Dance like a man is a play written by Famous modern Indian Dramatist, Mahesh Dattani. The Play was originally published in 2006.
Dance Like a Man By Mahesh Dattani
Summary of Dance Lika a Man By Mahesh Dattani
Mahesh Dattani’s play ” Dance Like a Man” begins with character, Jairaj, a passionate dancer who is married to Ratna. Jairaj and Ratna both are ardent Classical dancer who wants to make their career in dancing. Jairaj belongs to Gujarati family and Ratna belongs to South Indian family.
For Jairaj and Ratna dance is not just a hobby but a way of life. There comes new character, Amritlal, a father of Jairaj who was once a freedom fighter. Amritlal doesn’t like singing and dancing, Jairaj started dancing as a hobby but now he is passioante Classical dancer and wants to make his career in dance. But Jairaj’s father doesn’t like it because he wants him to do something else. Amritlas lal hate it when Jairaj does dancing practice with his wife.
On the other side, Amritlal’s wife and Jairaj’s mother support both of them in dancing. If Jairaj would be woman then his father would have no problem with it but Jairaj is a man so he wants him to do man work. The worst part is Jairaj wants to grow his hair like his Guru who is a man but walks and behaves like a woman. Jairaj believes by growing hair he will perform good in dancing.
Amrital is narrow minded person who believes dance is prostitute’s work. Sometimes Amrital feels like, Jairaj passion for dancing could ruin his life. Amrital thinks dancing is a woman’s work so he does not like when his son shake his waist like a woman. The story now shift focus to Ratna who is very selfish for dance and can do anything for dancing. Ratna is an ambitious woman who will make her career in dancing only no matter what.
To learn dancing deeply, Ratna goes to 75 years old for dance classess who was once a prostitute. When Amritlal get to know where Ratna goes for dancing, he ask his son, Jairaj to stop her from going there otherwise he would throw them out of his home.
Jairaj argues with his father for his wife and ends up leaving home with his wife. Both husband and wife goes at a home of one of Ratna’s uncle, there in just 2- 3 days they learned that Ratna’s uncle intentions are not good for her.
So both returns to their home but before entering in house Amritlal present Ratna one bet that only she is allowed to dance not Jairaj. So Amritlak ask Ratna to stop Jairaj from dancing. As Ratna is selfish and crazy for dance, she agrees to do it.
Ratna tried her best to keep jairaj away from important dancing roles. She treat Jairaj like a side artist. Jairaj wasn’t getting any roles for dancing, he doesn’t know that his own wife is preventing him from getting lead roles. Here we can see the selfishness of Ratna, she only supported Jairaj till it suits her but now she has put him aside as he was coming in her way to dancing career.
As the story progresses, Jairaj and Ratna gives birth to a boy named Shankar. But Ratna is so mad for dance she does not look after her son and give it to their babysitter for care. That babysitter used to give a dose of Afeem to Shankar to make him calm. Through the overdose of Afeem, Jairaj and Ratna’s son, Shankar died. Thereafter, Ratna gives birth to daughter named Lata, to whom she gives her full time.
Lata has seen her mother and father dancing since she was a child. Ratna had decided to make Lata a successful Classical dancer. She just wants Lata to make career in dancing only. Lata is like an object for her mother who blindly follows what her mother ask her to do.
The story now jumps to Lata who falls in love with a boy named, Vishwas. Ratna tells Vishwas that she can only agrees for their marriage if he won’t stop Lata from dancing after marriage. When Ratna died, Lata chooses her family over dancing. Jairaj is very happy for Lata as she is not selfish like her mother and chooses her family over dancing.
Conclusion : In play, Jairaj character is very interesting who chooses dancing career without thinking that it suits to females only. He enjoyed dancing so he chooses it as career without caring about other people. Neither he stops his wife from dancing after marriage.