The Birthday Party by Harold Pinter : Thinking Activity

Introduction ...... 

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

The Birthday Party written by Harold Pinter. The Birthday Party is a “ Comedy of menace”.. I think Pinteresque technique is very well presented in movie version. In text I not felt that technique work well. Director presents very well with help of camera Technique. A Comedy of menace is a play in which the laughter of the audience in some or all situation is accompanied, or immediately followed, by a feeling of some impending disaster. 

In The Birthday Party this mingling of comedy with a perception of danger pervades the whole play and, at times, becomes very conspicuous. And in the play the effect of menace very beautifully shown.....

The Birthday Party is basically showing meaninglessness and nothingness things. It shows nothingness of human existence.

There are many scenes in play which created dangerous sound in the play such as, knocking at the door, and the tearing of paper...Pauses and silence shown Pinteresque effect.There are no hard distinctions between what is real and what is unreal, nor between what is true and what is false. A thing is not necessarily either true or false; it can be both true and false.

• In this play ,female characters like Meg and Lulu are , 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.

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

• .This feeling of ‘’Menace’’establishes a strong connection between character’s predicament and audience’s personal anxieties.

 As we know that the play is considered as comedy of menace. where each and every character of the play passing through one unknown fear. But in the text I find that effect in conversation between Goldberg- McCann and Stanley .

Do you feel the effect of lurking danger while viewing the movie? Where you able to feel the same while reading the text? 

I watch two timebecayse i didn't get properly in trust time so gor that I made 2 time also  I feel that something will happen. when suddenly knocking happen ,feel the effect of lurking danger,but not in the text. it is symbolically to hide the reality.

• 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.

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?
• 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. 

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, it happens in movie. Apart from outdoors scenes, most of them are in the drawing room. We find people give mercy to one another but it is just pretense. We as audience also don’t feel like genuine.
If you were director or screenplay writer, what sort of difference would you make in the making of movie?
No I have not make any kind of change and go with the original text and also the same dialogue delivery and Same location I have to put in movie not a single thing I want to change this because it's a perfect no need to change that's why.
List of characters role as per my choice :
Stanley    :Nawazuddin
Petey        : Nashrudin shah
Mag          : Shabana Azmi
Goldberg : Anil Kapoor
McCain    :  Irfan khan
Lulu          :  Katrina Kaif


Thank you .....