3 Review(s)

Red Oleanders/Raktakarab? is one of the best plays of Tagore, the myriadminded and multifaceted genius; understandably ‘meanings’ have been sought ‘under the petals’, in spite of the author’s admonition, by countless readers, theatre-goers, performers/producers, and literary critics. Raktakarab? belongs to the symbolic phase (1922-1932) of Tagore’s experimentations with the dramatic form. The themes—materialism versus humanism, industry versus agriculture, possessive greed versus selfless love, etc.— are all superbly integrated into the symbolic structure of the play which, a powerful dramatic evocation of the evils of mindless industrialism, celebrates the perennial values of love, life and nature. In its symbolic suggestions and dramatic situations, luminous diction and lyrical resonance, the play is a literary tour de force and is comparable with any great play of the world. Tagore had also claimed that this play was based on ‘truth’. Is this the truth of facts, actuality, realism, or the truth of authentic perception inferred from the essence of human predicament?