Girish Karnad's "Broken Images"

Manjula is a lesser-known Kannada short story writer till she wins accolades for her maiden English novel. The River has noMemories turns out to be a bestseller. The announcer at the television studio introduces the literary genius Manjula Nayak who puts on an image of treading success effortlessly. She adorns a bright green sari flamboyant as her superficial self. A lecturer in English in Bangalore, she gives up her job as she has received a huge advance for her masterpiece. A Kannada channel is to broadcast the premiere of a movie based on the novel. Manjula enters putting on air and attitude, quipping about her worldwide ventures. She comments nonchalantly on Indian technology. As she has finished her 'rehearsed' 15-minute speech, she prepares to leave the room when she encounters her image on the screen that is not her reflection. It comes across as 'absurd' to her. The image interrogates Manjula in a scene reminiscent of the trial of Benare in Silence! The Court is inSession. The truth is unraveled as Manjula is entrapped in a whirlpool of questions from which she has no escape. The only alternative left for her is to wear her heart inside out. "Her guilt is expressed not as a Dostoyevskian interior monologue but through tense agitated dialogic exchange," writes Tutun Mukherjee. This enhances the theme of fragmentation.

The novel is said to be based on her crippled sister who suffers from meningomyetocele- a disease in which a person is disabled for life due to dysfunction of the nervous system. Her whole life was confined to the wheel chair. She was the apple of her parents' eye and was always the focus of attention. Manjula had to always settle for second place and was constantly disregarded. Malini excelled in all areas over Manjula- in looks and in intelligence. Manjula was made to stay with her grandparents who loved her, but who were, according to her, "no substitute" for parents. The most cherished moments of her life were the times that she spent with her parents during her vacations. It was later that she met Pramod, married him and settled down in Jayanagar. Her father left most of his assets in Malini's name. After her parents' demise, Malini moved in with them. Manjula affirms that her sister had adjusted beautifully with them and died a few months before the book came out. She takes care to cite that Malini is the only character drawn out of real life.

However, later the truth unfolds. Manjula has not penned even a word of the novel, and has 'literally' stolen Malini's identity, creativity and language. Apparently, it was her revenge for years of agony, frustration and anguish. Malini had first caught her parents' attention, and later Pramod's. She gradually reveals how she had taken Malini in, only for her wealth. Pramod, being a software engineer, worked from home most of the time, and finally found his intellectual match in Malini. Earlier on, Manjula used to ignore Pramod due to her job, and later she side-stepped his sentiments in her newfound success. Pramod strived to discover new ways of entertaining himself. Manjula confesses that there were times when she doubted that Pramod fantasized and romanticized about Malini than herself. Manjula is often portrayed as the venomous first cousin in the novel, she says, as Malini stalked her and pinned her down in "coruscating prose". Finally, the image on the screen becomes real in comparison to the deceptive human being on the other side. The image of Manjula morphs into Malini at a climatic juncture in the play.

The image of Malini therefore projects the Indian English writer who is ostracized for his stupendous success because the native writer (Manjula) has to settle for second place. Given an opportunity, Manjula steals Malini's work in English, though she pretends to be addicted to the Kannada language. The sisters' rapport with Pramod symbolizes their bond with their motherland. Manjula is with him out of the matrimonial ties of responsibility, and fails to live up to her responsibilities of a wife, as Pramod continuously pines for attention. Malini is with him purely out of love. Pramod craves for her treatment of love that is all encompassing.