Random Thoughts

Theatre of the absurd

by Ranjita Biswas | @twfindia 07 Jun 2023, 05:23 pm

Does fiction imitate life or is it the other way round? Sometimes you wonder as you look around the world you live in today,  and not in a fictional time.  But one thing is sure , there are enough material to inspire fiction or celluloid tales to give a satirical twist to which is very real.

A few days ago I watched this film Kathal- jackfruit in a straight translation, a satire that brings chuckles but also tells some home truths. The ‘theft’ of two prize  jackfruits of a foreign origin in an influential politician’s garden makes the entire police force run around ‘investigating’ who could have done it. I am avoiding a spoiler alert by revealing the culprit’s identity.

Unrealistic? Well, a few days later you read about a food inspector in a Chhattisgarh small town making the water department drain out a reservoir of 41 lakh litres of water because his expensive  phone fell down in the water while taking selfies. Happily for the hapless public, the icing on the cake is that the guy was suspended and the authorities have imposed a fine of Rs 53,000 plus as a punishment.

Funny as these incidents may seem to be, it is indeed a reflection of life in the outback where common people give in to this kind of atrocious behavior by ‘important’ people who rule with impunity.

Just when you rue the state of affairs you now read that an important bridge in Bihar over the Ganga has collapsed TWICE within 14 months. On one end this year and the other recently.

Critic Martin Esslin had coined the term ‘Theatre of the absurd’ while talking about plays that sought to represent the absurdity of human existence in a meaningless universe by bizarre or fantastic means in the post-World War II period. It was more to do with existential angst in a traumatised Europe. But the term can well be applied to the absurdity prevailing in 21st century society in our land- tilted this way - that way, on the way to so-called progress. What if we produce software engineers by the dozen, enjoy the lion’s share of the H-IB Visa quota in the US, drum up about super-fast trains hurtling through the countryside while safety norms are flouted and common people die?

You step into the hinterland and find the same dance of patriarchy, caste politics- apparently a Dalit  boy  in the heartland was assaulted recently because he ‘dared’ to dress smartly- and wealthy and influential wielding the stick to frighten the unfortunate to bend down just like in the past.

Perhaps it needs a dollop of humour to cast a satirical look to survive and continue living- or acting, in this theatre of the absurd.