DASTAAN - Critical Appreciation

A timeless tale of love and sacrifice – Dastaan is an acclaimed T.V Serial born from partition literature of Hindustan. Dastaan revives the pages of novel ‘Bano’ by Razia Butt. More than that it blows up the emotional, consequential and philosophical quotient of life through partition and in formation of Pakistan The expected historical monotony of the backdrop is absolutely shattered into pieces by romanticism and realism of relations that bind together ‘Dastaan’ Starring Fawad Afzal Khan, Sanam Baloch and Mehreen Parizad, the screen play traces changing identity through reality of time as it goes by.

Based in Punjab prior to partition, Bano is the youngest daughter of Naseerudin’s family. As beautiful as the moon itself she is nature’s child – shy, playful, desirous without a tint of deception or greed. She and her family are a symbol of idealistic love that persisted in uni -cultural Indian society before the partition. This may sound surreal, but the work done in Dastaan doesn’t seem to leave a stone unturned in creating such an ambience.

However, the dream of partition has already touched those concerned. Hassan – a distant relative of Bano works with Muslim League and rationally supports the formation of Pakistan. While Bano’s elder brother Salim is a ‘Congressi’ who can never imagine betraying his Hindu friends or the community they’ve lived in since decades.

Hassan through series of ‘hide and seek’ encounters falls in love with Bano. His love for her is supernatural. ‘Aasmano se utaara noor hai Koi’ say the song that laces their love story. Bano reflects it back as his aspirations find a space in her heart. His love is liberation for her, it gives voice to her undiscovered love for her ‘cowm’(community), and for Pakistan. She too rebelliously helps Muslim league with their work.  Their love is serene, as sweet fragrance in the air, as dedication, innocent respect and dignity as it remains for ever.

Struggles that shaped the formation of Pakistan place their root within the house. Women become the first subtle victims of partition stress. Salim and Hassan have political debates and arguments that build into hatred from Salim’s end. Bano, her sister-in-law and Hassan’s ‘Khala’ Suraiya, her mother Bibi and Hassan’s mother Rasheeda are silently torn apart in this rivalry. They are made to choose between Salim and Hasan. With a hard heart they pick the righteous Hasan. Each at their own level volunteers to compensate the thousands of Muslim victims of riots in Bengal; and to peacefully attain a place with out fear for the Muslims in India.

However, the inevitable takes place. Over the formal announcement of formation of pakistan the agitated Hindus and Sikhs resort to riots. Punjab and Bengal being the Muslim dominated states see outrageous crimes rates. Along with others, Salim and his family become astonished victims of betrayal by their childhood Hindu friends. The men are sliced into pieces; the women are raped and brutally killed. At this time Hassan, who had left for Rawalpindi with his mother , promising his fiancé Bano to return for her in a few months succumbs in pain as the news of violence reaches him. His entire family, his people and his Bano has perished. He too starts to live a soulless life seldom with his past engraved in his heart and memories of Bano.

All the character’s in the serial are so genuine and true to themselves that it is impossible to miss the strong catharsis that takes shape. Each subtly carries their past in the present moment. Hasan keeps up a smile for his mother but he can never love anyone like he loved the serene Bano. Between them was the mischief of nature, the fragrance of first love that quenches the soul. In absence of it Hassan has become a drowning man in need of scaffolds.

He finds this in Pakistan, in working for it and in Rabbia. She is a distant relative of Hassan and an inspired picture of Pakistan. Rabbia witnessed partition from far; hence she hasn’t lost herself to a hideous past like Hassan’s. A woman of dignity, poise and strength, she comes to Hassan as a sudden breath of air, a will to live.

All this while, Bano is alive in Amritsar. She is hostage to a Sikh named Basanta Singh. In love with the beauty of his conquest he tries to gain her trust by a promise to send her to her Pakistan. Bano never reverts the love back. This drains Basanta’s lies and patience and he resort to having her forcefully married to him and bear his child. For five years Bano lived in this hell, burns in daily violence that slowly and completely wipes her identity, her purity, now reduced to a sole proud Pakistani against the treachery of non-Muslims. Alive only in hope to see her united and just Muslim nation she gets slaughtered and fights to preserve last this identity everyday

Bano’s condition is disgrace to humanity. A woman alone can survive such hardships as she is catapulted from one world to another. Yet again she is thrown into another world she fleets India with her son. When Bano’s sacrifices in India when come to face the reality of Pakistan: the disappointment drives her to insanity. Her past experiences have raised her expectations from Pakistan so much so that she is unable to accept the present for what it is.

Similarly Hassan is caught up in the turbulent of his past and present. He had proposed his love to Rabbia with a promise to never leave. But he is unwilling to betray to his duty towards Bano – his first love. He tries his best to pull Bano out of her depression and convience her to marry him. However Rabbia, sensitive to the situation, is against Hassan’s second decision for genuine reason. Bano - having forcefully lived with another man for five years and giving birth to a child she hates – doesn’t require a marital consolation. All she dreams is a corruption free Pakistan.

Towards the end of it Bano liberates herself by disposing an evil soul from Pakistan. The serial closes with Bano being jailed for her crime and Hassan married off to Rabbia. The serial is an epic tale of partition of India and its consequence which gives way to knowledge and sympathy towards the past among people. An excellent show of its time Dastaan is still highly appreciated and watched through the world in many languages.  

CLUB DESIRE - A stage play review

                                                     

Once I was struck by a curiosity bug carving to know the difference between music and literature.  After a lot of thinking, I came up with no answer.  There was no difference – they we both cognitive desires of human. Giving voice to that thought welcome to ‘Club Desire’ – a play which so realistically gives words to our ideas of desire. Placed in a night club, it revolves around the concept of love, tradition, possession, order, anarchy, where music and words form the driving components of the act. On a larger note it is the contemporary version of the 19^th century opera ‘Carmen’ – premiered at NCPA, Mumbai on 24^th of October 2103.

Adapting ‘Carmen’, the plot of the play remains the same while the values at stake fall in line with today’s world. Chahat, the female protagonist of the play is a dazzling singer at the club. She calls herself a ‘rebel’ and has a strong sense of self-identity and freedom which comes from her spontaneous singing. Jayam is a poet, who falls in love with Chahat, and has complete faith in the beauty and order of the world. Compared to the gypsy Carmen, Chahat is more complicated a story. She is out front, bold, and yet we see she has had hard time with her foster family as she breaks down after recalling them in her song.

She is feminist character with respect for woman’s occupation. We can relate her to the intervened fictional character within the play – Gulabo. Chahat sustains justifications for Gulabo’s position, who ‘Loves a man, yet sleeps with another’. She believes that Gulabo is not cheating on the fictional hero, but is obliging to her occupation as a ‘mujhre wali’. Chahat’s brave, ruthless temperament defies all stereotypes linked to women. She doesn’t adore beauty or order; she is wild, crazy, and outspoken. 

A very power statement comes from Chahat as a reply to Jayam’s argument about her hidden pregnancy. She says “You are the father Jayam, when I tell you that you are the father”. And in that scene she takes the goodies away, lust like in some other scenes too.  In her favorite song about an Armadillo, which is her connect to her true self and family, she shares the fate of the Armadillo who can not sing. Chahat knows that she too is not free from possession of love; she too can not sing and be what she wants. Yet, in an attempt to achieve her freedom, looses her life and attains her desire just as the Armadillo. Such manifestation of Chahat brings a female protagonist and her deep dug issues to the forefront of our mind.

 Jayam is an organized, beauty lover ‘buzzing bee’. A translator and a poet, he utters his memoranda of love at first sight with Chahat in a beautiful Hindi poem addressing is mother. While reciting the poem ‘Chahat Kya Hai Ma?’ the actor Rashid Faisal, allows himself flow with such exacting expressions of love. Many other poems of the play receive like wise treatment from him, mesmerizing the audience into the scene.

As a character,  Jayam is a man with feet in too many boats. ‘You can’t love and be in order’ this Chahat tells him. In fact, his tragic story is prey to this feature of his, where he losses everything he has at his own hands. He loves Chahat, loves his mother, loves poetry, and he links all three together so tight that it leaves him and Chahat breathless. His mother is old and sick with probably Alzimers, she serves as his only family that he wishes to cling on to. Chahat becomes his love and inspiration for his poetry similar to his mother and he wishes her to follow protocol of women-cum wife and meet his mother. Obviously Chahat doesn’t give in to him.

Motifs

Love – Desire

Club Desire explores the true and fatal nature of love and desire in a man’s and women’s lives. It is a pigment that binds together Yin and Yan such as Jayam and Chahat. For all that is known from their character, they could have gone separate ways with out challenging each other’s existence. But, alas! They fall so deep in love that it hurts Jayam to stay away from Chahat while she too can’t resist his charms. ‘Mujhe to dard ho raha hai use dhoor rehne se’,  ‘Kya mein usse chu lu’, Shayad na chunese hum dono adhure rehjaye’, all this composites the poetry of Jayam. And for all we know the fire flares equally on the other side.

As the love blooms among the two, so does the feeling of jealousy and possession. This, especially in Jayam , who tries to bar her from drinking, and talking to DJ Abeer in the night club. He even grows insecure when Chahat’s boss touches her in a casual bar habit.  Jayam replicates the love for his mother in Chahat, and with her being his source of happiness and inspiration; he goes to an implausible extend of possession and finally kills her for not being possessed by him.

For Chahat love is what does not cling on, it does not want to possess.  Her character would want to be accepted by its lover and not changed. ‘He wants to enter her world and change it, what crap?’ are her words in referring to the failed love story of Gulabo and her lover. Love means more to her than just ‘exclusive sex’ which is not guaranteed in Gulabo’s case.  She has had great time with Jayam who soothes her familial wounds and is there in the happy moments where she recalls her dead father’s song. That seem a neutral position to be in and beyond that is beyond Chahat’s capacity. Her sexuality, her pregnancy and her sexuality does not change her definition of love.

Family

Jayam’s father had left his mother and him.  His mother lost her memory in depression. This left Jayam in haywire to figure life on his own. So he does, and he tries to grasp on to what every family ties he has got, even if they be the ugliest. In fact it is his family that bestowed upon him the passion for poetry. His mother, an ex-Hindi literature teacher, responded to him for the first time after he recited a poem to her. Further on Jayam is exploring the field he hopes for his family to mother to return back to him.

The case of Chahat is different, because for her family has been a ‘catastrophe’, and she a ‘veteran’ of it. It is lost, yet she too is in search for her origin as she recalls her father’s song. And she too is inspired by her father to pick music as a career. But unlike Jayam she isn’t obsesses about her past, she has let it go and relishes the world of today and now. Jayam on the other hand cherishes am imaginary order of life where family is of chief importance. Dedicated to that thought, he has no hobbies, no habits, and no life. He seems ‘some kind of slave’ as Chahat frames it. Asking of Jayam to choose between his original family and Chahat, the play marks a contemporary split between modernity and tradition.

Words and Sounds – Order and anarchy

The protagonists standing for their own profession highlight the contrast between their tastes. Words and sound both compliment each other but when they fight against each other in form of Jayam and Chahat a massacre is bound to occur. Jayam doesn’t like Chahat’s music and refutes her unthoughful use of words in them. ‘All words are precious’ he says and Chahat apparently flings them out, distorts them in her songs. This contradiction and love between the two leads to death of one of them.

Conclusion

Club desire entertains a very rare but capitulating theme of life and death, Music and Literature and the love for them. It gives a kick to the audience and gives them a desired illusion of love at the stake of life.

Dance Like A Man - A stage play

First performed on 22^nd September 1989 in Bangalore, Dance Like a Man is a play in two acts that deserves re-visiting of its layers for the purpose of intended enlightenment.

Plot:

The plot revolves around two main characters Ratna and Jairaj, sub-prime characters Lata and Viswas, and the authoritarian father of Jairaj – Amritlal Parekh. Ratna and Jairaj are disciples of Indian classical dance and used to practice in Amritlal’s library in 1940’s. Amritlal, a rich freedom fighter and reformer was strictly against Jairaj making his passion for dancing his career. In his attempt to stop Jairaj from dancing and spoiling family’s reputation, Amritlal repels his son and daughter-in-law away from the house. However, defeated by financial crisis and abuse, they return home.

In a very covert manner, Amritlal strikes a deal with Ratna where he will provide for all of Ratna’s learning needs if she ‘helps Jairaj become a man’ for him. Ratna being selfish agrees to do so at the cost of Jairaj’s career. She starts accepting invitations to perform alone, she portrays Jairaj into the her own shadow, makes him perform his bad pieces and insults him in front of others. Jairaj in this way becomes the victim of fate and turns out to be a drunkard.

This story is buried down deep in Ratna and Jairaj’s heart. It comes about as a result of blame game that the couple plays amongst each other. Ratna doesn’t consider Jairaj man enough for he returned back to his father’s house; it is because of him that they are nothing. As for Jairaj, the realization that he has been the guinea pig in his father’s plan and Ratna has been a conscious part of it eats him up. This topic was heated up back then and even now it boils up now up and then. But the sacrifice of their son Shankar who died an infant due to irresponsibility was just not worth it.

At the end, every thing resolves itself by the great pacifier death after which Jairaj and Ratna are free to dance like gods.

Exposition and Themes:

An appreciated method of Theatre is that which revitalizes matter from the mundane. Dance like A Man opens with general conversation between two semi-prime characters Lata and Viswas. It very effectively introduces the love-birds who wish to get married with Lata’s parent’s consent. Lata, a dancer tours Viswas through her house as they wait for her parents to come back home. Viswas is the son of a rich Marwadi who’s witty as well as nervous to-be-son-in-law attitude has audience pepped up with laughter.

The setting is well hinted at by the house the play is based in. It is the post independence era where freedom is predominant; Freedom for inter-cast marriages and freedom to dance. It kind of provides contrast to the theme of lack of freedom for a man to dance. Lata and Viswas in a sublte manner weave the whole web for the play to proceed fluently. They talk about their parents, grand-parents and economic conditions and apparent situation all in the opening conversation.

Lata’s Parent Ratna and Jairaj are caught in a desperate situation that takes a toll on them. They need a replacement for a musician in Lata’s debut performance. And just from their response to this ‘crisis’, leaks the stringent mud of their rotting relationship. One thing leads to another and Jairaj and Ratna’s past itself comes out on the stage; the jeopardy of their life, their loss that lead to the current scenario.

This exposition quite phenomenally leads to the primary theme of the play: The prejudice of a man’s image in society. This image is held sturdy by Jairaj’s father Amritlal Parekh who wishes Jairaj to discontinue his passion for dancing so that he becomes a man. Amritlal Parekh was rich and respected. A freedom fighter, yet ironically he is be-fated to be the villain in his son’s life. He ruined Jairaj by stealing his freedom to step out side the stereotype of a man’s role.

Another important theme is the political games that those in power play. Amritlal was in financial power while Ratna too had social power on her side in 1940’s. Both of them come together to suppress the helpless Jairaj. He too looses his stand in the confusion of the game where the tables have turned. Running along this circumstances Dance like A Man questions the sanity of a world where women can reside in a man’s world but a man isn’t allowed to live his dream of dancing.

Other intervened themes are jealousy which harbors in the mind of Ratna. She desired the kind of success that Lata has gained and tries to flatters herself and her ego by taking credit in it. Also, the hypocrisy of society is a theme that lives through Amritlal Parekh. He has attained a virtual freedom for his country yet is intolerant of  reality the way it is. Jairaj and Ratna having gone through such pains but the sacrifice proved worthless for being in the wrong direction.

Characters:

Amritlal Parekh: Father of Jairaj, Amritlal is a strict man, conservative and prudish His actions are mainly defined by this appearance in society. He accepted Ranta because it suited his image as a liberal-minded person to have a daughter-in-law from outside the community. The play shows him as an autocratic person who is filled with prejudice and hypocrisy. He did not fight for independence but for power. He dislikes his son dancing but not his daughter-in-law. He is against prostitutes. He is against Dance guru’s being half clad and keeping long hair. Amritlal is almost a nightmare that has turned Jairaj and Ratna’s life into hell.

Ratna: She is a bold and clever for all the play says. She is a charming, cheesy character who wishes to be in the spotlight forever. This could be the reason why she pushed Jairaj out from her competition. Ratna fixed up media and coverage for Lata’s debut performance and tried her best to make Lata very popular. By this, she seeks her own dream in Lata’s as her time didn’t serve her well.

She is also a hysterical character, always anxious and worried. She is conscious of her own actions as she speaks boldly to Amritlal Parekh about her preposition and stance in the situation. In fact, it is this boldness of hers that transits Jairaj’s role upon her. Therefore she wasn’t considerate enough about taking care of her first child Shankar.

Jairaj: He is the tragic character of the play Dance Like A Man, who was able to dance freely only after his death. Dancing is his passion which he was forced to discontinue from. This turned him into a good-for-nothing person who wasn’t man enough for his wife. Jairaj is a rebellious character who raised a confident voice against his father and out-ruled his believes. But unfortunately for him, the era wasn’t ready to see a man express his freedom outside his ideal roles. He is a man of spontaneous actions and yet an innocent who’s life was wasted in his father’s pursuit of a ‘grown up man’ in him.

Lata: A recurring name in Dattani’s plays, Lata signifies freedom, confidence of the younger generation. She is a bubbly yet sensible character. With her parent’s behind her back, Lata’s life is perfectly in place. Like her parent’s she too holds the torch for Indian classical dance. She represents Ratna’s only dreams of fame. Ratna makes the best arrangements for Lata’s debut performance. Lata is not just the winner of love but also of jealousy.

 

Critical Gender Perspective:

Dance Like A Man has a shrewd perspective of gender bias. As a matter of fact this perspective laces many of Dattani’s plays where the traditional woman such as Ratna is portrayed as the demon in the male protagonist Jairaj’s life. Such an image in Indian scenario is unacceptable. Though criticized for such image, Dattani’s efforts in making Ratna extremely plausible are commendable. She is like a spring that after being pushed too much bounces back. She probable bring to forefront the ambitions, aspiration, jealousy and conspiracy of a women. That of course lead her to a tragic end.

Mahesh Dattani arouses our sympathies for Jairaj in a subtle manner. Jairaj is very well justified as the victim of social contempt. And yes of course the tables have turned here in 1940’s itself. This seems a little bit more to digest but then men’s liberation is a part of feminism and hence depicted flawlessly in this play. The focus is on how liberal mined people like Amritlal Parekh harbor stereotypes on male’s gender role. It is a universal theme. Hence, Dance like a man has been an amazing play to watch and analyze. 

Mahesh Dattani

The mastermind behind the scene – Mahesh Dattani is a renowned writer, director and actor. Born on 7^th August 1958, he is acclaimed as the finest writer of serious contemporaries that Indian has seen. Dattani began his career as an Advertising copywriter, and then slowly drifted to his passion for writing play. His first play Where There Is Will was written in 1986, followed by a deluge of them. Dance Like A Man in 1989, Tara in 1990, Bravely Fought The Queen in 1991, On a Muddy Night in Mumbai in 1998 and in 2001 the bold play 30 Days in September, and many more.

Dattani’s plays Dance Like A Man, Ek Alag Mausam and Mango Soufflé have been adapted into cinema. He has also written specifically for the big screen, for instance Morning Raaga. As a writer he writes for an actor, for the stage, which then is conceptualized and perfected by the director. Fortunately for him, he gets to serves all the three roles. Almost all the debut performances of his plays are directed by him. This allows his writer eyes to bring to life his script in an exactly manner, and also leave a blue print for other directors to follow.

But the greatest plus point of Mahesh Dattani is his unique treatment of Theatre. Remaining faithful to it, he acknowledges theatre as the best medium of communication between writer and audience via performers. Audience play a very important part in his theatre as it is at them that every play poses a question towards. Hence, Dattani’s plays are merely windows into the life of people. Like mirror they reflect the dilemma, the prejudice, and the hypocrisy of life. Then it is left to the audience to connect and mend their own solutions to the picture.

Mahesh Dattani’s plays are much enjoyable because he writes as an observer where no detail is spared in characterization. His produced realistic work seeks for justice and fairness in the society. His themes touch upon the subjects which make him angry. 30 Days in September depicts sincerely the consequence of child abuse on adult life of a girl. It is a play so powerful that it can make the audience uncomfortable and disturbed enough to tear off the face of child abuse from the society and shred it into pieces. Dance like A Man the evils of patriarchy system and its selective expectations from a Man. Many of his plays portray the reality of Homosexuals.

 Another interesting note on Mahesh Dattani’s flare is his mind-blowing capacity to build a plot of universal sympathy around his realistic characters. His craft never seems to fail. Dattani is the first playwright in English to be awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award. Dance Like A Man has won the award for the Best Picture in English awared by National Panaroma in 1998. His books of plays Final Solution & Other Plays has won Sahitya Academy Award. Mahesh Dattani now resides in Bangalore and works as a full time writer in his dream studio. His is still admen on his quest to display varied content of varied appeal.

Perhaps

Perhaps,

 I have just started to accept the devil in me.

So strongly it lurks in me.
I am unable to resist.
The looks of it seen pale in me.
It is here. It is here.
The devil is within me.
It lurks like a friend in foe or perhaps it's a foe in friend.