WHERE THERE IS A WILL - MAHESH DATTANI
WHERE THERE IS A WILL
MAHESH
DATTANI
The
play ‘ Where There’s A Will’ by Mahesh Dattani. In 1986, he wrote his full
length play ‘where there’s a will’.
In play ‘where there is a will’ we can see there are many characters.
Characters like Hasmukh Mehta , his wife
Sonal Mehta, his son Ajit and his daughter-in-law Priti , Kiran Jaweri
(mistress of Hasmukh Mehta). It is a Gujrati play. The story started the death
of Hasmukh Mehta and he appears as a ghost. The family member
the all are busy with own life. In the play ‘where there is a will’ mainly
concentrate in the social issue.
As the play opens Ajith is on the phone talking to a friend about his
frustration as his father does not give him Rs.5 Lakhs to modernize the
factory. Here, we can see the relation between father and son. Always Hasmukh
Mehta keeps commenting on Ajit’s irresponsible and crackpot schemes. And also
we can find the confrontation between Hasmukh and his son Ajit. The more he
claims his right to prove his worth , Ajit is taunted by his father as a
good for nothing saying,
“I am
not trying to humiliate you. I m trying to put some sense into you. Trying to
fill up empty space”
We can say that
Ajit exposes his father’s selfish motives due to depravity in childhood.
“Anything
I do is wrong for you! Just because you are a self-made man and had a deprived
childhood…. Nothing I do will ever seem intelligent to you . you are
prejudiced”
Here,
we can find that Hasmukh keeps nagging Ajith calling him a big zero and affirms
that he would ever remain so. The argument and counter argument between the due
end up with the father sleeping and Ajiht for disrespecting him.
However, in the play ‘ where there is a will’ Mahesh Dattani also focus on the
female character who are always busy for work and preparing for dinner. Sonal
and priti are always busy with the making dinner. Sonal also makes orange
flavored halva for Ajith which irritates her husband who is a diabetic. From the
interaction of the characters it is evident that they have no deep familial
relationship.
In the play ‘ where there is a will’ Dattani also focus the comically scene.
Sonal and priti talking with each other at that time Sonal ironically comment
on the meaning of ‘Hasmukh’ which means ‘a smiling face’. But here we can
see her husband never smiled, blaming her and her son for all his problems.
In the second part of the play, the scene shifts to Hasmukh’s death. Here
Dattani applying magic realism, Dattani has very deftly brought in the scene to
establish the protagonist’s patriarchal hegemony even after death.
“I am
dead. I can see my own body lying still on the bed . looking peaceful , but
dead”
At the ends with the arrival of Kiran, Hasmukh’s mistress, who has come to stay
in the house being named the executrix of the will. Because they all are
fighting with will. Kiran establishes her indispensability as she has
come to assist them as per Hasmukh’s will. By trying to establish
supreme control over his family through his money and will, Husmukh was only
perpetrating the filthy tradition inherited from his father. Somewhere the
hegemony had to stop. Ajith revolts against patriarchy and establishes his final
victory.
At the end , they all are join hands being victims of the same male domination
and ruthless patriarchy. Dattani has successfully explored like Ibsen some of
the problem faced by patriarchal societies that need purging of the ghosts of
the past.
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