Folks,
Even from a cursory reading of the forum entries for this episode, there seems to be a feeling that it was disjointed and confusing, and Mansi has listed 5 points about Jalal-Jodha that she sees as inexplicable, plus 2 about Mahaam thrown in for good measure. Well, I did not see the episode as at all confusing; rather it was clarificatory as regards Mahaam I & Mahaam II, and as regards Jalal and Jodha, it was rich in hidden hints if one looked for them.
Let us take our golden couple first. I am tired of calling them the Odd Couple, and then yesternight, in all the sunny glory of her latest yellow joda, Jodha looked as if she had been electroplated all over in 24 carats, and was spreading a golden glow wherever she went. Jalal too, happily, had a new dress for his jungi riyaaz, I was just as tired of the old brown one, which had doubled up for a night dress at Sujanpur.
Jalal-Jodha 1: Prologue: This scene was preceded by the departure of Jodha's brothers, who left without meeting her. Their excuse of being in a hurry would hardly wash, as it must be at least 3 days to Amer on horseback, and an hour spent bidding farewell to Jodha would not have mattered. So either Bharmal must have told them not to alarm Jodha unnecessarily, or they must have decided to do so on their own, following the age-old maxim of keeping all the bad news from the (supposedly) fragile women of the household until it is too late to do anything about it.
As for the likely question you might have, and Mansi has, Why does Jalal not mention Jodha's projected departure to the brothers?, why, that is a non-starter. This is a sensitive matter concerning a daughter of their family, and propriety demands that it be discussed ONLY with the head of the family, her father, whose decision it would then be to share it with one or more or the others as he chose. It would have been grossly disrespectful on the part of Jalal to have told anyone other than his father-in-law about it.
What he tells Ruqaiya as to why he did not sent Jodha with her brothers, that they were going elsewehere, is true, but it is not the real reason. Nor the other thing he tells her, that the escort would have to come from Amer. The logical thing would have been for her husband to have sent her with a Mughal escort (NOT escort her himself, which would be acutely embarrassing in this case).
Jalal is waiting, not just for the Ameri escort, but for Bharmal's reaction and response. He might well be hoping that it is in the negative, for then Jodha would have to stay on despite, as he assumes now, wanting to leave.
But again, the real reason is that he is not sending Jodha back, she has elected to return, and for this , in any royal family of that era, her father's consent is necessary. As an honourable and responsible son-in-law, Jalal cannot simply dump his wife back in Amer as if she was a piece of unwanted baggage, even if she is demanding it.
Jalal-Jodha 1: Anyhow, Jodha, who, after her crying jag of the day before, had obviously spent half the night or more mulling over Jalal's Do din ke mehmaan se kya gila kya shikwa, which enrages and hurts her for no logical reason, pounces on what she sees as a golden (oh, not again, sorry!) opening to engage him in another skirmish after catching him, as she imagines, on the wrong foot. She is not one to bother about the proprieties of appearing before the soldiers unveiled, so she barges into his jungi riyaaz area unannounced.
Incidentally, this area is clearly, as we saw in the earlier tulsi aarti scene, very close to Jodha's rooms and the tulsi grih, which comes into play again today.
What followed was remarkable not so much for what happened, or what was said, but for what was not.
But first, it was good to see Jalal's energetic shamsheerbaazi after a long while, he is like quicksilver and steel combined, with the suppleness and elusiveness of the one, and the hardness and the tensile strength of the other. It was also good to see him appreciating and commending the soldier who was his sparring partner for having broken thru his guard, even if his hand was cut in the process..
Now, for some more likely questions , also on Mansi's list, that might arise from Jalal telling Jodha that he had arranged for her departure, and the testy, irritable exchange of barbs that follows:
Mera yahan dum ghuthta hai, main Amer laut jana chahti hoon (translation: Why on earth, your stupid man, can you not see that mera dum yahan se jaane ki soch se ghuthta hai? Why can't you for once help me out and tell me Aap kahin nahin ja rahi hain, Jodha Begum, kyunki hum aap ko nahin jaane denge?)
Hum bhi aapko jaane se rokna nahin chahte (translation: Why on earth can you not see, your tiresome, pigheaded female, that all that I have been doing of late was to please you? Why can you not see that you are best off with me, not languishing in Amer?)
Qs: At which point did Jalal write the paigam to Bharmal? Why did Jalal not tell Jodha what arrangements he has made for her leaving? And, jumping ahead a bit to Jalal-Jodha Scene 2, Why did Jalal tell Jodha not to tell anyone about her leaving till her departure?
First of all, we need to stop taking Jalal's do din ke mehmaan as if was a deadline for a bomb timer to go off, set and immutable . It is only a throwaway phrase, meaning that the duration of her stay in Agra would now be limited. Jalal had asked Jodha to decide, and he now thinks he has an indirect answer, that she wants to leave. He will arrange for this soon, but hardly in 2 days!
He must, after her tirade of the night before, have decided to send a paigham to Bharmal, setting out the facts of the case, and informing him about Jodha's decision to return, leaving it to him to respond as he thought fit. This message might have gone off that morning, after the departure of the brothers but before his jungi riyaaz session. So what he tells Jodha, and later Ruqaiya, would be technically correct.
I think he does not tell Jodha what arrangements he has made because he is not at all sure of how Bharmal will respond. If he tells her now that he has written to her father, she might panic, anticipating that he would refuse to let her come back. That he might see her demand/desire as childish and irresponsible, both because of Rajput maryada, and because he now has a high opinion of Jalal and might thus blame her rather than him. She would thus have preferred to land in Amer straightway with a Mughal escort, and face her father and family with a fait accompli. Jalal anticipates all this, and he does not, for good reasons, want any more scenes from her!
As for why he tells her to keep the news of her leaving for good to herself, methinks it is for the same reason. Bharmal might very well refuse to take her back, and by telling her to keep it secret till it actually happens, Jalal probably wants to spare Jodha any humiliation in the harem, where she would be then mocked for being unwanted by both the Shahenshah and her family. He has by now come a long way from rejoicing in her guroor being thus trodden underfoot, whether he realises it or not.
Incidentally, Rose/Alakh had first suggested that Bharmal's refusal might be the reason for a desperate Jodha trying to drown herself. I would agree with her; I cannot think of any other reason that would be as strong and as immediate. (It must of course be hard for a good swimmer like Jodha - remember her in deep water when she rescues Rahim? - to die by drowning. A swimmer's body fights on its own, using familiar techinques, to survive).
Mohabbat ka marham, nafrat ka zakhm: An inspired piece of scripting, and even more so of performance. The shifting expressions in Jalal's eyes, first questioning as Jodha looks consideringly at the wound and then turns away, then puzzled as she returns, holds his hand and applies the lep, blowing gently on it all the while, probing when she is explaining her action, to assess how far there is another reason behind the surface one, then mischievous Hum phi se ghayal ho gaye, apna farz nahin nibhayengi?. Finally, as she leaves in a huff, he looks after her with a very curious expression, part sadness, part longing, part regret.
A tour de force from Rajat, and as he brings out that gorgeous line Bahut khoob! Mohabbat ke marham mein lipta, nafrat ka zakhm.. Hamein achcha laga (the boy gets all the best lines, and how he delivers them, in that deliberate husky baritone!) Jodha's eyes say so many things as she looks at him, then down and away.
Jalal-Jodha 2: This would be standard issue, but for Jodha's constant carping on Jalal's do din ke mehmaan.After she has finished repeating it, in a sulky, accusatory tone, about 4 times, even the dumbest of men would have realized that she was angry with him for wanting to, apparently, bundle her out in such short order. And, flowing naturally from this, that she was angry because (a) he was making too much haste and (b) she did not want to be hurried out, and in fact did not want to go at all. And as for why the secrecy he mandates, I have given my take on it above.
As for why Jalal forces Jodha to participate in the Meena Bazaar, it is, methinks, largely out of pique, and then partly because he does not want to lose face because of this non-compliant wife, and partly because he now wants to protect himself, in his interactions with Jodha, behind the barricade of the haughty, demanding Shahenshah. No more signs of weakness, as in his apology, or his Hum aapke liye ek khushkhabari laye hain ( I now wonder what that was, as it is now clear that it is not the Meena Bazaar).
What remained with me after the telecast was not the precap, with Jodha delivering her usual acerbic lecture to Jalal, both condescendingly and sarcastically, in her full blown Rajput culture mode. By now, I am beginning to find this smart-alecky stuff very tiresome.
It was rather the totally lost look on Jalal's face as Ruqaiya declares that there is no place in Agra for anyone who hates the Shahenshah.
Mahaam & Lakhi: This was a surprisingly neat wrapping up of the whole humshakal track, with no loopholes that I could spot. As for the objection that different people age differently, and how then could Lakhi still look exactly the same as Mahaam after 18 years, that is hardly impossible, and is in any case hardly a major piece of cinematic licence.
The reference to Mullah Beqazi is the catalyst that reminds Mahaam of Lakhi and shows her a way out of the net that she sees tightening around her as Jalal's tafteesh about the dibbi proceeds apace. Jalal would naturally go with the Abu Hamza angle, re: humshakals, as he knows nothing about Lakhi, but for the viewers, it is a nice, fat red herring, that is all.
As for Mahaam's chancing on Lakhi 18 years ago, it was good luck for Jalal than, and as for her being reminded of her now, it is the devil helping his own!
All this apart, the whole Lakhi track is really, as often in Jodha Akbar, an ode to Rajput loyalty and cold blooded courage, a reaffirmation of their parivaar aur vachan ke liye sar kata sakte hain motto.Even if Lakhi's unquestioning loyalty to Mahaam was in aid of a beastly crime, her courage cannot be called into question. It is also characteristic of Mahaam that she values this as it should be valued, and as she breaks into Lakhi's Rajputani folk yodel, one felt the force of that admiration, even if was from one evil woman for the evil done by another out of misplaced loyalty.
Shyamala B.Cowsik
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