Suli Suruli

Men Without Shadows: Sartre’s post-war existential classic strongly depicts the effects of war on people and how they are defined having lived the terror.

1944, France occupied. Hitler’s men, having already navigated their way into France, are sparing no one. French resistance is solidifying its grip and young guns are ready to collectively share their conscience and arms.

Conscience? We shall see. Jean Peal Sartre, the most influential proponent of existentialism, the play Men without Shadows: Neralillada Manushyaru in this French backdrop. Sartre’s philosophy of existentialism on meaninglessness and identity can be gauged easily from the play itself. Men without Shadows, men without identities, men inundated in crisis and meaninglessness. This postwar existential classic strongly depicts the effects of war on people and how they are defined having lived the terror.

This seminal play is set in the backdrop of a restive Bengal province in India. It is about five comrades (French in 1946 original), who have been captured by the police forces and are ready for an interrogation. They must hide their identity. In other words, they must be without identity. What price will they have to pay to conceal their secret? Blood, body or being? The play becomes even more brutal and harsh with a fellow woman who is struggling with her emotions, who shares a genuine tenderness and love with the other four, more towards her lover and her younger brother – the latter’s fate catapulting the brutality and inhumane repercussions of war to the point of wretched emotions.