The Inquiry into the Problems of Intercultural Adaptation：Peter Brook’s The Mahabharata（1989 Film）in Comparison with Indian TV Production(1988）

Abstract

In his adaptation of The Mahabharata into a nine-hour stage play in 1985, Peter Brook intentionally universalizes the ancient Indian epic as a story of all humanity with an international cast, and only “suggests” the Indian context. In the release of 3-hour DVD in 1989, the film dramatization, its settings, and its actions are stylized like that of a theatrical performance in keeping with the nature of mythic stories, and the historical era is not specified. Brook’s intercultural translation has been hailed as “one of the theatrical events of this century.‖ However, the appropriation raised indignant criticisms from Indian scholars. Rustom Bharucha, a notable Indian writer, director, cultural critic: ―Brook e has taken one of our most .significant texts and decontextualised it from its history in order to sell it to audiences in the west… Our history in all its detail and density was translated into ―a fairy tale.‖ This paper intends to examine Brook‘s intercultural translation in comparison with Indian versions, 1988 TV serial, to uncover what has been left out from Brook‘s production, which are important for the foreign audiences to understand the core essence of Hindu culture. Lawrence Venuti‘s concept of ―foreignization‖ that ―can deviate from domestic norms to signal the foreignness of the foreign text and create a readership that is more open to linguistic and cultural differences,‖ will be employed to re-consider the inevitable loss of some of the most cherished features of the original. Two key scenes, The Disrobing and The Bhagavad-Gita, will be analyzed in the context of two central emotional themes of the epic, Rasa, and Bhakti. The t renditions of TV adaptations will be compared and contrasted with Brook‘s The paper tentatively concludes that any successfully communicative intercultural translation needs a third space ―to foster a common understanding with and of the foreign culture.