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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 31: Mahesh Dattani: Final Solution—Theme

Unit 31: Mahesh Dattani: Final Solution—Theme Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction

31.1 Final Solution—Theme
31.2 Summary
31.3 Key-Words
31.4 Review Questions
31.5 Further Readings

Objectives

After reading this Unit students will be able to:
• Analyse Life and Works of Dattani.
• Discuss the theme of the play.

Introduction

‘Final Solution,’ first performed in Bangalore in 1993 foregrounds the Hindu-Muslim problems. In
also tackles the theme of transferred resentments in the context of family relations. Alyque Padamsee
says, directing Final Solutions in Mumbai. "As I see it. This is a play about transferred resentment.
About looking for a scapegoat to hit out when we feel let down, humiliated. Taking out anger on
your wife, children or servants is an old Indian custom- this is above all, a play about a family
with its simmering under currents. In 1998, Mahesh Dattani won the Sahitya Akademi award for
his Final Solutions and other plays. This is a stage play in three acts. The play was first performed
at Guru Nanak Bhawan, Bangalore on 10 July, 1993. The Play upon with Daksha reading from her
dairy. An oil lamp converted to an electric one suggests that the period is the late 1940s. Daksha
is the grandmother of the Gandhi's. Who sometimes is seen as a girl of fifteen on the stage?
Daksha thanks that she is "a young girl who does not matter to anyone outside her home". She
says, "Last year in August, a terrible thing happened and that was freedom for India". The most
whispers : "Freedom! At last freedom!" Daksha close her diary and now Hardika appears on the
stage. She feels the things have not changed that much. A period of forty years is not a long period
for a nation. But on the stage, the drumbeat grows louder and the Chorus slowly wears the Hindu
masks. The words spoken by Chorus show the beginning of disharmony and painful period
ahead. As long as the persons are on the stage they are normal but as soon as they are behind
the masks, their thirst for blood resist. Whether we are angry with someone or someone is angry
with us each out burst takes its toll on both parties. The Chorus with Hindu masks burst with
angry words.

31.1 Final Solution—Theme

The central theme and its layered treatment in Final Solutions, the socio-political context of the
play's early productions, its long history of performances in English and Hindi-Urdu, and the
public attention it has drawn, make this play an immensely rich site to explore theatre's potential

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