Final Solution

Hello everyone,

This blog is response to the task assigned by Vaidehi ma'am as part of thinking activity and syllabus. In this blog i would like write about my understanding of the play Final Solutions by Mahesh Dattani. 

Mahesh Dattani:-

Mahesh Dattani is an Indian director, actor, playwright and writer. He wrote such plays as Final Solutions, Dance Like a Man, Bravely Fought the Queen, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Tara, Thirty Days in September and The Big Fat City.

He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award.His plays have been directed by eminent directors like Arvind Gaur, Alyque Padamsee and Lillete Dubey.

 

About the Play:-

In this play Mahesh Dattani writes about the society and surroundings in which he lives. He holds a

mirror to make reality visible to the audience. The play Final Solutions critically intervenes the post-

independence era which has a communally vitiated socio-political scenario. The main character, Dakhsa also

known as Hardika in the play fuses into past and present. The theme of communal tension is given historical depth

through flashbacks featuring Hardika at the age of fifteen in 1948 and her experience in the aftermath of the

partition returns

1.)What is the significance of the subtitle "The Final Solutions"?

The play moves from the partition to the present day communal riots. It probes into the religious bias2 by examining the attitudes of three generations of a middle-class Gujarati business family, Hardika, the grandmother, is obsessed with her father's murder during the partition turmoil and the betrayal by a Muslim friend, Zarine. Her son, Ramnik Gandhi, is haunted by the knowledge his fortunes were founded on a shop of Zarine's father, which was burnt down by his kinsmen.

Hardika's daughter-in-law, Aruna, lives by the strict code of the Hindu Samskar and the granddaughter, Smita, cannot allow herself a relationship with a Muslim boy. The pulls and counter-pulls of the family are exposed when two Muslim boys, Babban and Javed, seek shelter in their house on being chased by a baying Hindu mob.

Babban is a moderate while Javed is an aggressive youth. After a nightlong exchange of judgements and retorts between the characters, tolerance and forgetfulness emerge as the only possible solution of the crisis. Thus, the play becomes a timely reminder of the conflicts raging not only in India but in other parts of the world.

Mahesh Dattani's 'Final Solutions' is that rare look at a socio-political problem that defies all final solutions… there is not any particular solution of the problems going on into the society but whatever happening it's only solution.

'Final Solutions' touches us, and the bitter realities of our lives so closely.

So, throughout the play, we find example of problems and the playwright has not given any solution. Instead, he has let the audience to decide. Hence, the final solutions are, in real, no solutions to these communal problems. We people need to know what makes us hate others.

2.)Do you think Mahesh Dattani’s “The Final Solutions” makes any significant changes in society?

Basically the play,  'Final Solutions' written 1992 during the time when there were many social and religious riots were going on and purpose behind this or any play is to give some kind of message to the society and the people of the society. In this particular play talked about religious riots and mentality of two groups towards each other. The final Solutions opens with the image of five masked individuals dressed in black. Dattani has named

them as Mob - Chorus. Each member has two masks one is of Hindu and other of Muslim. They remain on the

top of a large crescent shaped ramp for most of the time in the play. Below the ramp is the home of Gandhi's, a

middle class family. The Gandhi family comprises of the elderly surivivor of

the partition of India and Pakistan, Hardika, who was earlier known as Daksha, her son Ramnik, her daughter in

law, Aruna and her grand-daughter Smita. On another level of the stage is Daksha's room in 1948. Thus the play

is into three spaces one, the mob, two, the Gandhi family and three, the memory of Dakhsha. At various points

of time these three separate worlds interact and overlap with each other.

The action of the play is set in motion by the recent destruction of the chariot and images of Hindu

dieties of a Rath Yatra while travelling through a Muslim neighbourhood of the city. Riots had broken out in

Amargaon and so curfew has been imposed in the city. The local Hindu and Muslim communitites, represnted

by the Mob/Chorus are blowing each other for the riots. The communal violence between these groups brings

back Hardika's memories of partiton and her life, life as a new bride in 31 March, 1948. Her memories are expressed

through the character of Daksha who is habituated to write diary and in present time she was reading this all and memorized everything. The Gandhi family is safe within their

home and although Smita is worried about the safety of her Muslim friend, Tasneem.

The family is having a peaceful evening but it is disrupted when Bobby and Javed two young Muslim

men arrive at their doorstep begging to take them inside. The Mob/Chorus with Hindu masks are after Bobby

and Javed and are threatening to kill them. Despite the objection of his mother Ramnik opens the door of his

house to protect the two. An interaction occurs between the Gandhis and Bobby and Javed throughout the

course of the night.

 The mob is constantly speaking, 

। ना हम मूर्ति तोड़ते हैं, ना हम मूर्ति पूजते है।

This is the inner voice of Smita. 

The play is about how Gandhi family judge to the Muslim basis of their past experience with another Muslim people. The Smita, quite young girl who believe that everyone has right to live a life. Ramnik who is able to accept people and their reality at the end when he came to know that whatever he had done is wrong and now he gave shop to the Javed. 

3)How are the beginning and the end of the movie?  Do you feel the effect of communal disturbance in the movie?

Paly is in flashback and present mode. Movie open with the character Daksha- she was writing a diary about the day is 31 March 1948. She was just confused about what to write and how to start , and then suddenly present situation came up in which crew of the people talking about current situation of religious riots. At that time we got an Idea about what happened and happening. Daksha and her granddaughter both had friend of Muslim community but their mentally was quite different about them. That's how the movie open.

At the end of the play Smita became friend of Javed and Bobby and they develop mutual understanding but the mother of Smita and Daksha don't. Ramnik also want to give Chance to them but Daksha and Aruna denied. Because Aruna is more religious and traditional and Daksha has bad experience with Muslims but at end we came to know about her experience which was only one sided because reality is something else. 

At the end Daksha came to know that the  shop which Ramnik run is actually not of Ramnik but it's of Javed and their family. And Ramnik got realisation of whatever he did during that time with Javed and their family was not good and now he got ready to handover shop to them. 

But play ends with no conclusion and solutions but we can interpret it like wherever is going on that's the final solution nobody can change it.

 4.)The movie comes up with many different symbols and colors. Write about any two symbols which caught your attention. What does it signify?

Movie open with the image of Hardika - she is reading dairy which symbolises the memory and experience of past and present. The room of the Hardika where she put the frame of her favourite singer which show her interest of music and love for it.

The movie talked about religious riots and crisis but they didn't use the particular name of the religion instead of they using colour to signify the religion. They show orange colour for Hindu religion, use of white colour for peace, and green colour for muslim religion.

So this is my understanding of the movie i hope my blog is useful for you:-)

Midnight's Children

Hello everyone,

This blog is response to the task assigned by professor Dilip Barad sir, we had a movie screening of the Midnight's Children, of the same name novel Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie. 

About the movie adaptation:-

Midnight's Children is a 2012 film adaptation of Salman Rushdie's 1981 novel of the same name. The film features an ensemble cast of Satya Bhabha, Shriya Saran, Siddharth Narayan, Ronit Roy, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Seema Biswas, Shahana Goswami, Samrat Chakrabarti, Rahul Bose, Soha Ali Khan, Anita Majumdar and Darsheel Safary. With a screenplay by Rushdie and directed by Deepa Mehta, the film began principal photography in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in February 2011 and wrapped in May 2011. Shooting was kept a secret as Mehta feared protests by Islamic fundamentalist groups.

Salman Rushdie:-

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie is an Indian-born British-American novelist. His work often combines magical realism with historical fiction and primarily deals with connections, disruptions, and migrations between Eastern and Western civilizations, typically set on the Indian subcontinent.

Rushdie's second novel, Midnight's Children (1981), best Novel for all the time won the Booker Prize in 1981 and was deemed to be "the best novel of all winners" on two occasions, marking the 25th and the 40th anniversary of the prize.

Midnight's Children:-

Midnight's Children is a 1981 novel by Salman Rushdie, published by Jonathan Cape with cover design by Bill Botten, about India's transition from British colonial rule to independence and partition. It is a postcolonial, postmodern and magical realist story told by its chief protagonist, Saleem Sinai, set in the context of historical events. The style of preserving history with fictional accounts is self-reflexive. The novel is about 14th August and the children born on that night in India and Pakistan. Through this novel we got an idea that Rushdie know the role of writer and how to make work immortal. Novel is all about broken mirror. The novel talked about 1918- 1977 this time- post - independence and pre-independence.

Q-1 Narrative technique (Changes made in film adaptation for example. Absence of Padma , The Nati, the listener, the conmenter - what is your interpretation? 

Rushdie's Midnight's Children introduces a new narrative technique western genre of telling story with Indian tradition. Rushdie use techniques like Russian doll -  doll within doll.  Indian way of telling a story and there were many examples of this kind of stories.

Midnight's Children is about swaping of children - kind of bollywood way of narrating story. There is many such traditional stories in which we found similar kind of narration, कथासरितसागर - story within a story -   In Midnight's Children story begin with the story and then another story in this. 

Film start as novel start but some characters are missing in film.

The film begins with narrator Saleem Sinai describing his birth at the exact moment of Indian independence. His narrative then jumps back to 1917 Kashmir where his grandfather Dr. Aadam Aziz goes to the Ghani mansion to assess the landlord's sick daughter Nasim, whom the doctor eventually marries. 

Padma is Saleem’s loving companion and caretaker, and she will become his fiancée at the end of the novel. She is the audience for Saleem’s narrative. Her role is that of the audience as Saleem tells her about his growth in conjunction with India’s growth. Whereas Saleem will follow tangents and try to explain the significance of himself and his life, Padma is more interested in the action of the tale. It is her influence that balances out Saleem’s long-winded, prosaic story-telling. She also embodies the skepticism that the audience has for Saleem’s narration. Her disbelief of Saleem’s magic powers and metaphysical connection with India mirrors that of the reader. She had important role in novel but in film she doesn't have any role.

2)Characters ( how many included , how many left-out why ? What is your interpretation)

In the novel there are many characters we can say there is three generations family members are involved.

Characters in Novel:-

Saleem:-  Narrator - story teller - protagonist.

Padma:- The listener - home worker.

Parvati:- she has an important role in film - seems almost female protagonist.Parvati-the-witch

A real witch, and, like Saleem, one of the children born at the moment of India’s independence. Parvati is Saleem’s closest friend as a child and later becomes his wife. Despite her fantastic powers, she is unable to make Saleem fall in love with her and, as a result, embarks on an affair with Shiva that results in a child. In the Hindu religion, Parvati is the consort of Shiva.

Dr.Adam Aziz -Saleem’s grandfather.

Ahmed Sinai:-

Saleem’s father. A shrewd businessman who is nonetheless destined for failure, Ahmed spends much of his marriage in  fighting hand with his wife and his alcohol addiction.

Mumtaz (Amina Sinai):- 

Saleem’s mother, and the daughter of Aadam Aziz. Born Mumtaz, she changes her name to Amina after her marriage to Ahmed. A loving, devoted mother, she inherits her father’s skepticism and her mother’s determination. Despite being married to Ahmed, she is never able to forget her first husband, Nadir Khan.

Shiva:-

Shiva is born at exactly the same moment when  Saleem born. While Saleem is raised in a loving, wealthy household, Shiva is raised in abject poverty by a single father. He is blessed with a pair of preternaturally strong knees and an amazing prowess in war. Shiva is named after the Hindu god of destruction, who is also the god associated with procreation.

William Methwold:- 

Saleem’s biological father, An Englishman. He owns Methwold’s Estate, a portion of which he sells to Ahmed Sinai. He sees his departure from India as marking the tragic end of an era.

Aadam Sinai :- 

The biological son of Shiva and Parvati-the-witch. Saleem raises Aadam as if he were his own child. Aadam is just three years old at the novel’s conclusion.

Vanita:-

Saleem’s biological mother. Vanita dies during labor.

Mary Pereira:-

Mary is Saleem’s nanny, known as an “ayah.” Saleem comes to see her as a second mother, even after he finds out that she was the person who switched Saleem and Shiva at birth. At the time, Mary wanted to do her part in an effort to impress her revolutionary lover, Joseph. After the switch, however, she felt guilty for her crime and dedicated her life to raising Saleem for free as compensation.

Indira Gandhi/"The Widow":-

The Widow is the representation of Indira Ghandi, the fourth Prime Minister of India. 

Characters in film:- 

1) Satya Bhabha as Saleem Sinai

2) Shriya Saran as Parvati-the-witch

3) Siddharth Narayan as Shiva

4) Darsheel Safary as Saleem Sinai (as a child)

5)Anupam Kher as Ghani

6)Shabana Azmi as Naseem

7)Neha Mahajan as Young Naseem

8)Seema Biswas as Mary

9)Charles Dance as William Methwold

10)Samrat Chakrabarti as Wee Willie Winkie

11)Rajat Kapoor as Aadam Aziz

12)Soha Ali Khan as Jamila

13)Rahul Bose as Zulfikar

14)Anita Majumdar as Emerald

15)Shahana Goswami as Amina

16)Chandan Roy Sanyal as Joseph D'Costa

17)Ronit Roy as Ahmed Sinai

18)Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Picture Singh

19)Shikha Talsania as Alia

20)Zaib Shaikh as Nadir Khan

21)Sarita Choudhury as Indira Gandhi

22)Vinay Pathak as Hardy

23)Kapila Jeyawardena as Governor

24)Ranvir Shorey as Laurel

25)Suresh Menon as Field Marshal

26)G.R Perera as Astrologer

Rajesh Khera

27)Salman Rushdie, narrator

Characters which are only in novel:- 

1)Padma 

2)Eyeslice Sabarmati 

3)Sonny Ibrahim

4)Lila Sabarmati

5)Rushdie

6)Jimmy Kapadia

7)Soumitra

8)Sundari

 There are many characters which are in novel but not in film. Adoption. 

3.Themes and Symbols (if film adaptation able to capture themes and symbols?)

In this novel We find many themes like,

History and the individual :-

History and individualism is the central theme of the novel as novel talked about Indian history and some events which were happened in history. 

The birth of protagonist on 15th August 1947 is the date on which India won it's independence from British rule and was divided into two countries and religion Hindu and Muslim. Another big event of history was emergency applied by Indira Gandhi from 1975 to 1977, this 21 months was the period of trauma for the Indian citizens.

In the film we clearly see idea of individualism like Saleem tried to find his individual identity over three generations and Saleem was born exactly on the strock of midnight independence of India. With him there were many other children also born who had different qualities. Like Shiva was fit in body, Saleem have capacity to called everyone with his running nose, Parvati can hide anything with mantra etc... Here Rushdie tried to put history with the help of individual experience of the characters.

2)Identity and nationality:-

In a movie we can observe that Saleem as India, and his identity metaphorically represents the identity of an entire nation, but in reality identity of Saleem is not Saleem but Shiva and his parents also not those whom he called his parents.

 

In movie we can see the direct connection of nation with the character like when Saleem born India got independence and as Saleem grow India also grow ( belief of the characters) and they put Saleem as India.

They connect the religion with the nation. Identity of the characters decide by the nation and religion they are belonging.

3)Colonialism and Neo - colonialism in India:-

Saleem born on exact the time when India got freedom from British rule and he became first free Indian child. Through Saleem, Rushdie creates an entirely new India-one that is both Eastern and Western- in which he is able to find balance between two conflicting cultures. As Saleem born in India but hai parents are not Indian but British.

Methwold, the Englishman is an extended

metaphor for British colonization. His seduction of Vanita in the absence of her

husband the street accordionist, Wee Willie Winkee is a metaphor for appropriating

and exploiting what rightfully belongs to another, which is also the meaning of

colonialism. In every colony the ruling British officers had seduced and raped the

wives of poor natives and left behind them the rflixed products of their irresponsible

union. Saleem is the son of Methwold and Vanita a child-born of just such a union

and raised by the Sinai family because of his having been exchanged at birth.

Otherwise, he too would have been left to be raised in extreme poverty, like his

"twin", Shiva . We have been conditioned to think of how fair and honorable the British were. 

In Midnight's Children Rushdie used many symbols to signify something like past and history.. in movie also we find symbols like,

 Nose - running nose :-

symbol of proud and respect but running nose is not good sign but after the operation he was able to smell abstract things like love and feelings.

Pickle jar:- 

Thirty pickle jar for thirty chapter and it's also represents the idea of history which symbolises that whenever someone open this jar they can smell and remember the history of India and Indira Gandhi.

Spittoon:- symbol of forgiveness:-

Spittoon became symbol of amnesia and memory. It's also represents the old India. During the Indo- Pakistan war only one thing survive and it's spittoon. Spittoon hits to Saleem and he lost the memory of family so symbol of spittoon changed and there we can see bollywood drama of memory loss kind of the things.

4) The texture of the novel (What is the texture of the novel? Well, it is the interconnectedness of narrative technique with the theme. Is it well captured?)

Novel is in flashback and movie also follow novel so movie is also in flashback. Novel and movie open with Saleem,

'I was born in city of Bombay once upon a time'

Saleem narrated the story and told to Padma but in movie there is no role of Padma. When story open with a once upon a time  follow the traditional method of telling a story. In which story start but you put the main story in second line and strat to tell another story and it's called post colonial way of telling story, which is not chronological. Story and movie open with 'I', Rich muslim family and Kashmiri. 

 

Movie follow the novel so it's not in chronologically but jumping from one incident to another. Movie capture many events of the history like , 

Bombay - 1947 , Karachi Pakistan - 1964, 1965 Karachi war in which entire family died, 1971 - Civil war of Pakistan and Bangladesh, 1972 - Dacca - Bangladesh, Delhi -1972, Bombay India - 1977 movie ended.

5.What is your aesthetic experience after watching the screening?

 Midnight's Children movie directed by Deepa Mehta one of the most criticized director. And the actor who played the role of Saleem has hybrid identity which is major concern of the novel. Movie is trying to follow the novel but film is not able to give justice to the novel but it's still significant and help us to understand the novel and Major theme of the novel. As novel has many characters which in movie we don't find. But it is great try by Deepa Mehta to directed such novel which is best Novel for 50 years and still. Novel has many pages but movie hasn't enough time to describe all the incidents so it is much better if it is webseries because in 3 hours it's nearly impossible to described all the incidents but in webseries one can do it in easier way.

So this is my understanding of the novel after watching movie i hope my Blog is useful to you:-)

Workshop - Thinking & Critical thinking

This blog is response to the task assigned by professor Dilip Barad sir as We had a two days workshop on 13th and 14th August 2022 by professor Milan Pandya sir, so in this blog i will going to write about my learning and outcome of the two days.

On 13th August sir talked about thinking which we are habituated to do since childhood and without having thinking capacity one can not live life. First he gave defination of what is thinking, 

Thinking skill is life skill, there are three kind of thinking like, 

1)Logical

2) Rational

3) Scientific

"Thinking is about thinking in order to improve thinking " 

And he gave idea about how one can be critical thinker and what is critical thinking. He says that  "In critical thinking context is everything ".   

He gave many examples to explain context in critical thinking like from the famous t.v. serials and famous icon and celebraties who shared the things which people blindly follow and claim that's true. So critical thinker have to think beyond what is shown and what else can be read there. He also talked about what is true and what else can be true. 

He gave idea about what is true or facts, like facts never change if believe in it or not and it's not depends on how many people believed in it. 

Sir gave us Idea about what is called possible and plausible. Naturally we claim to something to be happen called plausible. And possible which have chance to be happen or not. 

Then sir talked about many conspiracy theories such as Shushant Singh Rajput and Corona pandemic conspiracy in which people start to believing in what is not true but seems to be true. With the example of Taj Mahal sir explain it very well. Then sir show us some tweets and minor mistakes of the people which spread lie in the society.

Sir told us story of 'Alif laila' one of the famous tale. Sir also talked about Gandhiji as he was great critical thinker with creative thinker, because he is not only good leader but also good critic. 

"Being critical thinker, you have to think intellectuall".

I like the most is that, 'When you get answer of your activity -why and how then there you don't need anybody to encourage you ' 

'Your teacher might be wrong , learn to think for yourself '        Tao Te Ching, by Lao Tzu.

If you have self doubt then find yourself 

On the second day of the workshop 14th August sir came with the games in which we have to show our creativity and thinking power. Game was something like sir show us one slide in which there is many things like food, machines, electronic things , toys etc.. in which we have to make more columns as possible.

Then in last session there sir gave us three situation in which we have to choose one and for that we have to think a lot and sir try to check our decision making power.  So these both the days was amazing and a lot to learn from that. So this is what I learnt from this workshop. 

Thank you for visiting:-)

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