Posted:
Now that it looks like JA has officially entered the Ekta lexicon, I wonder how I ever expected the show to stay out of saas-bahu-land. It did manage to at the start. And it then progressively meandered through uncharted territory where history and fiction have to both collide for entertainment purposes. The historical research seemed reasonably accurate. Many characters had a back story that could be backed up. But where JA has gone awry, in my opinion, is with the trademark takeover by the female protagonist. Here, it happens to be Jodha and here, I can only discuss her character.
Close our eyes, and without watching, just by reading the highlights, we know what's happening, and worse, what's going to keep happening. Add to this, we have Rajat as Jalal. Show started with such a tantalisingly good portrayal of Jalal by him. He owned the character. Paridhi as Jodha had some moments for me when she nailed the essence of Jodha. Put all this together and I had this dilemma of wanting to watch and not able to summon the enthusiasm to watch. I assume that's what has happened to others.
Jodha, as envisioned by CVs, was feisty and feisty and umm...feisty. But Paridi, in my view, managed to bring something extra. There was a dignity, some grace. Such a character also needs a strong counterpart in her husband. I cannot imagine this Jodha being happy to be in the eye of every storm, fighting every battle with words and swords, bows and arrows and then finally catching up with her husband at the epilogue stage to compare notes and hold hands. No. She would have much preferred to be able to choose her battles and leave most of the heavy lifting to the emperor. She wold have wanted the fact that her husband is the emperor of Hindustan to count in every circumstance. The royal tenor would have been maintained at all costs.
But now, alas, Ekta's Jo is a victim of the CVs brand of feistiness. Now that she is this all-in-one problem solver and champion of every cause, she has to settle for a husband who is on the periphery, disengaged, almost unnecessary to the story the CVs want to tell. They have proved that any historical figure can get the Ekta show treatment, but they have yet to prove that it's a success.
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