Mahesh Dattani is one of the forerunners of Indian English literature. Playwriting is a fine outlet for his ability to penetrate into Indian urban society. His “Where there is a Will” is based on an upper-middle class industrial Gujrati family and its relation to individuals. As a protagonist, Hasmukh Mehta had overriding influence over the family members until his mistress-cum-trustee overrode his obnoxious attempts to ruin filial harmony. Hasmukh is an obdurate sinner whose one-upmanship nature compelled him to believe that he is inferior to none. And he considered his son as dull as ditchwater. He created rifts in the family to exercise his patriarchal utilitarianism. In a nutshell, he feared that his son would override him. A fretful, Hasmukh …show more content…
His “Bravely Fought the Queen”, “Dance Like a Man”, “On a Muggy Night in Mumbai” are esoteric to some extent but the vogue for socio-economic plays is well explored with subtle effects. These plays testify his predilection for exploring a perverse relationship between postmodern urban society and individuals. Pseudo work- ethics, facades of honesty and an antipathy towards society and world at large have precipitated the ethical standards of the Indian urban society. Home has become an eyesore where people fight and clash to create own space and time. A perverse refusal to follow family bonding coupled with lack of adaptability and preposterously narcissist attitude have precluded from strengthening family relationship. This paper is an attempt to explore such magnitude of serious issues that are in vogue to precipitate ethical standards of postmodern society. An Introduction to Mahesh Dattani’s “Where There’s a Will”: Mahesh Dattani’s “Where There’s a Will” explores socio-cultural dynamics of postmodern society. The play is an insight depiction of the underlying tensions, interpersonal relations, and power fabrics existing within an urban middle-class Gujrati family. The play is a type of unique critique on the changing ethos and relations in urban India. Moreover, the play exhorts a thoughtful response to gender roles and gender-based power …show more content…
For instance, the authors have consulted the following literature in the related arena- i) BeenaAgarwal in her book “Mahesh Dattani’s plays: A New Horizon in Indian Teatre” has highlighted on the lack of ethics and the issue of value based education in the postmodern Indian society, and says that such a poor show has resulted in below par development of the personality of the Indian man in an industrial set up ii) SitaRaina in her ‘A Note on the Play’ in “Collected Plays” opines that “Where There’s a Will” has several interesting aspects and Dattani described it as the perverse patriarchal code. iii) In his essay “We Live in the Flicker: Reflections in Time on the plays of Mahesh Dattani” suggests that Dattani is endowed with the rare capability to laugh at himself and his plays have no pretences. He also opined that Dattani has interspersed the two different taboos of the present age that money and death with
During the time in the 1950’s, the escalation of mass media with the use of television shows had greatly emphasized the idealist family standards: a white nuclear family standard of living within conventional gender roles that stresses on family hierarchy that became a societal norm as a “perfect family” today. In Gary Soto’s “Looking for Work” and Roger Jack’s “An Indian Story”, bother short stories contest against familial customs. Soto describes how the media shapes the idea of a “family” to the young narrator that inspires him to push his family and himself to assimilate into the while culture. Roger conveys a story of a young Indian boy defying against both his Indian and familial ethics. Together, these stories share a common theme. Both
While it may be easier to persuade yourself that Boo’s published stories are works of fiction, her writings of the slums that surround the luxury hotels of Mumbai’s airport are very, very real. Katherine Boo’s book “Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity” does not attempt to solve problems or be an expert on social policy; instead, Boo provides the reader with an objective window into the battles between extremities of wealth and poverty. “Behind the Beautiful Forevers,” then, exposes the paucity and corruption prevalent within India.
Roy asserts that people’s fears of upsetting the power balance based in the caste system often leads to a blind acceptance of the status quo and a continuous sense of self-deprecation by individuals at the bottom of the hierarchy. When Velutha’s father fears that his son’s affair with a Touchable will have potentially disastrous consequences for him, he serves his own self-interest and is willing to endanger is son. He exposes the affair to the grandmother of the woman his son is having an affair with, revealing the extreme degree to which caste and conforming to societal norms drive the behaviors of individuals in Indian society; “So Vellya Paapen had come to tell Mamamachi himself. As a Paravan and a man with mortgaged body parts he considered it his duty…they had made the unthinkable thinkable and the impossible really happen…Offering to kill his son. To tear him limb from limb” (242). His fear of disrupting the status quo (i.e. the Indian social hierarchy) is so great that he is willing to sacrifice his own son’s life to protect his own. Rather than considering the genuine...
The average person wants one thing more than anything else, and that thing is to belong. Usha, a young girl from Calcutta, is no different. Already trying the find her place in the world, Usha must now assimilate into cultural society within the United States. Usha’s uncle, Pranab Kaku, came from Calcutta as well having first come to America, his experiences start off worse than Usha’s, which causes him to join the family in an act of social grouping. With the Old World trying to pull them back and the New World just out of reach, both must overcome tradition and develop their own personal values.
Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice, a Bollywood adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, places Jane Austen’s emphasis of equality in marriage within an intercultural context, where the difference in culture is the source of social tension. As West meets East, American tycoon William Darcy sparks cultural conflict with his presumption of Indian girls’ “simple” and traditional characteristics and of their ready subordination to American men. Parallel to Elizabeth’s assertion of her father and Darcy’s equal class standing, Lalita’s fierce rebuttal of Darcy’s assumption highlights his ignorance of the Indian culture, especially his inability to understa...
The Hero’s Walk, which takes place in the fictional India town of Toturpuram, describes two journeys: the metaphorical journey of a middle aged Indian man, Sripathi Rao, from a timid provincialism to a more global consciousness, and the literal journey of his seven year old granddaughter, Nandana, who comes from Canada to India to live with her grandparents after the death of her parents in a car accident. For both Sripathi and Nandana, the Journey involves a kind of culture shock, followed by a gradual opening out towards otherness. Sripathi‟s self enclosure is symbolized in his residence, Big House on Brahmin Street whose “dean strong walls” stand as a monument to a world in which caste and colonial structures guaranteed that everyone and
A traditional extended family living in Northern India can become acquainted through the viewing of Dadi’s family. Dadi, meaning grandmother in Hindu, lets us explore her family up close and personal as we follow the trials and tribulations the family encounters through a daily basis. The family deals with the span of three generations and their conflicting interpretations of the ideal family life. Dadi lets us look at the family as a whole, but the film opens our eyes particularly on the women and the problems they face. The film inspects the women’s battle to secure their status in their family through dealing with a patriarchal mentality. The women also are seen attempting to exert their power, and through it all we are familiarized to
In Behind the Beautiful Forevers, Katherine Boo tells the stories and struggles of families living in a slum adjacent to the Sahar Airport in Mumbai, India. Boo details the ways in which the residents of this slum, Annawadi, attempt to escape their poverty, but fail to do so. Despite numerous initiatives sponsored by the Central Government of India to improve the lives of the many individuals living in Annawadi, these programs are ultimately unable to do so due to deep-rooted corruption in the city of Mumbai. Regardless of this, the residents of Annawadi seem to accept corruption as a fact of life, and do little to fight it. As illustrated over the course of Boo’s narrative, this results from the fact that many Annawadians recognize the ways in which the laws of their society allow for the unfair treatment of certain groups of people, especially the poor and religious minorities, and are also cognizant of the fact that they have no real power to change a system that
Slum dwellers are often treated as social pariahs and have become a marginalized section in any society. In fact, a burgeoning population of the metropolitan Mumbai city, which is the third most expensive office market, lives in slums like ‘Annawadi’. Unfortunately, these people find hard to escape from the endless dilemmas of day to day life, even though unprecedented economic booming has taken place for more than two decades as a result of global market capitalism. Katherine Boo, in her remarkable book “Behind the beautiful forevers” unfolds the world beyond ‘undercity’ people who are the residents of Mumbai slum named Annawadi, which is located beside the road to Mumbai airport in the shadow of luxury hotels. By documenting the deplorable
In order to raise awareness of the staggering injustices, oppression and mass poverty that plague many Indian informal settlements (referred to as slum), Katherine Boo’s novel, Behind the Beautiful Forevers, unveils stories of typical life in a Mumbai slum. Discussing topics surrounding gender relations, environmental issues, and corruption, religion and class hierarchies as well as demonstrating India’s level of socioeconomic development. Encompassing this, the following paper will argue that Boo’s novel successfully depicts the mass social inequality within India. With cities amongst the fastest growing economies in South Eastern Asia, it is difficult to see advances in the individual well-being of the vast majority of the nation. With high
The film displayed India in many ways that went from Religious diversity to cultural and political diversity. There were many characters in the film that differed in financial income and status. Also, there were characters that came form different religious backgrounds. Furthermore, there were many different cultures and traditions that were made present from the film. However, the major inclination that was created by the film was the idea of “ Power might change hands, but injustices will continue the same.” Many years have passed since India has been under Colonization, but many of the same ideas and thought process influence the people. Most of the character sin the film were jaded or felt as if there was nothing that could unite India. However, through one tragic event, many of the characters were giving a second life and way of thinking. They stopped sitting on the sideline and complaining about the issues that affected them and their love ones. Nevertheless, they stood up and decided to change things that were injustices in their
Prasad, Amar Nath. “Identity Crisis in V.S.Naipaul’s A House for Mr. Biswas”. Critical Response to V. S. Naipaul and Mulk Raj Anand. Edited by Prasad, Amar Nath. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2003. Print.
Right from the ancient epics and legends to modern fiction, the most characteristic and powerful form of literary expression in modern time, literary endeavour has been to portray this relationship along with its concomitants. Twentieth century novelists treat this subject in a different manner from those of earlier writers. They portray the relationship between man and woman as it is, whereas earlier writers concentrated on as it should be. Now-a-days this theme is developing more important due to rapid industrialization and growing awareness among women of their rights to individuality, empowerment, employment and marriage by choice etc. The contemporary Indian novelists in English like Anita Desai, Sashi Deshpande, Sashi Tharoor, Salman Rusdie, Shobha De, Manju Kapoor, Amitav Ghosh etc. deal with this theme minutely in Indian social milieu.
can be attributed to the ever-evolving entertainment we know as theatre. However, no matter the time or the form of theatre, all have one thing in common. This is that they present a philosophy of life. In other words, they present a life lesson that intends to question the current way of life. The true challenge is entertaining an audience while teaching them at the same time. Nonetheless, this mesh of thought and pleasure is a must. Any good theatre is thought-provoking and didactic, while still remaining interesting. Most of these great works, old or new, are presented as either comedies or tragedies, where great storylines outline the theatrical production’s life philosophy. Comedies usually portray a philosophical meaning through the use of satire, while tragic writers utilize a series of unfortunate events to deliver a message. Whether one or the other, it is undoubtedly necessary to add philosophical meaning into a work in order to incite thought within the audience.
Gairola, Rahul. “Burning with Shame: Desire and South Asian Patriarchy, from Gayatri Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ to Deepa Mehta’s Fire.” Comparative Literature 54:4 (Fall 2002). 307-324. EBSCOhost.