Dance like a Man!

“ ..., dance like no one is watching.” --- Satchel Paige.
But the truth is people do watch and make one dance.


Dance like a man by Mahesh Dattani, deals with the dogma of being a man in the forties of indian society. Though the story revolves around the a dancer couple and their family, but at the emotions of the play lies in the emotional and social dance. Jairaj did dance to the tune of his father, his dancer and intelligent wife and to the tune of this society.
"Oh! He is a dancer."
"Oo! He is a great dancer."
the absence of one word destroyed Jairaj. We all laughed aloud when Viswas enacted Jairaj's father ridiculing Jairaj in the opening scene.

Viswas's character brought in the views of a common man which most of us could laugh at and also his character gives a comparative emphasis to the uncommon hero Jairaj. Viswas is part of the generation 3 of the act, along with Jairaj and Ratna's daughter Lata.

First generation of the act is occupied by of Jairaj's successful father and a freedom fighter, an eminent figure and the post Independence society. Back then, the only heirs of our ancient dance were prostitutes aka dev-daasis.

As the child's interest became the passion of the young man, it became more and more social stigmatic for his father. "Dance doesn’t make you a man!"
"You make me help Jairaj to grow up! , I will support your dance in the best possible way I can."
"What will he do if he leaves dance?"
"Make him worth you."

Ratna played the tune composed by her father-in-law. Jairaj danced and succumbed to his own weaknesses and the broken confidence. An unsuccessful husband and a drunkard father nursing his humiliated self.

The pick of the emotions is when Ratna cries over her daughter’s national acclaim by her dance performance. Ratna’s breakdown shows the jealousy and the mourning over her own failure.

Lillete Dubey’s direction has been lively, but the there were a lot too much differences between the characters of young and the old Jairaj. Both if viewed separately were good, but the only connection that seemed is a broken drunkard man, apart from that the character has lost all his identity.

All-in-all, the story and plot is a big win and it does make you laugh and cry and connects to you on the emotional level.


Cast :
Older Jairaj : Vijay Crishna.
Ratna : Lillete Dubey.
Lata : Suchrita Pillai.
Viswas : Joy Sengupta.

Jairaj's father : Vijay Crishna.
younger Jairaj :Joy Sengupta.
younger Ratna: Suchrita Pillai .

Directed by : Lillete Dubey.
Script: Mahesh Dattani.

Dated: April 7th 2007
Venue: Shilaparaman, Hyderabad.


Plot summary : http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/hindi/review/7306.html
References : http://inkpot.com/theatre/02reviews/02revdanclikeman.html

Historical facts: Dance was not restricted to women in pre Mughals era.
Bharata Muni's Natyashastra (literally "the art of dance") is the one of the earlier texts on dance.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance#Dance_in_Indian_canonical_literature