Posted:
Originally posted by: ghalibmirza
pl do as we all are happy too that there will be no more jalal butchering😆
👍🏼
Originally posted by: ghalibmirza
pl do as we all are happy too that there will be no more jalal butchering😆
My Farewell Tribute to Rajat's Jalal
Part 2
Folks, and Mandy in the first place,
I must confess that I am truly flattered to have a thread all to myself for my walk down memory lane with Rajat's Jalal, even if the title is far too laudatory. I do not know about pearls, Mandy my dear, but perhaps bits of marble, the finest from Rajasthan, or the red sandstone so beloved of the Mughals, jisko humne bade prem aur shiddath de tarasha hai.
To revert, a separate thread also makes practical sense, for if I had stayed on the other one , I myself would have preferred to look at those gorgeous photos of Jalal rather than plough thru one of my Ramayanas! Incidentally, those marvellously selected photos make me both applaud the cleverness and dedication of those who unearthed them and put them up, and somewhat ashamed of myself for being so technologically backward that I do not know how to do that. I do wish someone would teach me, in simple steps. Honestly, I would be most grateful for such tuition!
But I also realized, as soon as I saw Mandy's post about this separate thread , how chalu she has been😉, for she has now boxed me into continuing with this series to the end! Never mind, I am having so much fun digging into the old episodes and reading the comments and my responses, that this labour will be worth the effort. And then nothing will be too great an effort for the pleasure of getting together with all of you, my very dear friends. It is as if we had parted but yesterday!
So let us make a start with Part 2 of this series.
1. I am passing up on the scene with the cheating baandi, Fatima, whom Jalal almost executes before he is halted in his tracks by, who else, Hamida Banu Begum. That sequence, and the ending scene in Jalal's bedroom with Ruqaiya, were remarkable for what they showed of the frailty and near despair in both of them about their childlessness. That was Smiley's last scene in the show, and she was marvellous in her helpless , inarticulate anguish, and her insecurity about her hold on Jalal that plagues her because she has not been able to bear him a child. Those interested can see this post at
Jodha Akbar 21: The Law of Gravity prevails
But now let us move on to a remarkable segment, one of open, unashamed emotion. This the one in which Jalal, setting out to do battle against his now rebellious Khan Baba, does a volte face when he sees him at the castle gates, arms akimbo in surrender. It was amazing to see how expertly Rajat handled this emotional overload. Without letting it slip even a little towards maudlin sentiment, he made our hearts turn out in empathy. Simply superb. So here goes.
Jodha Akbar 23: The heart prevails
The abiding image of today's episode was the very last one: Jalal and Bairam Khan in a tight embrace, silhouetted against the sky. It warmed my heart as nothing else in all these nearly 5 weeks of Jodha Akbar, for in one fell sweep, it blew away the miasma of siyasat, of power gained and power lost, of cynical games played with the lives of others. All of that will undoubtedly return, and in force, but for this one brief moment, the air was pure and fresh, and the heart prevailed.
The final encounter between Jalal and his Khan Baba, which was far more emotional than anything Bairam Khan would ever have permitted his pupil to indulge in - he does not allow even tears at the death of Jalal's father - did not only redeem the former Wazir-e-Aala. It also saved Jalal from doing something he would never have been able to get over for the rest of his life, destroying the man who, whatever his present failings, had provided him with a father figure for all of his growing years. It was his Khan Baba's final, priceless gift to his pupil.
The end scene also proved, beyond all doubt, that Jalal not only has a heart, but that he does not need a Jodha to teach him how to use it. I had written earlier that he has an admirable trait: he is grateful for any and all kindnesses done to him. This is remarkable and rare in a king, for kings have a highly developed sense of entitlement, and see the loyalty and devotion of their followers as no more than their due; gratitude is out of the question. Not so with Jalal, and this is an innate quality that has always been there.
This was more in evidence today than ever before in the debate over how to tackle Bairam Khan's rebellion. Jalal seems lost as his heart struggles with his head , while Mahaam Anga, her eyes as hard as agates, and Hamida Banu Begum, looking exactly like the Before part of a Saridon ad for headaches😉, fight for his soul. Sandwiched between them, their clashing arguments washing over him, Jalal agonizes, brow furrowed in helpless indecision.
Mahaam Anga is predictable, but she is far from sure of her hold on Jalal, for she is rattled when Ammijaan surges forth from the wings, plonks herself behind her son, and collars his left ear for her homilies. As Jalal, already haunted by old memories of his Khan Baba, wavers, Mahaam Anga's eyes mirror near despair.
It takes all the finely calculated eloquence of Ruqaiya - whose rousing address is, in its way, as cleverly tailored for its one man audience as Mark Antony's classic Friends, Romans, countrymen speech in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar was to the Roman crowd - to bring Jalal round to putting the needs of imperial power over the gratitude and affection of a lifetime. As he rides out of the city gates in full battle regalia, after a full-throated battle cry,Yalgaar! , it does seem that the head has won out at last, and he is, fully and without reservations, as ruthless as an emperor needs to be.
But beyond the gates stands Bairam Khan, arms akimbo like one awaiting crucifixion, and everything is turned upside down in an instant. The Ruqaiya-Mahaam Anga combo might have swayed Jalal for a while, but never forever. The real Jalal is the one who drops his sword in an instant, kneels next to his mentor and holds him close.
When he does so, and as he speaks of his Khan Baba of old, the accumulated bitterness of the last few weeks is washed away in a tide of emotion that heals them both. The inevitable parting will no longer be a corrosive one. And looking ahead, when Bairam Khan is killed by an old enemy on the way to Mecca, there will be no unbearable burden of guilt on Jalal's soul.
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2.Now this one is a mere snippet, but what a snippet! As I watched it, I marvelled at Rajat's ability to handle untrammelled grief and agony, and to weep so unreservedly, with total conviction, a conviction that carries over to us, the audience.
Jodha Akbar 24-26: Treading Water
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/3676742
Posted: 23 July 2013 at 2:17pm | IP Logged
Jalal:The scene of Jalal bidding farewell to Bairam Khan was openly and unashamedly emotional on both sides. It was also genuinely cathartic, and this later saves Jalal from a deep, corrosive sense of guilt about Bairam Khan's death.
It was noteworthy that Begum Saridon's attempt to console her son after Bairam Khan had departed met with a blunt rebuff, as Jalal wiped his eyes and walked off, ignoring his Ammijaan. Mahaam Anga was, till then, busy showing us what 'crocodile tears' really means, but at this snub to the Malika-e-Azam, her lips curled in a secret smile.
Later, as Jalal reeling from the shock of his Khan Baba's murder, Rajat pulls out all the stops in a bravura display of unbridled grief. As Jalal falls to his knees, throws his head back, and screams aloud in unbearable agony, I was reminded of Hrithik Roshan as Altaf in Mission Kashmir, traumatised by the death of his foster ammi in a bomb blast meant by him for her husband. At least here, Jalal has to cope only with loss and grief, not with the heavy burden of guilt.
As he prays for the repose of his Khan Baba's soul, Jalal also seeks the strength to become an exemplary ruler. Not for himself, but in order to fufil his mentor's last wish, thus showing once more that he has the capacity to care more for someone else than for himself. This quality, which is thus already there in the bud, so to speak, will come into full flower when he learns to love Jodha.
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3.Now this one is for Rajat in pure action mode, as he dashes right across half of Hindustan to halt the marauding, murderous Adham Khan in his tracks with a splendid display of raw power and mastery. I simply loved it, and till now I have regretted the inexplicable failure of the CVs to show that other, and potentially even more dramatic and totally satisfying tale of Akbar riding to rescue Rani Damayanti of Mertha from being forced to commit sati.
Jodha Akbar 30: The countdown begins
https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/post/88948535
Posted: 29 July 2013 at 2:16pm | IP Logged
Jalal: He shows once again what it means to be an absolute monarch. A head shorter than the gigantic Adham Khan, Jalal has to look up at him, like Jack facing a giant. Anyone will tell you how difficult it is to dominate the opponent under such circumstances. But Jalal's total self-possession and his natural kingliness ( if there is such a word!) make it seem not just easy but completely credible.
When he plants his foot on the lolling Adham Khan's chest in one swift move, it reminded me of the samhaar of a rakshasa whose sins had passed all bounds, and I could not help hoping, against both hope and history, that Adham Khan's sar would be kalamofied. Alas, it was not to be!!
Jalal is out-manoeuvred once again by his wily Badiammi, who levels the score with him after being checkmated in both the Bakshi Banu marriage to Sharifuddin and the Jalal-Salima nikaah. But it is a very near run thing, and not only in terms of the shamsheer halting, in one heart-stopping moment, a hair's breadth away from her neck. How I wished that it had not!
The fury in Jalai's eyes, as he looks back at him while leaving, is like molten lava, and for Adham Khan, the bell has started tolling.
Jalal also shows once more how much he is still a prisoner of his close relationships. He knows perfectly well that Adham Khan is guilty as charged, but the proof melts away, and there is his Badiammi/ Ammijaan at his feet, shedding enough tears to put a 3 inch hosepipe to shame. So he is reduced to talking of doodh ka karz, and threatening that this will the last time Adham Khan goes scot-free (famous last words!), while the fact remains that he has been effectively stymied.
What Jalal clearly needs is a Lord Krishna to make him disregard any and all extraneous holds on him as he moves to enforce justice and right wrongs. He might be as great a warrior as Arjun, but there is as yet no Parthasarathy to guide him and prevent him from faltering under emotional blackmail. Will Jodha be that guide ? Only time will tell.
Akbar and sati: This is all as far as the extract from the post goes, but for those interested, I am adding a note on the Rani Damayanti episode, and Akbar's ban on forcible sati.
Like his father, the Emperor Humayun, Akbar issued official general orders prohibiting forcible sati and insisted that no woman could commit sati without the specific permission of his chief police officers. The chief police officers were instructed by him to delay the woman's decision for as long as possible.Pensions, gifts, and rehabilitative help were offered to the potential sati to persuade her from committing the act.
Akbar could thus be seen as the intellectual forefather of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, who campaigned against sati, and Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar, who campaigned for widow remarriage, in the 20th century.
His commitment to wiping out forcible sati was demonstrated very
dramatically one day in 1583, when Akbar
heard that Rani Damayanti, the cousin sister of one of his Rajput wives, Rukmavati,
was being forced to commit sati by her sons on the death of her
husband. She was the daughter of Mota Raja Udai Singh of Jodhpur, and her
husband was Raja Jai Mal of Mertha who had just died .
On getting this news, Akbar personally rode all the way from Agra to
Ranthambore to save this lady from being forced to commit sati. What is remarkable is
that he went by himself, all alone.
His personal security guard, when they heard the emperor had gone off all on
his own, galloped after him.
Akbar arrived at the palace just in time to stop the sati taking place; already the Rani was being led out to the sati
site (after having been drugged). By the sheer force of his personality, he was able to stop the sati from taking place. [This particular incident, of Akbar
stopping the forcible Sati, is described in detail in V.A. Smith's book,
'Akbar the Great Mughal']
Now what an episode this, and Akbar's ban on forcible sati, would have made!! But of course the CVs are more interested in wet masalas!
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4. Now this one, folks, is one of my all time favourites, for this is the best ever depiction of Jalal as both master strategist and master tactician. He is by turns subtle and smooth, and terrifying in the most soft spoken manner, and he plays the foolish and vain Bharmal like a violin.
Rajat was at his very best here, in an infinitely layered and controlled performance, with every nuance in place. I would rate him 10/10, and the episode itself 9.5/10. So I am inserting most of the episode analysis here, for it is needed. As Gen X & Y say, energetically but ungrammatically, Enjoy! Sandhya my pet, are you there for the nth re-reading of what is perhaps your all time favourite post?
Jodha Akbar 31: The Emperor Strikes Back!
Well, folks, if there is one thing any of you would say about me, without any hesitation, it would be that I am never at a loss for words, right? Wrong. Today, after watching Rajat's Shahenshah Jalaluddin Mohammed in full flow, not once, not twice, but four times back to back, I find myself searching for words adequate to describe, judge and appreciate him as he should be appreciated, and praise him as he should be praised .
It was an infinitely subtle, layered, and controlled performance, not only by the actor, but by the character himself. One would say a superbly choreographed and directed drama, except that it was a solo triumph. For the lead actor was all in one: writer, director and performer. The kind of bravura act that deserved any number of curtain calls. It was like a tennis match : serve, volley, retrieval, smash, set point, match point, game and match to the Emperor.
Let us take it from the beginning. It is a given that Jalal wants Jodha, come what may. Why he wants her is not relevant for the moment, merely that he does, and what Jalal wants, Jalal gets. But for that, he has to force her bull-headed, obstinate, and impractical father to agree to their marriage, for Jalal never visualizes anything else, for reasons both his own and those of state. Not being a fool like Bharmal, and having spent his early years with the Rajputs, he knows their psyche, and realizes how tough the going will be, given that this idea will be seen as a grave transgression of the Rajput code of honour, of their aan, baan and shaan.
So what is the way out? The first thing is obviously to give not the slightest inkling that this is what he wants. He does not give any. Next, to box Bharmal into a situation from which there would be only one vikalp (alternative) : the one that leads to this alliance. Jalal does this as well, and it is how he accomplishes this that makes this a true humdinger of an episode, perhaps the best so far.
As a young diplomat, I was taught the art of negotiating, and one of the first lessons was that with a hostile interlocutor, it is vital to keep him off balance and, secondly, that one should never lose one's cool. These rules apply in any age. So Jalal, Bairam Khan's star pupil, plays the game of siyasat by these very rules.
After having brushed aside Bharmal's gauche reference to him as the Sultan of Agra with a throwaway comment about his being the Hindustan ke Shahenshah, he proceeds to disconcert Bharmal by interrupting his litany of complaints and offering him refreshments. He is in fact checking whether Bharmal would be ready to accept food and drink on enemy territory, and when Bharmal dodges the offer, the secret smile on Jalal's face shows that he has got his answer.
It is now time to turn the screws on Bharmal, who is going on an on about yuddh ki sandhi and the need for Sharifuddin to observe those rules and return the Amer princes and other hostages. So Jalal points out, with smooth sarcasm, that as the Mughals have conquered Amer, nothing in it belongs to Bharmal any longer. And he turns to smile at Chugtai Khan.
Bharmal being Bharmal, he walks straight into the trap set for him. A small battle lost, he harrumphs, does not mean that Amer is no longer independent. That does it. Jalal turns to face Bharmal, his eyes, as hard as agates and openly hostile now, widening in disbelief at such ill-timed arrogance. He is on his feet in an instant, as agile as a panther, offering to settle the matter by waging outright war and annexing Amer, and though he never raises his voice, the overt aggression in his manner is like a whiplash.
Bharmal is thus forced to reveal his Achilles heel - that he cannot afford to go to war, for that would mean the total destruction of Amer. He is not afraid of war or of death, he huffs, but he does not want the blood of the brave to flow needlessly.
Jalal's expression, as he mocks Bharmal's dilemma, is a throwback to his terrifying mirthless smiles of old, but it is not quite the same, for he is not quite the same Jalal of old. He motions Bharmal back to his seat and resumes the discussion. Bharmal, by now, has been softened up, and his voice is hesitant and pleading as he seeks a third path, a way out of his dilemma.
When Jalal rules this out, Bharmal, by now desperate, looks at Chughtai Khan for support, and the Khan gets the opening that he, and probably his Shahenshah as well, have been looking for. If one was unsure that this was a carefully choreographed exercise, Jalal's wide smile when the word rishta is pronounced would seem to offer some corroboration, even if not cliching evidence.
What follows is pure, kneejerk stupidity from Bharmal, which is par for the course, and silken, sledgehammer brutality from Jalal. His voice breaking and his throat constricted by helplessness, Bharmal rages that no alliance is possible between him and the Mughals, as Chughtai Khan watches in an agony of apprehension and Jalal sits unmoving, his chin in his hand and his dark eyes veiled and unfathomable.
It is when Bharmal has run out of steam that Jalal finally moves, and how! There is no need for any alliance, he declares as he moves to stand face to face with Bharmal. Hope flickers in Bharmal's eyes, for he has no idea what is to come next.
When it does, the level monotone contrasting with the harshness of the words, one's breath is caught in one's throat in sheer shock. Jab Amer hamara hai, to Amer ki har cheez hamari hai, phir woh chahe uski shehzadi ho ya uski baandi. Aur hum jise chahein apni harem ki shaan bana sakte hain. The lips are drawn back in a smile that is almost a snarl. As the full import of Jalal's words dawns on him, Bharmal's face crumples in helpless dismay.
Chughtai Khan, predictably, moves to fill the breach, seeking permission for a private heart to heart with Bharmal. It is then that Jalal, unconsciously following the dictum of Chanakya, delivers the coup de grace. They had better deal with his representatives, he says, for an emperor can talk only to another emperor, and Bharmal must be now have realized that he is no longer even a king. Nothing more crushing could have been imagined, and as Bharmal looks into his mocking eyes , his heart must have plummeted into his mojvis.
The discussion that follows is a triumph for Chughtai Khan's powers of persuasion; he would have made an excellent diplomat. He uses every argument in the book to convince the by now almost tearful Bharmal that his duty as a king should take precedence over the fears of a father, and that Jodha's marriage to Jalal is the sole way out of total and inevitable disaster for Amer and its citizens.
When the pair trek back into the audience room, Jalal, who has in the interval been listening impassively to his Ministers who oppose this marriage, has changed tack dramatically, for he knows that what he wants is in the bag, and he can now afford to be generous. So he even pulls Bharmal's leg a bit, stopping at Hum ne tay kiya ki Jodha se rishte se inkaar.. and it is proof of how drastically things have changed that Bharmal's face falls visibly at this point. He only recovers when Jalal concludes, grinning like a mischievous schoolboy,... nahin kar sakte. Hum is rishte se razaamand hain.
When Bharmal tries to retrieve some face by asserting that he did this not out of fear but to save Amer and its populace, Jalal shows how subtle and effective a tactician he has become by praising him for being a good king. He goes on to reduce Bharmal almost to tears by restoring Amer to him and assuring him of the freedom of the princes, now to become his relatives.
For us, Jalal's bravura act does not end with Bharmal's departure. Jalal the strategist still has some surprises up his sleeve. The smoothness and plausibility of the (entirely correct) reasons he gives for agreeing to this marriage are such that his disapproving Ministers are not just convinced, but turned into his cheerleaders.
As their praises fill the air, his face is still and inscrutable, but his eyes gleam with some secret triumph. We , the viewers, know, even better than he himself does right now, the reason for that, for we know why he wants what he wants and he does not.
In the rest of the episode, apart from the beautifully alternated scenes of Jalal and Jodha praying, what stood out was Jalal's somber and somewhat troubled face as he prays at the Ajmer dargah and speaks to Shaikh Salim Chisti. ( Seven years after their marriage, Akbar and Jodha made a pilgrimage to the same shrine to seek blessings for a son, and it was then that Salim was born) . His assertions that he can mould his own destiny and that of Hindustan are brushed aside by the mystic, who repeats the by now familiar prediction that Jalal is on the threshold of momentous change, for himself and for the Mughal empire. Jalal listens in puzzled silence, and no wonder, but there is no scepticism in his face.
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5. This one is a snippet, but a very neat and pleasing one. Of course Jalal stands for the domination part of the title, and Rajat delivered it to a T!
Jodha Akbar 32: Domination and Duty
Jalal seeks to
dominate everyone around him , be it his Badiammi, or his prospective begum
Jodha, and to make it clear to them that his will has to prevail under any and
all circumstances. Jodha is above all dutiful, to Amer and to her father, again
under any and all circumstances.
Jalal obviously has no problem with domination! I loved the level,
freezing cold look he gave Mahaam Anga for her impertinent suggestion, and the
way he held it till well after she had lowered her eyes. If one has
such an air of command, one does not need to raise one's voice at all.
Plus the categoric putdown when he says "Namkeen cheez mein jo mazaa
aata hai woh meethe me kahan... alag cheezon ko apnane ka mazaa alag hota hai
..": it was crushing. He knows how to show anyone, be it Bharmal
or his Badiammi, who is the boss in Agra, does Jalal! He is clearly to the
manor born. It will not work quite as smoothly with the feisty Jodha, but that
is another tale altogether.
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6. I am sure most of you might have forgotten this episode, but it had two sequences that were very interesting as regards Jalal's character graph. So here are two snippets that you will surely relish, the first being a little gem!
Jodha Akbar 33: Tangled Skeins
Jalal: His two scenes today - the first with the banjara troupe, and the other with the would be assassin - were both extremely interesting and revealing.
A month ago, in my first ever post in this forum, Ekta's Emperor Jalaluddin Mohammed: an assessment (https://www.indiaforums.com/forum/topic/3647623), I had noted, with reference to the payal incident, that it showed not his love for Jodha but his possessiveness towards her, which is not at all the same thing.
He does not kiss the payal 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. 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 gaya 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 was exactly the same today. When he listens to the banjaras' ballad in praise of Jodha's manifold beauties - of face and figure, of her eyes, her lips, her hair, her gait - he goes back in time and sees her again as he had beheld her on the streets of Amer, and he smiles to himself involuntarily.
But immediately, his raw possessiveness towards this girl who is soon to be his begum, his and his alone, rears its head like an angry, hissing cobra. No one, but no one, can be permitted to hear this song and then imagine his Jodha as an object of desire. The cold menace in his eyes and voice as he warns the banjaras - after having rewarded them for this performance - against ever repeating it, is truly frightening, and those poor folk must not have stopped shivering for days!
The averted assassination attempt is even more revealing. Firstly, the Mughal security system seems to be dismal, seeing that a stranger armed with a khanjar managed to get into the Shahenshah's personal tent unnoticed, and that too to within 3 feet of him!
Next, Jalal is far more alert to potential danger than his entourage. He not only spots the khanjar but manages to remove it unnoticed by the bearer of the weapon. But it is when he deals with the man that we get the true measure of a great ruler in the making, with an unerring grasp of human psychology.
By daring the man to cut his throat, Jalal confuses him and puts him at a mental and psychological disadvantage. That man will never again be able to see Jalal as the devil incarnate, especially after he is pardoned and allowed to leave unscathed. Here we see, in Jalal, the seeds of the future Akbar, for it was thru such gestures and such calculated magnanimity, multiplied a thousand fold, that Akbar won over much of hostile Hindustan.
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7. This one was a minor delight for the mischievous Jalal that we got to see, as he dismissed his forthcoming nuptials with the Rajkumari of Amer as just another nikaah, about which he sees no need to keep his mother of his Begum-e-Khaas informed. Yummy bit!
Highlights: The Shahenshah once again demonstrating, 250 years ahead of Napoleon Bonaparte, that one can dominate much taller men by sheer force of will. Jalal hauls Sharifuddin ruthlessly over the coals for failing to obey his orders at once, and the idea of giving his brother-in-law this dressing down in private would never occur to him, for he snaps Idhar udhar kya dekh rahe ho?
Jalal again, his eyes gleaming in pure boyish mischief, saying that he had deliberately kept both his lachrymose Ammijaan and his Malika-e-Khaas (in the lady's own very recent words) in the dark about his impending nikaah so that he could watch the faces of the Mughal begums when the new Rajkumari landed up in the harem! What is this but just another nikaah, he adds brashly, and I was thinking to myself, That, Buster, is just where you are wrong!
A point I would like to make here, for those distressed because Jalal seems, in this segment, to be totally indifferent to Jodha, whereas earlier, he was so possessive and protective of her standing with Mahaam Anga and wrt the banjaras' song about Jodha.
The fact is that
right now, Jalal has no soft feelings for Jodha at all. For him, despite
the indefinable attraction and the desire to see her that pulls him into a
dangerous venture into Amer, she is, at this moment, only an impertinent
wench who dared to hold a sword to his throat, and put him, the
Shahenshah, in a very tight corner for a minute. But for his icy
courage and tremendous presence of mind, he would have been killed right there,
or arrested, which would have been far worse.
She also repeatedly calls for his head on a platter, and produces a whole
laundry list of his real and imaginary atrocities.
So what would he, an absolute monarch and a fierce warrior, think about her?
Why, like Petruchio dealing with Kate in Shakespeare's The Taming of the
Shrew, that she needs to be taught a good lesson. But while he
is doing that, no one, but no one, can utter a single disparaging word about
her. Not even his Badiammi, who was thus coldly slapped down the other day for
her impertinence wrt Jodha.
I don't think Jalal knows or understands what he feels deep down, any
more that he understood, that rainy night in Amer, why he picked up Jodha's payal,and
then burnt his hand recovering it from the fire. When he does begin to
understand what he feels, he will fight that realisation tooth and nail. He
will lose that battle, of course, but it will be hard fought, for it will be a
battle against his own ego. That, as all the sages tell us, is the toughest
battle of all.
So, when he asserts now that this is just one more nikaah, no more, he is telling the truth as he understands it. This will change, but not for a while yet, and that will be, for us, half the fun!
The precap:The image that stayed with me at the end of today's episode was of the precap. The camera circled around the two principals - Jalal, smiling, looking like a cross between Clark Gable in Gone with the Wind, and a cat that has swallowed all the cream, and Jodha, looking far more beautiful than she has been so far, dark eyes huge in a face white and drawn with shock, staring at him as if he was something out of a nightmare.
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This is it for today, folks. I am beginning to really enjoy myself, knee regardless (what my doctor will have to say next week is another matter altogether😉), but I am sure you are gasping for a break by now, so run off and relax. More in due course!
Shyamala/Aunty/Di/Akka
PS: One small request.If you like this post, please DO HIT THE LIKE BUTTON WITHOUT FAIL. I keep track of my regular readers, and this will help me a lot.Thanks in advance!
Akbar and sati: This is all as far as the extract from the post goes, but for those interested, I am adding a note on the Rani Damayanti episode, and Akbar's ban on forcible sati.
shaymala, it would have been so nice to see the real history in some beautiful well directed and well scripted tracks! the problem is that in order to cater to trp janta and to cater to the ever increasing glory of jodha in the show they forgot akbar and killed the character midway..his many innate qualities that made him great were never shown..all his achievements were somehow credited to jodha in the most unconvincing way and what haibarnaak NRs..sorry i could not find any better word as that is how i felt for an emperor who was mercilessly slaughtered at the hands of cvz and some inexperienced directors did the rest by butchering rajat's jalal to bits!...and here i will say this line from an old hindi song that i will wait for the day when a fine show regarding akbar which will be based on real historical events in his life will be made and i hope rajat gets to play that role..hum intezaar karenge tera qayaamat tak khuda kare ke qayaamat ho aur tu aaye....
![[/IMG]<imgsrc](https://i.imgur.com/3ImIQ24.jpg)
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