“Final Solution” is a play written by renowned Indian author Mahesh Dattani. The play revolves around the life of a recently married woman named Daksha, who sits at home writing down her life experiences and learnings.
Final Solutions By Mahesh Dattani
Summary of Final Solutions By Mahesh Dattani
The play begins with the main character, Daksha, who has recently married and is sitting at home, writing about her life experiences. She writes about her home and how her life has changed since marriage. Daksha writes in her diary that even though our country has gained independence, there are still women in India who are not free. This is because women are still not allowed to go out of the house. Daksha is unhappy with her husband’s family because she wants to become a singer like Noor Jehan, but she is not allowed to sing.
She is confined to her husband’s house. A new character arrives: Zareen, a Muslim girl who is Daksha’s friend. Like Daksha, Zareen also loves the songs of Noor Jehan and Shamshad Begum. Daksha and Zareen share a common interest in music and become good friends. The story now moves forward 40 years. Daksha is an elderly woman who now lives in Gujarat and has a son named Ramnik. Daksha’s son, Ramnik, is married to a woman named Aruna. Ramnik and Aruna have a daughter named Smita. Someone in Gujarat has vandalized a statue of a Hindu deity. Rumors are that a Muslim man vandalized the statue.
This has caused considerable tension between the Hindu and Muslim communities. Daksha’s granddaughter, Smita, is talking to her friend, Tasneem, on the phone. Tasneem tells Smita that someone has detonated a bomb in her hostel. Smita’s father, Ramnik, takes the phone and begins talking to Tasneem. He inquires about her well-being and then hangs up. Daksha calls Aruna and urges her to close all the doors and windows of the house.
Two new characters, Javed and Bobby, enter the story. Javed and Bobby are arguing when Hindu men arrive and question them. During interrogation, the Hindus discovered that Javed and Bobby were Muslims. The Hindu gang tried to kill Javed and Bobby, but they managed to escape.
Javed and Bobby flee from the Hindus and reach Ramnik’s house. They plead with Ramnik to spare their lives. Subsequently, a group of Hindus goes to Ramnik’s house and demands Javed and Bobby. Ramnik refuses to let them kill Javed and Bobby. Following this, the angry Hindus begin throwing stones at Ramnik’s house. Aruna dislikes the presence of Muslims in her home.
Therefore, she requests her husband, Ramnik, to throw them out. Ramnik yells at Aruna and tells her to keep quiet. Ramnik begins speaking politely to Bobby and Javed. Bobby answers his questions calmly, but Javed speaks to him harshly and rudely. At that moment, Ramnik’s daughter, Smita, arrives and immediately recognizes Javed and Bobby.
When Aruna learns that Smita knows Javed and Bobby, she asks Smita how she knows them. Smita tells Aruna that Javed is her friend Tasneem’s brother, and Bobby is Tasneem’s fiancé.
The crowd gathered outside Ramnik’s house again begins throwing stones at his house. Ramnik, still unconcerned, offers milk to Javed and Bobby. Javed tells Ramnik that they are the majority and can do whatever they want with innocent people like them. Ramnik speaks calmly to Javed and tries to explain how the Hindu-Muslim conflict has started.
He tells her that once, during a Hindu Rath Yatra, Muslims threw stones at the Lord’s chariot and even killed Hindu priests. This sparked a fight between Hindus and Muslims. Smita brings pillows for Javed and Bobby and tells them that their house is small, so they’ll have to sleep on the floor. Javed tells Smita that he doesn’t mind sleeping on the floor because he’s used to it.
Smita asks them what they were doing in her village, Amargaon, during such tensions between Hindus and Muslims. Bobby tells Smita that they came here looking for jobs. Ramnik decides to offer Javed and Bobby a job at his clothing store, but his daughter, Smita, tries to stop him. She tells him that Javed was hired by a terrorist organization, and that’s why his family expelled him from the house. After this, Ramnik begins teasing Javed, asking him which terrorist attacks he was involved in.
Javed is deeply offended and begins abusing Ramnik. Meanwhile, Ramnik, enraged, slaps Javed. Bobby intervenes and calms them down. Bobby tells Ramnik that when Javed was a child, he accidentally touched a letter from his Hindu neighbor. The Hindu neighbor yelled at Javed in front of everyone simply because he touched his letter.
Javed becomes angry with his Hindu neighbor and throws beef at his house. Later, the Hindu neighbor comes to Javed’s house and abuses him in front of his family. Bobby explains that Javed speaks rudely to people because of his community, but otherwise, he was a good and respected man in his village.
After this, Javed and Bobby decide to leave Ramnik’s house, but Ramnik stops them. He tells them they must work in his clothing store, or else he will call the police. Just then, Smita comes in and apologizes to Javed for exposing him to his family. Aruna goes outside to look and finds no one there. So she decides to go out to get water. Smita asks her mother, Aruna, to bring Bobby with her so he can help her fetch water. Aruna becomes angry with Smita because she can’t take help from a Muslim.
Later, Aruna goes to take a bath. Smita, Javed, and Bobby go out to fetch water. While they go out to fetch water, we learn that Smita loves Bobby, but because they belong to different castes, they cannot live together. Bobby, Javed, and Smita were playing with water outside their house. Smita’s grandmother, Daksha, saw them playing and remembered her childhood friend, Zareen. Daksha went to Bobby and Javed and told them that her father was murdered by a Muslim.
Daksha curses Javed and Bobby and leaves. Ramnik comes in and tells his mother to keep quiet. When Aruna comes out of the restroom, she sees Bobby at a Hindu temple and tells him to leave. Bobby, holding a Hindu god’s idol, speaks of communal harmony. After this, Bobby and Javed leave Ramnik’s house.
As Javed and Bobby leave Ramnik’s house, he tells his mother about his father and grandfather burning down Zarin’s shop to buy it at a cheaper price. Ramnik still regrets his father and grandfather’s actions, so he doesn’t want to go to that shop. The story ends without any resolution.