Harvest

by Manjula Padmanabhan

A futuristic satire on the trade in live organs from the Third World to the West.
Om, a young man is driven by unemployment to sell his body parts for cash. Guards arrive to make his home into a germ-free zone. When his brother Jeetu returns unexpectedly, he is taken away as the donor. Om can’t accept this. Java, his wife, is left alone. Will she too be seduced into selling her body for use by the rich westerners?

Harvest won first prize in the first Onassis Cultural Competition for Theatre and was premiered in Greek at the Teatro Texnis, Athens. It has also been performed by a youth theatre in the UK, broadcast by the BBC World Service and made into a feature film, directed by Govind Nihalani, titled Body, which was screened at the Regus London Film Festival.

The play is also studied by many colleges and universities to explain how globalisation works.

Manjula Padmanbhan Born in Delhi to a diplomat family in 1953, she went to boarding school in her teenage years. After college, her determination to make her own way in life led to works in publishing and media-related fields. She won the Greek Onassis Award for her play Harvest. An award-winning film Deham was made by Govind Nihalani based on the play.

Genres: Plays, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Fiction, Read For School, School, Drama

92 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Manjula Padmanabhan is a playwright, novelist, journalist, comic strip artist, and children's book author.

Reviews

[Amalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvest is a darkly satirical play about relationships, within a family and between the 1st world and the 3rd world.

The play is set in some near-future where the rich of the First World has begun to devour bits and pieces of the Third World poor. Harvest is really about the lengths people ready to walk on a path to destruction for various material needs, risking their individual dignity. It's a deep look into organ harvesting.

I highly recommend it to those interested in ethics and/or sci-fi. It can make for a great intellectual discussion.

[Sena · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was....real fucked up. But also so intensely thought provoking.

[Caroline Clark]

MY IB ENGLISH PAPERS HOLD CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE AND AESTHETIC SOPHISTICATION 🌴🏖🙏🪆

[EJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping satirical sci-fi rendition of the relationship between the developed and developing countries, set in an imminent future. It showcases the life of a poverty-stricken family from the third world that agrees to a gruesome pact with a wealthy Westerner - giving the latter a power to harvest parts of their body whenever required. Manjula's characters are carefully etched out: from the condescending entitled westerner who is selfish to the extent of cannibalistic indifference, to the helpless donor who sees this as his only hope to survival, to his Mom who is mesmerized by the unimaginable luxuries they receive after the agreement.

One can see 'Harvest' as an effective metaphor for and critique of the extensive impact of capitalism on the third-world workers. The developing world provides cheap labor and raw materials for the first world which consumes it for its own survival and expansion. Pushed to her limits, Jaya's character, which undergoes a transformation to subvert the power dynamics, throws an optimistic light on an otherwise bleak future.

The world of 'Harvest', with its level of scientific advancement initially evoked a "yeah right" from me. But soon, one buys into its rationed nutrition pellets, its holographic apparitions, its self-sufficient Super-Deluxe video-couches, and all the other myriad dreadful possibilities. Manjula's world does not seem very far-fetched after all.

[Carol Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simply ingenious. I have so much respect for Padmanabhan. Her brilliant analogy for capitalism, colonialism and the struggles of the Indian underclass are so captivating. What really stuck out to me about this play was the grotesque and the horrifying are so well embedded into the fabric of the scenes, its only until you stop, and say - wait a second - that it hits you. For me personally, the story of Jeetu - one of the characters who sells his body on the streets through prostitution was very emotional. Compared to Om - who sells his organs to Ginnie (a rich American), and is gilded as a good son - Jeetu initially refuses the allure of organ trade. For him, prostitution is a means of at least choosing what to do with his body and owning it to some extent, rather than giving it up completely. What a deep and thought provoking play! I sure hope to see it live one day.

[Charlotte Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the first day of the #IndianReadathon and I thought I'd pick up a book in a format that I don't often read but want to read more of - plays. This one intrigued me and was a genre I've never in a play before as it is a science-fiction dystopian story set in a poor area of India.

This dark satirical play comments on the illegal trade of human organs that happens in India and makes it science-fiction, where the West pay donors from India for their body parts.

This is unlike anything I've ever read before and I would love to see how it looks on stage! The characters were complex and morally grey, and the dynamics between them was one of my favourite aspects of the book. I understand why this is something studied in some schools because there is so much to pick apart surrounding themes of wealth, colonisation, technology, morality, worth and the ethics of scientific developments. 

Overall this was a thrilling read and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to read more science fiction that comments on real-world issues from countries other than the US and UK.

4 out of 5 stars!

[Ananya M · Rating 5 out of 5]

White supremacy, futuristic organ harvesting, selling your body for money, family, affairs, indifference to your own children, this play has it all. It was so good.

[Frida Demant · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5*

Really terrifying premise, but amazingly written with fast-paced action and complex characters.

[Anirudh Kukreja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I don't read too many plays, and this was an absurd one, to say the least.
The setting was interesting, the pace was really good and the expression of the insatiable greed was both surreal and relatable.
The characters were very well written: somehow their moral vulgarity made them all the more loveable, if that makes sense.
What I didn't like about the play was that the concept was not properly explained. I understand the "indie" trend of keeping a reader in the dark, but this was simply vague with no metaphors to rely on, so that one can make an interpretation. It might have worked as a play where the prowess of actors took the stage by storm, but as a book it falls flat.
A quick read, so it can be read as a filler between major novels.

[وائل المنعم · Rating 2 out of 5]

فكرة المسرحية وبدايتها جيدة جدا، وتنبئ عن مسرحية ممتعة ولكن مع تقدم الأحداث يتسرب بعض من السخف النابع عن المبالغة في تصوير علاقات الشخصيات وأثر التغيير الجديد على حياتهم، ومع ذلك لا تخلو المسرحية من قساوة إظهار الواقع بحرفية نثرية جميلة.

[Noir · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 || RTC

[Asta Olivia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Så weird og absurd, men samtidig så foruroligende aktuel ift. den virkelighed, vi befinder os i 😮 mennesker vareliggøres og teknologier bliver den ultimative resignation, am I right

[Rebeca · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Black Mirror episode 10/10

[Brenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

this play is the cool older sister of Unwind and Get Out

[Jojo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Makes me want to reread house of the scorpion, my favorite book about organ harvesting

[Kairavi Pandya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, I hate this book.

It is good and dark. The extreme situations are used well to convey the realities of today; Wouldn't call it thought-provoking but more of a warning, a threat, a slap, and a reminder to move before it's too late.

It's the oscar-winning movie parasite on steroids. The class difference, the exploitation of resources, settler colonialism are various matters burned and scared with words in this.

It's a good book, I hate it.

[Siva Wright · Rating 5 out of 5]

A play that would be a challenge to stage not only in terms of design but also in terms of the ideas it conveys...Through the use of science fiction, Manjula Padmanabhan takes us back to some of the perennial human problems. Try to get the expanded text, which includes a gender-reversed version of the play. Trust me, it gives a totally different feel.

[Carson Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting premise, however this play stands solely as an example of good social commentary. The characters, aside from Jaya, don't have much depth to them at all. The ending made the play feel whole, however the journey to said ending transitioned rapidly from slow to rapid as far as pacing goes.

[Natalia Nazeem Ahmed · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautifully written play set in a dystopian future where the poor are forced to sell their bodies - literally - to the rich, in order to earn money to survive. Heartbreaking and tragic, this play makes you confront a future that can become all-too-real.

[Sam Figura · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a theatre arts major at the University of Oregon, I absolutely love this play. It's thought provoking and highly entertaining. We read this book for a class, and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

[Marta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Muy duro pero muy necesario.

[Kavya (wishes and tries to be more active) · Rating 4 out of 5]

So when it said sci-fi, it definitely didn't hold back any punches.

[ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

what the fuck was that

[Martin Denton · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Harvest, Manjula Padmanabhan's fine play, a young man in India named Om takes a job as a professional organ donor. The time is the near future, and a company called Interplanta is recruiting healthy Third World humans to become, essentially, health repositories for wealthy Westerners. Om's client is a woman named Ginni, who pays him and his family top dollar--at least in terms of India's per capita income--to stay fit and ready for the possible day when she will need something from him, say, a kidney, or his skin, or his eyes.

Om's wife, Jaya, is understandably distressed by this new job, not least because of the strain it puts on an already very dysfunctional relationship. For Jaya is in love with, and having an on-again / off-again affair with, Om's younger brother, Jeetu, who supports himself by working as a prostitute. The other member of the household is Ma, Om and Jeetu's mother, a meddlesome lady who thinks that her elder boy (Om) can do no wrong and that the others can do no right (Jaya, for example, is repeatedly referred to as a "slut").

As for the work itself--such as it is--well, that's a round-the-clock regimen controlled 100% by Interplanta, who deliver boxes of food and other necessities as dictated by Ginni (she orders, for example, that a working toilet and shower be installed in Om's one-room, fourth-floor apartment, because she doesn't want her employee mixing with the "disgusting" others who dwell in his building). Om and his family do get to enjoy the spoils of his new high-paying position--in one of the play's most effective scenes, their rise to consumerist luxury is depicted wittily in a series of sight gags--but their lack of freedom eventually gnaws away at them, as does Om's fear that the day is drawing near when some part of his body will be needed by his faraway benefactress--quite possibly a part that he can't do without.

I won't reveal the rest of Padmanabhan's intricately plotted tale, but I will say that Harvest compels from beginning to end, creating a not-so-fanciful futuristic world that's pretty darned scary. Om's occupation starts off as a stark and brilliant symbol of the most invasive kind of First World Colonialism, but the play shifts gears along the way and turns its attention to an even more insidious form of colonization, that of our very humanity by a cultural ethos besotted with technology and comfort. While Om's family's crisis spirals horrifyingly out of control, commercials for Interplanta's latest and greatest products and services are projected on a screen that coincides with the rear wall of their apartment, lulling us (and them, perhaps) into a sense of security that's as malignant as it is false. Padmanabhan essentially picks up where Orwell left off, crafting a 21st century cautionary tale of enormous resonance.

[Derek Neveu · Rating 4 out of 5]

First performed in 1997, not only does Padmanabhan’s play tick off all of the most dystopic tropes, but it is also ahead of its time in encapsulating the technological strife that socioeconomic disparagement can cause in society. Like its dystopic predecessors, it paints a bleak landscape of haves and have nots, and how financial and social paralysis can challenge one’s moral center, deconstruct us to our most primal and base form, and expedite the downfall of not only the individual, but all those who surround them as well.

Unlike most of its predecessors, the format of a play gives us a very succinct and to the point approach which is both jarring and refreshing. What the likes of Huxley, Orwell, and Burgess were able to accomplish in a couple hundred pages, Padmanabhan is for the most part able to achieve in under a hundred. Personally, I have reached a dystopian fatigue in my reading selections, but the play format for this text was unique and short serving enough to give it a go, and I’m glad that I did.

Padmanabhan paints a very bleak picture and relies on some “on the nose” stereotypes to instill empathy in her work, especially in the representation of the oppressed and the oppressor. That being said, stereotypes do exist for a reason, and while I’m a little exhausted always seeing them flown in a particular direction, I get it. I did like that in the notes prior to the play’s opening, the author does give the suggestive autonomy to the directive forces that be to adjust the socioeconomic dynamics to fit the environment in which it is being performed. In today’s day and age, anyone well read knows that this is still limiting the interpretation and performance of the play through a particular lens, but an authorial acknowledgement of flexibility is still nice to see nonetheless.

[Saaraa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harvest is a play set in a near dystopian time. It shows a futuristic view of our society where the uber rich pay companies to take care of the less privileged sections of the population in the order to harvest their organs to be used as transplants in the future. It is about a family of 4 people Jaya(GR: Jaideep), Om(GR: Uma), Jeetu(GR: Geetu) and Ma(GR: Pa). [GR = Gender Reversal]

The book has both gender perspectives, it has Gender Reversal of each character in the latter half of the book. I finished reading the first 100 pages in like a day's time. If a book keeps me hooked then it's a great story because I am easily distracted. The story depicts the life of humans as cattle being bred, reared for later use. Being slaughtered piece by piece by the rich of the society.

It is one of those rare Indian author books that I thoroughly enjoyed reading.

Yayys;
1. Good plot, sci-fi is mostly repetitive and boring in most books but not Harvest, the story of this play is something unique which actually pulls you in and makes you want to keep turning those pages
2. The technology usage is pretty decent and interesting to read about
3. Characters are consistent throughout the storyline
4. The monologues of certain characters, even some of the dialogues are written beautifully, such that it makes you stop for a second and think about what you just read

Naahs;
1. The Gender Reversal doesn't add any significant impact or changes to the story, it is basically the same thing for both genders which was pretty disappointing for me
2. Had to read the whole play again just with the GR characters and it was very tedious and pointless since nothing major changed apart from a few dialogue updates here and there

I would still suggest you read this book, atleast half of it to understand the story. I enjoyed it :)

[Flickering_ Words · Rating 5 out of 5]

Holy moly! This was a roller coaster in the true sense! I don't usually write reviews but damnit! I can't not write a review for this one. Although, it's more of a long-winded, incoherent rant. Firstly, the dialogues of the characters were so natural and believable. So ingeniously crafted, hats off! It was a page-turner. Kept me on the edge of my seat, frantically flipping through the pages to know what would transpire in the next scene. One thing that stood out to me personally was human hypocrisy. Om was so adamant and determined to sell his organs since he was the breadwinner of the family. He proclaims all that he has done for the family multiple times throughout the book but when the moment arrives for him to step up and keep true to his words, he falters miserably. He hides away cowardly and lets his brother be captured. This one moment in the play captures the fickle and hypocritical nature of human beings.

Also, Jaya was on roll throughout the play. Her dialogues and words were so witty and critical. She had the guts to point out her husband's foibles and she doesn't hesitate to speak up and put someone in their place. I was rooting for her. It was also interesting to see how Ma behaves after attaining gadgets and appliances that help her sit comfortably in one place without even moving a muscle. She stopped caring altogether and this kind of depicts how technology sometimes corrodes human relationships and bonds. Apart from the apparent themes, these are some of the things that stood out to me. It was messed-up but thought-provoking and riveting at the same time. So glad I decided to read this play! Utterly unforgettable.♡

[Srishti · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harvest is a dystopian narrative that brilliantly critiques global capitalism, postcolonial power structures, and bodily autonomy. Set in a near-future India, the play explores the exploitative relationship between the First and Third Worlds through the chilling premise of organ harvesting. Padmanabhan’s world-building—complete with ration pellets, holographic monitors, and sterile luxury—feels disturbingly plausible.

With biting wit and emotional depth, the play portrays how poverty forces people into dehumanizing contracts. Characters like Jeetu, who rejects organ trade in favor of bodily autonomy, and Jaya, who ultimately subverts the power dynamic, highlight the moral and emotional complexities of exploitation. The grotesque is woven so seamlessly into the fabric of daily life that its horror unfolds gradually but with undeniable force.

Reading the Hindi translation alongside the original made the experience even richer, offering a more textured understanding of the social context and linguistic nuances. A gripping, thought-provoking work that doubles as a metaphor for neocolonialism and the commodification of the global poor. Harvest is essential reading for anyone interested in ethics, globalization, and speculative fiction.

[Florentin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I came across this play during my research for my master's thesis. I am grateful for that, because I don't think I would have read it otherwise. It is very different to other plays I have read (not many though, and mostly Shakespeare), but I liked the idea and how the story developed. While I have not encountered a play like that before, I have read dystopian novels with a similar onset. Thus, it was not a unique reading experience content-wise.

The edition I read featured an additional gender-reversed version of the original play. While I like the general idea of that, I have to say that it felt pretty similar. Even though it may be fruitful for an academic analysis, in terms of pure entertainment, I do not see much of an added value in it. I enjoyed the original one more.

It would certainly be interesting to see Harvest performed on stage.