The paper attempts to problematize the representation of women, the voyeuristic attitude and the ... more The paper attempts to problematize the representation of women, the voyeuristic attitude and the double standards of the society in Manjula Pamanabhan’s socially pertinent play Lights Out. Indian drama, despite its long standing had the number of women associated with it next to nothing during the first centuries. Manjula Padmanabhan is one among the trailblazers who stepped into the arena of Indian theatre and challenged the norms. The play is most appropriately set in the multicultural milieu of Mumbai that enables a juxtaposition of an ethically upright population and a bunch of hypocrites who preach something and practise something else. Lights Out operates in the silence of the people of the modern urban society. The play necessitates every character to find their safe haven in silence at one point or the other. The insensitivity and apathy of the urban public is genuinely portrayed through the characters who evade from their own responsibilities and delegate their duties to others. The responsible people in power turns a blind eye towards the abominable crime discussed in the play, making it appear quite an unremarkable incident. The exponential upsurge in the rate of heinous crimes on a daily basis had made people insensitive towards the acts rather than making them vigilant and responsible of the situation. Based on a real incident that took place in Santa Cruz, Lights Out is not too big a stretch. The distance between Santa Cruz and any other place in India is short since cases of similar violence are being reported everywhere. Brecht precisely remarks art as a hammer that shapes reality. The playwright through her play is shaping the reality by blatantly pointing what went south. A study on Indian theatre can never be complete without Manjula Padmanabhan.
The Booker Prize winning The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a highly political novel tha... more The Booker Prize winning The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a highly political novel that revolves around the lives of the fraternal twins Estha and Rahel. A strain of pessimism touches throughout the strands of the non-linear narration of the novel. The novel discusses issues of sex, caste, religion etc. in the most obvious manner. It lays bare the double standards of the society, and the overt gap between preaching and practice. The God of Small Things questions how certain people are relegated to the margins, and how crossing the prescribed limits take a heavy toll on their lives. The people in authority, be it the institutions of law, religion or education have formulated different laws for different people. The indifference Ammu faces is mainly because of the fact that she is a woman, who is "unworthy" of being educated. Similarly, Velutha's relationship with Ammu was at the cost of his life. The paper seeks to demarcate the establishments of power the novel discusses and how in close association are these establishments with the boundaries or the limits they dictate. The boundaries make a clear distinction of who the powerful are and who aren't, since only the former have the capability to prescribe who should stand where.
The paper attempts to problematize the representation of women, the voyeuristic attitude and the ... more The paper attempts to problematize the representation of women, the voyeuristic attitude and the double standards of the society in Manjula Pamanabhan’s socially pertinent play Lights Out. Indian drama, despite its long standing had the number of women associated with it next to nothing during the first centuries. Manjula Padmanabhan is one among the trailblazers who stepped into the arena of Indian theatre and challenged the norms. The play is most appropriately set in the multicultural milieu of Mumbai that enables a juxtaposition of an ethically upright population and a bunch of hypocrites who preach something and practise something else. Lights Out operates in the silence of the people of the modern urban society. The play necessitates every character to find their safe haven in silence at one point or the other. The insensitivity and apathy of the urban public is genuinely portrayed through the characters who evade from their own responsibilities and delegate their duties to others. The responsible people in power turns a blind eye towards the abominable crime discussed in the play, making it appear quite an unremarkable incident. The exponential upsurge in the rate of heinous crimes on a daily basis had made people insensitive towards the acts rather than making them vigilant and responsible of the situation. Based on a real incident that took place in Santa Cruz, Lights Out is not too big a stretch. The distance between Santa Cruz and any other place in India is short since cases of similar violence are being reported everywhere. Brecht precisely remarks art as a hammer that shapes reality. The playwright through her play is shaping the reality by blatantly pointing what went south. A study on Indian theatre can never be complete without Manjula Padmanabhan.
The Booker Prize winning The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a highly political novel tha... more The Booker Prize winning The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy is a highly political novel that revolves around the lives of the fraternal twins Estha and Rahel. A strain of pessimism touches throughout the strands of the non-linear narration of the novel. The novel discusses issues of sex, caste, religion etc. in the most obvious manner. It lays bare the double standards of the society, and the overt gap between preaching and practice. The God of Small Things questions how certain people are relegated to the margins, and how crossing the prescribed limits take a heavy toll on their lives. The people in authority, be it the institutions of law, religion or education have formulated different laws for different people. The indifference Ammu faces is mainly because of the fact that she is a woman, who is "unworthy" of being educated. Similarly, Velutha's relationship with Ammu was at the cost of his life. The paper seeks to demarcate the establishments of power the novel discusses and how in close association are these establishments with the boundaries or the limits they dictate. The boundaries make a clear distinction of who the powerful are and who aren't, since only the former have the capability to prescribe who should stand where.
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