Bending and blending, reimagining the world: Thirty years after his hit play ‘Dance Like a Man’, Mahesh Dattani recreates its sequel

Nonika Singh

Dance Like a Man’ earned playwright and director Mahesh Dattani unprecedented success. So much so that the title itself became a popular catchphrase, invariably used to describe man’s unconventional forays, especially in the domain of dance. As he is busy giving finishing touches to a sequel to his much-acclaimed play, he is, indeed, flattered that the play he wrote more than 30 years back has struck a resonance all through.

But his reasons for writing a sequel have little to do with its popularity and more with what the classical dance form means today. Dattani, a trained Bharatnatyam dancer, says, “Back in time, I was intrigued by how society responds to a male dancer. Today, I am wondering how arts and politics are intertwined and how there has been re-appropriation of art by politics.” Indeed, ‘Dance Like a Goddess’ will throw open some provocative questions. Like how do we see Bharatnatyam with a largely religious repertoire in an increasingly polarised society; through the lens of spirituality or some blinkered myopic vision? He is also looking at the Brahmanical hegemony over it. On whether we can dare to raise such contentious queries in today’s times, he replies, “The question is not if we can or not, rather, we must.”

For him, the thrill of writing plays lies in how it’s never the last word. “Actually, it finds a life only when the performers inhabit it. Just like a piece of architecture which finds wholeness only when it’s lived in,” he avers. Like many other theatre practitioners, he, too, dittoes the axiom, “Theatre is essentially an actor’s medium,” but adds, “It’s also the writer’s. In fact, the magic happens when actors, the writer and audiences come together.” Though he dubs himself “a dinosaur when it comes to technology”, lately, he has been experimenting with audio and teleplays. His latest audio play, ‘A Little Drape of Heaven’, his first collaboration with New York-based immersive theatre platform, opened to a positive feedback and was listed as one of the top five things to do in New York. Undeniably, he admits the energy or vibe of theatre can’t be replicated in an audio/teleplay. But then, he does not quite classify them as theatre, rather as independent art forms. Unlike other performing arts, he believes, “Only in theatres (for both stage performances and cinema) are audiences more willing to invest in terms of time, for they are taking out time to watch it. Besides, they also bring in their imagination. And together, we, the makers and viewers, reimagine this world.”

Interestingly, many of his plays like ‘Final Solutions’ and ‘30 Days in September’ were heavily informed by research. For ‘Final Solutions’, he spent a year talking to people to understand the notion of prejudices and the role of memory which feed the Hindu-Muslim conflicts. Similarly, for ‘30 Days in September’ that centred on incest, he spoke to actual survivors of sexual abuse. Though research helps him look beyond ‘me’, ultimately, a play is, “I see, I feel and I imagine”. Thus, the role of imagination can never ever be discounted, for ultimately, theatre is an art form with a fair degree of artifice which has to be heightened. Interestingly, when he writes a play, he reads out aloud and visualises himself as a member of the audience. But what he had never envisioned was that one day, his play (‘Dance Like a Man’) would have nearly a thousand shows. Or that his plays such as ‘Final Solutions’, exploring religious bigotry and communal violence, would be part of the university curriculum. The play, which gave him the rare distinction of becoming the first playwright in English to receive the Sahitya Akademi Award, is relevant as ever, being staged by eminent directors such as Arvind Gaur.

Indeed, the theatre scenario in the country, in English and otherwise, could always get better. He quips, “Doing theatre is not a bed of roses and ask any theatre person, there could be a thousand laments… But the plasticity of theatre, the fact that it can be moulded anytime, anywhere, performed in a living room for 10 persons as well as at Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre for 2,000, lends it a beauty beyond compare.”

In contrast, he observes, “OTT is a weapon of mass seduction where the audience is a consumer, and not an aesthete.” Cinema, which he indulged in too, he asserts, “reduces you to the position of a stage manager where you are either stage-managing for the producer or the star.” Credited with creating ‘Mango Soufflé’, touted as India’s first gay film, the man who spoke of alternate sexuality way back, may not be outright happy with its reel representation today. Nevertheless, he is glad to see the evolutionary change, which will lead to more LGBTQ characters on screen, and ultimately to the goal of inclusivity.

However, though he quite enjoyed making a musical drama film ‘Morning Raga’, starring Shabana Azmi, he has no intention of going back to cinema. Theatre it is, and will always be. While the rehearsed reading of ‘Dance Like a Goddess’ will happen on January 25, it will leap on to stage when he visits New Jersey this summer where he will direct it. Thereafter, it will be open to other directors and it’s for them to pick up the gauntlet. But how many will have his dare? He doubts if his favourite director Lillete Dubey, whom he credits with the cult status of ‘Dance Like a Man’, would be the natural ‘successor’ to direct the sequel too. But he remains an avid inheritor of theatre’s legacy to probe and make us ponder. With his razor-sharp observations and incisive writing.

While his plays have touched upon a gamut of hard-hitting concerns from gender biases to communalism to incest, there is no intellectual well-thought-out process, only an openness to absorb, sieve, churn and create. Bend and blend it like Dattani… all the while coining a distinctive idiom for Indian English theatre. ‘Giving English-speaking Indians an identity,’ as Alyque Padamsee remarked, here is a voice that is as deep as crystal clear. An intense conversation that never loses its focus or wit.