Women as Shakti in the Plays of Mahesh Dattani

In contrast to many contemporary Indian dramatists who project Indian women as passive victims of male domination living like second class citizens, Dattani highlights them as individuals of spirit and a will of their own who can sustain their position and identity in spite of several hurdles and obstacles they face in their growth and fulfilment. As the dramatist himself graphically depicts, they are like bonsai plants that have been clipped and trimmed, their personalities pruned to male will and pleasure and made to dance to their tunes. Dattani reveals an uncommon and uncanny facet of Indian women as to how they are able to sustain themselves and often triumph over adverse circumstances revealing the core of vitality and force of life in them who never surrender but look for alternatives. It is this new dimension that this paper highlights in the plays of Dattani.