Final Solution by Mahesh Dattani
Introduction:-
Final Solutions has taken the issues of the majority communities in different contexts and situations. It talks of the problems of cultural hegemony, how Hindus had to suffer at the hands of Muslim majority like the characters of Hardika/Daksha in Hussainabad. And how Muslims like Javed suffer in the set up of the majority Hindu community. This all resulted in communal riots and culminated in disruption of the normal social life, and thus hampered the progress of the nation.
The mob in the play is symbolic of our own hatred and paranoia. Each member of the mob is an individual, yet they meet into one seething whole as the politicians play on their fears. In this play, the chorus continuously sings sometimes under the mask of Hindus and sometimes under that of Muslims revealing their feelings of fear and hatred for one another. When the Chariot leading the procession is broken and the Pujari is killed the Hindus masks sing:
“How dare they!
They broke our Chariot and felled our Gods!
This is our land! How dare they?”
The mob/chorus comprising five men and ten masks on sticks (five Hindu and five Muslim masks) are the omnipresent factor.
Throughout the play, Now Muslim in masks sings:
They hunt us down!
They’re afraid of us!
They beat us up!
We are few!
But we are strong!
The scenes of the play take place inside and outside Ramnik Gandhi’s house where Ramnik has given two Muslim boys shelter from the violent mob outside. The mob is in the form of a chorus, changing its guise into Muslims and Hindus through masks and songs. Inside, a Hindu family is sharply divided over giving shelter to the unknown Muslim youths in the midst of communal frenzy and violence. Even after fifty years of Independence, people have not been able to forget their enemity and bias against each other, i.e. Muslims against Hindus and Hindu against Muslims.
In the play, two young men, Javed and Babban, are hired to disrupt social harmony while others like
Final Solutions has taken the issues of the majority communities in different contexts and situations. It talks of the problems of cultural hegemony, how Hindus had to suffer at the hands of Muslim majority like the characters of Hardika/Daksha in Hussainabad. And how Muslims like Javed suffer in the set up of the majority Hindu community. This all resulted in communal riots and culminated in disruption of the normal social life, and thus hampered the progress of the nation.
The mob in the play is symbolic of our own hatred and paranoia. Each member of the mob is an individual, yet they meet into one seething whole as the politicians play on their fears. In this play, the chorus continuously sings sometimes under the mask of Hindus and sometimes under that of Muslims revealing their feelings of fear and hatred for one another. When the Chariot leading the procession is broken and the Pujari is killed the Hindus masks sing:
“How dare they!
They broke our Chariot and felled our Gods!
This is our land! How dare they?”
The mob/chorus comprising five men and ten masks on sticks (five Hindu and five Muslim masks) are the omnipresent factor.
Throughout the play, Now Muslim in masks sings:
They hunt us down!
They’re afraid of us!
They beat us up!
We are few!
But we are strong!
The scenes of the play take place inside and outside Ramnik Gandhi’s house where Ramnik has given two Muslim boys shelter from the violent mob outside. The mob is in the form of a chorus, changing its guise into Muslims and Hindus through masks and songs. Inside, a Hindu family is sharply divided over giving shelter to the unknown Muslim youths in the midst of communal frenzy and violence. Even after fifty years of Independence, people have not been able to forget their enemity and bias against each other, i.e. Muslims against Hindus and Hindu against Muslims.
In the play, two young men, Javed and Babban, are hired to disrupt social harmony while others like