Thinking activity: 'The Final Solutions' movie adaptation by Mahesh Dattani
Hello readers,
Here I'm going to write a blog on 'The Final Solutions' by Mahesh Dattani in response to the answers to the question of this thinking activity. So, let's begin…
Final Solution by Mahesh Dattani
In the play Final Solutions, Dattani represents the three female characters – Hardika, Smita and Aruna. He adopts an innovative narrative technique and the major dramatic events float through the consciousness of Hardika, the grandmother in Gandhian family. The dramatic conflict springs and develops through the reflection of Hardika whose consciousness remains rooted in the horrible events of partition that took place forty years back. The dramatic narration shifts between the present to 31st March 1948 when Hardika, the grandmother was a young girl of 14, known as Daksha and in her reflections she concludes that nothing as has changed and prejudices of communalism are haunting their consciousness continuously. In her diary entry, she mentions:
After forty years … I opened my diary again. And I wrote a dozen pages before. A dozen pages now. A young girl childish scribble. An oldman’s shaky scrawl, yes the things have not changed that much. (Act I)
In Final Solutions, Dattani represents the female characters like Hardika, Smita and Aruna. They make realization that women are not a shadow of male. Today woman is making her spaces. She has a better understanding of realization of identity both inside and outside the family. A woman of liberal ideology views the situation as an individual and constructs the image of life beyond the specified ideology of religious and community-based prejudices. She retains the power to change the conventional thinking and to make better realization of her hidden potentials. She wants to take decision for herself and if it is right she can protest against those agencies who are responsible for her sublimation.The post-modern ideology suggested the way of interpreting the life condition beyond the set patterns of ideologies. It accepts that human experiences are persistently in a state of flux and it’s set pattern of ideologies becomes a burden for the free growth of the individual. In this new method of literary investigation, the feminist ideologies have also undergone a drastic change. It is not confined only to defend the cause of female emancipation and the spaces for the economic and social security of woman. The post-feminist interrogations of the female identity and female roles aim at the deconstruction of the constructed patriarchal structure. It has provided a wider canvas to construct the voice of women in family, society, professional life and personal relationship.In post-feminists phase of feminism, female identity and female consciousness to assert their voice has been reflected in the diverse ways. Her individual strength helps her to express her potential in social, patriarchal and personal spaces.
Feminine consciousness focusing to restore a position in the process of social justice. According to Mahesh Dattani a woman has the equal sensibility and better realization of feelings.
In Final Solutions, beyond the contentions of traditional language, he constructs the language of wounded psyche sharing the burden of communal hatred. Alyque Padmasee as a director of the play tried to investigate the hidden motive of the play and comments:
As I see it, this is a play about transferred resentment. About looking for a scope goal to hit out when we feel let down humiliated. Taking your anger on your wife, children, or servants is an old Indian custom. This is above all a play about a family with its simmering undercurrents.” (Padmasee : 161)
In Daksha’s reflections and recollections of Diaries, Dattani exposes inner world of individuals encountering tensions and conflicts of personal relationships. She recollects the memories of her husband Hari and the friend Zarine. She also feels nostalgic for the melodious songs of Noor Jahan. In Final Solutions, Dattani uses two time spaces to indicate the construction of collective consciousness. Disrupting, Hardika’s flow of consciousness, Smita appears with the rumours of bombing the Muslim Hostel where her Muslim friend Tasneem live. The violence erupted after the sabotage of Hindu Rath Yatra. Curfew was clamped in the city. Ramnik, the father tries to divert the attention by a casual remark, “Wait a minute. That wasn’t a bomb.
Smita, Gandhi’s daughter talks to her friend Tasneem whose hostel was the centre of blast. Smita, a girl of liberal ideology views the whole situation as an individual and constructs an ideology beyond the ideology of religious and racial prejudices. She reveals her feeling to her mother:
It stifles me! yes! May be I am prejudiced because I do not belong. But not belonging makes things so clear. I can see so clearly how wrong you are. You accuse me running away from my religion. May be I am embraced, Mummy. (Act III, 57)
It signifies that feminine psyche is more sensitive to the issue of partition. In the second Act, Dattani within the texture of Final Solutions, constructs the psychology of prejudice, contempt, anger and rescue that is an integral aspect of community consciousness. Javed took revenge upon neighbours by dropping pieces of meat in his backyard. The incident robbed him of his own insecurity of life conditions. The individual anger becomes a part of the anger of community as a whole and its cumulative effects can become a burden to the solidarity of nation.
Dattani, through the confession of different characters, assert that they might sacrifice their communal identity. Ramnik fails to see Javed as a sensitive youth turned into a rioter by ill luck till Bobby gives him the truthful account of Javed. In his dramatic narration, Bobby unfolds the past of Javed. Besides of presenting the psychology of Javed and Bobby, Mahesh Dattani in expressing religious fanaticism constructs mob psychology also. Mob has its own cruel psychology and cannot discriminate right and wrong. So far mob psychology concerned, there is no difference between Hindu and Muslim mob. Finally, Bobby gets success in convincing Javed and ultimately to take shelter in the house of Ramnik. Even Aruna has a realization of her weakness and there is drastic change in her attitudes and ideologies. Aruna’s consciousness moves in the direction of the positive acceptance of religious differences. The rational arguments of Smita and Javed make her speechless. Smita, no longer cares for the group and community identity.
1.What is the difference between the movie and the play?
At the very beginning of the play it is a diary which tells story of past and present of Daksha or Hardika.if we look at the movie there was the chair used instead of diary.And these both things symbolise as the medium of expression of Daksha.The play and the movie are parralel to the plot.But still if we look at the difference between original play "Final Solution" and the movie directed by Mahesh Dattani himself has slight differences.
2. How is the beginning and the end of the movie?
In the beginning of the movie , there is lots of disturbance , As if Muslims and Hindus are enemies. So, even after we got independence, peace was not achieved. Muslims and Hindus were quarreling. Traitors were against Hindu Idol worship. Even Aruna was not accepting Muslim people or their touch and presence in their home or even in the filling of water or for worshipping God. She thinks they should not touch her holy things, it may make her God angry and may spoil her holiness.
In the end , the film seems to be solved. The husband of Aruna regrets burning the shop so as to buy it at a cheaper cost. there is calmness, we see the traitors in white dresses, while in the beginning they were shown in black dresses. In the movie, flashback and the present, when she is of 15 and and now of 50 years. She writes her thoughts in a diary.
The final Solutions by Mahesh Dattani:
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