Savitri

Savitri is a realistic play by eminent Marathi playwright  Jawyant Dalvi (1971). It potrays the complex relationships between the characters using the fabric of the constant changing image of women in the early breeze of feminism and women empowerment. The play briefs the idea of marriage and live-in-relationships of different couples by presenting a paradox about the “expected and the reality” between the relationship of husband and wife.

‘Savitri’ the central character of the story, who right from her childhood is subjected to embarrassment, hatred and is always kept under the radar of doubt by her very own family. Even after years later, her married life gets in jeopardy as her past kept coming back to her which although exactly had nothing to do with ‘her’. Her husband despite of being a learned man and a professor by profession follows an orthodox approach when it comes to his wife’s education and building an identity of her own.

Is marriage the final stage for love? Are arranged marriages meant to last long? If so why didn’t Savitri’s marriage last long? How should she deal with a past which is not even the result of her own deeds? What should she do to leave that past behind? Or should she take it as it comes like her destined fate?

The writer raises certain question through this story by providing  a lens to understand the prism of the society ‘we live in’ by touching the arenas of relationships, faith, sanctity of marriage between a husband and a wife, friendship, strength, patriarchy, woman’s subjected sexuality along with the whole idea of right and wrong