Weekend Analysis Thread 2:Heart Vs Mind..

Originally posted by: disha15

@Kush! Btw,i did read somewhere that Ruqaiya did have kids,but they passed away at a very young age.

Heard that scientific theory which talks about why cousins shouldn't get married?it somehow hampers the health of their offsprings,it seems

Some historians say that she never had children at all,whereas some say she did,but as i said,they didn't live much.

Originally posted by: apolloartemis

This week was a little slow for me because while I liked the Jalal-Ruq equation, I wish more emphasis had been put on how she's intelligent outside harem politics. That, and I got tired of the repetitive "You are my friend of childhood" and "You are my favorite begum" and "I know you best of all" and so on and so forth. I wasn't expecting Jalal to keep remembering Jodha because she's just a very very pretty ornament for him right now, and so was pleasantly surprised when he wanted to get her portrait painted (found it ironic that Ruq wanted to impress him with the portrait and he went and had another women's portrait painted😆)
MM remains a very clever, very subtle woman. The way she weaves her webs is masterful. What a disappointment that she has such a brutish son who can't appreciate her ways. But we can see where his massive intolerance stems from, because she's pretty implacable when it comes to religious tolerance. I think it was a little OTT to include all those scenes, but conversions and intolerance were the norm, so it was well executed for the most part. I don't like her BG score though.
Bairam Khan's downfall is beginning and I found it delightful! I can't wait to see him overreach and fall. I hate him for what he did to Zaheer.
Liked the Jodha-Suryabhan scenes. Very historically inaccurate, but who cares? I like that they are building this relationship because it'll make it so much more impactful when it breaks, It'll give Jodha the fire she needs in order to entice Jalal. And there is a lot of beauty in first love and innocence and I enjoy watching that with these too. The intensity of Akdha will come later on...
I also liked the Rajput side and how it was highlighted that the death before enemy mentality was so ingrained. Menavati was ready to throw her daughter in the flames, and Jodha would have helped her when the time came- masterful.
For next week, I want the pregnancy scene to be a dream, because as I wrote in the EDT thread, the thought of a guy leaving his pregnant wife to pursue another woman makes me a little uncomfortable😊

Friends, I sense that most of us on this thread are going to vent our frustrations that the whole serial is not moving as fast as we would like. Here, all that we are dying for is this quick shaadi of Jodha and Jalal, and then a slow dance of growing love between them to enjoy at leisure week after week. Instead we have had one whole week of just seeing her background (a bit here and there) and his background (a lot of it). Only yesterday did we even see Jalal's thoughts of Jodha and Jodha's thoughts of Jalal rekindled.

The only redeeming feature this week seemed to be that Sujamal finally made that trip to Sharifuddin's tent to propose a grand yudh against Amer in mutual interest - to which Sharifuddin agreed (although he cautiously said "When the time is ripe we will advance!"). On that day when Sujamal finally made that move, I remember SMS-ing Jyoti that Sujamal has finally moved ' and she replied me with a simple reply that said everything: "PHEW!!!"

But after my intial disappointment with the week in general, I sat and thought about whether the events of this week have some other value to the story, and whether we were all not trying to rush into the future just to see Jodha and Jalal in the same frame. And when I did this analysis I found that this week after all has four very important points of value to the future of the whole story. The really big importance of this week according to me is that it prepared all of us (in four different ways) to be able to separate the "false signals" from "the real thing". Here's what I mean '

1. This week has shown us that the backgrounds of Jodha and Jalal are not merely potential "culture shocks" but "catalysts"

When day after day the creatives kept showing the behaviour and events at Jodha's house and then at Jalal's house ' and we got a taste of all the politics and politicking at both places ' it looked tedious. Okay, so we all got the broad picture that the Mughals were a hotbed of political intrigue and back-stabbing, with a "dog-eat-dog" culture. It surely gave us a glimpse of the kind of culture-shock that Jodha would have coming to live in a place like this, with barely a friend or two, and lethal enemies on all sides, many with murderous tendencies. In comparison, Jodha's own family life looked peaceful and harmonious, but that was also just on the surface, I think. Because even in the Rajput household there were clear signs of smooth undercutting, trickery, treachery, and undercurrents of unease. Jodha's own mother was not above selling her daughter's dignity with a bunch of ill-advised letters between Jodha and Suryabhan, and Sujamal was not above riding out to the vilest enemy to corner his share of his "inheritance". Jodha's own grandmother was no less a "conniver" when she "congratulated" Menavati for the letter trick. This week showed us that the Rajputs are just a shade more subtle in their underhandedness, whereas the Mughals are overtly murder-ready.

While it is clear that Jodha may find the Mughal home a culture-shock, it may well be that Jalal himself will also find the Rajput sasural full of intrigue in the future. His trip to Amer may have given him the first impression of a beautiful, harmonious and exquisite little kingdom, but one week at the Rajput palace can make the scales fall from his eyes as well.

Okay given all this "culture shock" I still feel that this week showed the differing cultures of the two families not just as potential shocks for Jodha and Jalal, but these very same cultural differences can also be viewed as "catalysts" for Jodha and Jalal. It is well-known that when two people are faced with common enemies, they bond together better sinking their mutual differences. The more I saw of the diversity between the two households and the disgusting character of the inmates at both places, the more I felt that all this would help seal the bond better between Jodha and Jalal. They both need to see that their previous families had their place in their lives, but they both need to bond to form a family unit of their own, built out of their own two soul-cultures. The more the enmity around them, the better could be their chances at forging a common alliance at all levels of heart, mind, body, and socially, psychologically and emotionally against forces from both sides. In this sense it was a week of positive signals for Jodha-Jalal.

2. This week has shown us the difference between the signals of "first love" vs. "lasting love"

Many of us are clear that the storyline Ekta is following could be that of Jodha's and Jalal's initial enmity and competitiveness utlimately becoming passion and love. With that kind of simple storyline in mind, we were all no doubt wondering why the story is not gathering pace, and why the marriage is not happening fast so that the U-turn of hatred to love can start happening, since that is the principal core of this whole show.

But see, from the way we are expecting the story to progress, there seems to be a slight difference to the way Ekta is actually seeing the story, I think. We are expecting that when Jodha and Jalal marry, they will just have the enmity of Mughals vs Rajputs. She will hate Jalal for his barbaric tendencies of the Mughals, and he will just see here as a beauty to add to his harem and nothing more ' "Raput ka sar jhukana" pawn.

After seeing the events this week, however, I feel Ekta is injecting one additional angle here. She is making it as if Jodha not only hates Jalal and his Mughals but she also likes Suryabhan a bit and starts to feel some loyalty for him ... hence double reason why she will be against Jalal. Similarly Jalal will not only see her as a Rajput to bend to his will, but also he will like Ruqqaiya and will have guilt to cross the loyalty to Ruqqaiya. Hence double reason for him to feel troubled by Jodha.

By injecting this extra angle of "loyalty" to their previous lovers, along with enmity of the races, I think Ekta is giving the story an additional layer of discord between Jodha and Jalal so that their love will have to blossom not just by conquering each other's enmity but also by conquering their own hearts and guilt about their previous loyalties.

It seems to be a story eventually about the difference between "first love" and "lasting love", rather than just "enmity turning to love". Also there were so many other signals this week that what Jodha-Suryabhan and Jalal-Ruqqaiya had between them was probably "first love", whereas in the future we will get to see the contrast of this with the "lasting love" of Jodha-Jalal.

As I saw it this week, hand-holding or seeking frequent reassurance from each other that they are important to the "other one" are but signals of first love. Not only does Ruqqaiaya constantly remind Jalal of her own importance in his life and try to prove it again and again, even Jalal is asking her to reassure him that she needs his portrait in front of her to be reminded of him when he is away from Agra. Jodha's recognition of Suryabhan's tastes in food, and his sword and his hand-holding suggests she is more in love with the "idea of being in love" than with Suryabhan himself. All four protagonists ' Jodha, Surya, Jalal and Ruqqaiya ' are into trying to get the other one to articulate how imprtant they are in the "relationship".

In "lasting love" however, so many thousand words of reassurance are not needed, where just one glance is sufficient to tell each other the depth of love they have. Quiet moments of companionable silence may speak louder than all the words of "I love you as my bestest friend" etc. A small mutual smile between two people who understand each other at ever inner level is more eloquent than grand gestures of friendship, sworn oaths against a common enemy and dialogues "extolling each other's virtues". This week showed how shallow is the "first love" on both sides compared to what could be the "lasting love" that future weeks may unfold.

3. This week has shown us how the "concepts of the mind" can be challenged by "portraits of the heart"

It was a very simple idea injected by the creatives this week to do those portraits. But if you think about it, it was a very powerful idea to introduce into the storyline. Psychology experts say that when people have feelings trapped inside them which they are unable to express, "art therapy" is a great way of unlocking the hidden depths. Thus many unexpressive people are encouraged to draw on paper and thus give colour and definition to their feelings. And also eventually it is said "A picture speaks a thousand words".

How great was this idea of the portraits of Jalal and Jodha, in that context?! Here we had Suryabhan drawing Jodha from actually seeing her before him, suggesting that she was not yet imprinted in his heart at the deepest level yet. He needed to see her to draw her. Contrast this with Jalal who knows exactly what Jodha looks like in every detail from the picture he carries inside his heart. At the same time spare a thought for Ruqqaiya who also knows Jalal "by heart" and could get the artist to draw his picture. But the picture Ruqqaiya has inside her of Jalal is that of a remote King, static in the frame, and with all the distance of a King from his"subjects". Whereas we know the portrait Jalal is going to get the artist to draw of Jodha is of "hirni jaisi aankhen, aur menhdi rachaye haath mein khoon ki pyaasi talwar ' ufff!" Ruqqaiya's portrait of him was impersonal, his portrait of Jodha is extremely personal!

Also there is a new promo where Jalal is seen burning the portrait of Jodha saying "Some things are meant to be burnt". We don't know why he is doing this because it is to become clear next week only. Maybe after he commissioned the portrait he felt it had laid open his hidden heart for all to see and he wanted to quickly bury his deepest feelings from others and even himself! Maybe after Jodha makes the Agra trip, her continued hatred of him has piques Jalal a lot, and he is afraid he has given her too much "ehmiyat" yet again when all she had for him was still hatred. Either way, don't you think his heart stands totally exposed? He has left the genie out of the bottle by commissioning the portrait, and now its going to be mightly diffficult to bottle it back again, even after he burns the portrait!

4. This week has shown us how "roots are important" but "shoots are the future" of anything that grows

A final reason why I thought this week's episodes were important is that we got to see the separation of Jodha from her roots, just as we saw a separation of Jalal from his roots. Both are now heading for the phase of individualisation of their identities. In Jodha's case notice how she is already cooking for her new family, and getting mentally prepapred to leave her maike. And notice how her trip has made a detour to Bhanpur where she is testing the waters to see if she feels at home here. (Whether she feels more at home in Agra or Bhanpur, we shall see!)

In Jalal's case notice how he has tested his strength against Bairam Khan, and then eventually imposed his diktat on Bairam Khan regarding release of the Rajput prisoner. Now in the precap, perhaps after knowing that Baiaram has actually hung that prisoner out of spite, Jalal is actually threatening to use the sword against Bairam Khan himself.

Notice also how initially Jalal did not like Ruqqaiya saying anything against Maham Anga, but when questioned deeper by her he changed the subject to say "You are the greatest influence on my life" rather than continue to defend Maham Anga?

This week has shown me how two people are slowly beginning to see that while "roots" are important" it's the "shoots" that make the visible manifestations of any plant. They are both rising gradually from the shadows and protections of their near and dear to become individuals exposing their own individualised values in the open themselves. After this phase comes the finding of new soul-mates and new friends that echo those new values and can change their destinies.

So all in all, it was an eventful week or a dull one, depending on how you see its potential mark on the future.

My favourite moment of the week: Jalal bare body in the bath. I couldn't even hear his words, as I was staring shamelessly at every inch of him. My week is complete with that one scene. What about yours?