Dattani and His Dramatic Output- Social Reality on Stage

Abstract

Mahesh Dattani is one of the most dynamic voice of modern Indian English drama. He is widely acknowledged for his innovative techniques in stagecraft. He has shown new possibilities in dramatic techniques and devices to his contemporaries and future playwrights. He writes plays in English and is the first Indian English playwright to win the prestigious National Sahitya Akademi award for his play Final Solutions and Other Plays in 1994. His play Dance Like a Man has won the Best Picture in English award, presented by the National Panorama In 1998. The Sahitya Kala Parishad selected Final Solutions (1997), Tara (2000) and Thirty Days in September (2007) directed by Arvind Gaur, as Best Productions of the Year. Dattani is a fine artist, craftsman and visionary. All his plays have immense scope for performance. The paper examines the dramatic output of Dattani and tries to locate the inherent characteristics in them, with a view to determining his thematic concerns.