Dance Like a Man is a play written by renowned contemporary Indian playwright 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 a character named Jairaj, an avid dancer married to Ratna. Both Jairaj and Ratna are avid classical dancers and aspire to a career in dance. Jairaj comes from a Gujarati family, and Ratna from a South Indian family.
For Jairaj and Ratna, dance is not just a hobby, but a way of life. A new character enters the scene: Amritlal, Jairaj’s father, a former freedom fighter. Amritlal dislikes singing and dancing. Jairaj started dancing as a hobby, but now he is an avid classical dancer and aspires to a career in dance. However, Jairaj’s father disapproves of this, wanting him to pursue something else. Amritlal dislikes it when Jairaj practices dance with his wife.
On the other hand, Amritlal’s wife and Jairaj’s mother support both of them in their dance. If Jairaj were a woman, his father wouldn’t have minded it, but since Jairaj is a man, he wants him to do men’s work. Worst of all, Jairaj wants to grow his hair like his guru, who is a man but walks and behaves like a woman. Jairaj believes that growing his hair will make him a better dancer.
Amritlal is a narrow-minded man who considers dance to be the work of prostitutes. Sometimes, Amritlal feels that Jairaj’s passion for dance could ruin his life. Amritlal thinks dancing is a woman’s job, so he doesn’t like his son moving his waist like a woman. The story now focuses on Ratna, who is very selfish and will do anything for it. Ratna is an ambitious woman who will pursue a career in dance at any cost.
To learn dance in depth, Ratna goes to a 75-year-old woman who was once a prostitute for lessons. When Amritlal learns where Ratna goes to dance, he asks his son, Jairaj, to stop her from going there, or he will expel them from his house.
Jairaj argues with his father about his wife and eventually leaves home with her. The couple goes to Ratna’s uncle’s house, where they discover within two or three days that Ratna’s uncle has ill intentions for her.
So they return to their home, but before entering the house, Amritlal sets a condition for Ratna: only he is allowed to dance, not Jairaj. Amritlal asks Ratna to stop Jairaj from dancing. Since Ratna is selfish and passionate about dance, she agrees.
Ratna tries her best to keep Jairaj away from important dance roles. She treats him like a supporting actor. Jairaj wasn’t getting any roles for dancing, unaware that his own wife was preventing him from getting lead roles. Here, we can see Ratna’s selfishness; she supported him only as long as he liked, but now she has abandoned him because he was hindering her dancing career.
As the story progresses, Jairaj and Ratna give birth to a son named Shankar. However, Ratna is so obsessed with dance that she doesn’t care for her son and gives him to her nanny to care for. The nanny would give Shankar a dose of opium to calm him down. Shankar died from an opium overdose. Subsequently, Ratna gave birth to a daughter named Lata, to whom she devotes all her time.
Lata has watched her parents dance since childhood. Ratna was determined to make Lata a successful classical dancer. She wants Lata to pursue a career in dance. Lata is like an object to her mother, blindly following her mother’s orders.
The story now focuses on Lata, who falls in love with a boy named Vishwas. Ratna tells Vishwas that she will agree to their marriage only if he doesn’t stop Lata from dancing after marriage. After Ratna’s death, Lata chooses her family over dance. Jayraj is very happy for Lata because she isn’t selfish like her mother and chooses her family over dance.
Conclusion: In the play, Jayraj’s character is very interesting, who chooses dance as a career without thinking that it is only suitable for women. He enjoyed dancing, so he chose it as his career without caring about others. Nor did he stop his wife from dancing after marriage.
AMAZON LINK : DANCE LIKE A MAN BY MAHESH DATTANI