Color Blind- An Aesthetic Vision
Color Blind is an estranged title for a play that revolves around the search for Rabindranath Tagore, the man amidst the menagerie of his aesthetic artifacts. However, nothing is a cloaked mystery to the discerning audience who can access nuances better than assume norms. Into the first few minutes of the play, the character of personified Death states how it is through the realization of the colors we cannot see, do we realize the value of the colors that we do see. The narrative of the play follows the same pattern- dialogues begin mid-conversation, they end mid-sentence, time frames are fractured and fused, spaces are intercut and interspersed- more of Tagore is revealed by restraining each incident from becoming a self-contained narrative piece. For instance, one cannot understand the puzzling riddles and the questioning curiosity of the child Tagore till the child intercepts the adult Tagore’s conversation with Victoria Ocampo where he childishly refuses to accept the cultural and geographical chasm between them. The modern day setting of Kolkata along with the metaphorical space of literary imagination coexist simultaneously with the childhood boundary of Calcutta/Shantiniketan and the angst-ridden Argentinian interiors of the villa. Thus, time and space break down only to be reconstructed in complex and cyclical patterns. This both introduces and underlines the central theme that runs like a constant spine throughout the play holding it together- the theme of life and death. Alongside the factual record of the number of deaths in Tagore’s life, ran the constant reference to coming and going in various contexts and dialogues. This theme assumes Existential overtones when life is portrayed as chaotic and aching to find order in and through art.
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