Movie Screening - Kya Kehna in the context of The Scarlet Letter

Screening  Kya Kehna in the context of The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

1.    What are the names of the protagonists in both the works?

In the novel, Hester Prynne is the protagonist and the wearer of the scarlet letter that gives the book its title. She is good and different characters. In her life, she struggled a lot. People believed that she is not good. Hester married an elderly scholar, Chillingworth. Chillingworth sent her ahead to America to live. she had an affair with a  Dimmesdale and after that, she gave birth to Pearl.
While in the movie, Priya Bakshi is the protagonist. In her life, she also struggled a lot. But we can not compare with Hester. Priya's parents, brothers and best friend, Ajay, love and support her. So she is not alone. Ajay is secretly in love with Priya. He wishes to marry her in the future and he s waiting for her. Priya falls in love with Rahul and she is pregnant with Rahul's child. When Priya's father told Rahul to marry her daughter at that time he denied but she chooses to keep the child.

2. What is the role played by society in Hester’s life? What is the role played by society in Priya’s life?

• Hester is an outcast from society. After giving the birth to pearl, Hester’s sin automatically put her and Pearl on the bottom of the social hierarchy and Hester was forced to wear a red letter “A” on her chest that stood for adultery. So for society, Hester was not a good woman.

On the other hand in the movie, when Priya became pregnant at that time first her father requested Rahul to marry her but when he denied, Priya's father told her to leave the house. But after some time her father realised that it is not good and her wife and all the family members missed her a lot he decided to brought her back. But what about society? When she went to college, everyone laughed at her. Her best friend also leaves her. Everyone believed that she is not a good girl. But at the list, she had her family.
We can not compare Priya with Hester. She is different from Hester's character.

3 Compare and contrast ‘The scaffold scene in The Scarlet Letter’ and ‘a year-end performance in Kya Kehna in which a group of students performs a play on Priya and her pregnancy’.

In the novel, there is three scaffold scene.
1. A young woman who has come along to the New World where circumstances have divided her from the community now gathered to oppose her.
2. The second scaffold scene occurs right in the middle of the narrative when Arthur Dimmesdale mounts the platform in a half-hearted attempt to confess his sin.
3. Hawthorne’s focusing attention on Hester’s scarlet letter which has become a familiar sight in the town. It was a very terrible scene.
The scaffold scene is very important to understand.
While in the movie, there is one performance which was done by a group of the students. But after that Priya gave one wonderful speech. In the speech, she told that this is a nice performance but the last scene was not good and she told her own story to the audience. In her speech, we can find many good points and we can feel pity for her.
But we can not compare this scene with The novel. We can compare some points but we can not compare both the characters.

4. What are the reasons that Arthur Dimmesdale and Rahul do not come forward to accept their fatherhood? How do you they differ and what are the similarities?

We can not camper Dimmesdale's character with Rahul. In both the characters, we can find many similarities like
Dimmesdale is theologian while Rahul is a student and not a good character.
Dimmesdale is ready to accept his  fatherhood  while after knowing that Priya is pregnant Rahul denied to accept her
Dimmesdale believes that it was his mistake and his love is true while Rahul's love is fake love.
So we can find many similarities in both the characters.

5. What is the role played by Rahul’s mother in Priya’s life? Why do you think she wants to take revenge on Priya?

Everybody believes that women can understand woman but it's not a true statement. Rahul's mother believes that we are rich and we have on the status and she believes that Priya wants to marry her song because she wants money and good status. But it was not true. She wants to marry him because she truly loves him. After knowing that Priya is pregnant at that time also she denied to marry her. She wants to prove that Priya's family is not a good family. Her character is not a good character. I think she wants to take revenge because she knows that she had the power to prove that who was her child's father.

6. Write a note on the class difference in Kya Kehna.

In the movie, we can find a class difference. Rahul belongs to a rich family while Priya belongs to the Middle-class family. Priya's brother working in the cantine. When Priya's father came to know that Priya is pregnant at that time he went to Rahul's house and told him to marry her daughter. But his mother told him that you just want my son's money and good status that's why you are here. So here we can see the mentality of rich people. They have good status but not good mentality. They have pride.

7. Why do you think the director has lifted the character of Ajay to the ideal state? Is it possible in real life? What are the reasons for your YES or NO?

Ajay's character in the movie is good. He secretly in love with Priya and wishes to marry her in the future, after she finishes her studies. Maybe it is not possible in real life. This is only happening in the movie not in real life. In our society, there are many Kabir Singh but not Ajay.

8. Write a critical note on the end of the movie and the novel. Why do you think the novelist has not given a happy ending?

End of the movie is a fictional one while the end of the novel is applicable. In real life or in real society, when you do one sin, you are not good human beings like we can find this in both Priya and Hester's character. But the end of the novel is the reality of a society that's why Novelist has not given a happy ending. Hawthorne had the power to observe the real society.