013, to give some cause for complaint. But one has to take into account the character to be played. This is a young man who has his world at his feet. So arrogance comes naturally to him, as also the attitude of one who habitually dominates lesser mortals. The stance, the hands behind his back (exactly like the great Dilip Kumar playing Prince Salim in Mughal-e-Azam, incidentally), the slow walk to pick up Jodha's paayal, the hesitation before he does so, it is all part of the consciousness of being a Mughal ruler.

Jalal is not used to bending at all, for anything or anyone. It would normally never occur to him to stoop and pick up a girl's paayal as a token. Women have always been his to take as he chose, he would never dream of chasing any of them. Still he picks it up, which means a lot more than with an ordinary man.

He does not kiss the paayal as any ordinary lover would. It would be not be like the Shahenshah at all. He tosses it up in the air, but he always catches it, and when it falls into the fire, he burns his hand to retrieve it.

It is revealing that it never occurs to him to poke about in the fire with a stick to retrieve it safely; he plunges his hand straight in. And once he has the paayal safely back, he rolls both his hand and the searing metal of the paayal in the sand to ease the pain of the scorching. But there is not the slightest hint of hurt to be seen in his face or his brooding eyes, for he is too lost to be even conscious of his scorched hand.

All this is not so much, as some have thought, a sign of passion for Jodha. He is not yet aware that he is falling in love with her, he does not know what love means. It is rather the possessiveness towards her that, as the line has it, uske parvaan chad chukha tha. For him, the payal symbolizes Jodha, and he will not let go of it or her, even if he has to burn his fingers to secure it.

It all comes thru beautifully, and far from being unnaturally rigid, it is all spot on for who Jalal is.

At this point, the narrator kindly informs us about what we knew perfectly well already. To wit, that Amer mein kayi khoobsoorat ladkiyaan thin, par Jalal ke liye Amer ka arth thi Jodha. Jalal ko nahin pata tha ki insaan kabhi kabhi kisi to paane ke liye apne aap ko kho deta hai.. Ab Jalal ki ek hi khwahish thi, Jodha ko paane ki..

It is revealing that in Jalal's split second fantasy, where he gallops up on his steed and sweeps Jodha off her feet in one supple movement, into his arms and on the horse , Jodha looks first bewildered and then helpless, while his gaze feasts greedily on her loveliness. This is wish fulfilment at its charam seema!

As the narrator continues to intone solemnly about Jalal having been chosen by fate and having his place in history secured, but bas sahi waqt ka intezaar tha, Jalal is doing his own thing. Holding Jodha's paayal in this hand, he stands there still and unmoving. But his eyes are anything but still, and in them is the same expression that they had when he was in his tent, calling out to Abdul before setting out on this madcap adventure to the heart of the enemy. The spell of his kismet was strong on him, and it is even stronger now. Kismet ke aage kis ki chali hai?

Ok, that is it for today, folks. I am not going into the Jodha-Suryabhan segment at all, so as not to dispel the spell that holds us all in its thrall, except to note that it somehow reminded me, in its headlong, heedless obstinacy, of her Khyber rescue mission. Tomorrow, we enter the Jalal ka sar zone with a vengeance. Adios till then!

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di

Originally posted by: AkankshaJA

AWESOME REVIEW SHYAMLA DI...😃

ITS WAS AN AWESOME EPISODE...

THANKS FOR THE PM...😃

Originally posted by: ghalibmirza

khushi behna jalal ka jalwa all the way😳..btw can anyone make me understand if begumsa was in love with suryabhaan or yun hi kabhi kbhi mere dil main khayal aata hai...😆

Originally posted by: sashashyam

Jodha Akbar 7: Parwaan chad chukha tha

Folks,

This whole episode had the strange, will o' the wisp quality of a dream. It could just as well have been one of those fantasy sequences in films, only set in Amer instead of in Switzerland, with the hero gazing spellbound at the peerless beauty of the heroine and losing his heart to her in a nano-second. Only it was not.

JUST WHEN I STARTED IMAGINING SNOW CLAD SWISS LOCALES 😆, YOUR COMMENT PULLED ME OUT OF MY DREAMS

Then again, our hero is not a lovelorn wannabe Romeo. He is, as he informs the cutlery seller with wicked relish, Shahehshah-e-Sultanat Jalaluddin Muhammad, on a swashbuckling adventure like a boy escaping from his dull school routine. And as the episode begins, he is yet to see his lady love-to-be. And she , luckily for him, has no notion that he is floating around!😉

I LIKED THE SCENE WITH THE CHHOORI SELLER. YOUR INTERPRETATION OF JALAL BUNKING IS DELIGTFUL 😊 AND APT. HE IS COMPLETELY RELISHING HIS INDEPENDENCE. AND I ACTUALLY LOVED THE BRAZEN WAY IN WHICH HE REVEALS HIS IDENTITY TO THE GUY. 😆

Right now, he is wandering about, hands crossed behind his back in true style (when I wrote my first post here on June 30, 2013, I had to explain that this stance, far from being "stiff" , was the way royalty, especially Mughal royalty, moved), twirling his moustache with pride. His eyes, as keen as uske khanjar ki dhaar, scan the Gangaur scene of unbridled colour and gaiety. He is captivated by the light-hearted enjoyment of the crowds, and no wonder, poor boy, after having had to look at his eternally sour-faced Khan Baba day in and day out!😉

AND NOT TO MENTION SHAREEFU 😆

The palkis of the royal ladies of Amer appear, but he is not interested. Not, that is , till there are cries of Rajkumari Jodha ki jai! In that instant, his head snaps around, and his eyes are immediately raised to the palki now arriving, trying to penetrate the sheer pardha and catch a glimpse of the Registan ka gulab.

Waqt rukh gaya: Then begin I minute and 53 seconds of sheer magic. Or rather, 1 minute and 53 seconds when time stands still. I was reminded of a sher that captures to perfection what Jalal was feeling:

Waqt do hi guzarein hein mujh par yeh saari umr mein, Ek tere aane se pehle, ek tere jaane ke baad.

AWESOME SHER AUNTY!! ANOTHER SHER THAT CAPTURES THE MOMENT IS THIS

TU CHALE SAATH TO AAHAT BHI NA AAYE APNI

DARMIYAAN HUM BHI NA HO, YUUN TUJHE TANHA CHAHEIN

The words of his bedazzled sainik echo thru his mind: the bedaag chehra ( curiously enough, the makhmali twacha is omitted!)), the lacheela badan ( which could hardly be made out thru the parda, and that too when Jodha was seated in the palki, but who cares?). To me, Jodha's bepanah husn (the narrator, whose verbal clumsiness is beyond belief, pronounces this as hansna!) seems to be more an article of faith than of fact at this point of time, but then I was not looking at her thru Jalal's eyes!

Tham gayi thi aanken, rukh gayi thi saansein, bezubaan ho gaya tha Jalal, intones the narrator, and then falls back once again on bezubaan, while I felt like hitting the inarticulate chap on the head for getting in the way, and that too so clumsily. In the way, that is, of my gazing at Jalal's eyes and his face.

First he walks along the side of the path towards the palki, on its right. Then he stops, and as she comes parallel to him, and he moves backwards for a moment, there is a shot of his face that can only be described as priceless.

His eyes, once so sharp and cutting, now look different. They are bold and rakish as they gaze up at Jodha with an unhesitating curiosity that comes from Jalal's imperial lineage and his inbuilt sense of entitlement. But they are also at once seeking and questioning: Is this possible? Can there be beauty as flawless as this? The eyes soften, and for an instant the look in them comes close to adoration. The mouth twists in a half smile of pure satisfaction: Us Rajkumari ke deedar ki chahat poori ho gayi thi!

The narrator babbles on of history having decided to link Jodha and Akbar, but I was not listening. I was lost in the rapture on Jalal's face, a rapture that was reflected in his eyes. He was lost too, in a dream of his own, and as he comes to a halt and the palki starts moving away from him, there is a very curious expression on his face. I could not make it out: was it satisfaction or was it a craving for more?

One minute and fifty three seconds of enchantment were over, and time started moving once again.

The face in the water: Yes, yes, we will get there, But after a moment to remember.

This is when Jodha arrives at the site for the Gangaur pooja and prepares to alight from the palki. Suryabhan has come trotting up, and has placed himself where he thinks Jodha can spot him. But Jalal has other ideas, and he smoothly cuts him off and takes up a position between Suryabhan and the palki. I did not pause to wonder why the former did not shove this impertinent commoner aside, for I was too busy trying to read Jalal's eyes.

ABSOLUTELY RIGHT 😆 AND THIS IS WHEN JALAL WAS BLOCKING SURYA'S VIEW OF JODHA QUITE A BIT. EVEN THEN HE NEVER NOTICED THAT HE HAD COMPANY, OTHER THAN GUARDS, COZ THERE WERE NO OTHER MEN APART FROM THE DUO

The whole face is tight and drawn, and the eyes look almost angry. Is it a nascent possessiveness already at work, that no one but he should gaze on Jodha's beauty? Is it the same raw emotion that later makes him threaten the folk singers against ever singing praises of Jodha's physical perfections? It might well be so.

After Jalal cons the Ameri guards into letting him into the inner enclosure, he walks parallel to Suryabhan but behind him, on the next higher step. Hands behind his back, the body bent slightly but completely at ease, the eyes once again sharp and focussed on Jodha's face, fascinated, devouring.

Whereas Suryabhan, who is in the know of things, looks concerned at Sukanya's storming away after a squabble, Jalal looks amused.

Jodha, told by her mother, Kehte hain jo diya tum paani mein bahati ho, uski roshni mein, ek pal ke liye, tumhein tumhara aanewaala pal dikhta hai, looks half disbelieving, half sweetly compliant, and altogether charming. She bends down, launches her diya on the water and questions the Goddess, He Gangaur Maata, batayiye kya hai hamari kismet mein? ( and I thought kismet was pure Urdu, and this should have been bhavishya!).

The Maata responds with unexpected celerity. A sudden wind comes up, blowing leaves and earth all over the place. With perfect timing, it blows away even Suryabhan's heavy, zari doshala just as Jodha is bending to catch the promised glimpse of her future. For a man so keen that she should see him, and him alone, in the water, Suryabhan behaves idiotically, for he bends low and fumbles for the doshala for what looks like ages. And the bird of opportunity flies past him and disappears.

THIS SCENE IS TOO FUNNY 😆 UNIMAGINABLY SO. I MEAN HE SORT OF PROMISED HER THAT SHE WOULD SEE HIS FACE, AND AIN WAQT PAR HE GOT BUSY, AND THAT TOO FOREVER

AND I LOOOVVVEEE THE WAY JALAL STOOD THERE - STEADY AND UNMOVING. ALSO JODHA'S PUZZLED EXPRESSIONS WERE NICE TOO. I MEAN AFTER ALL, SHE TOO WOULD HAVE BEEN EXPECTING TO SEE MR. LOST IN THE SHAWL.

NOT THAT SHE HAD ANY REASONS TO COMPLAIN🥱😆 ITS ACTUALLY A WIN- WIN FOR HER - IF SHE AGREES WITH HER KISMET, SHE GETS THE ABSOLUTELY YUMMILICIOUS SHAHENSHAH, AND IF SHE DOESNT, SHE GETS JALAL KA SAR WHICH SHE SO BADLY COVETS 😃

Jalal, on the other hand, stands still, unmoving and unmoved. So it is his face, dazzlingly handsome even upside down, that Jodha gazes at in the water for a long, long moment. A face that is now tilted back as its owner smiles with pure pleasure.

But as she looks up, wanting to make sure of this man who is her future, the wind and the rain make him just a blurred, shadowy presence, a will o' the wisp that is there but almost not there. Jodha aur Jalal ka pehla milan has the curious, intangible quality of a dream. A dream that is to haunt her in the days ahead, as she sees that bold, handsome face in the water even when its owner is not there.

Parwaan chad chukha tha: Ah, yes, the paayal! We have got there at long last.

There is nothing so charming as a paayal of the girl you adore. A lovely piece of work, made lovelier by the fact that it graces her shapely foot. And there can be nothing so delicately romantic as the act of the lover replacing the paayal of the beloved, fastening it with hands that tremble at her touch ( of course one hopes that she does not have cracked heels, for to have to apply Krack cream would have hardly been romantic!)

In the event, Jalal has no such notions, and as he looks at Jodha's lost paayal lying in the puddle of water, he seems for a moment unsure and puzzled as to what he should do. Then he bends, one arm behind his back, hesitates once more for a long moment, and then picks it up with his right hand.

There is a certain stiffness in this movement, a rigidity that seemed, in June 2013, to give some cause for complaint. But one has to take into account the character to be played. This is a young man who has his world at his feet. So arrogance comes naturally to him, as also the attitude of one who habitually dominates lesser mortals. The stance, the hands behind his back (exactly like the great Dilip Kumar playing Prince Salim in Mughal-e-Azam, incidentally), the slow walk to pick up Jodha's paayal, the hesitation before he does so, it is all part of the consciousness of being a Mughal ruler.

Jalal is not used to bending at all, for anything or anyone. It would normally never occur to him to stoop and pick up a girl's paayal as a token. Women have always been his to take as he chose, he would never dream of chasing any of them. Still he picks it up, which means a lot more than with an ordinary man.

He does not kiss the paayal as any ordinary lover would. It would be not be like the Shahenshah at all. He tosses it up in the air, but he always catches it, and when it falls into the fire, he burns his hand to retrieve it.

It is revealing that it never occurs to him to poke about in the fire with a stick to retrieve it safely; he plunges his hand straight in. And once he has the paayal safely back, he rolls both his hand and the searing metal of the paayal to ease the pain of the scorching. But there is not the slightest hint of hurt to be seen in his face or his brooding eyes, for he is too lost to be even conscious of his scorched hand.

All this is not so much, as some have thought, a sign of passion for Jodha. He is not yet aware that he is falling in love with her, he does not know what love means. It is rather the possessiveness towards her that, as the line has it, uske parvaan chad chukha tha. For him, the payal symbolizes Jodha, and he will not let go of it or her, even if he has to burn his fingers to secure it.

It all comes thru beautifully, and far from being unnaturally rigid, it is all spot on for who Jalal is.

THE WAY JALAL WAS CONSTANTLY LOOKING AT AND PLAYING WITH THE PAAYAL WAS DEF VERY WELL CAPTURED. HIS EYES SEEMED RO REVEAL AN INTERNAL TURMOIL. ALMOST LIKE HE HIMSELF WAS TRYING TO ANALYSE HIS ACTIONS AND THOUGHTS OF THE RECENT EPISODE. AND THIS MAKES ME AGREE WITH YOU WHEN U SAY THAT HE IS NOT IN LOVE WITH JODHA YET. BUT HE IS CERTAINLY PONDERING ABOUT HIS ACTIONS, IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE STRONG AAMER KI PUKAAR THAT HE HAD FELT, WHICH MADE HIM COME HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE

IN MY OPINION THIS SCENE WAS THE BEST IN THE EPISODE

At this point, the narrator kindly informs us about what we knew perfectly well already. To wit, that Amer mein kayi khoobsoorat ladkiyaan thin, par Jalal ke liye Amer ka arth thi Jodha. Jalal ko nahin pata tha ki insaan kabhi kabhi kisi to paane ke liye apne aap ko kho deta hai.. Ab Jalal ki ek hi khwahish thi, Jodha ko paane ki..

It is revealing that in Jalal's split second fantasy, where he gallops up on his steed and sweeps Jodha off her feet in one supple movement, into his arms and on the horse , Jodha looks first bewildered and then helpless, while his gaze feasts greedily on her loveliness. This is wish fulfilment at its charam seema!

As the narrator continues to intone solemnly about Jalal having been chosen by fate and having his place in history secured, but bas sahi waqt ka intezaar tha, Jalal is doing his own thing. Holding Jodha's paayal in this hand, he stands there still and unmoving. But his eyes are anything but still, and in them is the same expression that they had when he was in his tent, calling out to Abdul before setting out on this madcap adventure to the heart of the enemy. The spell of his kismet was strong on him, and it is even stronger now. Kismet ke aage kis ki chali hai?

Ok, that is it for today, folks. I am not going into the Jodha-Suryabhan segment at all, so as not to dispel the spell that holds us all in its thrall, except to note that it somehow reminded me, in its headlong, heedless obstinacy, of her Khyber rescue mission. Tomorrow, we enter the Jalal ka sar zone with a vengeance. Adios till then!

AMAZING, YET AGAIN. THANKS

Shyamala/Aunty/Akka/Di