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RESEARCH NEBULA
An International Refereed & Indexed Journal In
Arts, Commerce, Education & Social Sciences

WEDDING ALBUM: A STUDY IN ITS PORTRAYAL OF CONTEMPORARY REALITY

Dr. Karuna P. Deshmukh,Associate Professor and Head Dept. of English,
Bahirji Smarak Mahavidyalaya Basmathnagar Dt. Hingoli (MS) India

Received: 04 /04/14 Reviewed: 06 /04/14 Accepted: 08 /04/14

RESEARCH PAPER IN ENGLISH
ABSTRACT
Wedding Album (2009) is the translation of Karnad’s Kannada play Maduveya Album (2006). Away from myths, folktales,
and history the dramatist here deals with contemporary India: Saraswat Brahmin arranged marriage to the rising Hindu
fundamentalism among the middle classes including the politics of the tele-serials and internet cafes providing space for the
fulfillment of erotic fantasies; from local to global; from social to virtual reality, this time this great man of the modern
Indian theatre touches upon almost all the nuances of urban Indian middle class ethos. From the radical Hindu
fundamentalists to the expat Indians in search of their cultural roots, he portrays an array of characters indulged in their
whims and fancies: from the adolescent Vivan Kaikini obsessed by Hema, a woman of his mother’s age to Vidula who is
supposed to be an innocent, pure, middleclass girl belonging to a small town like Dharwad but in reality visiting the
darkness of the internet café, presenting herself as Kuchla- the Zezebal before Swami Anang Nath- the bodyless and
fulfilling her erotic fantasies online; Karnad this time takes his reader/audience on an uncensored tour of contemporary
India thereby demystifying and deconstructing two vital institutions in India called marriage and family. Present paper
elaborates upon such major issues presented by the dramatist.
Scene one of the play takes place in a Software practice hence never owning a house of his own; the
Production Office where Pratibha (40), Rohit (32) are elder daughter Hema of the play too like Karnad’s own
watching a tape in which Vidula is trying to introduce elder sister is settled abroad after marriage, also there are
herself and her family to Ashwin Panje, an expat Hindu references to her childhood spent away from her parents
in America that had Ashwin for 3 years, once miscarried due to father’s constant transfers. The mother and father
and again expecting, she never had visited India during of ‘Wedding Album” express this guilt a few times
those three years since Ashwin her husband is married while talking about Hema; the curious episode of the
about her pregnancy. Rohit is a scriptwriter and showing play in which it is revealed that Vidula’s birth certificate
the tape prepared for Vidula’s marriage to Ashwin so bears her uncle Ramdas’ name in place of the father’s too
that his producer Pratibha khan should consider it for an has autobiographical reference.
episode in her teleserial. However, to Pratibha, the story The play is ironic, funny, satirical and bearing a
has no appeal for the modern 21st century audience. She strong indictment of the rising fascist tendencies in the
puts it this way, “They may believe it, but they won’t name of tradition, culture, and religion; the so called
like it. A girl from an educated middle class family- a purity of all this. Hema is in Dharwad for her sister’s
graduate- agrees to consider marrying a man whom she proposed marriage to Ashwin Panje. Though she is
has never met. The boy turns up, all ready to jump on apparently a mature elder daughter of the family, bears a
the altar without ever having seen her. In this day and grudge on her parents for not spending a lot of money on
age.” (08) Pratibha is rather interested in Radhabai, the her wedding 15 yrs back. When mother offers golden
cook’s story that gets focused in scene five. The first chain for her husband, she rejects it unhappily to see all
scene introduces the theme of the play that is a typical the money spent on Vidula’s marriage shopping which is
Indian arrange marriage, in this case the focus is on a an important aspect of the play. Vivan Kaikini from the
Saraswat Brahmin family in Dharwad, Karnataka. neighborhood is an adolescent boy of 13 years who is
However, as the play proceeds it unearths all the obsessed by Hema and goes on writing notes expressing
tensions, mysteries that make the institution called his wild fantasies for Hema who happens to be his
marriage in Indian context. mother’s age. However, what the reader/audience finds
This recent play by Karnad is a special one for it crucial is the fact that somewhere Hema too, finds it
stands apart from all the previous plays. In the play there soothing her senses by the end of the play; however
is no myth, history, legend, folktale but only when Vivan’s friend Ambuja comes to Dharwad, he
contemporary reality thereby answering the charge becomes free of all the wild sentiments for an elderly
sometimes against him of not dealing with the women like Hema. Through this subplot the dramatist
contemporary problems. Here is a drama that deals with makes the reader aware of the cultural deterioration that
marriage, expat Indians in American and Australia, stands starkly in contrast to the Hindu fundamentalist
marriages arranged with the help of modern technology claim for purity of culture and race in the Indian context.
like internet, emails, sms, video tapes; it deals with the Karnad very openly hints at the hidden
commercial media and world of teleserials. It creates a passions, lurking sexual desires that deep rooted beneath
critique of the rising middle class Hindu fundamentalism apparent layers of cultural sophistication. The play in
and irony prevails strongly throughout the play. This is that sense deconstructs the ritual and institution called
Karnad’s reaction to the contemporary reality of Indian marriage that stands at the centre of life in India. The
mouthed by different characters of the play. One could play in that sense emerges out as a palimpsest of the
easily trace the origin of various characters and incidents Indian culture; strong passions and desires layered
of the play in the dramatist’s life: while reading the underneath the outer layers of fun, irony , and mood of
memoirs of his life Adadata Ayushya one becomes aware celebration pertaining to a 21st century arranged
of this e.g. the father in the play is like Karnad’s own marriage between an Indian middle class Saraswat
father- a retired doctor who never entered a private Brahmin girl in Dharwad supposed to be a meek, simple,

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shy - a good girl in whom an expat American young
man who having fed up with the West seeks comfort
spiritual satisfaction and stability; in his own culture and
traditions which quite ironically have no longer been
remained that pure ,great, and glorious.
Another story in the same line is that of the
unexpressed, hidden sentiments of Ramdas Nadkarni for
his sister-in-law, the mother of the play. The father,
throughout the play remembers his younger brother
Ramdas who is no longer staying with the family while
the proposed marriage preparation is going on. As a part
of Vidula’s proposed departure from India, she is in need
of her birth certificate for VISA but to the surprise of all
it becomes known that Ramdas uncle had put his own
name instead of her real father’s one on the birth
certificate. In the beginning, the mother expresses great
deal of anger and disappointment at this mistake on her
brother-in-law’s part but later on to the shock all she
suggests to let it be instead of a change. Hema too
remember how her uncle used to protect his sister-in-law,
the mother, against the wrath of the father. Ramdas in a
way hated his own brother for behaving cruelly with his
wife and Karnad seems to suggest that he cherishes
secret desires for his sister-in-law. Hema –Vivan,
mother-Ramdas episodes of the play expose the hollow,
decaying institution of the Indian society called marriage
and consequent sufferings and exploitation of women in
this setup.
Another character that speaks out the agonized
self of a woman is that of the cook Radhabai who is
serving as a cook in Nadkarni family for seven long
years as if a part of it. However of late there are some
changes in her otherwise calm and quiet nature, often
there are clashes between her and the mother. Hema,
particularly, notices this change in Radhabai when
Vidula informs her about a curious incident: once
Radhabai suddenly got agitated while watching T V
when they present a mother sacrificing her life to save
her daughter. This otherwise usual story disturbs her a
lot for she takes it as a sort of charge on her guilt stricken
heart. Vidula tells Hema about the tragic episode in
Radhabai’s life, about her daughter Yamuna. Radhabai
was a poor woman from a village. She had a daughter
who goes to Banglore for Job, gets one, and sent money
to her parents in village. When her husband dies,
Radhabai too goes to Banglore; takes a job as a cook
with a family in Malleswaram unfortunately she meets
her daughter to know that the later has turned a keep
maintained by a rich trader. Never the less Radhabai
never mentions her daughter to the family she worked for
so as not to lose her job. When there is no news of her
daughter for some days she goes to the house and comes
to know that the trader had suddenly died and Yamuna
had been thrown out by his family, gone, leaving no trace
for her mother. Ironically Radhabai comes across her
daughter in a terrible situation and avoids meeting her
out of shame and shuns her motherly duty. One day she
listens to the cries of her distraught daughter- in tears and
tatters, just like a mad woman, in search of Radhabai- her
mother. Actually there are two versions of this story, the
real one being Radhabai deliberately avoiding her
daughter and the other one being told by her to Mrs.
Nadkarni in which she tries to run down to the street by
the time her daughter disappears never to meet again.
Karnad portrays nuances of feminine
characters in Mrs. Nadkarni, Hema, Vidula, Radhabai,
Yamuna, Pratibha, Isabel, and Tapasya in Wedding
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Album. These characters truly appear as different
photographs in an album hare a wedding album Vidula-
the bride in making too, is a well-drawn character. She
is apparently projected as a simple, Dharwad girl having
all the virtues of a typical Indian small town girl in
whose search an expat American boy is coming to
Dharwad in hope of marriage after getting disillusioned
in materialistic West that is the American culture.
Ironically, Ashwin Panje is seeking another illusion in
the form of Vidula for underneath this simple, small
town girl lays a complex person hopelessly seeking the
secret sermons of the Swami Anang Nath-the body less,
trying in vain to satisfy her exotic fantasies. She often
visits an internet cafe and seeks the erotic company of
the Swami through his voice and presents herself as
Kuchla the Zezebal, the mistress of a rich man.
This subplot is availed by the dramatist in
order to expose the so called Indian cultural superiority
and notions of nicety. Isabel and Tapasya are the two
female characters that never appear on the stage but only
referred to further making the play an ironic statement on
the institution of marriage in India. Isabel is the Catholic
girl friend of Rohit who is always nagging after him out
of her possessive and jealous nature. The play presents a
truly 21st century situation in which almost everybody
except Hema finds it odd on Rohit’s part to have a
Christian girlfriend. In fact this relationship doesn’t
materialize into a marriage apparently due to Isabel’s
jealousy and misunderstanding, also may be because of
Rohit’s decision to take material advantages of marrying
a girl of his own cast belonging to a well to do family
who are just willing to bear the expenses of his trip
abroad for training. In the 5th scene, however we find
Pratibha as if warning Rohit not to create any problem
for Isabel, a girl working in the same production house
and staying in Banglore on her own. Isabel seems to
have complained against him for having invited her to
his home purposefully in absence of his wife Tapasya
who had gone to Hyderabad to her parents for delivery.
Even though Rohit is not willing to accept the
responsibility of this uncomfortable situation of Isabel,
the overall mood of the scene holds him guilty. Karnad
seems always backing his women characters and
exposing the patriarchal setup.
Tapasya, Rohit’s wife, too is a peripheral
character never appearing but referred to only. She is the
daughter of Gopal and Vastala Sirur from Hyderabad;
her only brother Sharad is in America and her parents
think that all their property will go to their daughter;
hence they are proposing Rohit with the temptation that
they can even sponsor his trip abroad. Mira Hattangadi
from Hubli is Gopal Sirur’s sister and a distant relative of
the Nadkarnis. The couple Mira and Mohan Hattangadi
is the persistent mediators between the Nadkarnis and the
Sirurs so as to arrange the marriage between Rohit and
Tapasya. The third scene of the play presents all the
trapping in of a suitable boy- Rohit by the girl’s people
even though Rohit is utterly unwilling to entertain them
and all their rubbish bargains and hazels to marry their
daughter to him. Karnad makes fun of several ridiculous
conventions in the Indian society pertaining to marriage
from muhurat to bribing the suitable boy by offering him
the girl’s property. The institution called marriage in
India is rudely exposed and highly satirized in the play.
Tapasya, the character that is kept silent, never appearing
on the stage all the time, itself indicates the devaluation
of women in the entire process of an arranged marriage.
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Here, she is just a puppet totally at the mercy of the
parents’ will and the choice of the most suitable boy.
The main plot of the play also has another girl, Vidula
who is no better than this as she mentions herself having
been sold off in scene six during her erotic conversation
with the voice of Swami Anang Nath, the bodyless. It’s
quite significant and highly ironic that she had
introduced herself as a, ‘kept women, maintained by an
old trader’ (64), _Kuchla…the Zezebel, an idea which
Vidula must have been definitely borrowed from
Yamuna’s story. During their leave taking conversation
she takes her fake story further and talks about the rich
man, “He is dying. He has had a heart attack last night.
He is in the ICU. Could be dead by tomorrow. His
family is bound to throw me out. So I had to find a new
master. A younger man. He lives in the U.S. He has
paid a good price to my family.”(64) This is Vidula
presenting herself as Kuchla, the Zezebel, and a fake
character that is based upon another real character
Yamuna, reversing the end however. Yamuna has to
disappear, lost in the crowd, shunned by her mother
whereas this one Vidula gets a new buyer (as told in her
story).
The same scene is used by the dramatist to
make a seething comment upon the rising middle class
Hindu fundamentalism in India. While Vidula is busy
with her erotic fantasies in the internet café two young
men who consider themselves as the guardians of the
ancient Hindu culture enter and start threatening the
attendant as well as Vidula. One of them knows Vidula
and surprised to know that a girl from his own Saraswat
community is engaged in such dirty task that is against
their religious belief and traditions. They are further
shocked when Vidula uses disgusting and obscene
expressions while talking to them even charges them of
having the intention of raping her in the darkness of the
café. This virtual place of the café is used as a mirror to
the contemporary Indian culture that is caught between
growing fundamentalism on the one hand and the
obsessing techno crazy tendencies among the younger
generation on the other. The play in that sense is a
brilliant blend of the use of tradition and technology in
order to create a strong indictment of the contemporary
society underneath apparent irony and satire.
This madness of cultural purity and Karnad’s
ironic treatment of the discourse of cultural pride further
intensifies in scene eight that takes place in a restaurant
where Ashwin and Vidula are having a conversation so
as to come to some decision regarding their marriage.
Ashwin opens his heart before Vidula and pleads her “ I
want you to share my agonizing search of myself” (69)
Caught in the web of West’s materialism and East’s
decaying spiritual values that he is away from, Ashwin
wants to reach his roots. He is fade up with the West
when he says “They have n spiritual moorings left they
are adrift in a godless, amoral world”(80) On the other
hand the degeneration and decay in his own that is the
rich ancient Indian culture in the contemporary
commercial too disappoint him, he says :
Again darkness. Our entire ancient culture, our
spiritualism, or heritage. Everything had been
remoulded to fit the market demand. Behind all our
spiritual abracadabra, we had hitched our star, and our
hope, to global capitalism. Geeta Yajnas, Yogic
techniques, upanishadic sermons. Systems assembled
out of agrab-bag of trendy brand names. Gift- wrapped
in synthetic saffron. The darkness of our souls
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illuminated with neon lights and stroboscopes. India had
become the Walmart of spirituality. (80-81)
This is what a truly modern person thinks
about his religion and culture in the 21st century. In
Ashwin’s figure, the dramatist reveals the crisis of dual
identities among the expats and Diasporas searching for
their identity. He has come to Dharwad under the
illusion to find a life partner that is pure, innocent
belonging to a small place:
That is why I have come to Dharwad to look
for a life partner. I have come here because I believe
that it is in place like Dharwad that belief in innocence,
the very idea of purity, still survives. Someone like you
carries within you the essence of Hindu spirituality.
Woman as mother, wife, daughter, womanhood as the
most sacred ideal. (81)
He wants her to join him in a mission to save the West
with their own cultural values. This situation too is
ironic since the audience/reader who has witnessed
Vidula’s reality in the internet cafe in scene six knows
that Ashwin is vainly trying to seek cultural purity,
innocence and all the glorified images of women in
Vidula. However the last scene of the play presents
before the same reader/audience a Vidula that is married
to Ashwin, going abroad and quite determined to be his
true life partner ; She denies Hema and Rohit ‘s
suggestions to divorce Ashwin in case they can’t cope
up with each other. Very calmly she assures her
siblings, “I’ll never divorce Ashwin….. Ashwin may not
speak much. But he was clear about what he expected
from marriage. I agreed with him. I gave him my
word… I have given up eating fish… of the bargain? I
trust him. He is my husband after all.” (86-87)
For Vidula the play ends on a happy note,
having faith in the marriage as well as husband. But in
another case that is her on brother’s Rohit’s one it takes
an unhappy turn; Isabel’s nagging and suspicious nature
up to some extent and his own selfishness as well as the
persistent demands by the relatives lead him towards a
not so happy marriage to Tapasya instead of his
Catholic girlfriend Isabel.
Overall this latest play by the most
outstanding modern Indian dramatist presents a mosaic
of contemporary India with all its nuances. Reading the
play indeed seems to be turning the photographs in a
wedding album. Full with ironic, funny, and humorous
situations the play deals with many serious issues in
contemporary India. Underneath the apparently light,
funny, celebrative mood of the play lies the dramatist’s
scathing comments upon Indian marriage institution,
plight of women in patriarchal set up , rising middle
class Hindu fundamentalism , degeneration of once rich
cultural values, the techno crazy generation and their
futile obsessive fantasies and obsessions. Away from
his usual stance of writing plays on some myth,
folktale, or history Karnad this time is speaking about
the very time in which he lives and that too with
brilliant and authentic voice holding mirror to the
contemporary society.
REFERENCES:
 Karnad, Girish. Wedding Album. Oxford University
Press. 2009
 Karnad, Girish. Kulkarni, Uma (Trans.). Khelata
Khelata Ayushya. Pune. Rajhans Prakashan:
2013
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