Confronting the contemporary

While not without universal appeal, Dattani's plays square up to contemporary urban concerns and issues. A review of his plays by SMITA NIRULA.

MAHESH DATTANI is no longer an unfamiliar name to theatre-goers and even to those who are not. The first truly successful Indian playwright writing in English, Dattani owes his success due to the fact that he had a theatre company which produced his plays and to Alyque Padamsee, who spotted his talent, built it up and brought it out into the larger world of theatre in Bombay. After that, Delhi, Calcutta, London - they are all part of a magical journey.

Penguin recently brought out a compilation of eight of his plays in a volume entitled Collected Plays: Mahesh Dattani. Penguin's foray into the world of theatre scripts is very welcome, but perhaps they could market the book at a more reasonable price. How many people are going to pay Rs. 395 for a book of plays? Let's get real!

Starting the volume with Dattani's most recent play, "Seven Steps Around The Fire", the editors seem to have gone on a reverse journey of his works. Written for the BBC as a radio play, "Seven Steps" heralds the start of a new and continuing character in drama. Uma Rao, wife of Suresh, Bangalore police's Chief Superintendent, is a sleuth who willy-nilly solves a murder mystery due to the fact that she is writing her thesis on class and gender-related violence. She enters the secret world of the hijras and creates a link between their lives and the lives of the elite.

Dattani very cleverly creates a script that is both entertaining and full of suspense. Who killed Kamla? Wowen around this are the equally important sub-plots which question inter-personal relationships and the norms of convention. For example, the constable, Munswamy acts as a foil to Uma in many ways. He adds a bit of comic relief to the serious, vulnerable and easily moved Uma. He questions her motives and acts as a narrator, forcing her to confront her own realities. Uma is a wonderfully wondering character whose intrinsic naivete throws into relief her relationship with her Suresh and the fact that because she is a woman, there is a tendency for most people (whatever class) not to take her seriously.

"On A Muggy Night in Mumbai" deals with homosexuality in all its colours. Humans are, by nature, emotionally androgynous beings, with the characteristics of one gender overshadowing the other. By this I mean that most women have male responses that are not society and culture induced, while men have a tendency to constantly suppress their feminine sides. Now that it is fashionable for men to be "sensitive", the lines between gender specifics is becoming more blurred.

"On A Muggy Night" confronts the politics of sexuality. The protagonists are, for the large part, pretty sure of their sexual preferences. We have Bunny, the well-known public figure who does not want to come out of the closet, Ranjit, the flaming queen poncing around the stage, Deepali and Kamlesh who are quite comfortable with their sexuality, and then there is Ed/Prakash who is trying to be bi-sexual despite himself. There are many levels at which this play works. The sibling consanguinity between Kiran and Kamlesh is made grotesque by Ed/Prakash's incestuous relationship with both.

"Do The Needful", Dattani's earlier radio play for BBC, also deals with the coming out of homosexuality. "Both On A Muggy Night" and "Do The Needful" are probably the first Indian plays to boldly deal with the subject of homosexuality. In this, the situation is a traditional arranged marriage where the woman, Lata, is in love with someone else while Alpesh, the proposed groom, is a closet homosexual. The script is an interesting tussle between these two emotional situations and the resolution is reflective of our current social mores.

Which brings me to a comment on playwriting in general. We have a tendency to constantly look for "classics" in our literature. There are very few literary works that emerge as full-blown classics. Theatre, by its very nature, is transient. But while that does not mean that plays do not last through generations of play-doers and play-goers, it also does not mean that plays that do not, perhaps, stand the test of time are irrelevant or "bad theatre". Drama has to confront its own times. It has simultaneously always been a mirror to society, its trends and thought-processes, while also forcing society to look at situations and think about issues that it may not want to deal with.

Dattani excels in mirroring his society. By which I mean the restricted English-speaking, -reading, -thinking society to which you and I also belong. There are enough Dollys and Alkas ("Bravely Fought The Queen") within our ambit, who are a product of the family situation thrown up by people like their husbands and Baa. Just as there are enough Smitas and Javeds ("Final Solutions") who are victims of communal passions.

Dattani tackles issues that afflict societies the world over. Dealing with issues like the male-female ascendance divide ("Tara"), the patriarchal tradition ("Where There's A Will/ Dance Like A Man"), consumerism and communalism, Dattani holds back nothing. He uses the world of comic theatre to encase the bitterness of the truths he is dealing with. But there is a tendency in his work for his resolutions to be too abrupt. Perhaps the fact that he has to be conscious of the running length of the play forces him to quickly end the script. But he needs to balance the "setting of the scene" with the "end of the play" in a more even manner.

One final word to Penguin Books. While I reiterate my kudos on publishing this book, I also point out with regret, the absolutely cavalier behaviour in which the book was launched. Penguin needs to reassess its priorities. Why is it falling prey to socialite Delhi by launching this book in a five-star hotel where nothing was done with dignity? When the hosts of the evening, David Davidar, CEO of Penguin Books India and Nigel Grocock, GM of the Taj Mahal Hotel, did not have the grace to attend the function, how could they invite a host of people to be present at the launch? Penguin needs to treat its authors with a little more respect.

Collected Plays, Mahesh Dattani, Penguin Books, Rs. 395.

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