A wonderful allegorical play, "the King of the dark chambers," echoes the very rhythm of unearthly and personal rousing of an individual in their eternal quest for truth and beauty. This play was adapted from Tagore`s short story, Raja. The immense humanism, the sheer vitality and that intoxication to appreciate nature`s timeless beauty coupled with Tagore`s political view sets the mood of the remarkable work, "The King of the Dark Chambers".
Rabindranath Tagore was a poet, philosopher, musician, writer, educator, and the first Indian Nobel Laureate for Literature. He was awarded with Nobel Prize in 1913 for his book Gitanjali. Tagore has been labelled the `King of Poets` for his beautiful and exquisite collection of poetry. As a writer, Tagore primarily worked in Bengali, but after his success with Gitanjali, he translated many of his works into English.
Synopsis:
`The King of the Dark Chamber` is a book by the renaissance author Rabindranath Tagore. The king lives in a dark chamber. He is alienated from the people by the royal persons. He is strong, an immense source of power but he is also lonely. He often feels a tremendous lonesomeness within himself. The court uses him for his power. Whoever stands in their way of exploitation, they pit the king against him. They transform the villagers into nameless, passionless shadows. The story gets a twist when a girl comes to the city, looking for her love who is missing. She meets the king and the king realizes his loneliness and longing. She is also a rebellion against the structures imposed by the powers to be. She awakens the humanity in the villagers by her trust, belief, and tenderness as well. The demagogues were threatened. They make a strategy and arrange the lover into a fight against the king. The lover is destroyed. Broken-hearted, she sacrifices herself with a call for revolt. The king realizes how the demagogues have manipulated his destructive power, and joins the fight against the king himself. This is a story where typical political touch is there. The villagers who are at the ground level are always dominated by the upper level and ultimately all become a mess.
Asia Book Corp of Amer published `The King of the Dark Chamber` in the year of 1988.
