Broken Images – Class 12 English Chapter 21 Notes & NCERT PDF

Class 12EnglishChapter 21NCERT book: Kaleidoscope (Elective) - English Class 12

Notes and a simple summary of Chapter 21 of the NCERT Class 12 English book, with the official chapter PDF, flashcards, an MCQ quiz and an AI tutor for your doubts.

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Chapter 21: Broken Images (Drama)

About the Author

Girish Karnad (1938–2019) was a playwright, actor and film director who wrote in Kannada and English. His awards include the Padma Shri (1974), Padma Bhushan (1992) and Jnanpith (1998). His plays usually use history and myth to examine contemporary issues. Broken Images can be read at several levels: personal and academic values, and bilingualism in today's world.

The epigraph comes from T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land: "for you know only / A heap of broken images, where the sun beats, / And the dead tree gives no shelter". It suggests a fragmented, dishonest self.

Setting & Characters

The play is set in a spartan, modern television studio. There is a big plasma screen, a semicircular "telly" table, several TV sets at the back and a small red, yellow and green signal light.

Manjula Nayak: in her mid-thirties or forties, a former English lecturer in Bangalore and a Kannada short-story writer. Her first English novel, The River Has No Memories, is a worldwide bestseller. Her married name is Mrs Manjula Murty.

The Image: her own image on the screen. It "comes alive" and interrogates her, acting as her conscience or suppressed self.

The Announcer: appears on the screen, representing Shree-TV.

Absent but central: Malini (her disabled younger sister), Pramod Murty (her husband), and Lucy (her former friend).

Summary

The public speech. Manjula admires the studio: "Nice, very nice. Neat!" There is no cameraman. She must "look ahead and speak". The Announcer introduces her as "the Literary Phenomenon of the Decade" and notes that many Kannada writers were English lecturers, such as B.M. Shree, Gokak, Adiga and A.K. Ramanujan. A Kannada telefilm of her novel will follow in ten minutes.

She takes up two questions everyone asks.

Why write in English? She says the novel "burst out in English". It "was not a matter of conscious choice". She complains that "intellectuals whom I respected" are "breathing fire" at her for betraying Kannada. Her British publishers praised the book as "so Indian". A pundit says English is "a medium of dishonesty" for Indians. The Sahitya Akademi President, speaking in English, accused English writers of writing for money. Manjula replies: "Why not? Isn't that a good enough reason?" The real issue is "not Creativity but Money". She notes that the Kannada word artha means both meaning and money.

How could a healthy woman (a college long-jumper, "though of course no Anju Bobby George") describe the inner life of the disabled? Through her sister Malini, who had meningomyelocele, with the lower body paralysed, and spent her life in a wheelchair. After their parents died six years ago, Malini lived with her in Jayanagar, and she nursed her. "She became my child!" Malini died last year, just before the book came out, and the novel is dedicated to her. "She is the only character in the novel drawn from life." Manjula thanks her husband Pramod for his support. She ends by saying she is "a Kannada writer... proud of it". "Good Night. Namaskara."

Off camera. The red light goes off. She says: "Whew! That'll get them... I have taken enough shit from them." But her image stays on the screen and speaks: "Where are you going?... You can't go yet." It says, "Me? You." Manjula is baffled and calls for "Raza". From here, Manjula and the Image act like two live characters.

The interrogation. The Image praises "an excellent performance" watched by "two million" viewers, but says the tears about Malini "could have been played down". Manjula insists she loved her sister. Then the truth begins to show.

Malini was the favourite. She was more attractive, more intelligent and more vivacious. Their parents moved to Koramangala for her and gave her home tutors. Manjula was left with grandparents in Dharwad. "I have always been reconciled to being the second best." Father left "most of his money in her name".

The house. They sold the big Koramangala house. Manjula says it was Malini's wish, but also admits "I couldn't take Koramangala!" because of its non-Kannadigas and NRI investment houses.

Language. Malini's Kannada was limited to "the cook and the maid". She "breathed, laughed, dreamt in English". So Kannada was the one area Manjula "tried to occupy and make mine". She admits: "I could not have written about my sister in Kannada."

The novel. Manjula is the unattractive "first cousin" in it, "a narrative necessity".

Pramod. She tells the comic story of how they met. He mailed a letter about her to her friend Lucy, and one about Lucy to her, in swapped envelopes. "Every fifteen-year-old tries that trick." They married, and Lucy stopped talking to her. Pramod works from home in software, and he and Malini were "very" close. Now he lives in Los Angeles and left soon after Malini's death. He only emailed congratulations on the U.S. launch.

When the Image asks exactly when he left, Manjula explodes: "Who are you, for God's sake?... Either you are me... Or you are an electronic image... switch off." The Image smiles, and Manjula suddenly becomes calm. The excerpt ends here.

In the full play, the Image goes on to suggest that the novel was actually written by Malini. The textbook excerpt stops before this, but it plants the doubt through the English connection.

Themes & Arguments

Public image versus private self. The celebrity performs sincerity, and the Image exposes jealousy, resentment and possible deceit.

The politics of language. English versus Kannada, and the charges of "betrayal" and writing "for money". The play asks whether a writer can truly be bilingual.

Sibling rivalry and guilt. Manjula lived as "second best", and her claim to Kannada was a claim to something of her own.

Media and celebrity culture. The satire targets TV hype, "Literary Phenomenon of the Decade", critics, awards bodies and sponsors.

Broken images. The self is fragmented. Screens multiply her face, as in the Eliot epigraph.

Dramatic Technique & Style

Monologue turned dialogue. The play is called a monologue, yet it becomes a two-voice interrogation between the self and its image. This dramatises conscience.

Technology as device. Camera lights (yellow, green, red) mark "on" and "off" postures. The plasma screen literally splits the self.

Posture on camera versus off camera. On camera she is gracious, grateful and moved. Off camera she is triumphant and vulgar ("That'll get them"), then defensive and angry.

Irony and satire. A man attacks English writing while speaking in English. Artha means both meaning and money. "Write and shut up!"

The register is conversational, with stage directions such as "(Laughs.)" and "(Pause.)".

Word Power

obsolescence: becoming outdated (अप्रचलन)

spartan: plain, bare (सादा, कठोर)

oracular: claiming final authority (दैवी घोषणा-सा)

complicity: involvement in wrongdoing (मिलीभगत)

dictum: authoritative statement (उक्ति, आदेश)

prayashchitta: atonement (प्रायश्चित्त)

absolution: forgiveness (पापमुक्ति)

halcyon: happy and peaceful (सुखद, सुनहरा)

vivacious: lively (जीवंत)

odious: hateful (घृणित)

ruse: trick (चाल)

interrogate: question closely (पूछताछ करना)

Board Exam Focus

How genuine is Manjula's love for Malini? In public it is tender ("She became my child!"). The Image reveals jealousy: Malini got the parents' love, the money and the Koramangala house, and she was closer to Pramod. The tears seem performed, and her love is mixed with resentment.

Why use the Image? It externalises conscience or the hidden self, turns the monologue into dialogue, uses TV technology symbolically and lets truth emerge through cross-examination.

Issues satirised. The language debate and its hypocrisy, money and publicity in literature, TV celebrity culture, and the gap between image and reality.

Common Mistakes

Taking Manjula's speech at face value. The play's point is the gap between her public and private selves.

Mixing up the houses. Jayanagar is Manjula's home; Koramangala was the parents' house bought for Malini.

Mixing up the cities. The grandparents lived in Dharwad; Pramod is now in Los Angeles.

Calling the Image a separate person or a technician. It is Manjula's own self: "Me? You."

Naming the novel wrongly. It is The River Has No Memories.

💡 Key Learning Points

✓Girish Karnad's monologue shows celebrity Kannada writer Manjula Nayak, whose English novel 'The River Has No Memories' is a global bestseller.
✓On camera she defends writing in English ('it burst out in English') and credits her disabled sister Malini and her husband Pramod.
✓Off camera, her own screen Image interrogates her and exposes jealousy of Malini, 'second best' resentment and Pramod's departure.
✓Themes: the politics of language (English and Kannada), public image versus private self, and satire of media and literary culture.
✓The Image device turns a monologue into dialogue, dramatising conscience and the fragmented self of Eliot's 'broken images'.

👨‍🏫 Teaching Tips

→Start with the Eliot epigraph and ask students what 'a heap of broken images' might suggest about a person.
→Stage it in class: one student reads Manjula and another reads the Image, facing each other.
→Make a 'camera on / camera off' chart (as a list) of Manjula's statements and tone.
→Debate the Talking about the Text question: does writing in an 'other tongue' betray the mother tongue?
→Trace clues about Malini (English, intelligence, closeness to Pramod) and ask what they may hint about the novel's authorship.
→Discuss the satire: the Akademi President speaking in English, 'artha' as meaning and money, and TV hype.
→Compare Manjula's public performance with Bergman's idea of the film-maker as 'conjurer'.

📋 Assessment Questions

Can the student assess how genuine Manjula's love for her sister is, with textual evidence?
Can the student build a picture of Malini from references in the play?
Can the student explain the Image device and why the monologue turns dialogic?
Can the student identify the issues the playwright satirises?
Can the student discuss the language debate with arguments on both sides?

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