A light heart lives long........

The ideas presented in this text are by no means set in stone ,thereby are subject to the readers's indivdual interpretation.

Of lately, I have been reflecting upon the fact that much has been written about Dutta's person either to exemplify his strengths or to justify his weaknesses. Critical appreciation was given based on what he revealed himself, what we saw, or how others perceived him.

Upon further studying this hero ,I was struck by the fact that there was an emotion in his emotional setup which may be slipping through the net.......

Dutta appears to be devoid of humor ,mirth, merriment i.e sentiments associated with the lighter sense as opposed to the gravity in his emotions.....

If this is so then why is it amiss? do we justify this by arguing that in keeping with his image of being a trauma victim of past betrayals in his life , humour does not readily flow in his life and its presence would appear disjointed ! ......... or do we accept that mirth would tarnish and adulterate the Dutta personality, that of a young, angry, broody, sullen, reserved, aristocratic, hard core Don

Dutta Bhau!

Or do we look at Dutta's life against his character and deduce that there emerges a strangely subtle contrasting admixture of Tragi/Comedy situation........ which can be quite cynically amusing.........sarcastically humourous!.........Wherein, Dutta for many of us till only recently, remained to us a Tragic Hero........ however on a lighter note, the order and turn of events in his life did not, or do not fail to " hmmmmmm" us a little and we try not to be amused...... however take a look at how Dutta's story goes................

A child put on a gambling wager by a drunkard father; raised by an aunt who was made a widow by his father; jilted in love by two women; made a fool by a further woman who suffered from identity crisis; two different women claiming to be his one and only wife; surviving near miss death at the hands of a woman made fatherless by his father; rendered blind "eye to ", to overcome one of his fatal flaws , errouness judgement of relationships......... till recently living in his own dark world of existential funk!!!! and we still say AAAAAAH! which I suspect, along with me many of us do! but on a lighter note we all say this is unbelievable what a way to start and go!

So does Dutta thus appear as Shakespeare's tragic hero Othello when he says....."Iam not merry,but I beguile the thing Iam, by seeming otherwise...." , beguile here meaning to elude.........

But, for the moment we put this aside and look at our Dutta's life..... where has he appeared to be humoured or better still where has Dutta amused others..........

Some instances where he was amused , well the first one that springs to my mind is when he questioned Nakku which matti was she made of ,and her reply in all her simplicity Kalli metti saab!! her apt reply clearly amused him........ Then there were the Dutta/Baji moments where Baji surrounded Dutta with his brash and bold quips to which theDutta's responses were always a stiff " we are not amused " kind of look ! ...... Next were Dutta's two prenuptial parties, where he perhaps thought, it was appropriate to partake in mirth and merriment for they were given in his honour!

There were also the yester years Dutta/ Seema moments where the young Dutta appeared unbridled in his expression of smiles and tease!.........Of course it would be quite in appropriate for Dutta to behave in that fashion now that he is older, mellow and mature!.......... but I still ask myself is Dutta still capable of revealing his lighter and humourous side.... or is it wishful thinking on my part...........??

In answer to that I was greatly pleased to note that from the start of this week, I can trace a subtle hint of humour emanating from Dutta via his verbal responses and expressions during his interactions with Nakku......

Take for example the scene after his post medication application when Nakku asks him to gradually open his eyes and after his doing so, she excitedly questions him if could see her and his bemused reply of " haan i can see you every where all the time " created a contrasting mismatch between reality and falsity! which gave the situation a humorous overture between the two!!..... Then we have the scene where a sighted Nakku dicovers an out of doors Dutta collecting domestic fuel and surprises him with the ridiculous question Saab what are you doing? to which he replies playing on a humorous pun " running what do you think?" running as in a sprint ..and running as in deserting her!! So once again in the contrast of what is and is not ,created the mood Dutta wanted to convey , that of shy jest !! ...... Finally the blind yet beaming Dutta being fed by his wife , was indeed as amusing to watch as the act was to him..... his obvious display of happiness at having his wife at his disposal, even showed a certain humour in which Dutta is coping with his present disablity ..... almost treasuring and relishing in the twenty four seven attention he's getting from Nakku.......... oh blessed blindness!!

After seeing all this recently, I can safely surmise that the humour in Dutta's life was always there ,waiting to be surfaced, when he finds the woman who truly loves him and whom he truly loves!!

Hence forth my final line to beloved Dutta would be from Shakespeare from the social comedy The Taming of the Shrew.........

"Frame your mind to mirth and merriment , which bars a thousand harms and lengthens life..........

ONLY MISHAL AS DUTTA......