ASIF CURRIMBHOY’S USE OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Adapting language to suit situation and character in a play is a peculiar problem that the Indian dramatist in English invariably faces. And this problem could be tackled successfully if the dramatist adapts the English language to reflect the idiom of the language of the characters or, as K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar has rightly suggested, if “the characters and the situations are carefully chosen (Iyengar).”
Currimbhoy does not seem to make any effort to exploit the resources of English as a spoken language. The only way he tries to make the dialogue sound Indian is through the use of expressions like ‘you SALA Minister” (p.25), “Chiman Chor” (p.34), “Punditji” (p.60 in The Dissident MLA), “Yes, Mamu” …show more content…
Currimbhoy does not limit himself to characters drawn from the rural society. His characters are also drawn from an urban, sophisticated milieu as in Shanta Rama Rau’s A Passage to India and Nissim Ezekiel’s Nalini and Marriage Poem. The major characters in Inquilab, The Refugee, Sonar Bangla, Thorns on a canvas, The Hungry Ones and The Dumb Dancer are professors, University students, top executives and professionals who use English for ordinary conversation. In plays like The Tourist Mecca, The Doldrummers, Goa, Darjeeling Tea? And This Alien…Native Land, the important characters are either the white planters and other aliens like the Americans r the Anglo-Indians in whose case English is the natural medium of conversation. Through such careful choice of characters and situations, Currimbhoy endeavours to make his dialogue realistic, immediate and …show more content…
It is true that some of Currimbhoy’s plays like O, Darjeeling Tea?, an Experiment with Truth do not lend themselves to the conventional structural unity with the logical sequence of a beginning, middle and an end. OM, for instance, suffers badly fro the point of view of linear structure since each Act stands on its own without any organic link with the other Acts of the play. The dramatist relies not on any central plot but on Chorus and soliloquy which tend to be tedious and dull
Adapting language to suit situation and character in a play is a peculiar problem that the Indian dramatist in English invariably faces. And this problem could be tackled successfully if the dramatist adapts the English language to reflect the idiom of the language of the characters or, as K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar has rightly suggested, if “the characters and the situations are carefully chosen (Iyengar).”
Currimbhoy does not seem to make any effort to exploit the resources of English as a spoken language. The only way he tries to make the dialogue sound Indian is through the use of expressions like ‘you SALA Minister” (p.25), “Chiman Chor” (p.34), “Punditji” (p.60 in The Dissident MLA), “Yes, Mamu” …show more content…
Currimbhoy does not limit himself to characters drawn from the rural society. His characters are also drawn from an urban, sophisticated milieu as in Shanta Rama Rau’s A Passage to India and Nissim Ezekiel’s Nalini and Marriage Poem. The major characters in Inquilab, The Refugee, Sonar Bangla, Thorns on a canvas, The Hungry Ones and The Dumb Dancer are professors, University students, top executives and professionals who use English for ordinary conversation. In plays like The Tourist Mecca, The Doldrummers, Goa, Darjeeling Tea? And This Alien…Native Land, the important characters are either the white planters and other aliens like the Americans r the Anglo-Indians in whose case English is the natural medium of conversation. Through such careful choice of characters and situations, Currimbhoy endeavours to make his dialogue realistic, immediate and …show more content…
It is true that some of Currimbhoy’s plays like O, Darjeeling Tea?, an Experiment with Truth do not lend themselves to the conventional structural unity with the logical sequence of a beginning, middle and an end. OM, for instance, suffers badly fro the point of view of linear structure since each Act stands on its own without any organic link with the other Acts of the play. The dramatist relies not on any central plot but on Chorus and soliloquy which tend to be tedious and dull