The book under review Indian English Drama: Themes and Techniques delves into the rich tapestry of Indian English drama. It has been edited by Dr. Dipak Giri and published in 2018 by Vishwabharati Research Centre, Maharashtra (India). As evident from the title, the book explores the diverse themes and varied techniques employed by Indian playwrights. The anthology is crucial in enriching the existing literature in the domain of Indian theatre, particularly focusing on stalwarts of modern Indian theatre in the post-independence era. The book contains twenty-seven well-written articles, one by the editor and others by various scholars and critics from around the country. The scholars have taken into consideration in their scholarly discussions many renowned dramatists writing in both English and regional languages. The eminent playwrights whose works and contributions to Indian drama have been interpreted and evaluated in the essays include Badal Sircar, Girish Karnad, Manjula Padmanabhan, Usha Ganguly, Mahesh Elkunchwar, Vijay Tendulkar, Mahesh Dattani, Rabindranath Tagore, Manoj Mitra, Habib Tanvir, Utpal Dutt, and Mahasweta Devi. Additionally, one article critically analyses Jatra, the popular folk theatre form of Bengal.
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| Sharuk Rahaman |
The
anthology contains six critical essays on Mahesh Dattani, the first Indian
playwright to win the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award. Dr. Shachi Sood’s
essay “Tapping the Anxiety of the World of HIV Positives as a Subsumed
Territory: A Feminist Study of Mahesh Dattani’s Ek Alag Mausam” attempts
to highlight Dattani’s portrayal of the dilemma of female body which is
subjugated at various stages. Defying the discouraging attitude of the society,
the women in the play emerge as the victors and act independently under the
shadow of patriarchy. Dr. Prachi Priyanka studies gender dynamics in Mahesh
Dattani’s selected plays—Where There’s a Will, Dance Like a Man, Tara, and
Bravely Fought the Queen. In the thirteenth chapter of the anthology, Dr.
Archi Madhani-Patel has analysed the dramatic techniques of Mahesh Dattani in
plays like Where There’s a Will, Dance Like a Man, Tara, Bravely Fought the
Queen, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, and Final Solutions. The author
observes that humour, brevity, suspense, experiment with time and space, and
technique of flashback mark the theatrical world of Dattani’s plays. Dr. T.
Sasikanth Reddy’s essay and Subhrajyoti Roy’s essay critically analyse
Dattani’s plays Bravely Fought the Queen and Tara respectively.
Reddy examines the marital and familial conflicts in terms of the communication
styles adopted by the different characters in the former play, while Roy looks
at how different characters suffer from the pangs of conscience in the latter
play. Finally, Sujoy Barman has dealt with multiple aspects of gender
discrimination in Mahesh Dattani’s plays like Dance Like a Man, Tara, Seven
Steps Around the Fire, Uma and the Fairy Queen, and Bravely Fought the
Queen.
There
are three articles on the plays and dramatic techniques of Badal
Sircar, Bengal’s
eminent playwright who advocated an alternative theatre movement known as the
Third Theatre. Tirthankar Sengupta’s article, the first chapter of the
anthology, takes up Michhil (Procession), one of the most popular
Third Theatre plays. The focus of the author has been on the technical aspects
of the play as it upholds the notions of Sircar’s theatrical techniques. He
argues that the consideration of direct communication with the audience led
Sircar to develop two modes of performances in Third Theatre—the ‘Anganmancha’
(indoor performance) and the ‘Muktamancha’ (open air performance). Sircar’s
play Michhil uses the idea of processions as a central theme to critique
societal issues and theatrical conventions. The play concerns with the
search for a “true procession” that would lead to a utopian home, free from
hunger, oppression, and injustice. Before leaving the proscenium arch
permanently and embracing alternative flexible-portable-inexpensive Third
Theatre, Badal Sircar came to be known around the nation with his
magnum opus Evam Indrajit. Milda Mary Savio’s critical essay “Evam
Indrajit: An Exploration in the Light of Sartrean Existentialism” argues
that the play is a profound exploration of urban middle-class frustrations,
societal defects, and existential angst, mirroring Sartre’s philosophy of “existence
precedes essence.” The third article on Badal Sircar is written by Anupam Das.
It explores the themes of existence and distance of self in Sircar’s plays Evam
Indrajit, Baki Itihas, Pagla Ghoda, and Bibar.
The
anthology has five critical essays dedicated to the studies of the various
aspects of Vijay Tendulkar’s dramatic art. Dr. Seema Sarkar and Dr. Mangesh Madhukar Gore have critically engaged with
Tendulkar’s magnum opus Silence! The Court is in Session in their
respective essays. Sarkar analyses the play as a satire on male domination of
women and asserts that Leela Benare, the protagonist of the play, is the
forerunner of women’s liberation movement. Dr. Gore, on the other hand, focuses
on how the playwright presents the victimization of women through judiciously
employed symbols and techniques. Shruti Roy Chakraborti’s article is
particularly important in drawing attention to a less-discussed aspect of the
dramaturgy of Vijay Tendulkar—his children plays. She discusses five children
plays, namely Missing: A Father, Bobby’s Story, The Play of the Nosey
Parker, The King and Queen Want Sweat, and The Wedding of the Village
Headman’s Daughter, which have been translated into English by Dr. Ajay
Joshi. The author judiciously observes that while entertaining innocent minds
through his plays, Tendulkar simultaneously “attains his purpose of creating
awareness among the mass, and compels us to keep thinking on the issues he
raises in his plays” (96). Dr. Archi Madhani-Patel’s essay looks at the idea of
‘violence’ in Tendulkar’s play Vultures. The author observes: “Vultures
depicts the picture of a family, which is completely violent and murderous.
It is a rat-race for the family members – to cut each other’s throats for money
and break the family apart” (172-73). Dipak Giri, in the final chapter of the
anthology, has critically analyses power structures in terms of sex, religion,
and politics as depicted in Tendulkar’s play Ghashiram Kotwal. He argues
that “Ghashiram Kotwal is a study of power transfer, now in some form,
now in other and every time either sex or religion or politics of deputation
plays a major role in this regard” (299).
Three
comprehensive chapters by different scholars have been dedicated to the
discussion and analysis of Girish Karnad’s dramaturgy. In his discussion of
Karnad’s Hayavadana, Thulasi Das B asserts the significance of
the head in Western and Indian contexts, drawing parallels between
Shakespeare’s Hamlet and ancient Indian texts. Through a
Foucauldian analysis, he explores the genealogy of the head’s supremacy,
tracing its roots back to ancient Indian scriptures and its evolution through
colonial rule. The author concludes that the play is not merely a play about
existential crisis but a profound exploration of the genealogy of power and
identity in Indian society. Dr. Irum Alvi’s essay titled “The Use of Myths for
the Depiction of Human Dilemma: Life between Reality and Illusions in Girish
Karnad’s Naga Mandala” delves into the themes of freedom, free will, and
the blurred lines between reality and illusion, questioning the nature of human
choice and action. The author concludes that the play’s ambiguous endings
reflect a postmodernist approach, leaving the audience to contemplate the
complex relationship between reality and illusion in human life. Saurabh
Debnath’s chapter in the anthology analyses the issues of gender politics in
Karnad’s play Naga Mandala. He argues how the play “questions the
patriarchal moral code which demands the faithfulness of a woman to her husband
but not the faithfulness of a man to his wife” (277). Gunjan Gupta’s essay is a
comparative study of Girish Karnad’s Tughlaq and Vijay Tendulkar’s Ghashiram
Kotwal in terms of power politics. The scholar concludes: “The perfect
amalgamation of history and modern symbolism makes these two plays rise above
any strict demarcation of any time period that they may represent. Hence,
Tughlaq and Ghashiram and their personalities become a perfect way to study the
nature of man, bestiality of power game and maddening after-effects of power
dynamics and the uncontrollable consequences that follows” (137).
Dr. Brajesh Kumar Gupta’s essay engages
with the contribution of Utpal Dutt to the domain of theatre. A lifelong
Marxist and a supporter of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Dutt was a
pioneer of revolutionary political theatre. He adopted Brechtian stage
conventions to engage the audience and encourage them to reflect on their
social situations. Ragini Kapoor, another scholar, has carried out a thematic
study of the plays by Rabindranath Tagore, namely Raja, Dakghar,
Achalayatan, Muktadhara, and Raktakarabi. Tanveer Qureshi &
Ashraf Karim have jointly analysed Manoj Mitra’s play Banchharam’s Orchard,
which is originally titled Sajano Bagan in Bengali. The essay
explores various themes such as greed, divine intervention, and the human
condition, offering a detailed exploration of the play’s narrative, characters,
and underlying messages. The scholars have highlighted the use of satire,
humour, and supernatural elements in exposing societal flaws and the
destructive nature of greed. Armeen Kaur Ahuja’s paper “Retracing Leftovers of
Leftist Theatre in Retrospect through Habib Tanvir” discusses the influence of
leftist ideas while tracing the development of Indian drama from the late 19th
century. The births of the Progressive Writers Association and the Indian
People’s Theatre Association during the colonial period firmly establish the
proliferation of Marxist ideas in Indian theatre. While locating the dramatic
career of Habib Tanvir in this context, the researcher also highlights the contributions
of prominent playwrights such as Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Safdar Hashmi, and
Girish Karnad to Indian English drama.
The third chapter of the book contains a
revisionist study of Manjula Padmanabhan’s play The Harvest in the light
of Sigmund Freud’s idea of the ‘uncanny.’ The author Rafseena M bypasses the
popular interpretation of the play as a futuristic science-fictional text and
instead points out the uncanny elements permeated throughout the play. The next
chapter authored by Sreetanwi Chakraborty carries out a comparative study of
certain plays by Usha Ganguly and Mahesh Elkunchwar, namely Sonata, Rudali,
Maiyyat, Hum Mukhtara, Pratibimb, Party, and Garbo.
The article explores themes like resistance against patriarchy and caste domination,
and analyses the use of theatrical techniques and the portrayal of women in
Indian English drama. Supriya Mandal’s article on Usha Ganguli’s Rudali shows
the transformation of a woman from a helpless victim towards an empowerment and
agency. The play highlights the exploitation of women by the patriarchal and upper-class
societies in the name of religion, caste and creed. Amrita Datta in the
penultimate chapter of the anthology analyses the violation of human rights and
values in Mahasweta Devi’s two plays Aajir and Water and arrives
at the conclusion that “Devi has chosen subjects from her time and environment.
She consciously denied accepting the existing norms and ideals of the prevalent
society and tried to reveal her concern of human rights and values for the
downtrodden masses. The prime axioms of her works are humanitarian in nature
and deals with her concern with human rights and values” (286). Shubhra Ghoshal
in her article has traced the evolution of jatra and contributions of eminent artists
like Mukunda Das, Phoni Bhushan, Brojen Dey, Bholanath Rai, Shailesh
Guhoniyogi, Motilal Rai, Bhairab Ganguly, and Utpal Dutt to the development of
the form. The researcher considers jatra as a synthesis of culture.
Indian
English Drama: Themes and Techniques is a valuable contribution to the study of
Indian literature in English. By focusing specifically on drama, the anthology
fills a significant gap in the scholarship, which has traditionally privileged
the study of novels and poetry. The critical essays in the anthology offer
valuable insights into the works of both established and emerging playwrights,
making it an essential read for scholars, students, and enthusiasts of Indian
literature and drama alike.
***
Bio: Sharuk
Rahaman, a full-time PhD research scholar in the department
of English Literature, The English and Foreign Languages University
(Hyderabad), India, has completed his Masters in English from Banaras Hindu
University. He has qualified UGC NET with JRF (2019) and West Bengal SET (2022)
in his first attempts. His areas of interest are British poetry, New
Literatures in English, Postmodern literature, Indian theatre, Indian writings
in English, literary criticism and theories, etc. He has presented research
papers at various conferences, contributed book chapters to critical
anthologies, and published research articles in national and international journals.
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