The Personal is the Political in Tara a play by Mahesh Dattan (original) (raw)

Social Realism in the Plays of Mahesh Dattani

Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics, 2015

Social realism is that branch of realism that is known to describe the realities of society. Realism emerged stronger than ever before in the Victorian period and has been known to target the follies of people and society since then. In the modern or post modern era the problems of the society have changed but their impact on people has remained same. Various writers have portrayed the harsh realities of modern day society and as the fiscal problems were transformed into moral ones, playwrights like Dattani found it their duty to present them to the readers. Dattani is known for putting forward the issues that directly concern the society. He has dealt with various subjects over the years like gender biases, discrimination towards homosexuals, greed, futility of relationships etc. He has written a number of plays including On a muggy night in Mumbai, Do the Needful, Where there's a Will and so on. In this paper I have tried to present my views on social realism in the plays of Dattani. I have included Seven Steps Around the Fire and Tara for my research work. Seven Steps Around the Fire throws light on the poor condition of eunuchs in the society and how they are deprived of basic rights like justice. The theme of gender bias is shared in Tara. We live in a 'modern society' and get carried away by all the developments around us, but Dattani through his queer observation, pulled characters from the same society we live in but never thought existed. The stereotypical answer to most of our questions is 'That is how the society works.' The most important thing all Indians take pride in is our rich culture and a lot of people live under the illusion that it is free from any stain of infidelity and also that we are all honest citizens who treat our relationships higher than anything else in our lives. Very few times we realize that above all we are human beings who are bound to commit mistakes. The burden on our heads is not such of our relationships but most of the times it is the concern of our social image that leads us to moral degradation. We find a lot of characters in the plays of Dattani who struggle through the same patch to arrive at a point where all can agree to their decisions and live peacefully and be respected in the society; instead they end up wearing masks for the rest of their lives. The prominent theme in all of Dattani's plays is the unending adjustments and compromises people commit for the sake of a dignified position in the society, against all the odds. Dattani has been very successful in exposing the loopholes in the social structure of our nation and dealing with the subjects which people still feel are alien to our land. The preference of a male child in a family has always been an issue in a lot of important works but we do not expect such hideous motives in the upbeat cities of nation especially in a well educated family but this is one of the brutal realities brought out in the plays of Dattani. Dattani is a contemporary writer and wrote in an age which can be thought as a time when people are considered well educated and women are well treated but what is considered a rare incident is in fact the true picture of the society that represented the downtrodden condition of woman in the society. Dattani very skillfully presented all these follies in his plays and left us wondering whether it is the same society that we talk and read about. Underneath all the development there lies a gloom that is still untouched by knowledge and awareness. Through his plays Dattani has also tried to portray the prejudiced minds of the people who are still hardhearted and unsympathetic towards trans-genders and homosexuals and who still feel that people from another religion are 'terrorists'. The fact that people find it difficult to accept uncommon things creates an adverse situation in our society. Dattani is among the first writers of post-colonial times and he mirrored the changing face of the nation. We can easily pick fast paced lives, well settled and rich families, in his plays, but the striking aspect lies in the fact that he is able to portray the sinister characteristics in the otherwise mundane lives and stereotyped families. The play Seven Steps Around the Fire presents two interwoven stories, one in which Uma is married to Suresh Rao, Chief Superintendent of Police. She is incapable of conceiving a child and has undergone numerous checkups, but when once she asks her husband to consult a doctor he denies it as it would be insulting to question his masculinity and he cannot have any defect because he is a 'Man'. The parallel story unfolds while Uma is seen working on her paper 'Class and Gender Violence' during which she is exposed to various mysteries related to the murder of Kamala, a eunuch. It is said that eunuchs are only invited to weddings and births but sadly none is destined for them. Kamala secretly marries Subbu Sharma, the son of a minister and when the minister finds out about this he burns Kamala to death. The Fire that acted as a witness for Kamala's marriage became a reason for her own death. Uma meets Anarkali and Champa who were close to Kamala and keeps asking them questions regarding the murder but none of them answers her even after knowing the truth because according to them there is something

Complex Social Processes of Mahesh Dattani’s Plays

isara solutions, 2011

Mahesh Dattani is one such playwright who engages in contemporary concerns associated to the urban middle-class English speaking society which is going through a social-cultural transformation. Dattani's Tara presents an intricate muddle of relationships unravelling the ways in which social beliefs regulate the lives of common men, hold them back in their dealings with fellow beings and compel them to take decisions which grip them in self-guilt for life. He renders new perceptions to the themes of gender inequality, corruption etc. by interpreting and analysing the meaning of social actions and their consequential circumstances through the conduct of individual characters. Dattani's Dance like a Man demonstrate how successive generations of units in a society are formed and fitted for cooperation; and how the pre-decided public perception of the position and function of an individual in the social order makes him feel claustrophobic leading to deformed social manifestations. Through the depiction of the dreariness of the bourgeoisie lives, Dattani exposes the conjured intellectualism of the bourgeoisie and exerts in the direction of a resolute rational resurgence of society. In the course of doing so, his works no longer remain merely iconic plays but bywords of complex social processes.

MAHESH DATTANI: A SOCIAL PLAYWRIGHT OF INDIAN ENGLISH THEATRE

udience in terms of tremendous mind shift perceived towards major social issues and norms of the modern Indian society and communalism, homosexuality, molestation, gender and class discrimination, marriage and profession, patriarchal and masculine-centered, limitations of transgender, child labor and atrocities caused to them, interpersonal relationship, ethical choices, the worries faced by HIV patients etc. His vibrant works have created revolution in the country. Dattani is a kind of playwright who stands up for the social issues which are exempting from any norms and system. Dattani strongly believes that people belonging to Indian society are living in a state of enforced concord. As a result, he decided to uncover the unmentionable concerns through his arguments and plays about bias and unwritten laws; hence, he chooses urban-middle class family and their standard of living majorly as subject regions. He midpoints gender issues and other social problems in his plays with strong communication. Keywords: Ind

Marginal Themes in the Plays of Mahesh Dattani

2015

Apart from being a versatile playwright, Mahesh Dattani is a nice actor, director, screen playwright, film maker, teacher and a man of multiple aspects, creativities and identities. His writing is the projection of the 'here and now' of modern contemporary Indian society, of his own life and of others too.The present paper is a brief analysis of the major plays of Mahesh Dattani. Here my attempt is to highlight the latent issues i.e. homosexuality, gender issues, taboo relationship, child sexual abuse and the plight of hijra community etc which have been brought forth very candidly only by Dattani in his plays. The themes of taboo relationship and homosexuality are the central motives of the plays like On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Do the Needful. Tara and Dance Like a Man deal with Dattani's unconventional approach in gender issues. Seven Steps Around the fire is a play which throws light on the plight of hijra people. And Thirty Days in September is the best example o...

Dattani and His Dramatic Output- Social Reality on Stage

International Journal of English Literature and Social Sciences, 2019

Mahesh Dattani is one of the most dynamic voice of modern Indian English drama. He is widely acknowledged for his innovative techniques in stagecraft. He has shown new possibilities in dramatic techniques and devices to his contemporaries and future playwrights. He writes plays in English and is the first Indian English playwright to win the

Gender Discrimination in Mahesh Dattani's Play Tara

Mahesh Dattani deals with the theme of gender discrimination in the play Tara. This paper tries to discuss and analyse the issue of marginalisation of women in the play. Chandan being a boy child is preferred to Tara-a girl child in an Indian family. This paper is an attempt to study the gender discrimination in a society , the injustice done only on the term of gender and the preference given to a male child over a female in an Indian family. The play also deals with the emotional and physical separation to Siamese twins. The play presents the deep rooted patriarchal system in the society. Women act as a key in the hands of patriarchy to perpetuate patriarchal values. In this play, Bharati despite of being mother of Tara spoils her daughter's life and suffers in the longer run because of her inhuman act. Through this play Dattani exposes insensitive behaviour of society towards the physically disabled persons. Dr. Thakkar makes the misuse of his profession being the man of science and technology. He was bribed a piece of land by Bharati and her father for surgery that led to the death of Tara.

Gender Equality is Still a Distant Dream: A Thematic Study of Mahesh Dattani's Play Tara

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2022

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how Mahesh Dattani exposes the hypocrisy of modern Indian society, which prides of equality in terms of gender, caste, and creed. By putting these claims to the test in his play Tara, he paints a very different picture of society, one that is riddled with sex and gender discrimination. Dattani is unafraid to discuss society's stark realities. He exposes the experiences of those who are marginalised in society, such as women, children, and homosexuals, who are discriminated against and ignored in the mainstream. As a result, Dattani appears to be a voice for a lot of people who have been silenced for a long time. He is well-known for his outspoken criticisms of society's inhumane and brutal treatment of the poor and oppressed. The paper investigates how a society can be so cruel as to support a conspiracy against the other sex simply because the majority of males do not acknowledge it as equal. He gives the oppressed class a voice by describing their emotional and physical sufferings, particularly in urban settings.

Caged Birds: The Ugly Contours of Society in Mahesh Dattani's Play Tara

Mahesh Dattani, a Gujrati by descent was born and educated in Bangalore. Dattani is a post graduate in advertising and had moved on to be a copy writer.He started working with the Bangalore little theatre and was spotted by Alyque Padamsee who encouraged him into full time theatre, He was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award in 1998 and also one of the writers chosen to write plays for the BBC. As a dramatist Dattani is known for real portrayal of contemporary issues by works which use deliberate ploys to project his central message. His intense and sensitive depiction of today's India, its individual quandaries, human deceits, familial strains and social clashes, have earned him a top spot among the dramatists of the nation. This paper is an endeavour to investigate such areas as family interaction and sexual discrimination in the affluent of contemporary India via the play Tara. Tara the central character is like a caged bird representative of the millions of Indian girls who due to their sex are discriminated against and never reach their potential. A large number of social ,cultural and economic factors are the reason for this disturbing malaise in India.

A Critical Study Mahesh Dattani Plays

IJARSCT, 2020

What does one mean when one refers to 'Indian theatre' spattered India's cultured fabrics. "A closer look at theatre in India from the times of the emergence of Sanskrit drama and its traditions, or the folk performance still current in rural India is, however, beyond the span of this study. Our attempt will be to assess the place of modern Indian theatre that is predominantly urban, manifestly influenced by Western traditions even as it tries to find its own feet, still evolving and searching for a distinctive identity. This drama, nonetheless, is part of the larger 'Indian theatre', decidedly influenced by, and drawing inspiration from many of its traditional forms. To narrow down our focus further, we shall look at the place of English language drama in postcolonial India, a genre that unfortunately, (until recently) retains a somewhat mongrel nature, especially so when one juxtaposes it with the flourishing tribe of Indian novelist who write in English". 1 Indian theatre decidedly complex and difficult to encompass, has displayed different types of folk culture, traditional songs, instrumentation, puppet shows and Indian myths. Given such a situation, it is hardly possible to fit this convergence in to neat categories of western theatre and performance that a student of western literatures wants to do, although it is possible to find working categories within its own socio-historic and political ambit within its own tradition. Indian theatre has emerged predominantly with Sanskrit drama and its tradition on the folk performance. Modern theatre in India is not a rural phenomenon. Its owes its origins to the growth of large urban settlements like Calcutta, Madras and Bombay. By the time India finally achieved independence; theatre had been struggling to survive in the face of the tremendous popularity of cinema. Modern theatre in India as however come on long way, Indian society headlights different types of movies by radical departures, heterogeneous or homogenous, there are three categories of theatre in our country-. Professional Theatre, Amateur Theatre and Experimental Theatre. Professional Theatre-In Calcutta, perhaps the hub of this form substantial employment is generated though art and entertainment. The star, Circarena, Rangmahal, Minerva, Rangana, Bijon, Tapah, Muktangan are a few examples of theatre that is self-sustaining and active , and an audience that is faithful. Amateur Theatre-In fact, the scenario is such that one could easily venture to say that mostly all modern Indian theatre is amateur urban theatre. This theatre works only because those who participate in it do so knowing full well that there would be no question of actually earning a livelihood through theatre. Experimental Theatre-While experimental theatre is not absolutely different from serious amateur theatre, there is a slightly distinctive category that seems to have emerged with the work of a few serious practitioners. 2 The political street theatre of Badal Sircar in Kolkata, who delineates its some major characterstics in his book, the third theatre (1978), and that of Safdar Hashmi in Delhi has left a strong imprint upon contemporary performance. Mahesh Dattani has achieved international name and fame as a playwright. He is a versatile genius. He is at the peak of his creative powers, continuously experimenting with new forms and manners of expression. Dattani