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A Framework of Comparison:
Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata and
Dharamvir Bharati’s Andha Yug
MRINALINI SINGHA
B.Des., Film & Video Communication (Semester V)
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Fig. 1: Frames illustrating the contents page and structure for this paper.
Fig. 3: Timeline: Peter Brook’s film The Mahabharata. The shaded portion in black represents the version studied for this paper.
sharing of space, thus altering the experience. Conversely, the 2. THE MIDDLE FRAME: OF ENMESHMENT
cinematic spectator gets the most ideal view of the enactments. Should one get enmeshed into the very fabric of a work, one would be
able to examine the texture of time, space, and structure.
Andha Yug on the other hand, faces the perils of loss through
translations. Alok Bhalla took up the task of translating the work The epic itself has many beginnings; the works being analyzed in
to English because he saw inadequacy in the previous this paper have only one each. In Brook’s film, the first frame is
translations. According to him, his students who had read the of Vyasa dictating his poem on the Mahabharata to Ganesha
work in English reacted differently to each of its characters. who transcribes it; the second is of the Mahabharata carrying
out itself. The film has two endings; the inner frame closes with
As seen above, the audience, and Indians in particular, are very the Pandavas reuniting in hell and the outer frame ends with the
critical of the works inspired by this epic. Brook received finishing of the transcription and the handing over of the book
backlash for the orientalism and forced universality his film to the boy. The line between these frames (Fig. 4) is blurry as
propagated. It has been observed that: “One should not, under Ganesha in the form of Krishna and Vyasa, are also characters in
cover of universality of theme or character, undercut the the Mahabharata. This makes the film self-reflexive in nature.
intrinsic core of how The Mahabharata’s characters function
within the world of which they are a part of” (Dasgupta 14). On the other hand, Andha Yug’s, outer frame (Fig. 5) centers on
conditions in the Kaurava kingdom on the eighteenth and last
Conversely, Brook explains in his book how relatability was an day of the Mahabharata war. As an afterword, time gallops
important factor for the audience: “The first principle is to start forward 36 years later, ending with Krishna’s death. “Andha Yug
on the level of the audience, very simply. If in The Mahabharata makes two critical structural choices to maintain its atmosphere
we had copied Indian forms, a god would come on as in of unrelieved suffering: one, by beginning with the end of the
Kathakali, with long fingernails and fantastic makeup. However, epic war, it bypasses the heroic moments and moves directly to
even if for a second, the physical beauty of it would engage the the experience of irrevocable loss, and two, by focusing on the
audience, the second afterwards it would seem remote and in no
way connected with real life.”
or untruth
In Andha Yug, the “dance of war” (86) between the crow and the you are damned. (75)
owl can be seen as an allegory of the Pandavas and Kauravas.
Although the crow would usually represent evil, it is attacked Not only does Yuyutsu’s mother refuse to accept him but he is
and killed by the owl while the former was sleeping, thus also rendered voiceless by the mob that is frightened of him;
meeting an unfair end. Yuyutsu eventually commits suicide.
However, the concept of dharma in Andha Yug is both berated and 3.3 Youth and Time
celebrated. On the one hand, Gandhari, who had lost faith, cried In Andha Yug, Ashwathama’s blind rage lands him on the
out that she was not always blind, that she “had seen the ways of “endless shores of desolate time” (64), forever living in the
the world and knew that dharma, duty and honour were illusions” present. A parallel can be made with Amba’s character in Brook’s
(37). Whereas on the other, she had cautioned Duryodhana: film, whose desire to take revenge from Bhisma keeps her young.
O, Fool, where there is dharma Bhisma, on the other hand, because of his celibacy, could choose
There is victory. the time of his death but would age nonetheless. Sanjaya too, in
There was no dharma on either side. Andha Yug, is immortal because of the tragic truth that he has to
Each was inspired by their blind self-interest. (37–38) tell while the god, Krishna, “is the embodiment of time as it
flows in its stately dignity”(92).
Selfhood is looked upon negatively in both works. In Brook’s
film, the Pandavas display considerable selflessness through 3.4 Depiction of Divinity
their bond with each other, but they cave into selfhood and Krishna is a reincarnation of Vishnu and the most beloved of
adharma by using sly means to win the war. Bharati’s play voices Indian gods. He is seen as a naughty but an endearing figure who
this through Balarama who says, “. . . the Pandavas who are can be both reprimanded and loved. In these two works,
celebrating their victory with conch shells will also be destroyed however, this is not the case. Krishna is shown as the central
by adharma” (80). He also gives the description of an unjust rule turning force in both works. Andha Yug expresses the silent
by them. reverberations felt of him throughout and even verbally: “Yes,
there were still frail threads of honor which held men together
In Andha Yug, it is Dhritarashtra who realizes that he was but good and evil were so intrinsically interlocked that only
blinded by selfhood saying: Krishna had the courage to unravel them” (26). Brook’s film does
their future” (26). This image of his changes only once the suggests that a person with a disability cannot match up to the
audience hears him speak. He is not seen and it is only a shadow skills of an abled person. Andha Yug on the other hand, uses
of his that is shown on stage—an interesting way to depict a god sensory disabilities allegorically to represent more
without trivializing him into a mere human being. In another encompassing ideas. Blindness is an overarching motif; for the
scene, a feather drops from Krishna’s crown, poignantly rule of a blind king, there was darkness that could not
representing humanity losing faith in him. Krishna is then differentiate between good and evil:
shown as a more humane character through this reply to THE NARRATOR: Blindness rules this age not reason and
Gandhari’s curse: blindness shall prevail in the end. (27)
In this terrible war of eighteen days
I am the only one who died a million times. Every In Andha Yug, a soldier who is deaf and mute tries in an
time a soldier was struck down incomprehensible manner to cheer on for Dhritarashtra.
every time a soldier fell to the ground it was I
who was struck down There is also the interesting example of Gandhari who enforced
respective audience, and it is through this technique that each Urban Performance in India since 1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press,
narrative communicates its key message. Peter Brook’s film The 2008. Print.
rivalry while making space for the substories of other characters Mahabharata.” Narratives of Indian Cinema. Ed. Manju Jain. New Delhi:
as well. Andha Yug strongly celebrates the grey zones focusing on Primus, 2014. Academia.edu. Web. 24 Jul. 2017.
Thus, Andha Yug expected its audience to know the story and International Journal of Hindu Studies 15.1 (2011): 1–7 JSTOR. Web. 22 Jul. 2017.
epic. There are scenes in Brook’s film which make more sense if
the reader knows the back story involved. Bhisma’s death bed for
example, is a bed of arrows (Fig. 7) which looks grand in itself
but actually represents the revenge Gandhari’s clan wanted to
bestow upon the Kauravas.
The works are relevant today for they speak of issues and portray
a world very relatable to the present be it though its universalism
or the post-War world we live in. In the words of Maurice
Benichou, “The Mahabharata is a huge epic but at the same time
it’s the story of each of us” (qtd. in Brook 128).
WORKS CITED
Ahuja, Chaman. “Epic Play.” Spectrum. The Tribune, 8 May 2005. Web. 12 Dec.
2018.
Bharati, Dharamvir. Andha Yug (1954), trans. Alok Bhalla. New Delhi: Oxford
Brook, Peter. The Empty Space. London: Penguin Books, 2008. Print.
Performing Arts Journal 10.3 (1987): 9–16 JSTOR. Web. 21 Jul. 2017.
Deren, Maya. An Anagram of Ideas on Art, Form and Film. Yonkers, New York: