Final Solutions centres around the Gandhis, a middle-class Hindu family in Gujarat, who find themselves in a challenging predicament when two young Muslim men seek refuge in their home during a communal riot. The Gandhi family comprises of the secular Ramnik, his staunchly religious wife Aruna, his mother Hardika, who is a survivor of the partition of India and Pakistan, and his daughter Smita, a college student. The two Muslims who come to Ramnik’s home seeking protection are the liberal-minded Babban who prefers to go by ‘Bobby’ and his childhood friend Javed, a misguided young man who is paid to start communal riots. The tensions that arise between these six characters in the course of a single night form the crux of the play. These tensions mirror the tensions and conflicts present outside the Gandhi home, which are conveyed through the use of a Greek-style chorus designated the ‘Mob/Chorus’ which is Hindu at some points and Muslim at others. The theme of communal tension is given historical depth through flashbacks featuring Hardika at the age of fifteen in 1948. Her experiences in the aftermath of the partition surface in her memory at different points of the play.

Historically, ‘Final Solutions’ was about the 1969 Ahmedabad riots. But since the play was eventually produced in 1994, everyone assumed it was about the Bombay riots that had just taken place. So it had a tremendous impact. It was about prejudice. It was about appeasement.

Written by Mahesh Dattani, this script took him 2 years to complete, as he had to conduct a lot of research on the topic and interview people who were affected by these acts of communal violence. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for this play.