Today I'm going to write about film adaption experience by watching a film in class. We have seen a film "The Final Solution" directed by Mahesh Dattani, which was based on the play " The Final Solution".
This play by Mahesh Dattani. Mahesh Dattani is a well-known English playwright, actor and director of India. He is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi award for Final Solutions in 1998.
This book about the Hindu family in Gujrat who save 2 boys of Muslim community. The theme of the play Final Solutions is to highlight human weaknesses, selfishness, avarice and opportunism. Woven into the play are the issues of class and communities and the clashes between traditional and modern life style and value systems. The problem of minorities is not confined to only Hindus and Muslims, it eats the peace of any minority community among the majority.
"Final Solutions" has a powerful contemporary resonance and it addresses as issue of utmost concern to our society, i.e. the issue of communalism. The play presents different shades of the communalist attitude prevalent among Hindus and Muslims in its attempt to underline the stereotypes and clichés influencing the collective sensibility of one community against another. What distinguishes this work from other plays written on the subject is that it is neither sentimental in its appeal nor simplified in its approach.
It advances the objective candour of a social scientist while presenting a mosaic of diverse attitudes towards religious identity that often plunges the country into inhuman strife. Yet the issue is not moralised, as the demons of communal hatred are located not out in the street but deep within us.
The play moves from the partition to the present day communal riots. It probes into the religious bigotry by examining the attitudes of three generations of a middle-class Gujarati business family, Hardika, the grandmother, is obsessed with her father's murder during the partition turmoil and the betrayal by a Muslim friend, Zarine. Her son, Ramnik Gandhi, is haunted by the knowledge his fortunes were founded on a shop of Zarine's father, which was burnt down by his kinsmen.
Hardika's daughter-in-law, Aruna, lives by the strict code of the Hindu Samskar and the granddaughter, Smita, cannot allow herself a relationship with a Muslim boy. The pulls and counter-pulls of the family are exposed when two Muslim boys, Babban and Javed, seek shelter in their house on being chased by a baying Hindu mob.
Babban is a moderate while Javed is an aggressive youth. After a nightlong exchange of judgements and retorts between the characters, tolerance and forgetfulness emerge as the only possible solution of the crisis. Thus, the play becomes a timely reminder of the conflicts raging not only in India but in other parts of the world.
Mahesh Dattani's 'Final Solutions' is that rare look at a socio-political problem that defies all final solutions….Arvind Gaur's competent direction… intense, topical and artistically mounted, Asmita's 'Final Solutions' brought back memories of Habib Tanvir's rendition of 'Jis Lahore nahi Dekhya' and Saeed Mirza's 'Naseem.
'Final Solutions' touches us, and the bitter realities of our lives so closely that it becomes a difficult play to handle for the Indian Director. The past begins to determine the outlook of the present and thus the earlier contradictions re-emerge.
Although, no concrete solutions are provided in the play to the problem of communalism but it raises questions on secularism and pseudo secularism. It forces us to look at ourselves in relation to the attitudes that persist in the society. 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 setup 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.
Questions/Answers :-
1. Does the movie help you to understand the narrative structure of the play ?
- Yes, This film adaption helps us to understand the structure of the literary work. In the Final Solution, we can see the story told by Daksha's perspective in diary form. She wrote diary and threw the diary she tells us that what and how everything has happened in this play. Javier's perspective is for his experience and his story also shown different in flashback mode. Bobby's story also in different way. So we can see different types of stories used in one play, which we can understand threw the film in better way.
2. What do you think about women's situation during the time of communal riots?
- The situation of women during the time of communal riots very bad. Even in comman situations of the women was also not good. They don't speak anything because they haven't freedom of speech for say anything and also they can't do anything that they want. They haven't any kind of right for choosing her hobbies also. In the play and movie we can see Daksha's character that she wanted to be a singer but her father in law and mother in law denied to do. And its not enough even she also not listen the song also.
3. Does the women characters like Daksha, Karuna etc. Have helped you in understanding it. If you the director of the movie, what kind of changes would you make in the movie. Does the movie do justice to the play ?
- Yes, All women characters helps us to understand the play. If I was the director, I'll end the play with solution. And we know about the society and their rules for religion and rituals that I should not conclude my movie with this way but conclude that point after knowing the situation and all the characters get justice after conclude the movie.
