Friends, I loved yesterday's episode. It just whizzed past in a 25 minute whirl of very absorbing events, and it was packed with almost all of the ingredients of great drama - it had suspense, intrigue, a secret surang discovered, the pathos of Resham and Maham, the conflicts and the love in the minds of Jodha and Jalal, and the terrific tantrum of a whipped up Ruq! All in all, there seemed to be so much happening that I thought there would be a lot to write about in my post this morning.
But to my surprise, as I started putting pen to paper, I discovered that there were just two major events surrounding two major characters, both of whom decided to pay Jodha a visit in her hojra in the middle of the night. And from that all the interlinking fracas was born!
I am going to therefore analyse these two visitors and their visits and their vastly different agendas. And I am going to see what effect all this had on the Jodha-Jalal relationship, and where we now stand with Ruq at the end of this episode.
VISITOR NUMBER ONE: Sharif's nocturnal surang plan bombs in his face, and he gets put on Jalal's suspicion list (much to his father's disgust!)
When we left the previous episode, Sharif's father had successfully egged Jalal to go and sleep in Jodha's room on the auspicious night of the Moon being so close to Venus in the sky. Sure enough Jalal came to Jodha's room to spend the night with her. But what a night it turned out to be! While the royal couple went to bed, sleeping close to each other, Sharif with his henchman had entered the surang via the jail entrance and made his way right to the other entrance of the surang opening out into Jodha's room. He pushed the latticed woodwork covering the surang aperture a bit and almost entered into Jodha's room, when some sounds of his approach alerted Jalal.
Jalal sat up wide awake, and soon Jodha did too ... and in the silence Jalal searched the room. There Jalal saw a movement among the drapes and soon caught the miscreant hiding in the drapes. It was Resham. A sort of confusion then reigned as Resham was quizzed, condemned for illegal entry, and then arrested by Jalal's men. All this was being watched by Sharif, but no doubt his plans to kill Jalal in Jodha's hojra as he slept had all gone awry!
Sharif therefore ducked back into the surang - because the time for what he had come to do was not opportune!
Now Jalal decided to go back to bed after the hoo-ha with Resham, but suddenly he glimpsed some dim light behind the latticed screen that covered the surang aperture. That alerted him and before you knew it, he had thrown open the surang aperture and was shocked to find a secret surang he never knew existed. Jalal just grabbed a mashaal and made his way into the surang, with his sword for company.
Accha, now what do Sharif and his man-Friday do? They started heading back towards the jail end of the surang, because Jalal was now following them! But as they neared the jail end of the surang, they saw a posse of soldiers stationed right there ... so it didn't take Sharif even a moment to realise that he was trapped in the surang without an exit route.
Sharif being Sharif, he started thinking hard and came up with a reasonably clever plan. He instantly knifed and killed his henchman and lay in wait till Jalal reached near the spot where he was. Then he came from behind Jalal and held a knife to his throat - acting as if he had caught some gaddaar. When Jalal identified himself, Sharif said he was sorry to have mistaken Jalal's identity, for he had just then killed another gaddaar in this very surang (and he showed Jalal the henchman's dead body!).
Jalal looked like he had doubts about Sharif's whole story, but anyway after asking Sharif how the hell he came to be catching gaddaars in this surang (to which he had no proper answer!) Jalal went back via the surang towards Jodha's room. Sharif thought he had pulled off a good one, and heaved a sigh of relief that his quick thinking had worked.
But just a little later Jalal gathered Todarmal, Mansigh, Ahtmad Khan and Sharif and started supervising the sealing of the surang by Mansingh's men. How the hell was this surang undetected for so long, Jalal wondered. Sharif at this point added one sentence too many. He said "Shahenshah, I think this must be the route that Khyber took to reach Jodha Begum's room from the jail"." Jalal agreed, but his mind was ticking over.
After waiting for Sharif to leave, Jalal told Ahtmad Khan "This fellow Sharif looks very fishy to me, hunting for gaddaars in the surang. Why was he here? I don't want to miss his tricks and find out too late about his plots like I did with Adham. So I want you to keep a very alert eye on him and report everything he does to me." So far so good. But unfortunately, BigBeard, Sharif's father was hidden in some recess nearby and heard the whole of Jalal's conversation with Ahtmad!
Later in private with his son, BigBeard jeered at Sharif for botching up two good opportunities to kill Jalal. He could have finished him up while he was asleep in bed or even when he had the knife to his throat. Why didn't he? Anyway his father's news that he was now on Jalal's watchlist rattled Sharif for he thought he had got away with his presence of mind and made-up story in the surang. BigBeard then told his son "You have do something spectacular now to recover Jalal's trust. I will make the plan and let you know. You just follow my orders!" And with that the father-son discussion came to an end.
He seems to chicken out at the very thought of carrying his goal to fruition. As he nears his prey he fumbles, overawed no doubt by the sheer superiority of the enemy. His father seems to know him so well. He sneered at his son's many "almost attempts" that all amounted to nothing.
And what's more he had tried to pull of such a long story to Jalal it had raised Jalal's suspicions and put Sharif on Jalal's top watchlist. Adham at least never tried to bluff and bluster his way out of tangles. He was brazen. But when Sharif is cornered he pulls such fast and long ones that he trips over his own shoe laces.
Yesterday, for instance, he said he had followed gaddaars into the surang and eliminated one ... but how he came to be following gaddaars in the middle of the night inside a surang is a part of the story that he left incomplete. If his Plan A falls flat (as it usually does) his Plan B is generally never there at all, and he has to think on his feet and he botches things up by over-talking.
Yesterday, when he was in a fluster, he incriminated himself further by uttering the one additional sentence that nailed him as a "serious suspect" ... he said "Shahenshah, this must have been the route that Khyber had taken to reach Jodha Begum." Why did he need to say that? Just to show his "wafaadaari"? Instead of impressing Jalal, it awoke all Jalal's brain cells!
As I said at the beginning of my comments on Sharif, his ability to kill the lesser men and the ones that are partially useful to him, and then to botch up the killing of Jalal, is a trait that seems to go with him throughout his life. As we may all already know, he later kills Sujamal while being unable to finish the job by killing Jalal. But Sujamal of course, just barely reaches Jalal in time to warn him about Sharif's plans and then gives up his life.
It also seems to be the same "last-minute chickening" syndrome with Jodha. He leches after her, tries his best to keep her at the front of his mind with commissioned paintings and occasional leerings and brief hand touchings, but at best he is only a "stay-at-a-distance kind of nuisance" to Jodha. He is unable to get closer to the prey he has in mind or actually do the damage needed to get his goals. He is forever waiting for the "better opportunity".
A paper tiger, a procrastinator and a flunk-pulper is what he is - at his best! Yesterday was a good opportunity for us to really get to know Sharif and his weak knees from close quarters! I have a feeling his father too knows his shortcomings so let's see what plan the father comes up with that his son struggles less to pull off! Incidentally I hope the father is in fact cleverer than the son and not just a carbon-copy of him!
VISITOR NUMBER TWO: Resham gets caught among the drapes in Jodha's room, and obliquely ensures that Maham gets a ticket to Delhi!
Okay, let's get back to that scene where Jalal joins Jodha in bed. He enters her bedroom saying at first that he's been busy. He then touches her tummy and says he was anyway thinking of the babies all day. In a very romantic interlude, Jodha insists on asking if he had missed her, and the dutiful and loving husband that he is, he says his dil is always with her and he loves her and loves being with her. Then with a hug they go to bed together.
That's when a faint sound (created actually by Sharif in the surang) stirs him up. As Jodha comes awake too, Jalal starts searching the room for intruders and sees a bulky body amidst the drapes. With seconds he uncovers the furtive figure of Resham, petrified to be found out hiding in Jodha's bedroom.
Since Resham has no other recognition but as Maham's henchperson and saazish aide, Jalal at once discounts any wrong doing by Resham per se and imagines that Resham must be here at Maham's bidding. The "bad duas" of Maham are still fresh in Jalal's mind it seems, for he accuses Resham of being in Jodha's room to harm her and the babies (at Maham's behest!) as an execution of the "bad dua" plan!
No amount of pleadings from Resham changes Jalal's mind and neither does he even bother to cross-examine Resham and get confirmation on his premise. Resham too keeps uttering pleas of innocence but doesn't let on that there have been previous interactions with Jodha regarding Maham's failing health. And Jodha too is guilty and quiet while all this is happening. Jalal summons his sipahis to arrest Resham on the spot and Resham is hurried away.
Later when Jalal gets preoccupied with catching the surang thieves, Jodha has plenty of time in her hojra alone, thinking "Oh my God, what a pickle I am in. Should the Shahenshah have not asked Resham for some explanations before arresting? What do I do? Should I tell him everything? Will he be angry with me? (What else will he be, baby?).
As usual either Moti or Zakira act as advisors of Jodha, which in itself seems strange to me. Anyway this time it was Zakira saying to Jodha "No don't tell the Shahenshsh anything now for things are red-hot and the time isn't appropriate. The revelation of the truth now may strain your relationship with him. Keep it for a little later!" Jodha is in conflict, it is evident from her face. Just as her large heart makes her want to help people in distress like Maham now, it's the same large heart that also hates telling lies to Jalal!
But anyway Jodha stays tongue tied till Jalal returns again to her room after all the surang fracas is over. In the interim she has been getting Moti and Zakira to secure her room with more curtains, and when Jalal walks in he sees this he rightly interprets this as her fear of being intruded upon at night. He tells her he will always sleep with her in this room hereafter for her safety, and she thanks him and gets a hug and they decide to go to sleep again. But then they are shaken again by Moti rushing in saying Ruq has gone berserk and is whiplashing Resham!
They run to Ruq's room to find her screaming, lashing and kicking Resham repeatedly and with maniacal fervour! Ruq says between lashings, "How dare you have come with Maham's instructions to harm Jodha Begum, her baby and my baby inside her!" (Hear, hear!) Jalal tries to stop this uninterrupted flow of invectives and ill-treatment but to no avail. But by then it's too much for Jodha to bear and she blurts out "It was I who called Resham to my room to enquire about Maham's failing health!" Shocked silence follows as Jalal walks out of the room in cold anger and despair.
"Look what Maham has achieved even from the jail," says Ruq, "she has managed to pull apart your relationship with the Shahenshah!" But Jodha is barely listening. She follows Jalal to his room, where she sees him sitting in a posture of despondency. She begs pardon for her mistake in entertaining Maham and Resham and says she is sorry she has hurt his feelings. But Jalal is not as angry as we would imagine. In fact by now, I guess, he is resigned to the ways of Jodha. He says "I am not angry with you. But Maham is treacherous and you put yourself and the babies in grave danger if you keep visiting her! Anyway, I have a plan by which you can be helped ..." Jodha thinks he is ready to help her to help Maham to recover. "You have a plan?" she repeats enthusiastically - till she hears the actual plan "I have decided to send Maham away to Delhi so that you won't keep visiting her in jail and jeopardising yourself" Jalal says. Jodha is shocked as he issues instructions for Todarmal to ensure that sipahis accompany Maham to Delhi pronto.
Now despite all this, in the precap Jodha is again at the jail cell of Maham - when Maham pleads with her "Please make Jalal call me BadiAmmi just once before I breathe my last very soon!" How did Jodha go back to that jail despite Jalal's contra-instructions, how did Maham decide not to deride her but to plead with her is all puzzling to me. Maybe Todarmal told Jalal the truth about Maham's waning health?
This whole sequence of events regarding Resham and the midnight intrusion spoke volumes to me of everybody concerned.
There is definitely a new level to the love and relationship between Jodha and Jalal. There was the obvious comfort level and love between them as Jalal entered her room to stay the night with her, and he first put his head on her lap as he spoke to her and she was later seen putting her head on his chest as they both lay on the bed together. The physical signs and the verbal signs of intimacy were there. Later when he came back after the surang adventure and saw her fortifying her room from fear of intruders and he said "Don't worry, I'll sleep here every night hereafter and you'll be safe!" it sounded good to her (and no doubt to me and Maddy as well!)
But the best indicator to me of this new level of understanding between Jodha and Jalal came when we were expecting Jalal to be very angry with Jodha after she admitted to calling Resham and having concern about Maham's health. I loved the way Jalal said "I am not angry, just concerned that you are exposing yourself and the babies to that treacherous woman. I know it's your large heart that makes you always support the underdog. To ensure you never jeopardise yourself again by meeting Maham in jail, I am having her shifted to Delhi!" That was a bit of teda Jalal again but this time he was teda in a very good cause. He knew he could never count on Jodha becoming hard-hearted ever! He therefore didn't ask her to change her behaviour. He had done it before. It never worked. So he decided to shift Maham out of range instead! I loved this "positive exposition" of teda Jalal!
Coming to Jodha herself, her conflict at lying to him was enough to show me that she cares what he thinks of her. She had been helping Maham from the softness of her heart but it racked her with guilt and most of all a sadness that she had to lie to Jalal. Jodha is also getting to understand Jalal and his anger better. When she eventually went and said sorry she said "I am sorry I have hurt your feelings!" She now knows that his anger is a cover for his deep feelings for her safety, her well being and because he loves her no end!
Let's now come to Ruq. What did we expect but that mega display of crude behaviour with Resham. That scene alone was enough for Jalal to use the reverse farman, if you ask me. Jalal must have seen that whiplashing and kicking of Resham and thought "How can this banshee-cum-whiplashist" ever become a good mother to my child if she ever diplays this sort of drama before any innocent and bewildered baby?" I almost thought yesterday that I saw a look of disgust cross Jalal's face as he saw this Resham-beating spectacle - but before he could say anything harsh and cutting to Ruq, Jodha has blurted out the truth and the matter got differently angled.
Had Jalal seen this spectacle a little earlier he might have been even more disgusted. Because Ruq was telling Resham, "How dare you try to harm Jodha, her baby and my baby inside her!" Folks, after seeing Ruq behave like this, I have no doubt that she loses her head completely in anger and betrays her ugliest self. She forgets she has an audience. She doesn't seem to care that she has to appear queenly even in anger. She has no self-control. So when the time comes for the reverse farman to be pulled on her, I am sure it will be at another such spectacular display of her uglier side in front of the baby. Jalal will say "The child has had enough to see, and so have I. You are herewith relieved of the baby!"
Regarding Maham and Resham I have this to say. Some spoilers said last week that Resham would try to kill Jalal. Maybe Resham still will try to do that after hearing of Maham's Delhi banishment. But yesterday itself, for a moment, when I saw Resham hiding in Jodha's room at the same time that Sharif was coming through in the surang, I thought Resham was in cahoots with Sharif. Later it turned out differently, but I thought to myself that Resham bears watching. Maybe the utter loyalty to Maham may easily make Resham black or white as the situation demands. Jalal is right that Jodha isn't totally safe when dealing with either Maham or Resham.
Maham on the other hand seems discounted by Jodha herself as too ill to pose a threat. Jodha said yesterday, "How can a lady just two days away from death harm me?" That sort of statement is naivete talking. With Maham you can never be sure, I feel, till she has in fact drawn her last breath. As Ruq put it, "Even from jail, Maham can separate Jodha and Jalal!" So there is merit in Jalal's suspicions about Maham and her treachery. But Jodha who has seen that she is bent on suicide, and almost succeeding, also has a point of view that Maham may be normally treacherous but now she has lost the will to live.
I wonder how this will now end. Obviously Jalal has no clue how ill Maham is and how unable she will be to be shifted to Delhi. Todarmal may tell Jalal that. Additionally Maham now has forgotten all her angst against Rajvanshis and is begging Jodha to make Jalal say "BadiAmmi" one last time. So how will Jodha pacify Jalal and make him see the truth. I think Jodha will get Todarmal's help in making Jalal understand that Maham is really almost gone. Let's see how that pans out and how the last minute reconciliation between Jalal and Maham takes place.
But don't you all think that in a way Maham is and has always been spectacularly feared? Even on her last legs she continues to imbue people with the fear that she can be at her most treacherous and operate through henchpersons and have remote control over people's lives. Very few villains are so feared even to the edge of death! She needs a round of applause to have achieved that status!
What all happened in the episode yesterday:
Jodha is in her room at night when Jalal comes to sleep with her. He touches her tummy and lies on her lap, saying he was busy during the day, but he thinks of her and kids all day, and loves being with her. She is happy to hear this. He gives her a tight hug. They lie down together in bed.
Meanwhile Sharif and his henchman make their way through the surang, and Sharif reaches Jodha's room. He slightly opens the aperture to enter the room and is at the surang entrance - and is pleased to see his shikar Jalal is sleeping next to Jodha. But Jalal hears a small sound and wakes up - and then Jodha too wakes up. They stay silent as Jalal searches the drapes in the room.
Suddenly behind the curtains Jalal spots Resham, and gets suspicious that Maham may have sent her to harm Jodha and the babies as part of the "bad dua". Resham pleads that that's not true. Jodha too is unable to say anything to Jalal but suspects Resham must have come to tell her of Maham's health. Sharif sees this fracas from the surang entrance where he is hidden, and he quickly ducks back behind the surang aperture.
Jalal then tells his sipahis to arrest Resham. But before he goes back to bed he sees dim light coming from the surang aperture - and on investigation he sees the whole surang there. He grabs a mashaal and goes into the surang. Sharif and his henchman run back into the surang towards the jail end as Jalal is now following them.
At the jail end of the surang, Sharif and his henchman find more sipahis are stationed - so sharif gets trapped in the surang. He quickly then kills his own henchman and when Jalal comes near him he pretends he thought Jalal was another gaddaar and holds a knife to his neck. Then he acts sorry after seeing its Jalal and says he has killed one gaddar already and mistook Jalal for another - and he shows Jalal the dead body of the henchman as proof.
Jalal feels suspicious of Sharif's story but goes back via the surang presumably towards Jodha's room. Meanwhile Jodha is worried if Resham has been wrongly caught after coming to tell her about Maham. Jodha wants to tell the whole truth to Jalal and save Resham. But Zakira tells jodha to wait till the time is better to talk to Jalal about Resham's visit and Maham's health. Zakira says it is not worth straining Jodha's relationship with Jalal on this issue right now. Jodha is conflicted.
Jalal meanwhile, then goes with Todarmal, Ahtmad Khan, Mansingh and Sharif to the jail as Mansingh's men seal the surang entrance there. Sharif tells Jalal maybe this is the surang that Khyber used to reach Jodha's room and Jalal agrees. But privately Jalal gets deeply suspicious of Sharif and wonders why it was him inside that surang killing gaddaars?
Jalal waits for Sharif to leave and then tells Ahtmad Khan to keep a watch on Sharif as he looks like he is lying. He says he would rather catch Sharif at his mischief early than give him a long lease like he gave Adham Khan. But unfortunately all this is overheard by Sharif's father, hiding nearby. Later Sharif's father tells Sharif what Jalal said - and Sharif gets scared he is on Jalal's active watch. The father says "I will give you a plan, just follow it. You have to win back Jalal's trust."
Jodha, meanwhile, is securing her room with more curtains as she feels unsafe. Jalal comes there and says "Don't worry, I will sleep with you here every day and you will be safe." He hugs Jodha and she thanks him. But as they are about to go to bed Moti rushes in to say Ruq has gone berserk and is whiplashing Resham.
Jodha and Jalal rush to Ruq's room where Ruq is lashing and kicking Resham saying she is Maham's henchwoman who tried to harm Jodha, Jodha's baby and also Ruq's baby in Jodha's tummy. Unable to bear this treatment of Resham, Jodha blurts out the truth that it was she who had called for Resham to know Maham's health.
All are shocked ... and Jalal angrily walks away to his room. Ruq stells Jodha "See how Maham even from jail has separated you and Jalal!"
Jalal in his room is sitting sadly as Jodha goes there and says sorry for hurting his feelings. He says he is not angry but very concerned for her and the babies. He says Maham is still treacherous and Jodha is taking her life and the life of the babies too lightly. He says he knows Jodha does this kind of thing all the time due to her large heart. But to stop this danger to Jodha and stop her visits to Maham in jail, he is going to send Maham away to Delhi. He sends word for Todarmal to get sipahis ready to take Maham to Delhi. Jodha is shocked. The episode ends there.
In the precap, Jodha is in Maham's jail cell, when Maham looking very ill begs her "Please make Jalal call me BadiAmmi at least once before I die now very soon." Jodha is deeply affected.
That would lead to Thursday being the last day of Maham's life, which ties in with Diksha's information from her source!
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