'The Final Solution' Play Written By Mahesh Dattani : Brief Discussion & Key Themes
Introduction : This blog is a response to the thinking activity assigned by Vaidehi Hariyani on the topic of Movie Screening of the play 'Final Solutions' (1992) written by Mahesh Dattani who is also the first writer in English language who is conferred Sahitya Akademi Award for his book of plays 'Final Solutions and Other Plays' in the year 1994.
Here in the further course of the blog I would be answering few questions which have been asked as a part of the classroom task.
(1) What is the significance of the subtitle "The Final Solutions"?
Answer : The title is soothing if storyline of the whole play is taken into context, but ultimate soultion of the row presented in the play is that there is no ultimate solution. The problem highlighted by the author here is of the identity crisis of the people belonging from various religious groups for which they are even ready to kill and be killed, this alarming call may have attracted Dattani's attention towards the 2002 Communal Riots between Hindu and Muslim community in Gujarat state and prompted him to write something to point out the actual social problem which by the skimming over the indices of deaths happend during the riots which took place between 27th February, 2002 to 27th March, 2022.
And most recently in Jahangirpuri Violence of Delhi which took place on 16th April, 2022 concerning the Hanuman Jayanti procession and its halt during the third procession nearby the Mosque where Muslims were holding Ramdan prayers. The methods of arousing the riots were arsoning, stone-pelting, and shooting to each other group.
(2) Do you think Mahesh Dattani’s 'The Final Solutions' makes any significant change in society?
Answer : No, I don't think that the play 'The Final Solution' written by Mahesh Dattani has so far made any change in the way society behaves in matter of communal harmony, given incidents are the startling examples of the scenario that people - instead of being open and broad-minded - are becoming insular and narro-minded these days more and more as compared to two decades before.
(3) The movie comes up with many different symbols and colors. Write about any two symbols which caught your attention. What does it signify?
Answer : Indeed the movie of the play 'Final Solution' has come up with so many morifs and symbols amongst from which I consider two symbols - one symbolising religious tension and another symbolising significance of education - to be the chief symbols in the play :
(i) The Saffron and the Green Flags
(ii) Diary
(i) The Saffron and the Green Flags : These two flags may be symbolising the Hindu and Muslim community and the raging facial expressions of both the groups holding their community-flags instigates that there was not the peaceful depiction of both the communities but surely there was some riotous condition between them, and the reason or cause is not openly mentioned by the author here in the play.
(ii) Diary : The symbol of diary which Hardika (young Daksha) writes and Daksha (old Hardika) reads to remember her past life and days she lived as a vigorous young woman symbolises the interest of feminine education and the hunger of individual knowledge pursuit.
(4) Is Ramnik a liberal thinker? If yes then why? If not then why?
Answer : To answer this question, we can say that Ramnik is not a genuine liberal thinker but tries to pretend that he is so. His initial superficiality of thinking of and behaving with his Musleem refugees gives the audience image of Ramnik as a liberal thinker who supports the people who are in trouble without any regard of their community and background, but when at the falling action Ramnik suddenly slapes one of the refugees on the matter of Jehad debunks his superficial image as a liberal thinker.
Conclusion : This is how the play remains as a distant allegory to the communal riots in Indian demography between two major religious groups, namely, Hindu and Muslim.
Here is the video song from the 1959 Hindi movie 'Didi' directed by K. Narayan Kale which represents the aftermath of India-Pakistan partition and its following series of riots under the flagship of religion :
Thank you!
Here in the further course of the blog I would be answering few questions which have been asked as a part of the classroom task.
(1) What is the significance of the subtitle "The Final Solutions"?
Answer : The title is soothing if storyline of the whole play is taken into context, but ultimate soultion of the row presented in the play is that there is no ultimate solution. The problem highlighted by the author here is of the identity crisis of the people belonging from various religious groups for which they are even ready to kill and be killed, this alarming call may have attracted Dattani's attention towards the 2002 Communal Riots between Hindu and Muslim community in Gujarat state and prompted him to write something to point out the actual social problem which by the skimming over the indices of deaths happend during the riots which took place between 27th February, 2002 to 27th March, 2022.
And as it was seen in the riots that after surfacial remedies allowed by then government to the victims of the riots and which for a while seemed that the riots between two communities are solved forever, but recent occurences made it clear that there is never going to be 'the final solution' of such communal problems as long as - in my opinion - there are people with limited identity and undeveloped understanding of themselves in the time to come. The recent incidents of 2020 Delhi Riots attest to the fact that still the ostentatiously perceivable insularities do exist amongst the people of the earth be it of any nationality, religion, or any type of groupist communities.
(2) Do you think Mahesh Dattani’s 'The Final Solutions' makes any significant change in society?
Answer : No, I don't think that the play 'The Final Solution' written by Mahesh Dattani has so far made any change in the way society behaves in matter of communal harmony, given incidents are the startling examples of the scenario that people - instead of being open and broad-minded - are becoming insular and narro-minded these days more and more as compared to two decades before.
(3) The movie comes up with many different symbols and colors. Write about any two symbols which caught your attention. What does it signify?
Answer : Indeed the movie of the play 'Final Solution' has come up with so many morifs and symbols amongst from which I consider two symbols - one symbolising religious tension and another symbolising significance of education - to be the chief symbols in the play :
(i) The Saffron and the Green Flags
(ii) Diary
(i) The Saffron and the Green Flags : These two flags may be symbolising the Hindu and Muslim community and the raging facial expressions of both the groups holding their community-flags instigates that there was not the peaceful depiction of both the communities but surely there was some riotous condition between them, and the reason or cause is not openly mentioned by the author here in the play.
(ii) Diary : The symbol of diary which Hardika (young Daksha) writes and Daksha (old Hardika) reads to remember her past life and days she lived as a vigorous young woman symbolises the interest of feminine education and the hunger of individual knowledge pursuit.
(4) Is Ramnik a liberal thinker? If yes then why? If not then why?
Answer : To answer this question, we can say that Ramnik is not a genuine liberal thinker but tries to pretend that he is so. His initial superficiality of thinking of and behaving with his Musleem refugees gives the audience image of Ramnik as a liberal thinker who supports the people who are in trouble without any regard of their community and background, but when at the falling action Ramnik suddenly slapes one of the refugees on the matter of Jehad debunks his superficial image as a liberal thinker.
Conclusion : This is how the play remains as a distant allegory to the communal riots in Indian demography between two major religious groups, namely, Hindu and Muslim.
Here is the video song from the 1959 Hindi movie 'Didi' directed by K. Narayan Kale which represents the aftermath of India-Pakistan partition and its following series of riots under the flagship of religion :
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