Originally posted by: sashashyam
Okay, folks, I am not losing the plot and repeating episode
numbers. This is the real No. 42, and I had goofed up and skipped a number last
night. And no, at my age, it was not
the after effect of that hamaam scene!😉
Thanks a lot to Zoyafan and QuiNotti
who alerted me to it ever so discreetly. Who says GenX does not have
beautiful, considerate manners?
I was in two minds today about posting anything, and only
partly because my left eye has not yet quite made up its mind if it wants to
stop imitating a tomato.
It was more because the episode left me feeling rather tired
and also a bit sad about the vagaries of
human nature. Plus the terminally soapy device of pretending for the sake of
the khushi or bhalayi of someone or the other, and lying thru one's teeth to
that end, is enough to set my teeth on edge; every single saas bahu serial, without exception,
has it.
The truth is always the safer bet, and then it can be
sugar-coated as desired, but the denizens of TV soapland are in love with
untruth, and the more blatant the better. So is Jodha now, apparently believing that the
charade she has embarked upon can be kept up indefinitely. Let us get the score
on this operation, beginning yesterday.
Jodha-Jalal:
the score yesterday: Okay, so she wants that, and of course she
needs Jalal's sustained cooperation to carry it thru. So she goes - after some
strong persuasion for the extremely practical Motibai, who has 10 times as much
commonsense as her mistress - to see
Jalal. He agrees to oblige her and, after some coaching, to lie thru his perfect pearly whites for her sake.
She in turn, helps him bathe, most reltouctantly, it is
true, but still she does it. If she had had any sense of humour, she would have
dissolved in infectious laughter at her own plight, and Ekta's serial would have been shortened
by about 200 episodes! But our Jodha is not burdened with this attribute, so
she does not appreciate her spouse's mischievous grins.
So far, they are quits.
Jodha-Jalal:
the score today: Now for today's happenings. Jalal is extra
welcoming and warm to Bharmal and Mynavati. He lays it on thick about Jodha to
her mother. A hint of a grateful smile
is visible on Jodha's face.It is,
however, immediately chased away by
Jalal mentioning, with a straight face, but an impish gleam in his eye, meant for
Jodha, that she had learnt a new rivaaz from him,
at one try, the day before. Like Queen Victoria, Jodha is not amused! Round 1 to Jalal.
To pay him back for that mischievous sally, Jodha scolds him
for coming into the room with Lord Krishna's idol with his jootis on. Jalal must have wondered, at this point, why all his khaas Begums seem to be
eternally after his beloved jootis! His eyes, as he slowly raises them to Jodha's,
look almost grim - for it is a very cheeky remark - but he makes a quick
recover, and apologises, blaming his forgetfulness. Mynavati is amazed at the
good humour of her javaisa, and Jodha smiles in secret triumph. Round 2 to
Jodha.
Not one to go down without a fight, Jalal now hints very broadly
at perfect conjugal felicity between Jodha and himself, mentioning her
having pulled him up about the jootis
the night before too, and wondering about the wounds on her arm (from the broken
bangles of the night before last) which,
he says, were not there the previous night. Jodha turns pink with embarrassment at the
implications of his remarks; and as Jalal leaves, the two of them eye each other like Kilkenny
cats, eager for the next sparring match.
Maybe the bangle bit was rather insensitive, but the rest of
it is a perfectly legit, no holds barred
boxing bout, from which Jalal retires having won on points. This is not yet the
self-destructive spousal hostility of Who
is afraid of Virginia Woolf .
Alas, this is soon going to change, and change drastically,
for the worse, after the Mahaam-induced fiasco of Begum Jodha's lazeez
khana.
Pre-Chilli:
Coming
to that, I wondered why the Shahenshah eats in solitary state. Even if Bharmal
cannot join because of the beti ke ghar
paani bhi nahin peete rule (I was in fact looking to see whether Bharmal had a water bottle, or the 16th
century equivalent thereof, tucked away in his choga. But perhaps, since he is a son of the desert, he shares the
ability of the ship of the desert to go on for days without the aforesaid paani!😉), what of Bhagwan Das and
Mansingh? Both of them are obviously
exempt from the paani nahin peete fiat,
since both have been both eating and drinking in the palace for weeks now. If one or both of them had sat down to the
meal with Jalal, Mahaam would never have pulled that stunt, as it would have
been spotted with the first mouthful either
of them took.
Next, Jodha has at least 5
maids in attendance all the time.
Not one of them, not even Motibai, has
the notion of being watchful and making
sure their special khana was safe; instead they all sashay off in Jodha's wake. Staff is the same everywhere and in every age,
never where they should be!
Plus, this chilli stunt is as old as the hills and as
boring; it is unworthy of the quality we have got used to in Jodha Akbar. And
the explanations for Jalal eating it till he practically has smoke coming out
of his ears -imperial pride, wanting to keep his word to Jodha etc. - are all
nonsense. He could have put an end to it after the first bite by jokingly
asking Bharmal if they preferred such
red hot food to match the fiery Rajput
temperament, and the cat would have been out of the bag at once. It is pathetic, this screenplay.
Post-Chilli:
Having skimmed thru the vigorous arguments in
MoronskiMallika's thread, for and
against Jodha and for and against Jalal,
I feel that both of them are OTT,
Jalal furiously and Jodha mulishly.
But he is the one more sinned against than sinning. He has
treated Bharmal and Mynavati with great courtesy and consideration, he has been very kind to
Mansingh (even if Jodha sees this as aimed at corrupting the young man), and he has lied manfully to please Jodha and keep her parents not just
happy but in the seventh heaven of parental joy and satisfaction . Against all
this, what are few mischievous sallies at Jodha's expense ? So, in the pre-chilli
phase, she owes him a good bit.
Why then does Jodha
assume that he is making up the chilli complaint? If she had taken even a
single look at him while he was eating, she would have known that something was
badly wrong. But of course she does not.
Even without that, a look at him pouring
all that water down his throat as she is coming into the room should have alerted her.
Her response to his fierce question as to why she did it,
that she has no bhay of him, is bizarre.
When Hanuman returned from Lanka with Sita's token for Lord
Rama, he announces, as soon as he is in
Rama's presence, Dekha Sitaji ko. He wants to spare Rama
even that one extra split second of
anxiety, the time taken to pronounce the
2 more words, if he had said Sitaji ko dekha.
So also here, Jodha should have said at once Nahin
kiya maine! The categoric negative, accompanied by the info that Mahaam
Anga had tasted the food and found it lazeez,
plus a word of concern for his pain and a move to get him some honey to
soothe his burnt tongue - and Jalal would not only have believed her and
launched a successful investigation to
nail the culprits, but he would have instantly forgotten all his ills.
There is no point in
listing out all his misdeeds of 2
days back. He was drunk then, but yesterday,
and more so today, sober as a judge, he has turned up trumps for the wife whom he had promised to make miserable. Does Jodha even try to think thru that if he really meant what he said to her
that night, why then is he now putting
up the show which she desperately wants,
and why is he being extra considerate
and obliging to her parents? No, she
does not, for she does not want her hatred
of Jalal, which is by now an axiom for her, to be diluted by any such analysis
or any contrary facts.
I simply could not understand the folly of her simply repeating that she is
not afraid of him. Which of course drives him to furious, over the top imprecations
and threats, plus a great deal of outraged rhetoric about what is owed to the
dignity of a Shahenshah.
I was also taken aback by her totally ignoring the hurt he
has suffered, not offering at least a sliver of sympathy, and not insisting on the incident be investigated
at once by Jalal. The way she behaves, harping on what she would not do while her parents were in Agra,
would, even in an unconcerned bystander,
only reinforce the conviction that she-dun-it. It all goes to prove that if there is one
thing Begum Jodha does not have, it is sound practical sense, plus some understanding even of 'the other'
to borrow Sangeeta's evocative phrase.
Jodha is a perfect Scarlett O'Hara to Jalal's Rhett Butler,
and their interactions have the same sharp edge, and the same, unfailing ability
to get the other's back up and to maul whatever it is that is budding between
them. The only difference is that here, unlike
the muted tragedy of Gone with the Wind, not
even Ekta Kapoor can change the happy ending. But what I fear is that the longer such unnecessarily
harsh interactions between them continue, the more difficult will it be for the
CVs to effect the eventual transition to a loving and trusting
relationship gracefully and
convincingly.
Thought
for the day: It seem
to be the general consensus that by
conferring the 5000 level Mansubedari
on Bharmal, Jalal has gained a substantial politico-military
advantage, by co-opting the Rajputs to fight for the Mughals instead of
against them. This might well be true
for the long term, for after all Akbar
reigned for all of 49 years. But right
now, seeing the way the Amer forces, reinforced by Suryabhan's troops, fared
against Sharifuddin, I personally think
Jalal will be paying out 30000 asharfis
a month for a langda ghoda that cannot even trot, not to speak of winning races!😉
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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