Skip to content
1981
  1. Home
  2. A-Z Publications
  3. Indian Theatre Journal
  4. Volume 8, Issue 1
  5. Article
Volume 8, Issue 1
  • ISSN: 2059-0660
  • E-ISSN: 2059-0679

Abstract

Mahesh Dattani (b. 1958) is a reformist playwright of modern India whose works have been interpreted as texts of social critique. Academics such as Erin B. Mee and Asha Kuthari Chowdhari have attributed his works to the ‘invisible issues’ permeating India’s urban middle classes. They have highlighted how Dattani portrays topics such as gender inequality, homosexuality and communal violence to appeal to the public in pursuit of social reform. This article proposes that humour, in addition to these themes, is an equally essential aspect of Dattani’s reformist visions. It argues that Dattani’s humour resonates with what J. L. Styan calls the ‘dark comedy’. It explores the use of humour in Dattani’s play, (1988), through Henri Bergson’s concepts of comical inversion, rigidity and symmetrical repetition, to examine the comical elements of the events, dialogue and characters. This approach assists Dattani in posing reformative queries and, according to Styan, eliciting responses from the readers/audience.

© 2024 Intellect Ltd
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/itj_00035_1
2024-10-28
2025-04-22
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Bergson, H. (1913), Laughter: An Essay on the Meaning of the Comic, New York: The MacMillan Company.
     [Google Scholar]
  2. Chaudhuri, A. K. (2005), Mahesh Dattani: An Introduction, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  3. Dattani, M. (2016), Collected Plays, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  4. Dattani, M. ([1989] 2016), Dance Like a Man, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  5. Dattani, M. ([1993] 2016), Final Solutions, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  6. Dattani, M. ([1998] 2016), On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  7. Dattani, M. ([1988] 2016), Where There Is a Will, New Delhi: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  8. Ghosh, M. (1951), The Natyasastra, Kolkata: Asiatic Society of Bengal.
     [Google Scholar]
  9. Godbole, G. H. (1978), ‘The role of humour in classical Sanskrit plays’, Indian Literature, 21:3, pp. 101–13.
     [Google Scholar]
  10. Mee, E. B. (1997), ‘Mahesh Dattani: Invisible issues’, Performing Arts Journal, 19:1, pp. 19–26.
     [Google Scholar]
  11. Shudraka (2018), The Clay Toy-Cart: Mrchchakatikam (trans. P. Rajappa), New Delhi: Penguin Books.
     [Google Scholar]
  12. Srivastava, S. (2015), ‘Masculinity studies and feminism: Othering the self’, Economics and Political Weekly, 50:20, pp. 33–36.
     [Google Scholar]
  13. Styan, J. L. (2008), The Dark Comedy: The Development of the Modern Comic Tragedy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
     [Google Scholar]
  14. Tendulkar, V. (2003), ‘Silence! The Court is in Session’, in Collected Plays in Translation, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 53–121.
     [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/itj_00035_1
Loading
  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): avant-garde theatre; dark comedy; Mahesh Dattani; post-independence Indian drama; reform; Where There Is a Will

Most Cited Most Cited RSS feed

This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test