ELSA MEET : MY FAVOURITE PLAYWRIGHT\DRAMATIST - 30th June 2019

ELSA MEET

MY FAVOURITE PLAYWRIGHT\DRAMATIST

Goverdhan Hotel, Delhi Gate Agra, 30th June 2019

The topic of the meet was introduced and accelerated by Dr. Nibir K. Ghosh with an apt reference from the leading American dramatist, Arthur Miller: “Great drama is great questions or it is nothing but technique. I could not imagine a theatre worth my time that did not want to change the world.” Remembering Girish Karnad, who recently passed away, he reiterated how Girish Karnad, like Arthur Miller, could see drama in close connection with life. He contemporarised Girish Karnad with Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and Mohan Rakesh in the Indian English theatre. Dr. Rajan Lal tried to elaborate the unique personality of legendary freelance actor and playwright, Girish Karnad. He deemed that Karnad was a non-conformist and trendsetter who attempted to blur the cultural boundaries in human societies. Dr. Santosh highlighted Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana, wrought with the themes of absurdity and incompleteness through the pivotal characters of the play, Devadatta, Kaplia and Padmini. He narrated the incident of Lord Ganesha’s physical transposition of his head. He also voiced the extra-marital relationship, an ideal of perfection leading to ambiguous insatiable desire in human life. He said that the play revolves round this insatiable human desire. Dr. Shrikant Kulshretha posed a question against Girish Karnad referring to his rebellion against Hindu fundamentalism. He further made a special mention of T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland highlighting the cause of infertility to our inclination towards materialism, loss of self-control and aversion to spiritualism in our life. He also made a reference to the Ganga, portrayed by Eliot in the poem. Dr. Anjali Singh shared the biographical sketch of George Bernard Shaw in detail. She also provided point-wise factual information about his life, literature and creation. She made a special mention of some of his key plays like Pygmalion and Man and Superman. She specially highlighted Arms and the Man, an antiromantic play. She said that war cannot be romanticized. She identified herself with Raina Petkoff in her life. The meet concluded with Prof. Ghosh conveying ELSA’s appreciation of a children book entitled – Enchanted Unicorn – authored by Gayatri Singh (daughter of Dr. Anjali Singh).

Mahesh Dattani: A Man of Realistic Imagination

Manju

Though Drama or Natak has always been an inseparable part of Indian Literature as various playwrights like Kalidasa,  Bhasa, Aswaghosha, Harsha etc. offered their imaginative compositions to the world many years ago and it made them immortal, yet drama observed its decline as a genre of literature during and after the colonization period. Despite various forms of dramatic performances like Ram Leela, Nautanki, Raasleela etc., very few efforts were made to revive drama as a source of creative expression until playwrights like Girish Karnad, Badal Sircar and others made remarkable efforts to make this genre popular. Mahesh Dattani is also one of such names. 

These new playwrights are realistic and more concerned with the society and its individuals while the old ones were mythical and more imaginative. The new playwrights have also made abundant use of mythology but in such a way that it makes their plays socially more relevant. All the plays of Mahesh Dattani deal with wide range of contemporary social issues like gender discrimination, religious tensions and homosexuality and this has imparted a universal appeal to his plays.  In his Dance Like a Man the playwright challenges the society which considers Jairaj, the protagonist, effeminate as he wants to live his dream of being a dancer but he is ridiculed as dance is considered a woman's territory. His father says, “A woman in man’s world may be considered progressive. But a man in woman’s world is pathetic.”  The play raises a question on such society and its unwritten laws which compel Jairaj to live the life of frustration and dejection although the idol of Natraj is worshipped in the same society. Mahesh Dattani does not believe in art for art's sake rather he writes for society's sake. His works are the studies of the individual in relationship to the society, the common man and his never-ending battle to gain stature amidst corrupt social values. The focus of the playwright is not on individual criticism but on the society which promotes perverted values and ultimately destroys the individual. His plays unfold identify and come to a logical conclusion through sensibility and reasoning. 

Dr. Manju is Associate Professor at Chandigarh University, Punjab.

Girish Karnad: An Inborn Multidimensional Personality

Rajan Lal

William Shakespeare, the hero of the millennium and bard of Avon, through the mouth of Malvolio, in Act II, scene V in Twelfth Night or What You Will, makes a categorisation of great people as “Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.” Keeping in view the categorisation discussed here, I wish to place Girish Raghunath Karnad (19 May, 1938—10 June, 2019) under the first category because he was a versatile, prolific and multidimensional personage. He is said to be the wizard of words and he was of the view that one should have a deep insight of words for ideological perspicuity i.e. one must be well acquainted with nuances and subtleties of words and language. His sudden demise because of multiple organ dysfunction syndrome has created a void in the Indian creative and innovative ethos which is irreparable and irrevocable. Because of his multidisciplinary approach, he was conferred upon honours and awards including – Padma Shri (1974), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Jyanpith Award (1998) and various other awards. Yashwant Deshmukh, a celebrated figure in media and communication industry tweeted, “Girish Karnad’s final exit is an irreparable loss for the Indian literature, theatre, and celluloid industry. Ideologically, he had often been a leftist even though he had been able to achieve honour from every section of society. He defended his own values with absolute integrity and downright reliance.” Duty and literary beauty journeyed parallel in Karnad’s life. While gracing managerial post in the Oxford University Press, Chennai, he penned his works like—Tughlak, Hayavadan, Anjumallige, Huma, Hunja, Nagmandala, The Fire and the Rain, etc. All these works wrought with social values and experiments are considered to be prosperous and effective.

Dr. Rajan Lal teaches English at G.I.C. Agra.

My Favourite Drama: Arms and the Man by George Bernard Shaw

Anjali Singh

It is a Romantic Comedy in 3-Acts, Produced in 1894 and published in 1898. Also, it is set during the 1885 Serb-Bulgarian War. It is the story of Raina, a young Bulgarian woman and her chance encounter with Bluntschli, a Swiss mercenary soldier in the Serbian army. Raina Petkoff is an immature woman who has grand notions about romantic love and she also romanticizes war. She belongs to a wealthy family. Her father Major Petkoff is a decorated officer in the Bulgarian army. She is engaged to marry Sergius, another young officer in the Bulgarian army. Captain Bluntschli is a soldier who barges into her bedroom at night. He is on a run to escape the Bulgarian soldiers who are on his trail. He begs to be hidden in her room. Later, it is shown how Raina’s affections and feelings sway from her Fiancé to her ‘Chocolate Cream Soldier’- Bluntschli.

So, that was a little bit about the play. Now, let me elaborate on the quote: “It is our duty to live as long as we can.” (Act I, p. 7). Spoken by Bluntschli to Raina, she is repulsed by this attitude of his; she has delusions about war and heroics. She believes that every soldier considers his duty to die on the battlefield, and that’s so heroic! Bluntschli is not afraid to air his opinion about his desire to live and the fact that he is afraid to die. He believes that it is the duty of the soldier to stay alive. Raina, who is an idealist, is shocked by the pragmatic and cynical attitude of Bluntschli. He also admits that he carries chocolates in his ammunition pouch rather than cartridges for his pistol. Captain Bluntschli is an interesting character and my favourite too. He is a practical man. Even though he is skilled in warfare, he is not disillusioned with war. He is far away from romanticizing war. For him, the ‘circumstantial decision-making’ is higher that one’s inner traits. With this attitude, he is able to survive in his life – including war and winning over Raina. He has something that is termed as a ‘fluid morality’ – dictated by the circumstances. One’s lies are acceptable provided it is to protect one’s life. Thus, he is able to overlook Raina’s mistakes as he believes that this is a must in a relation based on affection. Something similar to what a soldier would want in a battlefield – to survive rather than to die. Raina influenced by Bluntschli’s attitude, admits that she too has her own imperfections. Shaw too believed in this ‘circumstantial ethical decision-making’.

This was the first play I read of during my school days as it was a part of our syllabus. In these last 25 years since then, I too have grown from being in ‘Raina’ shoes to the pragmatic Captain Bluntschli!

‘Death is dead, not he’: A Tribute to Arthur Miller

Nibir K. Ghosh

From too much love of living,

From hope and fear set free,

We thank with brief thanksgiving

Whatever gods there be

That no life lives for ever;

That dead men rise up never;

That even the weariest river

Winds somewhere safe to sea.

                                                    --A.C. Swinburne

It is perhaps a strange coincidence that Arthur Miller died on February 10, 2005, 70 years to the day that his immortal classic Death of a Salesman  began its life on Broadway. Death of a Salesman brought Miller not only the Pulitzer Prize but also international acclaim. Set against the backdrop of a nation emerging out of the great depression of the 1930s and the Second World War, the catastrophe of the tragic hero, Willy Loman, reflected the catastrophe of an average American caught in the nightmare of the American Dream. The play brought to the forefront the inhuman dimensions of capitalism where a salesman approaching 60 who has served his employer faithfully for more than half his life is thrown away, as he says, like a piece of orange peel. Weaving together, with exquisite skill, realism and memory, Miller brought broad societal themes within the ambit of the ordinary lives of his characters.  And yet the play refuses to be circumscribed as a period piece because it foregrounds Willy not as a mere victim of inhuman forces that control the economic and social environment but of his own delusions. Knowing that he is worth more “dead” than “alive,” on account of the $20,000 life insurance he carries, Willy believes that this attractive sum can be used to restore his son Biff’s love for him, a belief that sends him to his death.

Miller endowed his hero with the tragic appeal that would endear him to readers beyond the limits of space, time and clime. Miller’s protagonist is not a man of renown but an ordinary soul who yearns for the bare minimum to keep his life and that of his family going. In his own words:

I don't say he's a great man. Willy Loman never made a lot of money. His name was never in the paper. He's not the finest character that ever lived. But he's a human being, and a terrible thing is happening to him. So attention must be paid. He's not to be allowed to fall into his grave like an old dog. Attention, attention must be finally paid to such a person (Death of a Salesman).

I am sure these words of Arthur Miller would reverberate in human memory till we continue to remain sensitive to anything that is essentially human.

Besides Death of a Salesman, Miller’s probing dramas - All My Sons, Crucible, The Price, The Misfits etc. would remain as barometers of conscience of the times in which Miller lived and wrote. Like a perfect physician he could feel the pulse of economic pressures that drove a human being to desperation. He stated in The Price: “The car, the furniture, the wife, the children – everything has to be disposable. Because you see the main thing today is – shopping.” To the critics who would be quick to label his works as mere “social problem plays”, he would say: "I've never written about society that way. If my plays were about the social problems of their day, nobody would keep doing them. The problems would have changed." His plays portray an instinctive striving to understand how people confront disasters and strive to survive in a world they never made. Miller's strongest plays are fired by convictions that assail some of the central ideals enshrined not only in American culture but in all cultures the world over. "Great drama is great questions," he wrote in his autobiography, "or it is nothing but technique."

Made out of the stuff that go on to provide themes for immensely popular bestsellers, the story of Miller’s life, like that of his plays, had an intense dramatic appeal. Miller was married three times: to Mary Grace Slattery, to Monroe and to Inge Morath. He married Morath in 1962; they were together for 40 years, until her death in 2002. His tumultuous marriage to screen legend Marilyn Monroe created tremors in the American society. In the words of  Norman Mailer, “Theirs was a union between ''the Great American Brain'' and ''the Great American Body.'' The marriage, which ended in divorce, did provide material for two of his plays: After the Fall and Finishing the Picture. In a 1992 interview with a French newspaper, he called her "highly self-destructive" and said that during their marriage, "all my energy and attention were devoted to trying to help her solve her problems. Unfortunately, I didn't have much success." In 1995, he reportedly punched a male journalist who asked him whether he still dreams about her.

Alongside the writing, Miller’s life demonstrates his faith in the ability of an individual to resist conformist pressures. All his life he remained a staunch supporter of free speech. He stated: “A good newspaper, I suppose, is a nation talking to itself,” a statement that should remain the guiding principle of the fourth estate all over the world. His courageous stand against McCarthyism and the House of Un-American Activities Committee that had tried to frame him in 1956 over a supposed Communist conspiracy to misuse American passports speaks about the strength of his conviction. He willingly answered all questions about himself but he refused to name names on a point of principle saying: "I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him." Like a crusader, he involved himself in the defense of foreign writers through the International P.E.N. organization. He was undoubtedly a bold playwright whose convictions challenged conventions.

Arthur Miller is dead and seeks his happiness in another kind of wood from where no traveler returns. But so long people continue to see or read Miller’s plays and say for his endearingly human creations, “That was my father. That was my uncle. That was me,” we have every reason to believe ‘Death is dead, not he.’

Prof. Nibir K. Ghosh is UGC Emeritus Professor & Senior Fulbright Fellow 2003-04, University of Washington, Seattle, USA. This tribute to Arthur Miller was initially published in Re-Markings www.re-markings.com