Write a note on the character of Hasmukh.

How far is it correct to say that “Hasmukh dead is more effective than Hasmukh alive”?

Comment on the attitude of Hasmukh to his family and explain whether he has succeeded in reforming them?

Ans.

His Presence throughout

Hasmukh is the hero of this play and remains effective, active and powerful till the end. His importance can be realized in the fact that since the very first sentence to the last, he influences the whole action of the plot in various ways. He dies at the end of the first Act but actually he remains alive in the form of his ghost and has declared that he will not leave this home. His determination is successfully materialized that after Ajit’s declaration to cut away the tamarind tree which has been his abode after his death, he finds a place in the womb of Preeti and thus stays with the family forever in the form of the child of Ajit.

Old fashioned

In fact, the only intention of Hasmukh is to see his family prosperous and that his son should efficiently take over his business as he had done from his father. But this wish becomes the greatest difficulty of his life. He is pained to see that his son is not obeying him and is always thinking of implementing new projects. Hasmukh is a conventional type of man and does not believe in bringing drastic changes in his business because he fears that it will destroy his company. When his son Ajit tries in this direction, he objects to everything and this results in frequent confrontations between the two. The attitude of Hasmukh can be easily realized from his reaction, “If I let him have his own way, he would all be paupers” and that his schemes and projects will leave him nowhere. This is why, Ajit often complains. “Anything I do is wrong for you? Just because you are a self made man……Nothing I do will ever seem intelligent to you.”

Self made man

All this mentality of Hasmukh owes to the fact that Hasmukh is a self made man. He has worked very hard with his father and has become richest in the city because he has always been sincere in his work. Talking about his own childhood, he tells that he had learnt much from his father. His elder brother was not a hard worker and had run away. and now only Hasmukh was left alone to help his father. He was not allowed schooling or wandering here and there but only hard work and thus they earned a lot of money. “We used to spend half the night going through our accounts and counting our profits. The other half of the night we would dream of being millionaires.” By the age of forty five years, he is the richest man of the city. But he laments that at this age his son would be completely destroyed.

Love for Family

Though Hasmukh is angry with his son and daughter in-law, but he does not hate them rather he is always interested in their happiness. This is why, he does not like Ajit wasting his time in watching dirty clippings on his cell phone. He never forgets that once he was a middle class man. It is in this confusion that he has made his will very carefully. His intention is not to deprive them of their lawful right and Kiran upon them but he thinks that Kiran is the only person who can bring them all to the right path. This is why, he makes Kiran the trustee and has entrusted her with the responsibility of training Ajit. The transfer of money and property to charitable institutions is just a threat to keep them under control and that. Ajit must be properly trained in the affairs of the company. This good intention of Hasmukh has been clarified when Kiran explains her position and tries to remove their misunderstanding, “My main duty is to run the Reliable Group of Industries of Ajit Mehta……My duty also extends to training Ajit Mehta and eventually, delegating most of my responsibilities to him in phases.” She has already made it clear that nothing of the money and property belongs to her, “I am only the trustee of all his wealth…… Everything rightfully belongs to the three of you.” The only condition is that they will have to follow the instructions. Hasmukh, in fact, does all this to keep them on the right ways of life. Preeti is now fully controlled and Ajit attends the office regularly. Thus through the will, the constructive and reformative spirit and his worry about his family is quite clear and he succeeds.

Effective after Death

One thing remarkable about the character of Hasmukh is that he is very closely attached to his family. But even after death, he remains effective. He dominates all of them through his will and Kiran confesses this fact “Even his attempts at ruling over you after his death, through his will, are pathetic.” Hasmukh stays on tamarind tree and when it is removed, he stays in the form of Ajit’s son. So Hasmukh succeeds in reforming all of them and thus is more effective after his death because in his own life, nobody cared for him.