Final Solutions (Mahesh Dattani)

Introduction: India has long history of socio-political dramatic theatre. Broadly speaking a number of playwrights have given a new turn in writing plays with social and political relevance. Prominent dramatists in the post independence Indian theatre such as Girish Karnad, Vijay Tendulkar, Rakesh Mohan, Mahesh Dattani and many others have used themes related to the contemporary social scenario to bring about the need to renovate the present social structure and to generate a renewed and better social system. They present complex issues of the contemporary society to address important social ills and prejudices

Mahesh Dattani: Out of the above notable playwrights, Mahesh Dattani is considered to be one of the most comprehensive dramatists in the modern Indian theatre. He was born (1958) in the city of Bangalore, though his parents originally belonged to Porbander in Gujarat. They had migrated to Bombay for business purpose and eventually settled in Bangalore where he found an opportunity of watching Gujarati and Kannada plays in the company of his parents and sisters. Dattani took his education from Baldwin High School and St. Joseph College of Arts and Sciences, Bangalore. Dattani has a very strong passion for theatrical art. He longs to present multicoloured Indian life and sensibility. It is because of this he had set his eyes on the art of play writing and stage performance. So, his academic career has no direct connection with his career as a dramatist. He started his own theatre group named Play Pen in 1984. His plays are performed at his studios. His plays are originally written in English. He has written a good number of dramas which are diverse in themes, techniques and devices. He has greatly expanded new horizons in Indian Drama by not only focusing on the themes of conflict between tradition and modernity, communal tensions, identity crisis and inequality but also touching up radical themes ranging gay, child abuse, transgender, HIV positives and physically challenged. The plays written by Dattani were “Where There’s a Will” (1988), “Dance Like a Man” (1989), “Tara” (1990), “Bravely Fought the Queen” (1991) and “Final Solutions” (1992) for which he won the prestigious Sahitya Academy Award in 1998. He even wrote plays such as “Do the Needful” (1997), “Seven Steps Around the Fire” (1998), “Clearing the Rubble” (1998), “On a Muggy Night in Mumbai” (1998), “30 Days in September” (2001) and “Brief Candle” (2009).

Final Solutions: The play “Final Solutions” by Mahesh Dattani  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 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 to her memory at different points of the play. The play explores the theme of communalism.

The political climate of the Ramjanmabhoomi movement of the Hindu Right during which the play, “Final Solutions” was written and produced adds a layer of significance to the play. During the early nineties the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) was supporting the demolition of Babri Masjid with religious processions known as Rath Yatras. The context of these Rath Yatras contributes to the play because they are the communal riots which form the background of the play. And in the play it is brought out by the disruption of a Rath Yatra while passing through  a Muslim neighbourhood.

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 Gandhis, a middle class family, in present day, Amargaon, Gujarat. The Gandhi family comprises of an elderly survivor of the partition of India and Pakistan, Hardika, who was earlier known as Daksha, her son Ramnik, her daughter in law, Aruna and her granddaughter, Smita.

The action of the play is set in motion by the recent destruction of the chariot and images of Hindu deities 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 communities, represented by the Mob/Chorus are blowing each other for the riots. The communal violence between these groups brings back Hardika’s memories of partition and her life as a new bride in 1948. Her memories are expressed through the character of Daksha who is shown reading from her diary. The Gandhi family is safe within the 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 Ramnik and Bobby and Javed throughout the course of the night. Hardika still has resentment against Muslims due to the events that had happened in her life following the partition and thus she protests against Bobby and Javed’s presence in her home. Through the character of Daksha the audience is slowly able to know the two factors that are the source of Hardika’s animosity. The first was the murder of her father in hometown, Hussainabad, which became a part of Pakistan during the partition.

The second reason was that the physical and mental abuse she had to endure when her husband Hari and her in laws found out about her friendship with her Muslim neighbour, Zarine. Her son Ramnik is a secular Hindu and much more hospitable to the boys who have come to the home for their safety. But Ramnik’s kindness is partly driven by the guilt he feels over running the business his father established by cheating Zarine’s family after partition. Ramnik’s wife Aruna is a deeply devout woman who feels extremely uncomfortable with Muslims sitting in her home and drinking water from the same glasses. She believes that their touching is polluting.

Smita, Ramnik’s daughter is also very uncomfortable with Bobby and Javed’s presence but for other reasons. Prior to the action of the play, Smita and Bobby had a brief romantic love affair with each other which they later decided not to pursue. Now Bobby is engaged to Javed’s sister and Smita’s friend Tasneem. Smita also struggles with her relationship with her mother, who she describes “stifling” her with religious rituals. Bobby whose real name is Babban is also a secular Muslim who tries to hide religious identity. Javed on the other hand is a Muslim Youth with a strong sense of identity. After becoming a victim of religious prejudice during his childhood, Javed had started working as a hired hoodlum, who is paid to start riots. He even reveals that he was the one who disrupted the Rath Yatra. Bobby has been trying to persuade Javed to give up his profession.

The struggle of these six characters to spend one night under the same roof creates a tense situation. The play reaches its end in the early hours of the morning when Bobby enters the prayer room and picks up the idol of Krishna to Aruna’s great distress. Bobby proclaims that he is touching god and nothing is happening to him. Upon seeing Aruna’s horror he tells Aruna that if there is understanding and faith in each other nothing can be destroyed. He then turns to Hardika and claims that if she is willing to forget everything, he is willing to tolerate everything done to him on communal basis. Bobby and Javed leave. Then Ramnik tells Hardika that her husband and her father-in-law had destroyed her friend Zarine’s family business. Hearing this Hardika realizes the real reason for why her in laws forbidden her to keep friendship with Zarine was not because Zarine was a Muslim but they were trying to hide their crime. Crushed Hardika asks Ramnik about why had not he told this to her before. Ramnik replies that he did not want her mother to live with guilt. The play ends with the image of Javed and Bobby standing among the Mob/Chorus.

Analysis: “Final Solutions” is situated with a long history as it deals with religious communalism, which is also one of the very important national concerns which have problematized the peace of nation for over a century. The religious conflicts and its consequence such as hatred, animosity and anger are often referred to be as religious communalism. The religious communalism results due to the ideological differences between the members of different religions and in fact it emerges out of the political manipulation of social issues.  Ever since the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947, a communal tension between the Hindu and Muslim communities in India has been pervasive.  In fact, India has a long history of communal violence and Final Solutions is a kind plea for the end of the communal violence, with one of the worst examples that is Ayodhya dispute. The past incidents and events like the partition in 1947, Babri Masjid demolition in 1992 and Godhra incident in 2002 have created a huge gap between the Hindus and Muslims. The play opens when there has been curfew in the city because of the disturbance in the Rath Yatra resulting in communal violence. The play starts itself with a curfew in the city because of the communal conflicts. The central character Hardika had sorrowful past which had made herself averse to the religious sect of Muslims.

Hardika cannot forgive the people of that community who brutally killed her father even if the murderers did not have any relations with the boys who had come to their house to protect themselves. In most of the cases the matter of dispute is very simple but due to involvement of some anti-social elements it takes shape of communal riots as Bobby reveals to Ramnik the reason of Javed’s turning point from a common Muslim guy to a riot rouser or a hoodlum: Booby explained that Javed and his other friends were shocked to see when Javed was ill-treated as untouchable when he held a letter addressed to a Brahmin guy.

Javed and Bobby felt equally angry about the man’s behaviour which created a deep and vast difference. Like this, many such incidents had happened in Javed’s life and so he became a hoodlum by attaching himself with a terrorist group. Javed then confesses about the riots which broke-out because of the disturbance in the Rath Yatra was initiated by him, as he threw stone on the idol of deity in the procession. One can find the animosity and hatred of Javed towards the Hindus is not for some particular individual or a group but for the community as whole.

Aruna is a character which responds in most staunch and devout ways. She even risks her own family members for the sake of maintaining her religious identity. She also forcibly tries to make her daughter to believe the same in what she does. The three characters Bobby, Ramnik and Smita despite the outer layers of secularism remain acutely aware of the roots of religious identity that they are trying hard to supress through their own identities.

Finally, when Bobby and Javed are about to leave, Bobby breaks all norms by lifting the tiny image of Lord Krishna from Aruna‟s prayer room and declaring in front of all that nothing has happened to Lord Krishna when a Muslim like him touched it. However Aruna screams against the sacrilege that Bobby has done. Through Bobby, Dattani voices out the solution to get rid of social problem such as religious division existing in the society. Through Bobby Datani conveys that if the two communities understand and believe in each other then nothing can be destroyed. But probably the only suggestion is that it needs practice and immediate implementation of brotherhood forgetting the past and the stereotyped notions of each other.

Conclusion: From an in-depth study and analysis of the dramatic text “Final Solutions” one comprehends three things. Firstly, theatre always has directly or indirectly presented the utter truth of life through language which is destined to survive, move and rule man’s mind and heart forever. Secondly, although it portrays reality, theatre has brought hope, courage, awareness and understanding to man about what he is and what he should do to stand against anything with a vision towards a better future to come and determination to fight against all the social evils and odds. And finally, theatre is a key educational device which informs and demonstrates the perception of class, religion, caste and ethnicity prevailing in the society by conceptualizing the identities. Its main purpose is to delight with instruction which will be helpful to the society.