How important is the family in Dattani’s plays? Answer with special reference to Tara.

What we see is that love itself is an instrument, not an end or a state of being. Bharati uses her love for Tara as a weapon against Patel, as well as an expression of her desire to compensate Tara. This should remind you of Jiten and his mother, Baa, in Bravely Fought the Queen, and their frequently expressed love for Daksha, Jiten’s daughter, who had received grievous injury when in the womb because Baa had instigated Jiten to violence against his pregnant wife. Can parental love be taken for granted? Can any love be taken for granted as a natural given? Can family relationships be assumed to be protective and loving and caring? Isn’t any and every relationship actually a site for conflict? And isn’t this a conflict for control and power? Most of these conflicts are hidden from the world and a facade of decorum and contentment is maintained. What all this puts in jeopardy quietly but completely is chances for individual growth and fulfilment.

The revelation of the skeleton in the cupboard is the typical action of a Dattani play. Here the skeleton points towards the gender issue. The action leads inexorably towards the revelation, and we see characters struggling to meet the imminent moment of crisis. Dattani doesn’t seem so much concerned with characters per se as with the process of revelation, the unearthing of secrets, the unmasking of the supportive family. Individuals cannot exist in a vacuum, cannot escape the consequences of societal dictates and familial choices. Dattani is not interested in the angst of characters, in their tragedies. This play is not Chandan’s tragedy, nor is it really Tara’s. There is tragic action in his plays, but that tragic action belongs to every day life. His is not the drama of heroes. Dattani’s world and Dattani’s characters constitute the normal middle class urban India.