Arundhati, the protagonist of Shashi Deshpande’s novel Shadow Play , has seen many cases of what the law calls ‘domestic violence’ in her work as a lawyer and within her own home. The nomenclature amuses her; it makes the brutality appear like ‘a tame household pet’. But, she observes that violence is now increasingly spilling over to the streets. This sets her thinking on a chicken-and-egg question: Is it the violence in homes that is spilling over to the streets or is it the other way round?
The complex play of inter-personal relationships is the enduring theme of Shashi Deshpande’s works, and Shadow Play, nominated for The Hindu Prize 2014, is no exception... Asked how she feels about being on the shortlist, she says, “I am obviously happy, especially because it has, over the years, acquired a certain esteem and The Hindu is one of the few newspapers that continues to give literature its due place. More importantly, it is appreciation for the book.”
Shadow Play looks at two major instances of violence — a bomb blast in the city and a gang rape — through the lens of how they disrupt families. Deshpande says that it was not a thought-out strategy to bring the home and the street face-to-face but a natural progression considering how urban India is changing and how everything is increasingly in public gaze with news flowing 24/7 into every drawing room. “I am interested in history as it affects ordinary people’s ordinary lives,” says the Bangalore-based author.
Deshpande is aware that many are disappointed by the manner in which the victim and her family members handle sexual violence. “Me too!” she says, adding that the choices made by the characters in a novel are not to be read as that of the author. “As a writer, I cannot be judgmental about my characters. The choices have to be understood keeping in mind the character and not in terms of them being right or wrong.”
Many of the characters in Shadow Play are familiar to Deshpande’s regular readers, having been introduced to them in A Matter of Time . She had not planned a sequel, but the characters came back to her and thus Shadow Play was born. “It was like revisiting old friends,” she says.
The novel has several sub-plots, with characters weaving in and out of the life of Arundhati and her family. Deshpande says that they are not to be seen as superfluous. “I give my readers credit for their ability to unravel a plot.”
In fact, Deshpande believes that reading is an exercise that demands patience and an ability to judge and make choices, without being swayed by ‘bestseller’ lists or the Booker line-up. Her own experience of going by the popularity charts has been bad; a recent disappointment being Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, which was on The New York Times Bestseller List. “It takes courage to not read what you don’t like and learn to choose what you like.”
The Hindu Prize 2014 will be awarded on January 17, 2015, during The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai (from Jan. 16 to 18, 2015). For updates, visit the >Lit For Life page, on >Facebook ; >Twitter ; >Instagram ; >YouTube
