In search of the `self'
MINU ITTIYPE
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`Pratibimba' deals with the merging of cultural identities and the loss of one's own identity.
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Photo: VipinChandran
LOST IDENTITY: `Pratibimba' opens with the protagonist discovering the loss of his reflection in the mirror.
The quest for one's identity in the depths of one's soul seems endless and pointless to others, and these complex questions are considered best left to theorists and philosophers. However the recent staging of Mahesh Elkunchwar's `Pratibimba' by Cochin Theatre Group, directed by T. M. Abraham in Malayalam, at Fine Arts Hall, Kochi, disturbed the thoughts of the audience and brought out interesting perspectives of this Marathi play.
The play opens with the protagonist `HE,' a.k.a. Blockhead played by Gopalakrishnan, discovering the loss of his reflection in the mirror. HE is aghast, HE who had cared little for his reflection is filled with nagging thoughts of the loss of his own reflection. And now consumed by this loss, he cannot think of anything else. Does it mean the loss of one's identity?
HE is a paying guest and the coquettish hostess `WOMAN' (Shirley) has no time to ponder over such inane questions. Practical and worldly wise she sees it as an opportunity for instant fame and her imagination revels in the media frenzy and fortune for `The Man without a Reflection.'
Globalisation
Although written in the pre-globalisation, pre `24* 7' news channel era, this existential play is true to the times and reflects the effects of globalisation. The deterioration of one's unique characteristics is the essential feature of globalisation. Everyone wears the same type of clothes, eats the same type of food, listens to the same music, watches the same films and even speaks the same language. The process of cloning of identity has begun and in the play `Pratibimba' the cloning of identity results in the loss of the character, `GIRL's' reflection. So when GIRL comes in search of HE and tells him of her loss of reflection he does not recognise his own colleague.
"GIRL: Don't we work in the same office, in the same section, in the same corner?
HE: I wouldn't know... ... .Fifty girls to a section. They all wear synthetic saris. They all wear perfume. They all wear lipstick. How am I supposed to remember them?"
The play speaks of the horrifying aspects of merging cultural identities and finally the loss of one's own identity. The GIRL's loss of reflection becomes the symbolic loss of her identity. On a higher plane one's reflection is the process of identification for the self and how others view the person. The loss of this reflection entails darkness within too. This internalised darkness drives the protagonist HE to suicide.
Replete with symbolism, dark humour and sadness, the play does not shy away from asking uncomfortable questions. Director T. M. Abraham says, "It was staged to make the audience think, to wake them from the comfort zone." The play was translated into Malayalam by R. S. Kurup.
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