Thinking activity : The Birthday party

• This blog is part of my academic activity. To open task link click  Here.

• Q 1) Why are two scenes of Lulu omitted from the movie?
• In this play ,female characters like Meg and Lulu are subordinated and subjugated , marginalized . They are regarded as puppets. Lulu abused by the male in party. But by whom that is not shown. Because the play represent Stanley as a criminal not Goldberg. So may be Beckett don't want to clarify us that Stanley was innocent. Or may he don't want to show this type of act on stage.

• 2) Is movie successful in giving us the effect of menace? Where you able to feel it while reading the text?

• It has been said that movie always provides better understanding rather than reading .The same result with the play ‘’Birthday Party’’.In reading you may not feel the same kind of fear and menace,the fear of unknown danger ,but while watching movie remain there and as well as in the mind of audience.The menace evolves from actual violence in the play or from an underlying sense of violence throughout the play.This feeling of ‘’Menace’’establishes a strong connection between character’s predicament and audience’s personal anxieties.

• Q 3)   Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text.

• While watching the movie I felt the effect of lurking danger because as movie proceeds towards the end and other side lurking danger also rises in my mind. It is obvious that noise of things like constant beating of the drums and knocking door, humming sound, voice of characters creates danger in mind but silence creates more danger than noise of something. 
   In act Two I founded many pauses and silence where nobody speaks it arouses curiosity and at the same time the response that comes after the silence is equally mysterious. That creates danger in my mind. Or in the text where at last Stanley shows up as clean-shaven, well dressed and yet is forcibly taken to some unknown destination. It created danger in my mind. It shows that when things are in order it doesn’t mean that it goes smoothly, here we can see that everything is alright but vitality of life is not there

• Q 4) What do you read in 'newspaper' in the movie? Petey is reading newspaper to Meg, it torn into pieces by McCain, pieces are hidden by Petey in last scene.

• Newspaper has a symbolically significant in the movie. Newspaper can be used for hiding self from unnecessary things or situation. In the scene in which Petey reading newspaper and mag is working and asking current news. It shows power position in relationship. Petey in superior position and Mag in inferior position. Newspaper also reflects reality. Petey hide the pieces of newspaper because he not wanted to show Mag reality. Stanley tried to going against Goldberg and McCain may be fight for truth but this pieces of newspapers shows truth is broken and can not stand up against them. By hiding pieces Petey just wanted to go far from the reality that Stanley taken by Goldberg and McCain to unknown place.

• Q 5) Camera is positioned over the head of McCain when he is playing Blind Man's Buff and is positioned at the top with a view of room like a cage (trap) when Stanley is playing it. What interpretations can you give to these positioning of camera?

• The camera positioned over the head of MacCann when he is playing, blind man's buff, it presents the reality, that we have not privacy and not free from the government, it suggests that they keep watching on us. For Stanley his home also a prison, it a trap for him.

• Q 6) "Pinter restored theater to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of one another and pretense crumbles." (Pinter, Art, Truth & Politics: Excerpts from the 2005 Nobel Lecture). Does this happen in the movie?
• Yes, these all things are reflected in the movie. We don't know some characters and why they are coming as like politics. We can also see that an artist is not free to do whatever they want. So, these things reflected in the movie.it happens during McCann and Net Goldberg asking question which is meaningless and unpredictable. The room of birth day party and kitchen cover with so many objects. Even character don’t get enough space to move.

• Q 7 ) How does viewing movie help in better understanding of the play ‘The Birthday Party’ with its typical characteristics (like painteresque, pause, silence, menace, lurking danger)?
• Movie helps in better understanding the play. The situation of pause and silence is very effectively present in movie . We can see that properly. While we read the text ,we just read word 'pause' . Nothing else. Some other thing also makes lurking danger while we watch the movie. So it helps us to understanding the play.

• Q8)With which of the following observations you agree"

• “It probably wasn't possible to make a satisfactory film of "The Birthday Party."
• “It's impossible to imagine a better film of Pinter's play than this sensitive, disturbing version directed by William Friedkin”.

• According to me both has right is at its own place, because everything has its own limitation and it can’t go beyond the limitation. Same thing if we apply here in the movie or in the text of the play then we realize that both has its own charm to satisfy the minds of the readers or the viewers. 

• Q 9 ) If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?Who would be your choice of actors to play the role of characters. 
• If I am director or screenplay writer I would like to highlight the character of Petey. I will show him as a strong resister  against Goldberg and McCain. 

List of characters role as per my choice : 

Stanley    : Ranbeer kapoor

Petey        : Nashrudin shah

Mag          : Kiran kher 

Goldberg : Anil Kapoor 

McCain    :  Irfan khan 

Lulu          :  Aditi Rao Hydri

Thank you. .........