CHARACTER OF SUJATA.MOTHER OF 1084 BY MAHASWETA DEVI

                  

As the title suggests, Mahasweta Devi's Mother of 1084 is the moving story of a mother who has to witness and identify the corpse number 1084 that of her son Brati, who has been murdered by the hooligans, actively supported by the police, because of his involvement the Naxalite movement. The play traces the development of the mother figure of Sujata from an apolitical stereotype into a politically aware entity, a woman who has become conscious of the life of significant action. The play reaches its culmination as Sujata finally bursts out in wrath against the cultured opportunism of her family, which again is a reflection of the society in total.

 Mother of 1084 begins with a phone call from Kantapukur police morgue asking Sujata to identify a corpse of number 1084- that of Brati, her son. Brati's involvement in the Naxalite movement is so deeply embarrassing to the other members of the family that their only reaction is to think of how to hush up the whole thing. The isolation and the indifference that Sujata receives from the 'male' world remind us of the frustrated female protagonist, Nora of Ibsen's play A Doll's House.

 With the identification of Brati, the mother realises that she has become deflected With no right even on her dead son's body, with no companion, even with no ‘room’ of her own. Sujata's physical identification of Brati stimulates a process of awakening in her that leads up to the 'discovery' of her son and ends with the invention of her true self.

 Even after two years of Brati's death, Sujata's bafflement at the loss of her only shelter continues. From her painful realisation "I didn't know Brati well enough", she sets out to discover her son's true self and finds in his death an echo of her own silent protest against the patriarchal values. Sujata arrives at this discovery through a series of encounters and meetings with people. Through them she tries to bridge up a connection with Brati. Sujata’s meeting to the mother of Somu, who has also been killed along with Brati, Partha, Bijit and Laltu, brings Sujata face to face with the baffling realities. From Brati's beloved, Nandini. she comes to know the reality that all is not quiet yet.

Sujata gradually learns to compare and contrast the inhumanity of the affluent set with the elementary humanity of the poor refugee families, with whom only Brati could communicate. Unlike Maxim Gorky's Mother, Sujata gradually learns to forge a connection with all that her son had striven and died for. Sujata discovers her socially concerned self from her political indifference. Through her rebukes, it is Nandini who ultimately assists Sujata to unveil the story. The closer is Sujata's association with Brati, the wider is the distance between her and her family members. She has adopted the language of protest. When Sujata meets Saroj Pal later, something snaps inside her and the diseased appendix she has been carrying all along, bursts inside her. The diseased appendix, like the cancerous breast of Jashodha in Mahasweta's short story Stanadayini, becomes a powerful symbol of cancer within the society.

Before her collapse Sujata, however, succeeds in raising her voice against the repressive machineries and the corrupt life of affluence-both of which are sole cause of the death of her son, Brati. From a biological mother she transforms into a universal mother, perceiving the presence of her Brati in all the young souls who are the victims of the bullets. She cries out: "Why don't you speak? Speak, for heaven sake, speak, and speak! How long will you endure it in silence?" Her physical fall" upon the stage brings the hope of resurrection of the stagnant mass against whom she has cried furiously.