res ..))
Unres
Hi Abhay
plz don't feel so disheartened. This is a show and some drama is necessary to stretch tracks. :) I agree i was also expecting more from Jalal but later, I realised both JJ were being natural. That is how we would react too in their place.
Charu and Devki put my thoughts into beautiful words in yesterday's thread. Thanks ladies :)
I know the CVs have messed up the characters of JJ and HB. But given these reel characters, we have to think of the situation from a neutral perspective and not as JJ fans or PS-RT fans or anti HB viewers.
Jodha
She resisted the pressure for a really long time. But I can tell you that it's really difficult to be practical and think rationally when a mother figure is dying. And everyone blames you so much for it that you start believing you are responsible for her slipping into death.
I won't say Jodha is a doormat or a crying machine in this track. Yes, the tears have been incessant. But she has been strong, introspective and has finally taken the plunge (to conversion) as a last resort, when it seems time is running out for her mother-in-law.
She is not happy about it. Apart from the sadness of having to give up on her Kanha, she is well aware that she is going against Jalal as both a husband and as the emperor and that he will be majorly disillusioned with her decision. She is aware that Jalal had forewarned her about pressure being brought upon her and how she must remain strong and stick to their decision, not to convert. She knows he has gone to war to fight for the right of his people to follow a faith of their choice.
Yes, she is aware of all this. And yes, we all want to see her as a strong, emancipated woman. The trouble with being a strong person is that no one cares to ask how you are doing. People just assume you can do anything and be none the worse for it.
It is easy to wonder why Jodha cannot be "strong" and "stick to her decision not to convert". But just think of the tremendous psychological, mental and emotional blackmail and pressure brought upon her by the inmates of the palace. For all intents and purposes, she is all alone, save for an inconsequential support like Moti.
If the MM dies because Jodha didn't convert?
Then what?
What a furore that would create in the empire! It's not only a question of saving 1 life but also the question of saving an important life - that of the queen mother. Jalal himself may then be upset with her because he had entrusted his mother to her before going to war.
Why didn't Jodha talk to Jalal about Hamida's tantrums and her decision to convert?
Naturally, she cannot upset Jalal with domestic squabbles when he is at war and needs to focus there completely. (She had even kept her pregnancy hidden from him when he was going to war. She had tried to hide her illness when he was about to go to war.)
She knows that he will never agree to her conversion but, as she sees it, that is the only solution to save Hamida's life.
Men and women differ in how they think. And people's reactions too differ to the decisions of men and women. It is known that in India, if the son takes a "wrong" decision, families can overlook it but will blame his wife for supporting him, saying that the guy may not have known/understood the consequences, but she, being a woman and responsible for the welfare of the family, should have "known better."
Here too, no one blames Jalal as such for either the war or for supporting right to faith, but are quick to condemn Jodha for the same causes. What a dichotomy!
The tragedy of being Jodha is that all these months, she suffered alone, putting up with social ostracization, isolation and unimaginable amount of ghrina and blame for simply supporting Jalal's decisions. It was ironic to see yesterday how all these women, who were ostensibly against war and Jalal's decisions, were fawning over him and feeling proud of his victory in the war.
Which leads me to believe that Hamida actually thought that Jalal would lose the war against the more powerful (in her opinion) Shah-i-Iran. She may have got hyper thinking Jalal was going for a war that he would surely lose and she wanted to avoid this "loss of face" by compromising on ethics and sovereignty.
It is easy to say "be strong" to someone else because we are not carrying the cross that they are. Sometimes, it is worthwhile remembering that a person who is having to take a decision then and there, using their limited perspective, is doing the best she can under the circumstances.
In my view, Jodha is being as strong as she can in her position because she has taken the tough decision to save the MM over standing by her vow to her husband. Because in our Indian society, then or now, the mother is held over and above husband and children too, leave alone the kingdom.
The irony is that just a moment turned the tide against Jodha. If only she had waited half a day more, Jalal would have returned and all would have been well. Well, almost - because I don't think in that case, Hamida would have ever stopped being hostile to her for not having listened to her order for conversion.
Now Jodha is at a cross-roads. Her husband feels terribly let-down by her. Her in-laws have calmly brushed off any involvement in the matter and are pretending to be as innocent as babes lost in the woods.
Should Jodha have told Jalal about Hamida's blackmail?
No. Nothing sounds cheaper to me than complaining about someone's behavior behind their back. Esp complaining about your mother-in-law to your husband.
Jalal already knew that his mother had tried to convert Jodha once. He knows that his mother has been off food for some reason. He should have known 2+2 = 4 , without Jodha having to tell him explicitly. He should know that his wife of some 25 odd years would not go against his wishes just like that, unless some strong reason was there.
Under general circumstances, he keeps saying that there must be a strong reason behind Jodha's actions but he forgets that when something major happens.
No, I don't blame Jodha for buckling under pressure. I don't blame her for keeping it from her husband. And I don't think she is weak.
Jalal
Like I said, he should have understood that his mother had brought pressure upon Jodha to convert by refusing to eat food.
When I saw the dark, stormy face of Jalal, as he entered the palace, and the way he purposefully strode towards his mother's chamber to talk to her, I thought he understood everything and would make his mother apologize to Jodha for forcing her to convert. But this didn't happen.
Well, I understood the makers are going to milk this drama as long as they can and stretch it beyond endurance.
But it may be that Jalal is being the TE and trying to wriggle a confession out of his mother, though I doubt it. There is no way to know ever when Jalal is being TE. :(
The only explanation that seems plausible to me is that he is deeply anguished by Jodha's betrayal, as he sees it. Here, he is separating her from others and seeing only her actions in isolation.
WHich many of us do most times. I can recall many times when my son does something wrong and says he did it because "everyone (of his friends) was doing it". And I tell him that I don't care about the others but only about what he does and he should have remembered what I told him instead of giving weightage to what others told him.
This ^^^ example is only to illustrate a point.
We have different standards of judgement for the ones we love truly and for ones we don't care about. Jalal is able to brush off Ruq's antics because he doesn't care for her or what she does. But he cannot bear Jodha going wrong even slightly because it matters tremendously to him how she is.
If he trusts anyone at all completely, it is her. He made her the MEH for the simple reason that he takes her to be his shadow, his own reflection or alter ego. In his eyes, there is no difference between them - they are one and the same soul in different bodies.
Before going to war, he saw the pressure that was building up for her conversion and told her many times to guard herself against it. He knew that she had a tough battle on her hands, as tough as the one he was going to fight. At least, he had supporters, who were loyal to him and ready to die for him. She was all alone and the enemy was their own family, which made the battle an emotional mind game.
His anguish is not that she went against his farman or against his decision. His anguish isn't also about what kind of message her conversion would send to the world at large or how that act would negate his hard-earned victory in the war of principles.
His anguish is, deep down, simply the feeling of having trusted his soul to someone and then finding that the person had bartered that soul for a short-term gain. He is unable to come to terms with how Jodha, of all people, could withdraw her support to him, his principles, his decisions, just when victory was his.
I don't know if I am able to do justice to Jalal's state of mind here. It is something we an only feel but very difficult to explain to someone.
But I know the devastating effect on our mind, heart and soul when our closest friend, supporter, confidante, beloved, withdraws their support to us and joins hands with the other side. We may see that the person has taken the decision because of some solid reasons or under much duress, but we are still unable to reconcile with being "left hanging".
Going by yesterday's episode, I will say love is still there, very much there between the two. His distress stems from the deep love he has for her. Even now, he is neither able to find succor elsewhere or say anything harsh to her. (Remains to be seen just how this distress is developed by the CVs and taken to the point where he wants to punish her by giving her a divorce).
His words showed how meaningless his marriage seemed to have become when his wife broke one of the sacred marriage vows. To him, it doesn't matter what his mother or others say or do. They are like extraneous creatures now, his entire focus is on Jodha alone and on what she has done.
He had never trusted even his shadow all his life till Jodha had entered his life and taught him the meaning of trust over a long period of time. We all know just how long it took for him to develop an unshakeable trust in her. Which indicates just how valuable that trust is to him. If now this hard-earned trust is gone, Jalal seems to be slipping back to where he came from - to the stage where he can trust no one again.
He does not know how to react - he doesn't trust himself to react just yet. He is unable to accept even to himself just what it is that is paining him so much. When Jodha tells him that his words are hurting her, he laughs derisively - because he is hurting so much that he doesn't know how to deal with it.
My sympathies lie with both. But I also trust in their love for each other and believe that their pure love will always have divine protection. This love will keep them together, and help them emerge unscathed from this experience too.
I know we all want to see romance and intimate scenes of AkDha but life is not all romance. MUs and arguments and unpleasantness raise their heads from time to time. How strong and mature our relationship is depends upon how well we deal with unpleasantness. Depending upon how JJ go about resolving their differences and come together again, their relationship will strengthen further.
I know the divorce won't happen. Even if Jalal utters those words, it is to be remembered that he is only saying them in hurt and anger - we say many things in our hurt and anger esp with the ones we are closest to. Such words are meaningless. Once the anger, resentment, the hurt, the sense of betrayal is gone, calmness prevails and we are able to think more rationally.
I am happy with an introspective Jodha and the fact that she would rather discuss her situation with Moti than Salima. Like someone said, Salima can only issue lip service sympathy; she would never go out on a limb to defend someone.
Not thinking about the witch at all. This is sick NR. At the end of the track, we know the witch will be kicked out and JJ will be together again. So let's not bother too much about her.
Edited by RadhikaS0 - 8 years ago
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