LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:1 January 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Domestic Discard in Mahesh Dattani’s Plays Tara and
Where There’s a Will

M. Anitha

Mahesh Dattani’s famous plays are Dance Like a Man, Bravely Fought the Queen, Final solutions, Do the Needful and others. The two plays chosen for the present study are Tara and Where There’s a Will.

Tara

Tara (1990) is the play, predominantly about gender discrimination and about the mentality of Indian parents who prefer a male child over a female child. It is the story of a pair of Siamese twins, who love each other immensely, but are separated from each other by design. Tara, whose life is spoiled by a wrong decision of her mother, ultimately dies. Through her death, Dattani throws light on the unfortunate consequences of different standards of treatment for children on grounds of gender. Such incidents do much to hamper the mission of female uplif in a male dominated society. The writer has succeeded in stirring up the spirit of the reader to stand strong against such biased behaviour in life.

Where There’s a Will

Where There’s a Will (1988) is based on Dattani’s motif of patriarchal dominance. In fact, this is a play which shows fairly optimistically, that there is a way by which men and women can find happiness on their own terms. The developments, twists and surprises in the action are not, however, based on contrivances of plotting alone, but far more appropriately on human motivations and wills. Dattani uses unstressed symbolism. The dialogues in the play are sparkling. Humour is a major redeeming factor and has its source largely in the interjections and asides of Hasmukh as the ghost. Dattani’s depiction of a visible and invisible and audible and inaudible ghost extends the scope of naturalistic drama.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

M. Anitha
Department of English
The Standard Fireworks Rajaratnam College for Women
Sivakasi – 626 123
Tamilnadu
India
msanithama@gmail.com
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