prithvi bana: an apotheosis of shakespearian fool

'That, of course, is the great secret of the successful fool - that he is no fool at all.'

-Isaac Asimov, Guide to Shakespeare.

A discerning reader of Shakespeare can't help but draw parallels between Shakespearian dramatic world and the phantasmagoric hindi cinema. However, our traditional fools (read comedians), much unlike those of shakespeare, have rarely risen above slapstick comedy, horseplay and bawdy language.

In recent years, however, this one-dimensional, monochromatic "flat" character has not only gained dimensions but also colours. The apotheosis of which could be seen in Anurag Kashyap's "Gulaal", where we encounter subversive songs and sarcasm dripping tirades of Prithvi Bana, perhaps the lone voice of conscience in the general melee of 'blood and mire', underneath whose apparently foolish and meaningless acts, we discover acerbic wisdom, the efforts and travails of a man forced to be relegated to the background by the people racing to fulfill their vested interests, ventilating their angst or satisfying their bruised ego.

Much like Shakespearian fool, he comments incessantly on the events, unremittingly trying to change them... but, much like Shakespearian fool, he is also rendered incapable of altering the course of events and 'restoring the wasteland'..