Reading Satish Alekars 'The Dread Departure'

 

Satish Alekar’s ‘The Dread Departure’ (1974), talks about a lot of things, subtle yet poignant. If the stage is to be imagined, it looks like a cluttering of characters - Bhaurao, Nana, Rama, the neighbours, the neighbours acting as a chorus, the body, the soul, the invisible yet present man in ‘suit and sunglasses’; Alekar’s message and storyline, however, is lucid and the boundaries clear.

Death is the ‘Mahanirvan’, the original title of the play, the ultimate salvation. Every religion of the world has its own rituals connected with death. The entry and exit of human beings is ritualistically observed. Things that one should follow, observe so that a child’s stay in this world is fruitful or an exit in the form of death does not mar the peacefulness of those who continue to live even after. The text begins and continuously reiterates the Hindu concept of the atman, the soul being distinct, and different from the body and that the body has to be cremated religiously for a direct passage of the soul to the other world. In death, your close ones come to receive you. There is nothing to fear after death, the soul hovers around the close ones till the tenth day and then leaves the earthly world as rituals are performed sacredly. The play talks about all this and more.

This play is divided into two Acts. It begins with the sudden demise of Bhaurao in his sleep, and how Rama his wife and son Nana come to terms with this grief. Even in death Bhaurao continues to think and feel for his wife Rama, suggests and guides her as to how things will turn after this death. Neighbours have to be called as relatives are far; people are needed to carry the bier. As Buddha had asked “Can you bring me a few seeds of mustard from a house which haven’t seen death?” The answer was,” None”, so there is no house which do not know the grief and pain of death. Life continues for those who live while the dead, on the contrary, think how the living are going to manage. Bhaurao thinks for his wife Rama. Nana comes home and is perturbed that a dead body was lying from the morning only for the son to arrive and perform the rituals. It had started to smell and rot. Bhaurao’s soul expresses the desire to be burned at the old crematorium which unfortunately, was now closed as it became a private property. Even in death Bhaurao’s soul nurtures the desire to be burned at the old crematorium while his body continues to rot and stink.

In Act 2, we find that Nana in order to fulfil his father’s last wish hides the body at home. The neighbours exhausted after the hectic schedule of the first day did not linger long and son Nana could manage to carry the body home and hide it. Even in death Bhaurao continues to think of his wife Rama, and looks at her as she is sleeping only to find that a man standing ‘third from the left’ holding the bier had already replaced him. Bhaurao is now shocked and disheartened and father-son duo begin to wonder if there was any conspiracy in the death of Bhaurao exactly in the manner of the murder in Hamlet. The husband doubts his wife, the son doubts his mother. A search begins for the man with ‘suit and sunglasses’.

The English title ‘The Dread Departure’ now becomes confusing. Dreaded for whom? Death is the ultimate end of life but even in death, Bhaurao is restless, dreaded. Rama, a woman with no freedom, no independent life is still controlled, her simple inner desire questioned even after the man of the house is dead and her character questioned. Rama instead of the dreaded, now becomes the dread after Bhaurao’s death and that is the whole turning point of this play. As the dead, Bhaurao has no control over Rama. Meanwhile the old cremation ground, has now become a black-market hub where the simpleton watchman makes money by lending the place to the bereaved ones to keep up with the last wishes of the dead. Death is now a business.

Alekar’s treatment of the dead and of death speaks volumes on the ultimate existence of man. What really is the ultimate end of life and does performance of the ritual ensure peace after death? Who are the people who turn up when one dies and what happens to those who stay away from home? In the absence of relatives and neighbours, how does one find out what rituals to follow? How is one supposed to know the exact price of the items needed to perform the rituals if one hasn’t seen death first hand? How can one ensure that one’s close ones behave exactly the same way as one left them, taught them or showed them? Can one ensure that the dead is loved as much as they were alive or haven’t been replaced? What is the purpose of domination and control if the same cannot be continued even after death?

These questions and more reflect upon the senses so subtly and strongly that the play continues to linger on the mind long after it has ended. The plot becomes surreal with the living and the dead existing on the same plane. The funerary calendar with the tenth day for offering of the rice balls, the mandatory crow coming to have its bite to the thirteenth day for the feast for all those who shouldered the bier throws new complications for the dead Bhaurao and the living Nana, blurring the margins of the sacred and the sacrilegious. Bhaurao hopes to talk to Rama one last time while Rama dreams of her ’new lord and master’, ‘third from the left’, the old easily replaced by the new. Life continues for the living and the dead has to leave this mortal world.

Alekar’s presentation of the neighbourhood is impeccable and true to the scene. The presentation of the neighbours, their mannerisms and the ceremonial -rituals and the steadfastness to these rituals is genuine for one who has been brought up in such an environment. This play even in 2026 is a new-read and food for thought.