Critical Analysis Of Mahesh Dattani

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Wading through the tempestuous waters within which our society is drowning, is India’s first Sahitya Akademi award winning dramatist, Mahesh Dattani. He is a humanist who uses his multifaceted personae as a weapon in his fight against inhumanity. Dattani sees in society what others wish to ignore. His works are a plea for humane treatment of homosexuals, equality towards women and moreover equal rights for every small section of society including the hijras. His plays question all kinds of discrimination, be it religious prejudice, gender discrimination or even homosexuality. His plays not only bring up gender issues and the space allotted to women in a patriarchal society, but also they deal with gender biases and prejudices which still affect the lives of many girl-children even amongst educated, urban families.

Mahesh Dattani is a name that guided weakling Indian English Drama on the path of reliability, steadfastness and distinct identity. He has an ability to amalgamate the traditional beliefs with ultramodern disposition and conviction. His plays are heavily charged with socio political, emotional, physiological and psychological issues. Many of his plays deal with familial issues wherein the family members are trapped in social constraints and struggle to wrestle out of societal pressures. Dattani’s plays expose the violence of our private thoughts, and the hypocrisy of our public morals. His work conveys his political beliefs without being instructive or revolting the subjects of recognition and power struggles, run right through all his plays.

Tara sheds light on the sufferings of the physically challenged whilst weaving itself around the gender constraints and class struggle prevalent in Indian society. Playwright M...

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...er everything that cannot be. The relation between him and his sister is special, but it is buried in emotional turmoil of harshest kind. The separation of these two souls, so much in union with each other, is visited at the very beginning of their existence. Two operation tables being put together and then pushed apart – two loving souls brought close and then violently separated, never to come back together again. The image of separation at the operation table translates into jarring emotional parting between them. The effect is so immense on Chandan, that he break out of his identity and takes the name of Dan to narrate Tara’s story. Chandan (or Dan) feels he has faltered as he becomes the agent of perpetuating the wrong done to Tara in her life.. He apologises to Tara for making her story his tragedy – “Forgive me Tara. Forgive me for making it my tragedy.”(380)

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