Mannu Bhandari and the unfiltered everyday
Mannu Bhandari has the gift of elevating the everyday. She takes the barest of commonplace ingredients and turns them into a dish with such nuance. She does this without the juggling of ornamental prose or lengthy exposition. Her characters are unburdened by the past or the future. The timelessness of her work derives from this stripping away of the inessential. The time, the location, and the setting could be any. All she needs is one room, two people and their conversation.
The Wise Woman And Other Stories is a collection of some of Mannu Bhandari’s most popular works. The author’s world exists in memories evoked through objects, descriptions of overthinking, a peek behind the curtain of composure we all carry. Her goal is not to dwell on what is, but rather on how we are, on our eccentricities and flaws. Her characters are unabashed in their ambition, unapologetic about their self serving nature, and revel in their narcissism.
Bhandari was one of the pioneers of the Nayi Kahani or New Story Movement in the 1950s and 60s that championed the depiction of the dilemmas, frustrations and anguish of the Indian middle class. She captures ever so beautifully the timeless struggle for individuality and articulation of individual desire against the backdrop of conservative traditions.
In Rajnigandha (This Is The Truth), on which Basu Chatterji based his film starring Vidya Sinha and Amol Palekar, Bhandari traces the emotional roller coaster a young woman goes through as she tries to choose between her current lover and an ex. The author employs her deft touch in the use of a single flower vase which evokes vastly different memories when filled and when empty.
In Alone she paints a heartbreaking portrait of Bua a lonely wife whose husband has renounced the material world and become a man of God. While he meditates she must spend agonising hours waiting for an invitation to a wedding she desperately wants to attend. The true power of Bhandari’s storytelling lies in how relatable her stories are. We have all known a bua who shows up to help the family with preparations and participate in the rituals no matter how distant their connection might be. In these ordinary stories of the most commonplace characters, Bhandari wrings forth a depth, an honesty that is unforgettable. Yet, despite all its gravitas, it floats as if it has no weight at all. The simplest words hold the burden of her truths.
The author treats the inequities of gender with extreme care. Rather than preach or proselytise she lets her characters present their case letting the reader grapple with the gaps that exist.
The New Job presents a young couple’s relationship under the strain of the husband’s ambition. His new job brings with it additional responsibilities and soon the wife must give up her career to support his. This is a moving story about the motivations and communications of two lives merging in the service of one.
There is a steady vein of sorrow that marks Bhandari’s effortless fiction. In The Tale of a Weak Girl we see a girl’s botched escape plan to leave her loveless marriage and reunite with her lover. Bhandari makes believable the most trivial of circumstances that lead to uncontrollable fates; to have agency snatched away just before the happy ending. It is perhaps in this that she succeeds beyond measure.Ever so effortlessly she traverses the thin line between drama and the relatable as she navigates the pain of failed relationships, failed escape plans, unhappy marriages, ghosted lovers, and family reunions.
The Wise Woman And Other Stories is a stunning collection ably translated by Vidhya Pradhan. Bhandari’s work is revelatory and an English translation has been long overdue. Pradhan has ensured that the essential backbone of Bhandari’s storytelling is preserved. It is still very much two people talking about things we usually push into dark corners for they hurt too much and yet are too precious to throw away or forget.