The Times of India - 30 November 2008
When communal frenzy plays up
Ahmedabad: Alyque Padamsee, one of the directors who have offered stage versions of this English play by Mahesh Dattani, observed in his note, "Final Solutions is a play about transferred resentment." Young Smita transfers her resentment to her father Ramnik, who in turn passes the buck to Hardika, his mother.
As society, we consider our past responsible for the animosity between the two major communities destined to coexist. They begin and end up with the historical violent mutual distrust. The subtext of the play, which should create an experience with the dramatic interplay of characters and their attitudes leading to palpable dramatic tension shared also by spectators offers a solution in breaking the wall of mutual distrust, apparently as impregnable as the Berlin wall once looked.
Sankalp's stage version Khalish' in colloquial Hindi, directed by Johann-Kashan-Siddhant-Siddharth, succeeds in creating this awareness of the need to resolve the recurring tension and realisation reassuringly by the rising generation here that the communal forces at play when the frenzy is roused are within us and a way should be found to resist being part of the mob and its prejudice.
The painstaking stage version, of course, has obvious limitations. A salute to the theatre enthusiasts, who in keeping with Sankalp's tradition, have selected a challenging play to stage. They, however, need a little exposure to and experience of theatre to generate dramatic tension as much through stance, movement and gestures as voice modulation. It was good to hear a director say, "We must leave the past behind and move on with hope for a better future."
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