Convergence of social domains in Vijay Tendulkar’s Kamala: Performing the home and the society, the private and the public

Abstract

This paper seeks to read Vijay Tendulkar’s Kamala as a play that critiques a degenerative social condition perceived through the experiences of a careerist, uppermiddle class individual and, collaterally, his family. The play exposes the consumerist society through the individual’s encounter with it and carries out the exposure on the domestic stage of home, eventually exposing the ‘home’ as well. The paper tries to examine the way the two worlds have been unveiled and also the way they overlap each other to expose a shared space of degeneration. The study seeks to grasp the play’s social critique by studying Tendulkar’s well-coordinated dramaturgy made of bold
thematic and performative statements.