drama

1. UNIT - I
DRAMA (DETAIL)
DANCE LIKE A MAN: MAHESH DATTANI
LIFE AND WORK OF AUTHOR
Mahesh Dattani was born on 7 August 1958 in Bangalore to Gujarati
parents. He went to Baldwin Boys High School and then went on to
join St. Joseph's College, Bangalore. He is a graduate in History,
Economics and Political Science. He is a post-graduate in Marketing
and Advertising Management. After reading Edward Albee's play "Who's
Afraid of Virginia Woolf" early in his life, he became interested in
writing. He was also influenced by Gujarati playwright Madhu Rye's
Kumarni Agashi.
Mahesh Dattani began his career as a copywriter in an advertising firm.
In 1986, he wrote his first full length play, "Where's There's a Will", and
since 1995, he has also worked with his father in family business.
He is an Indian director, actor, playwright and writer. He wrote such
plays as Where There's a will (1998), Dance Like a Man (1989), Tara
(1990), Bravely Fought the Queen (1991), Final Solutions (1993), On a
Muggy Night in Mumbai(1998), the Murder That Never was (2000).
Thirty Days in September (2001), The Big Fat City (2012) and He is the
first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award.
His plays have been directed by eminent directors like Arvind Gaur,
Alyque Padamsee and Lillete Dubey.
Introduction to the Play

2. The play Dance Like a Man a stage play in two acts, is one of the most
wonderful dramatic creations written by Mahesh Dattani, an Indian in
English. He is one of the finest and most prominent playwrights in
India. He is the first playwright in English to have won the Sahitya
Akademi Award. Here he tells the story of three generations; their
personal ambitions, sacrifices, struggle, compromises, internal conflicts
and the way they try to cope up with life; and mainly focuses on a
dancing couple.
Characters in the play 'Dance Like a Man' Jairaj (Husband)
Ratna (Jairaj's wife)
Amritlal (Jairaj's father)
Lata (Daughter of Ratna) Viswas (son-in-law)
SUMMARY
The story revolves around three generations. Dance is a very significant
factor in this play that means different things to different characters.
Jairaj and Ratna are the central characters in the play. They want to
develop their career as dancers and for them dance is not only a hobby
but also life and soul. It is not only their passion but also a tool that will
help them to gain desired success. Personally for Jairaj, dance is a form
or a means to express emotions and stands as the tool of defiance,
revolt, negation of a particular way of life that was decided by his father,
Amritial. He starts dancing as hobby or rather a fancy that his father
thought would perish after a period of time but it does not happen that
way.
Present

3. The play opens in the living room of an old-fashioned house. Viswas and
Lata enter. The occasion being a sort of assessment by the Parekhs of
the future son-in-land, unfortunately a handover, one of their
musicians, the mridangam player has met with an accident and both
Jairaj and Ratna have gone to the hospital. Meanwhile, Lata and Viswas
are engaged in a light-hearted boaster which gradually unfolds in detail
the Parekhs, Lata's parents. Jairaj and Ratna are dancers like Lata. She
informs that her parents are of a different type. The house they are
living in is forty to fifty years old. Since it is located in the centre of the
city, there seems to be a demand for the site on which it is situated. But
Jairaj is not willing to sell it because of sentimental reasons. Lata's
parents learnt how to dance together under the same guru in that
house. When she saw them dancing together, it was nothing less than
magic for the little girl. But this did not go well with Jairaj's father,
Amritlal, a freedom fighter and social reformer. Inspite of the old man's
dislike for a man dancing the dance of the devadasi i.e. Bharat Natayam.
Jairaj had deep respect for his father. While Lata is making coffee in the
kitchen, Viswas looks around the living room and finds an ornate
cupboard. He opens it and removes a splendid brocade shawl. He tells
Lata that he is going to ask for the shawl as dowry from her father. But
Lata replies that her father will not part with the shawl as he is very
fond of its and that is his 'mast prized possession'. After some time
Viswas once again takes out the shawl, wears it and struts around
without being notice by Lata. He goes on imitating the old man in a
mock fatherly voice.
Jairaj and Ratna enter a store of Viswas's antics. Viswas is embarrassed
and fretted to offer some explanation to Ratna's parents.

4. But preoccupied with their own problem as they do not pay attention
to what Viswas is saying. They are busy discussing Lata's forthcoming
dance performance because their mridangam player has put them in a
tizzy by tripping over his dhoti, breaking his arm and landing himself in
hospital. They are hard but to finding a substitute for him. Jairaj's
attempts to calm. Ratna backfire on him and she begins to blame Jairaj
and his late father Amritlal Parekh for their present misfortunes. She
accuses Jairaj for being a 'spineless boy' who could not leave his father's
house for more than forty-eight hours. Jairaj complains that Ratna has
been holding this against him for the last forty years. Past thus casts its
shadow on present.
The audience gradually learns that the relationship between Jairaj and
Ratna is not smooth and healthy. Having watched all this, Viswas tries
to leave the house. But Jairaj stops him and offers him drinks. He also
tells Viswas about his father, Amritlal Parekh, the Sethji of the city.
There was a lot of acrimony between the father and the son, which is
quite difficult from Lata has been telling Viswas so far Jairaj informs him
that he is trying to remove all the memories of his father, including his
gardens as Amritlal was fond of gardening. Viswas then talks about the
shawls and asks Jairaj the reason for keeping them. Jairaj doesn't
answer the question, but he agrees to give it to him when he marries
Lata. Ratna re-enters, she has now come round to Jaira's earlier
suggestion that they could asks Chandra Kala a rival dancer, to lend the
services of Mr. Sebhadri, her own mridangist, for Late's dance
performance. That brings to an end crisis faced by Parekhs. But once
again they dig up their past. Now it is Jairaj who begins by asking Ratna
how they could have continued living with her unde's behaviour was
the reason behind Jairaj's decision to return to his father's house Both

5. of them agree that their decision to leave Amritlal Parekh's house was
'impulsive.
But with the mention of Shankar, the chasm between them is once
again revealed. Just before retiring to his bedroom Jairaj notices the
shawl. He picks it up and tries to put it back into the cupboard but
changes his mind and speaks to himself. "Your last memory, soon I'll be
rid of you too. Then I won't see you wearing this shall a walking about
this room... walking about... wearing this shaw!"
At this stage the audience has no clue either to Shankar's identity or to
the mystery of the shawl. All that we learn that there is a kind of
not-so-healthy relationship between Lata's parents Jairaj and Ratra
Parekh, which surfaces at the slightest possible provocation.
The past
Jairaj continues his practice of traditional dancing in spite of all the
opposition from his father and overtly presents himself as a rebel He
becomes more headstrong because of the support of his wife, Ratna
who also was interested in traditional form of dancing. The reason
behind Amritial's opposition suggests that his mind was not ready to
accept his son as a Bharatnatyam Dancer. More than that he was
shocked on knowing the fact that Jairaj was planning to grow his hair
long just like his Guru, which would enhance his Abhinaya. Amritlal saw
dance as something that was practised by prostitutes, which was
turning temples into
Brothels
He gave his son the freedom to practice dance but he was worried that
the passion of dance would not lead his son anywhere and he would not
be able to support his family in future. In the society everyone wants

6. the male to earn that much so that the house would run properly but he
knew that dance would not help Jairaj to eam enough money and that
would make him unworthy in the eyes of his wife Ratna. For Amritlal,
dance was good as far as it remains a hobby but it was not proper to be
taken as a profession. So the traditional dance, especially for male was
not considered a respectable profession in the olden days in India.
Jairaj leaves and takes Ratna along with him. But the results are
disastrous. They stay at Ratha's uncle's house and he tries to take
advantage of her and so they leave the house only to return. The quote
said by Amritlal to Jairaj to restrict him from dancing: "A woman is
man's world is considered progressive. But a man is a woman's world is
considered pathetic"
Back to the present:
The present part of Act II opens with the telephone ringing in the living
room. Ratna pick up the phone to receive calls. From all the VIPs in the
city congratulating her on the success of her daughter Lata's
performance. All the newspapers have published save reviews and
Parekhs are excited. Lata has been described as "the star of the Festival.
"A Shining Star in the sky of haramatayam" etc. Lata, Viswas and Jairaj
are reading the reviews. Lata says that these reviews are because of her
mother's efforts". But Jairaj would not give her the credit entirely".
Viswas's ignorance of dance is exposed in the conversation that ensures,
one of the reviewers praises Lata's "tearful expression and says that her
heaving bosom was heaving because she was "breathless" from the
"Vernon". But Viswas does not like the comment that "it was too erotic".
Lata understands that Viswas, like many people has his own quirks' about
dance and

7. that misconceptions about Bharatnatayam continue till today. Later a verbal
duel takes place between Jairaj and Ratna about the rave reviews of Lata's
dance performance. While Ratna thinks that the recitals are because of her
own efforts, Jairaj disagrees. He asserts that Lata" deserved" all the praise
heaped on her performance and that the reviewers were not doing Ratna.
He tells her that in this respect at least she has a daughter
to be jealous of.
Another Flashback
With the comment the scene again moves back to the past when Ratna just
returned from a dance programme in a splendid Bharatnatayam costume
and shawl covering it. Once again the living room changes into the rose
garden and the dancers change accordingly. Act II continues with the
flashback of Act I focusing on the events of the 1940s. Jairaj and Ratna
return to Amritial out of sheer helplessness within two days of leaving the
house. Amritial Parekh exploits this helplessness by imposing certain
restrictions on them. He asks Jairaj" not to grow his hair any longer" He
then later makes a deal with Ratna. He says that he will allow her career to
take off if she helps him pull Jairaj out of his passion and make him a more
'manly' man. The character of Ratna can be called as that of a selfish one
because she agrees to her father in-law's demands and also considers that
there would be one less person to compete with. She constantly misguides
him and plays with his emotions in spite of being his partner. Though Jairaj
was a male member, he never forced his opinions on anybody and instead
of that Ratna would always dominate and take decisions for herself, for him
and now their daughter as well.
She wanted her own career to proper and so she is willing to sacrifice her
husbands' career in the process. She was blinded by her passion so much
so that she joined hands with Amritial. She married him because Jairaj
himself was a dancer and he would never stop her from dancing even after
getting married. Had it been that she would have married another man;
there was a possibility that she would be deprived of her career and her
passion and she would be helpless.

8. When Jairaj possibly knew about her motives, the purpose was already
achieved, that he was a failed dancer and that he did not make much out of
his life. He had become an alcoholic She constantly took advantage of
Jairaj's love for her and being his wife. She pushed him into the world of
dance and also knew that he was not a great dancer himself, to reach
amongst the top dancers, that he was just a mediocre one. She was
responsible for his undoing as a character as well as a danc
Unfortunately she did not stop here only but went beyond and consciously
shaped her daughter's life also as traditional dancer. Lata, her daughter,
was used by her to fulfill her inner suppressed desires to earn fame and
money nationwide and abroad. Unknowingly Lata falls in the whirlpool
created by Ratna and becomes the object only. Ratna's endeavors seem
very ambitious and manipulative. She was ready to establish her daughter's
career on the right track right from the very beginning and for that she
schemes, manipulates and uses all her contacts and links. It is very clear
that Ratna saw her own self in her daughter Lata and therefore acted so
violently to create a firm, concrete base for her. Symbolically Lata in the
play is none by Young Ratna, who succeeds with the help and support of
his mother.
Jairaj hoped that he would teach their son little Shankar, the dance of
Shiva, the dance of man. He wished that Shiva would dance the "tandava
nrityam" right on the head of his grandfather when he becomes a young
man. But this desire of Jairaj remained unfulfilled as Shankar died in his
childhood. Jairaj blames his wife for their son's death as she wanted to be
successful and she had left him home along with a nanny. The nanny had
given him a sleeping dose so that he would stop crying and that she could
also sleep peacefully but unfortunately, she gave it too much in quantity
which ultimately led to his death. Jairaj blames her for his unsuccessful
career and discharging her duties as a mother and as a wife. The play ends
with Jairaj's admission that they were only human and locked the 'grace,
brilliance and magic the dance like God".

9. मराठी सारांश
Dance Like Man' हे महेश नी लिहिलेले नाटक आहे. हे नाटक व्यक्ती विरुद्ध समाज या रूपात वर्णन करण्यात
आले आहे. या नाटकातून पितृत्व प्रधान समाजाचा चेहरा लोकांसमोर आणण्याचा प्रयत्न करण्यात आला आहे.
या नाटकातील नट जयराज हा भरतनाट्यमचा नर्तक बनू इच्छितो जयराजची मनातून इच्छा असते की त्याने
नर्तक बनावे परंतु अमृतलाल पारेख जयराजचे वडील मुलाच्या या निर्णयास विरोध करतात. अमृतलाल पारेख हे
स्वातंत्र्य सेनानी आणि समाज सुधारक असतात. त्यांच्या मते हा प्रकार म्हणजे वेश्या व्यवसाय होय. तरीपण ते
स्वतःच्या मुलास म्हणजे जयराजला रत्ना सोबत जी की भरतनाट्यम नर्तिका आहे, तिच्यासोबत लग्न करण्याची
परवानगी देतात. परंतु जयराज हा बायकोच्या प्रभावाखाली येऊन तिच्या सोबत साथीदार म्हणून तिला
भरतनाट्यममध्ये सराव आणि कार्यक्रमासाठी तयार होतो. जयराजच्या मते नृत्याद्वारे मनुष्य सुद्धा पैसे कमवू
शकतो. अशाप्रकारे जयराज एक नर्तक बनतो.
अमृतलाल जयराजच्या नृत्यावर बंधने आणण्याचे प्रयत्न करतो. तरीपण तो जयराजला खर्चासाठी पैसे किं वा नृत्य
शिकविणारे गुरू वाद्य संगीत साथीदार यांना पैसे देण्यापासून मनाई करीत नाही. अमृतलाल मुलाचे क
े स वाढविणे
किं वा बायको सांगेल त्याप्रमाणेबागणे या गोष्टीला त्यांचा फार विरोध असतो. या विरोधात जयराज व रत्ना बंड
करतात व ते अमृतलालचे घर सोडून निघून जातात. परंतु जयराज व रत्ना ४८ तासांच्या आत परत अमृतलालच्या
घरी येतात. कारण रत्नाचा काका की ज्याच्याकडे ते जातात तो रत्नाकडे शरीरसुखाची मागणी करतो. आता
अमृतलाल त्याच्यावर जास्तीचे बंधने लादतो. अमृतलाल फक्त रत्नाच्या नृत्यास कोणताही विरोध करीत नाही,
परंतु तो जयराजला भरतनाट्यम पासून दूर ठेवण्यासाठी प्रयत्न करीत असतो. याप्रकारे पिता-पुत्र यांच्यात संघर्ष
निर्माण होतो. यामुळे जयराज अमृतल्गलचा तिरस्कार करीत असतो. ज्यावेळी अमृतलाल मरतो त्यावेळी जयराज
त्याच्याशी निगडीत संपूर्ण बाबी नष्ट करतो. तो गुलाबाचे उद्यान नष्ट करून तिथे नृत्य सरावासाठी मोठा हॉल
तयार करतो. तरीपण वाईट बाब ही की तो (जयराज) बायकोसारखी प्रसिद्धी मिळवू शकत नाही. यातून रत्ना
जयराजला कमी लेखते. यातून जयराज निराशेच्या गर्तेत जातो आणि त्याला वडिलांचे बोलने आठवते. या सर्व
प्रकारातून त्याला दारू पिण्याचे व्यसन जडते. आता जयराजचा एकमेव उद्देश असतो की त्याच्या मुलास-शंकरला
एक सर्वोत्कृ ष्ट नर्तक बनविणे की जेणेकरून त्याने भगवान शंकरासारखे तांडवनृत्य करावे, ते पण अमृतलालच्या
डोक्यावर तांडव नृत्य करून जयराजचा बदला पूर्ण होईल. परंतु शंकर लहानपणीच मरण पावतो कारण आयांनी
त्याला चांगली झोप लागावी म्हणून त्या नशायुक्त पदार्थ अफ
ू चे जास्त प्रमाण देतात, त्यातून शंकर मरतो आणि
या सगळ्या प्रकारास फक्त रत्नाच जबाबदार असते की जिने स्वतः च्या प्रसिद्धी पोटी, व्यवसायापोटी मुलाकडे
लक्षच दिले नसते. यामुळे जयराज़ आणखी निराशेच्या गर्तेत अडकतो. रत्ना आज फार प्रसिद्ध नृत्यांगना म्हणून
नाव लौकिकास येते. व तिची इच्छा असते की काही वर्षानंतर मुलीस-लताला सुद्धा याच प्रकारात पारंगत करणे.
चंद्रकला जी रत्नांची दुश्मन आहे तिच्या मते, जयराज हा पुरूष म्हणून त्याची वाढ त्याच दिवशी खुंटली ज्यादिवशी
तो परत अमृतलाल पारेखकडे परत आला आणि स्वतःवर अटी लादून घेतल्यात व देवाला आवडणाऱ्या गोष्टी
म्हणजे सौंदर्य, बुद्धीमत्ता चमत्कार याकडे पाठ फिरवली. अशा तऱ्हेने नाटक संपविण्यात येते.