A Food for Thought!!

I am in a constant watching spree of Jodha Akbar for a long time now, I just want to pen some thoughts regarding it, not about Jodha and Jalal, unusually it's for Jalal and Hamida, the estranged Mother-Son duo. I don't know how they were in real history, but I have read here how he was heartbroken by her death, carried her, and even shaved his head for him and Jiji-Anga. While the serial doesn't show his relationship with Jiji-Anga, it was mostly around him and his other foster mother MahamAnga, they might be very close in real history.

Now coming to Hamida Banu Begum and Jalal:

• One thing I noticed, both were sucker for love, like if someone showered them with 1% of love, they return the person with 1000%. Maham Anga loved Jalal (according to him) and to repay that love, he went out his way to please her, giving her mother status too. Same with Hamida, Jodha loved her as her own mother and she went out her way to love her (in the religion conversion track 1) (the post leap religion conversion track was a disaster)

• They had a strained relationship, as depicted in episode 12 that Jalal didn't even talk to her face and taunted her for leaving him. He had a lots of complaints against her, primarily the fact that she had chosen her husband instead of son, which was again a problem of Salim too (seems like hereditary problem ) but I realised, Jalal taunted those who he choses to be close to him, he never taunted Ruqaiyya, Mahamanga or others who were supposedly close to him but only Hamida (initially) and Jodha.

• Though he was angry, he used to carry her order highest, even higher than Ruqaiyya and Maham Anga. In the case of Fareeda track we could see that, once Hamida stopped him, he stopped and actually was pondering on what Hamida told him about his inability of getting a waris.

• Though he "hated" her, he never want her to be hurt. That's why he wanted to do fake pregnancy drama with Jodha to stop her from taking a tough pilgrimage, though he used to hurt her with his words which he forgot. Again he was quite young then, some 19yrs old individual.

• They were quite similar also. Both used to dot on Jodha , were honourable personalities, lonely trying to find the solace on each other to be rejected, having a strong sense of justice, and have same emotional capability. Hamida used to show her emotions, when Jodha left Agra, Jalal used to conceal but his actions, like he stopped sleeping and eating till he got to know that Jodha is coming back Agra.

• Jodha, ironically brought the mother and son duo together. In the episode where Jalal was too distressing to think anything after she drank poison, it was Hamida who handled him. Ironically they had a scene the earlier night when he said that he had Hamida where he could go and sleep without any tension, or could share his sorrow and he did the next night!!

• He was sad that he couldn't bring his mother daughter back to his mother, couldn't fulfill his promise to be a good son, such an evolution from when he used to consider him a bad mother to think that it is he who is unable to become a good son.

So yeah!! I would have loved to see some more scenes of them together but something is better than nothing.

Jalal's relationship with Hamida in the serial has always been quite interesting to me. and like you said, there is no real-life indication of if their relationship was initially strained but he did value her as a person even till her death. he was the one who bestowed upon her the title "Mariam-Makhani" and "Padshah Begum" and was in deep mourning after her death, in fact, scholars implied that this may have also contributed to his death. I also do wish they could have shown more of their relationship in the serial but I guess the CVs were more focused on akdha.

a great observation you made, by the way 😄

Originally posted by: MideOfTheShadow

Jalal's relationship with Hamida in the serial has always been quite interesting to me. and like you said, there is no real-life indication of if their relationship was initially strained but he did value her as a person even till her death. he was the one who bestowed upon her the title "Mariam-Makhani" and "Padshah Begum" and was in deep mourning after her death, in fact, scholars implied that this may have also contributed to his death. I also do wish they could have shown more of their relationship in the serial but I guess the CVs were more focused on akdha.

a great observation you made, by the way 😄

I don't think so in real life he would have held grudges against her. Because he knew at what situation he grew up when he was in Kabul at Kamran Mirza and Askari Mirza's house. As a child, he was bound to have grudges against his parents because obviously for a child absence of a parent is heartbreaking but later on he might have understood the circumstances his parents had to undergo.

In the show, they made him keep grudges against her for choosing her husband instead of a son, might be to show how his son was similar to him, in later times. But what I loved is the evolution of the relationship especially the breakdown scene post poisoning incident, after that he was definitely civil towards her and also warmed up a lot..

oh absolutely! I think the reason for his initial strained relationship with Hamida was to provide a sort of contrast. unfortunately, even after understanding the circumstances, some grudges are not that easily forgiven and forgotten. that could have also posed a reason for Jalal bearing those grudges even into adulthood.

regardless, it was sweet to see him slowly opening up to Hamida and it is more significant especially with Maham Anga slowly revealing her true colours.