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Mahesh Dattani

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Mahesh Dattani
Born(1958-08-07)7 August 1958(age 65)
Bangalore,Mysore State
(nowBengaluru,Karnataka), India
AwardsSahitya Akademi Award

Mahesh Dattani(born 7 August 1958) is an Indiandirector,actor,playwrightandwriter.He wrote such plays asFinal Solutions,[1]Dance Like a Man,Bravely Fought the Queen,On a Muggy Night in Mumbai,Tara,Thirty Days in September 2007[2][3]andThe Big Fat City.

He is the first playwright in English to be awarded theSahitya Akademi Award.[4]His plays have been directed by eminent directors likeArvind Gaur,Alyque PadamseeandLillete Dubey.

Dattani makes a bold move when he choses to address the issues concerning gender discrimination. His writings then become important when you wish to explore how deeply certain stereotypes are rooted in society.[5]

Early life and background[edit]

Mahesh Dattani was born inBangaloretoGujaratiparents.[6][7]He went toBaldwin Boys High Schooland then went on to joinSt. Joseph's College, Bangalore.[8]

Dattani is a graduate in history, Economics and Political Science. He completed his post-graduate in Marketing and Advertising Management because he wanted to become acopywriter.He worked with the Bangalore Little Theatre, where his first role was inUtpal Dutt'sSurya Shikhar.[9]

After reading Edward Albee's playWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?early in his life, he became interested in writing. He was also influenced by Gujarati playwrightMadhu Rye'sKumarni Agashiand developed an interest in play writing.[10]

Career[edit]

Mahesh Dattani began his career as a copywriter in an advertising firm. In 1986, he wrote his first full-length play,Where There's a Will,and since 1995, he has been working as a full-time theatre professional.[11]He has also worked with his father in the family business.[9]

Dattani is also a film director. His debut film isMango Souffle,adapted from one of his plays. He also wrote and directed the movieMorning Raaga.[12]

Playwright[edit]

  • Where There's a Will(1988)
  • Dance Like a Man(1989)
  • Tara: A Play in Two Acts(1990)
  • Bravely Fought the Queen(1991)
  • Final Solutions(1993)[13]
  • Do The Needful
  • On a Muggy Night in Mumbai(1998)
  • Seven Circles Round The Fire(Radio play for BBC) (Seven Steps around the Fire) (1998)[14]
  • 30 Days in September(2001)[15]
  • The Girl Who Touched the Stars (2007)
  • Brief Candle(2009)
  • Where Did I Leave My Purdah(2012)
  • The Big Fat City(2012)[16]

Filmography[edit]

Director[edit]

Awards[edit]

  • Dance Like a Manhas won the award for the Best Picture in English awarded by the National Panorama in 1998
  • Sahitya Academy awardfor his book of playsFinal Solutions and Other Plays
  • Sahitya Kala ParishadselectedFinal Solutions(1993),Tara(2000) and30 Days in September(2007) as best productions of the year, directed byArvind Gaur.

References[edit]

  1. ^Deepa Punjani."In Retrospect: Select plays of the 9th National Theatre Festival at Nehru Centre, Mumbai".mumbaitheatreguide. Archived fromthe originalon 1 March 2009.Retrieved2 April2009.
  2. ^Romesh Chander (30 March 2007)."Lifting the veil".The Hindu.Chennai, India. Archived fromthe originalon 7 November 2012.Retrieved2 April2009.
  3. ^"Stage On & Off".The Telegraph.Calcutta, India. 19 November 2005. Archived fromthe originalon 24 September 2006.
  4. ^PTI (29 December 1998)."Sahitya Academy awards announced".The Indian Express.Retrieved2 April2009.[permanent dead link]
  5. ^"30 years on, Tara's messages on gender discrimination, disability still resonate".4 September 2019.
  6. ^Rajan, Anjana (18 June 2014)."Paradox at play".The Hindu.
  7. ^"Drama is about character revelation".The Thumb Print. 1 November 2012.
  8. ^"Mahesh Dattani".mapsofindia.Retrieved9 May2016.
  9. ^abDe, Aditi (14 July 2001)."The Drama in Mahesh Dattani's Life".Man's World.Retrieved13 April2020.
  10. ^"The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum - Article".
  11. ^Madur (10 October 2011)."Mahesh Dattani".Retrieved13 April2020.
  12. ^Bhawana Somaaya(22 November 2004)."Story teller".ScreenIndia.Retrieved2 April2009.
  13. ^Drama critics."Mahesh Dattani's Final Solutions".Archived fromthe originalon 18 March 2009.Retrieved2 April2009.
  14. ^Dattani, Mahesh (15 July 2013).Seven Steps around the Fire: A Radio Play.Penguin UK.ISBN9789351182153.
  15. ^Saraswat, Surbhi. "Writing Wrongs: Mahesh Dattani's Thirty Days in September as a Trauma Narrative." Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry 12.3 (2021).
  16. ^Saraswat, S., “Urban Materiality and Social Change: Mapping the Urban Reality in Mahesh Dattani's the Big Fat City”, ECS Transactions, vol. 107, no. 1, pp. 13701–13708, 2022.
  17. ^Diwan Singh Bajali (20 February 2003)."Going bananas over Mango Souffle".The Hindu.Archived from the original on 31 July 2004.Retrieved2 April2009.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

9. G Baskaran, ed., Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani: Methods and Motives, Yking Books, Jaipur, 2012.

External links[edit]

  • Bhattacharya, Anindya. "Desire and the Postcolonial Nation" inSeven Steps around the FireandFinal Solutions.The Plays of Mahesh Dattani: An Anthology of Recent Criticism.Ed. Tutun Mukherjee.New Delhi:Pencraft International, 2012 (ISBN978-93-82178-03-3), pp. 184–196.
  • Roy, Pinaki. "Mahesh Dattani'sFinal Solutions:A Brief Rereading ".Mahesh Dattani: His Stagecraft in Indian Theatre.Ed. Bite, V.New Delhi:Authors Press, 2013 (ISBN978-81-7273-737-5), pp. 111–24.
  • Das, B.K. "Mahesh Dattani'sDance Like a Man:A Thematic Study ".The Atlantic Literary Review 15.3 (2014).Ed. Rama Kundu.New Delhi:Atlantic Pub., 2014 (ISBN978-81-269-2052-5), pp. 73–80.
  • Das, B.K. "In Search of Shakespearean Echoes in Mahesh Dattani: A Study ofThe Big Fat Cityas a Critique of Contemporary Urban Indian Society ".Yearly ShakespeareVol. XIV (2016). Ed. Goutam Ghosal.Santiniketan:Sri Aurobindo Study Centre, 2016 (ISSN 0976-9536), pp. 60–69.
  • Das, B.K. "The Tale of an Imperial Kin: Unfolding the East-West Problematic in Mahesh Dattani'sThe Tale of a Mother Feeding Her Child".World Journal of Gender & Literature 4.1 (June 2017). Ed. Lata Mishra. New Delhi: Authorspress, 2017 (ISSN 2349-1620), pp. 135–142.
  • Bhattacharyya, Joydeep. "Vijay Tendulkar's A Friend's Story and Mahesh Dattani's Seven Steps Around the Fire and On a Muggy Night in Mumbai: Reperforming Gender".IUP Journal of English Studies,14.3 (Sept, 2019). ISSN 0973-3728, pp. 7-20.
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