Siyaasat is a fictional series based on Indu Sundaresan’s book, ‘The Twentieth Wife’. It is about Noorjahan, the Empress of India and chief consort of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir. The series follows the story of Mehr-un-Nissa, right from her birth to the time she becomes Jahangir’s twentieth wife and is adorned with the title of Noorjahan.
The story begins at the time when Akbar is the Emperor, very much at the helm of affairs, with his sons Prince Salim and Prince Daniyal dreaming of becoming the Emperor one day, thus competing against one another and playing mind games. The scheming amongst the men, the politics played by the royal women, including the wives of Prince Salim and Akbar’s first wife Ruqayya Begum, make an interesting plot of the story. Amidst this develops the love story of Prince Salim and Mehr-un-Nissa which is sadly only shortlived, as Emperor Akbar orders that Mehr-un-Nissa be married to a soldier Ali Quli. How Mehr-un-Nissa eventually marries Prince Salim and becomes the Empress of India remains the rest of the plot.
The series is shot at a real palace called the Lakshmi Nivas Palace in Bikaner, Rajasthan, India. Beautiful gardens, breathtaking interiors bring out the essence of the Mughal life in all its grandeur. Another essential element of the series is the very suppressed and mostly lack of melodrama that is otherwise the wont of many shows. The swift pace at which the story progresses without halting for unnecessary dramatic plots, makes this show a must watch. The series has garnered an interest to know more about the lives of not only the Mughal Emperors but also the ones who played an important role in the flourishing of the Mughal Empire over centuries.
Epic Channel website: http://www.epicchannel.com/
