The book undertakes the study of social realism in the plays of Mahesh Dattani. The social issues which Dattani has taken into consideration have been examined critically. The aspects examined have contemporary relevance and the playwright’s aim is to make audience aware about these issues. The selected plays for this book are: Where There’s a Will (1988), Dance Like a Man (1989), Tara (1990), Bravely Fought the Queen (1991), Final Solutions (1993), Do the Needful (1997), On a Muggy Night in Mumbai (1998), Seven Steps Around the Fire (1999) and Thirty Days in September (2001). The entire book is about depiction of contemporary social reality in the plays of Mahesh Dattani and the way we look at those realities and the need to change our outlook for the better of society. The issues that are discussed through these plays are religious harmony, gender equality, sexual abuse of children and glbt issues. There is focus on the concepts like realism, social realism and socialist realism. The book also describes social realism in Indian English drama. The author has tried to show how social realism has become one of the emerging trends in Indian English drama. The detailed historical account of some playwrights writing in the mode of social realism has been focused upon.

Mahesh Dattani, b. 1958, an Indian English playwright.

Theatres of Independence is the first comprehensive study of drama, theatre, and urban performance in post-independence India. Combining theatre history with theoretical analysis and literary interpretation, Aparna Dharwadker examines the unprecedented conditions for writing and performance that the experience of new nationhood created in a dozen major Indian languages and offers detailed discussions of the major plays, playwrights, directors, dramatic genres, and theories of drama that have made the contemporary Indian stage a vital part of postcolonial and world theatre.The first part of Dharwadker's study deals with the new dramatic canon that emerged after 1950 and the variety of ways in which plays are written, produced, translated, circulated, and received in a multi-lingual national culture. The second part traces the formation of significant postcolonial dramatic genres from their origins in myth, history, folk narrative, sociopolitical experience, and the intertextual connections between Indian, European, British, and American drama. The book's ten appendixes collect extensive documentation of the work of leading playwrights and directors, as well as a record of the contemporary multilingual performance histories of major Indian, Western, and non-Western plays from all periods and genres. Treating drama and theatre as strategically interrelated activities, the study makes post-independence Indian theatre visible as a multifaceted critical subject to scholars of modern drama, comparative theatre, theatre history, and the new national and postcolonial literatures.

This book purports to examine in depth and detail the wide spectrum of human relationships depicted by Dattani, a theme that has not been examined consistently and comprehensively by the critics so far. In order to arrive at a balanced appreciation of his mind and art, an analysis of relationships within and outside the family, including those between husband and wife, between different generations, siblings, transgendered and the miscellaneous ones have been examined using mainly socio-psychological approach. Through a series of miscellaneous relationships like those between peers, friends, boss and subordinates, communities and even strangers, Dattani enlarges the range of his subject, revealing a vast variety of human ties which one forges and lives through in one’s life. His incisive and extensive treatment of the human relationships shows not only his insightful grasp of changing social realities but also of human nature, which deepens and enhances the appeal of his theatre, underlining the humanistic values of acceptance of diversity and difference, equality and freedom for a happy and meaningful social and individual life.

Regarded by Augusto Boal as the international icon of his vision, Jana Sanskriti are the leading practitioners of Theatre of the Oppressed and Forum Theatre in India and the East. The group has worked continuously with rural communities in West Bengal since its beginnings in 1985 to reconfigure social and political relationships through theatre, achieving both a solid regional presence and an international reputation. This book combines: a biography of the group, charting their history, methodology and modes of operation an examination of Jana Sanskriti through the writings of their founder, Sanjoy Ganguly a detailed analysis of their performance events and practices, including the plays collected in Ganguly's Where We Stand (2009) practical exercises and games, taken from Jana Sanskriti's workshops and festivals. As a first step towards critical understanding, and as an initial exploration before going on to further, primary research, Routledge Performance Practitioners offer unbeatable value for today’s student.

Contemporary Indian English Literature focuses on the recent history of Indian literature in English since the publication of Salman Rushdie's novel Midnight's Children (1981), a watershed moment for Indian writing in English in the global literary landscape. The chapters in this volume consider a wide range of poets, novelists, short fiction writers and dramatists who have notably contributed to the proliferation of Indian literature in English from the late 20th century to the present. The volume provides an introduction to current developments in Indian English literature and explains general ideas, as well as the specific features and styles of selected writers from this wide spectrum. It addresses students working in this field at university level, and includes thorough reading lists and study questions to encourage students to read, reflect on and write about Indian English literature critically.