Matthew Spangler. Shot on OnePlus #FramesofIndia.
| Photo Credit: SUDHAKARA JAIN

‘For you, a thousand times over.’ These words from Khaled Hosseini’s acclaimed novel The Kite Runner became symbolic of the friendship between Amir, a privileged Pashtun, and his servant Hassan, a Hazara boy. Set against the backdrop when the rise of the Taliban regime (dominated by Sunnis) in Afghanistan led to the persecution of the Hazara population (Shia Muslims). The books explores the themes of friendship, betrayal, guilt, and redemption through the protagonist Amir.

Now a celebrated stage adaption by Matthew Spangler, The Kite Runner was recently staged by Arena Theatre Productions under the direction of Tahera S. For longtime fans and newcomers, the production drew a standing ovation and left many in the audience teary-eyed by the powerful narration on stage. What made it even more special was Spangler’s presence, who was equally moved seeing his adaption on stage.

Spangler’s adaption of The Kite Runner has been in production for 20 years now being played in theatres worldwide. Spangler is also a professor of performance studies at San José State University in California, where he teaches courses on how refugees and asylum seekers and other immigrants are represented in plays.

Talking about the challenges of adapting an epic into a play, Spangler says, “With this book, the challenge is length, if you read it aloud, it takes almost 15 hours, while the pay is just over two hours. How do you condense a 15-hour long story to two hours? People who love the book come to the play and say, ‘Oh, you didn’t leave anything out,’ when I might have left 13 out of the 15 parts out.”

Even though the play was previously showcased in Mumbai few years back, this was Spangler’s first time watching it on stage in India, “The audience here listen carefully… They are emersed in the story as it unfolds, which I feel was really beautiful.”

Theatre plays an important role in cross-cultural understanding and empathy building, Spangler says. “Amir comes from a very specific background, and life experiences; growing up in Afghanistan and coming to the United States as a refugee, he comes from a Muslim culture; but he is not practicing as you can see from the play. As an adult he wants to do the right thing for the boy (Hassan’s son Sohrab). At the end, you understand him at more emotional level.”

There has always been a production of The Kite Runner, somewhere over the past 20 years, Spangler says. “I have seen this play staged in different countries including London, Canada, or Russia. It is just so unique for a writer to be able to see your play in different contexts and settings.”

Counting Samuel Beckett’s works as his greatest inspiration, Spangler says, “I did my PhD and my Master’s degree in Irish theatre, and it has been a great influence on my work.”

The Kite Runner will be staged on May 4 at 3.30pm and 7.30pm at Ranga Shankara. Tickets are available at the venue and online.

Overcoming the one-inch tall barrier that most vernacular language films get buried under, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite took home four Oscars at the 92nd Academy Awards in 2020, including Best Picture, becoming the first non-English film to do so. The lockdowns that followed soon after restricted the masses to the four walls of their houses as they lost $3.7 trillion while the billionaires gained $3.9 trillion, making the dichotomy between the Kim family and the Park family ever more so relevant.

The sting of a crumbling health infrastructure and the absence of social security schemes ushered in an anti-capitalist sentiment into the social consciousness of the young. Subsequent wars, a genocide, and an ongoing trade war highlighted the fragility of the modern economic apparatus, leaving the proletariat craving for catharsis. Hollywood production studios took a hint and rose to the occasion. Nodding their heads in agreement to Slavoj Žižek’s proclamation that anti-capitalism is widely disseminated in capitalism, they pumped millions of dollars into manufacturing content that disapproved of the current economic order, and film festivals in turn have honoured them.

Superficial satire abounds

Two-time Palme d’Or winner Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness follows a group of wealthy elites whose lives spiral into chaos after their cruise ship sinks and they are left stranded on an isolated island. To market the film, the trailer of the movie quoted blurbs from reviews that alluded to the anti-capitalist bend of the movie. Promising a revolution, Mr. Östlund subjected the audience to hollow satirical whimpers that sink with the ship halfway through the movie. Right as water starts flooding the beast, for a moment, it feels like a new dawn is possible.

However, our hopes are dashed when Abigail, a low-ranked staff member of the ship, takes control of the survivors on the island and replicates the power structures and social hierarchies prevalent in capitalist society to further her desires. In movies where catharsis is hard to come by, the producers seem to be keen to persuade the audience that resistance is futile and that we should not bother attempting to resist the misgivings of the current society.

The Menu featuring Ralph Fiennes and Anya Taylor-Joy is another example of superficial satire. It puts the focus on a chef exacting revenge with a touch of class dynamics and a sprinkling of politics in the culinary world. We meet the rich at their dining table — each with their own shades of arrogance, ignorance, and egotism. While satire necessitates exaggeration, this concoction of personal flaws doled out to the uber-rich characters drives home the belief that they are undeserving of their wealth because of their shortcomings. The creators of such films shirk the responsibility of interrogating larger socio-economic structures that divide the haves from the have-nots.

Movies that satirise comically evil rich characters provide catharsis by getting the audience to point their fingers and laugh at the cost of their characters’ misery. They give people an outlet to declare their opinions on the situation, overvaluing their beliefs instead of striving to present an alternate world that is more equal or an idea that could inspire praxis. They affirm the notion that as long as we believe in our hearts that capitalism is bad, we are free to continue to participate in capitalistic exchange.

One of Netflix’s flagship shows, Squid Game, enraptured the audience in 2021 with a seemingly refreshing take on financial desperation that traps the working class. However, its critique too overlooked the structural economic issues plaguing society and focused on turning the competition into a spectacle.

Following its global success, the streaming giant greenlit Squid Game: The Challenge, a reality show that mimicked games from the original show sans the fatal consequences. The show cast 456 participants in the age range of 18 to 74 years competing for a whopping $4.56 million prize. The irony of turning social satire into a reality game show raised serious questions of artistic integrity. Reports of mishaps on set surfaced in the wake of its release, and contestants who allegedly suffered hypothermia and nerve damage have threatened legal action.

As Mark Fisher remarked in Capital Realism, in the current neo-liberal world order, subjugation no longer takes the form of a subordination to an extrinsic spectacle, but rather invites us to interact and participate. It seems that the cinema-going audience is itself the object of this satire.

Flip side of visual aesthetics

In their quest to satirise the rich, shows like Succession and Severance have banished the poor to the margins of the cinematic frame. In instances where the working class makes it to the frames, they are punished for overstaying their welcome. In the first season of The White Lotus, Kai, a native Hawaiian, is persuaded by a resort guest to steal from the hotel to ease his family’s struggles under the pretext of “getting back at the colonisers”. However, when he is caught in the act, he is sent to prison and is never heard from again.

Usually, the production of shows critiquing the uber-rich is set in elaborate mansions and sprawling holiday resorts under saturated colours and sanitised lights. Their costumes are procured from high-end fashion houses, and the carefully curated custom props are added to suit the sensibilities of their characters. While they succeed in manufacturing an ecosystem seeped in opulence and excess, that is removed from the daily lives of the masses, the magnitude of Hollywood’s cultural capital inadvertently commands replication from the audience, mostly in the form of merchandise sold by the production houses at inflated prices.

These material production staples in the age of mechanical reproduction seem to take a life of their own, feeding into the hegemonic propaganda machine, rendering the satire toothless — as pointed out by Fisher, “film performs our anti-capitalism for us, allowing us to consume with impunity”.

The consumption choices presented to us by the Hollywood elite under the garb of culture are shaped by the imperatives of market logic and are the result of prioritising profit over creativity and artistic integrity. Their cultural projects are designed to conceal the fact that operations of capital do not depend on any subjectively assumed belief.

Pahalgam Terror Attack: Days after US President Donald Trump extended his unconditional support to India following the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, the US has called for the perpetrators of the terrorist attack to be brought to justice.

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Thursday (local time) shunned a Pakistani journalist during a press briefing for questioning her over border tensions between India and Pakistan following the Pahalgam terrorist attack, adding that US President Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio made clear that the US stood with India and strongly condemned all forms of terrorism.

 “I am not going to be remarking on it. I appreciate this, and perhaps we will come back to you with another subject. I will say nothing more on that situation. The President and the Secretary have said things, as has the Deputy Secretary; they have made their positions clear. I will not continue with something of that manner,” Bruce said.

While addressing a press briefing on Thursday (local time), Tammy Bruce said that Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio have made clear that Washington stands with India and strongly condemns all forms of terrorism. She said that the US prays for those who lost their lives in the attack and for the recovery of the injured.

On the terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, Bruce said, “As President Trump and Secretary Rubio have made clear, the United States stands with India and strongly condemns all acts of terrorism. We pray for the lives of those lost and pray for the recovery of the injured and call for the perpetrators of this heinous act to be brought to justice.”

Here Are Top Updates

1. Terrorists attacked tourists at Baisaran meadow in Pahalgam on Tuesday, killing at least 26 tourists while leaving several others injured, in one of the deadliest attacks in the valley since the 2019 Pulwama strike in which 40 CRPF jawans were killed.

2. Asked whether the US sees Pakistan behind the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Tammy Bruce responded, “I put it at the top because it was a horrible situation. At the same time, that is going to be the extent of the comments at this point. What I can tell you, of course, as we all know, it’s a rapidly changing situation, and we are monitoring it closely, as you might imagine. And we, of course, are not now taking a position on the status of Kashmir or of Jammu either. So that’s really going to be the extent of what I can say.” 

3. Following the attack, India has taken strong countermeasures against Pakistan for its support of cross-border terrorism. In the CCS meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in the presence of Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, India decided to hold the Indus Waters Treaty of 1960 in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably abjures its support for cross-border terrorism and has closed the integrated Attari Check Post.

4. India has also declared the officials of the Pakistani High Commission as Persona Non Grata and ordered them to leave India within a week. India has also decided to cancel any visas provided under the SAARC Visa Exemption Scheme (SVES) and ordered Pakistan to leave the country within 48 hours.

5. The US administration under President Donald Trump continues to support India after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam on Tuesday. US President Donald Trump held a telephonic conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday and offered his condolences at the loss of lives in a terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. Trump condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam and expressed full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this “heinous attack”.

6. In a post on X, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, Randhir Jaiswal, stated, “President Donald Trump @realDonaldTrump @POTUS called PM @narendramodi and conveyed his deepest condolences at the loss of innocent lives in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir. President Trump strongly condemned the terror attack and expressed full support to India to bring to justice the perpetrators of this heinous attack. India and the United States stand together in the fight against terror.”

7. On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump condemned the terrorist attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam, expressing solidarity with India. Sharing a post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump wrote, “Deeply disturbing news out of Kashmir. The United States stands strong with India against terrorism. We pray for the souls of those lost and for the recovery of the injured.” “Prime Minister Modi and the incredible people of India have our full support and deepest sympathies. Our hearts are with you all!” he added.

(With agencies Inputs)