Dance Like a Man keeps time to inherent family tunes
The Hindu
The classic play ‘Dance Like a Man’ captures the subtle undertones found in familial relationships
On the surface, Mahesh Dattani’s play, Dance Like a Man explores relationships within a family. As the plot dives deeper into a sea of emotions, however, the story unravels, bringing to the shore the ideas that swim against those in mainstream society.
Introduced through Lata, in the 1990s, the story weaves between the past and the present through the characters of Jairaj, Ratna, Amritlal, Lata and Viswas, engendering conversations about dreams, desires and sacrifices that come under the lens of gender and patriarchy.
Samragni Dasgupta, 23, of Last Page Collective is the director of the play. Discussing what it is to be a man, she says this is one of the primary questions they hope to answer through the play. “Jairaj became a dancer, going against his father’s wishes. Even as he broke through some stereotypes, he fell into others,” she says over phone from Bengaluru.