Hello, I am Himanshi Parmar, student of MK Bhavnagar University. This blog i have written in a response to Thinking Activity, Which is Part of my academic Work. Which we get after each unit. In this blog, i am going to discuss about a well known play 'Final Solution' by Mahesh Dattani, along with that About the author and several important questions related to the text. Read the questions here in the professor's Blog.(CLICK)
Final Solution - Mahesh Dattani
Final solution is the three act's play written by an Indian writer Mahesh Dattani. The play was written and performed in 1993. It was first performed at Guru Nayak Bhavan Bangalore, on 10 July 1993. There are seven important characters in the play excepting Corus. Also the play has Five corus characters they initially change into Hindu and Muslim by changing masks.
The play was subsequently performed at Tara Theatre, Mumbai, on 11 December 1993. The play was also translated into hindi by Shahid Anwar and directed by Arvind Gaur for Asmita Theatre in 1998. Click here to read Summary of the play.
This are the main characters of the play.
Watch the play here.
About Author (Mahesh Dattani)
Mahesh Dattani is an Indian Writer, director, playwright, and actor. He was born on 7 August 1958 (age 64 years) in Bengaluru. He is the one playwright in English language to be awarded the sahitya Akademi Award. He also received Sahitya Kala Parishad selected Final Solutions (1993), Tara (2000) and 30 Days in September (2007) as best productions of the year, directed by Arvind Gaur. He began his Career as a copywriter in an advertising firm.In 1986 he wrote his first full length play 'Where There's a Will' and began his career as a full time theatre professional. He is also a film director, directed movies like Mango Souffle and Morning Raaga.
He wrote many famous plays on Social crisis, political problems and human Rights. His famous plays are,
1)Where There's a Will (1988)
2)Dance Like a Man (1989)
3)Bravely Fought the Queen (1991)
4)Final Solutions (1993)
5)Do The Needful On a Muggy Night in Mumbai (1998)
6)Seven Circles Round The Fire (Radio play for BBC) (Seven Steps around the Fire) (1998)
7)30 Days in September (2001)
8)The Girl Who Touched the Stars (2007)
9)Brief Candle (2009)
10)Where Did I Leave My Purdah (2012)
11)The Big Fat City (2012)
Question - Answers
1)What is the significance of the subtitle "Final Solutions"?
Final solution is one of the best play of Mahesh Dattani. The title is confusing because there is one more book we have with same title, that is "The Final Solution" by Michael Chabon, A Story of Detection is a 2004 novella.
The paly is about Situation after India get Independence. There was a riots, Hindu - Muslim Conflicts, Casteism, Shifting, partition etc. People are worried as well as tired of all the things, people get killed and tortured by others. All this things Dattani try to portray by his play Final solution. We have two characters Bobby and Javed, who are tortured and attempted to got murder by corus having Hindu masks. Also we find that Muslim girls hostel get bombed by Hindus, this incident we came to know by Smita whose friend Taneem is in the hostel when incident happened.
People are finding for solution for all mess but at last they get nothing. So here the title 'final solution' we interprete that, The final solution is no solution at all. This Solution less dystopic world is the only choice for human being to live.
2)The movie comes up with many different symbols and colors. Write about any two symbols which caught your attention. What does it signify?
In the movie Final Solution, we find many symbols used well by Mahesh Dattani. For example Religious things (Idol of Lord Krishna and Muslim Cap), Diary of Daksha, Masks etc. Let me discuss it shortly.
1- Religious Things (Idol of Lord Krishna and Muslim Cap)
When Javed and Bobby Shelter in the house of Ramnik, Ramnik's Daughter Smita claimed to know them both and then there is one scene in which Smita robbed Javed's Cap which generally symbol of Muslim community and wear it on her head, also there is one another scene we find at last in play where Bobby took idol of Lord Krishna in his hand that is generally symbol of Hinduism. In both this scenes we find Muslim boy took idol of Hindu God and Hindu girl wear cap of Muslim boy. They exchanging their identities symbolically and try to vanish differences between Hindu And Muslim community.
2 - Diary of Daksha :-
Diary of Daksha is symbol of History, it is keeping record of after independence time. But somewhere lacked to show reality, because she herself not aware about the truth. She thought that Zarin's family treat her ill but in reality Daksha's in-laws put fire on the shop of Zarin's father's shop because they want to establish their business there. So this thing is also showing limits of person's knowledge.
3 - Masks :-
We have two kinds of masks Hindu masks and Muslim masks. Masks representing community. By changing masks corus becoming Hidus or Muslims.
3) Is Ramnik a liberal thinker? If yes then why? If not then why?
No, Ramnik is not a liberal thinker. By giving job to Javed and saving Bobby and Javed from traitors he try to make them believe that he is very liberal thinker. In the return of firing Muslim's shop, he just ready to give job to muslim boy Javed. So he is liberal but not as much he think. He try to vanish his faults which his family did in past but Javed made him realize that he is not Liberal at all.
4) Does education make any difference? Comment with the reference to the women characters.
Yes, education make difference. We have four women characters in the play. Daksha, Hardika, Aruna and Smita. Daksha and Hardika are the same but Young and old version of same person. We find Daksha and Smita are educated. Daksha is writing diary so we come to know that she is educated also smita is in college so she is also educated. And that's why they both don't believe in community differences. This we came to believe because both of them has Muslim friend, Daksha has Zarin and Smita has Tasneem. When other women Aruna, Mother of Smita and wife of Ramnik was still rigidly sinked into religious and had lots of superstitions that showing lack of education in her. Education give us vision to see beyond rigidity, and help to break religious barriers. It will help in full development of person.
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