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Research Paper | Humanities | Volume 15 Issue 4, April 2026 | Pages: 1205 - 1206 | India
Mahesh Dattani as a Pioneer of Indian Drama
Abstract: Mahesh Dattani occupies a central position in contemporary Indian English drama for his sustained engagement with socially sensitive themes and his representation of marginalized identities. This paper examines Dattani as a pioneering dramatist through a close reading of his major plays?Final Solutions, Tara, Dance Like a Man, and On a Muggy Night in Mumbai. Using a qualitative textual methodology, the study explores his thematic concerns, including communalism, patriarchy, identity crisis, and sexuality, alongside his dramaturgical innovations. Dattani?s plays foreground the contradictions of urban middle-class India and reveal latent prejudices embedded within domestic and social spaces. His blending of realism with symbolic and non-linear techniques produces a distinctive theatrical idiom. The paper argues that Dattani redefined Indian English drama by making it socially engaged, psychologically nuanced, and culturally grounded. His works not only reflect society but interrogate it, thereby establishing him as a pioneer of modern Indian theatre.
Keywords: Mahesh Dattani, Indian English Drama, Communalism, Gender, Identity, Theatre, Realism, Marginality
How to Cite?: Ramen Goswami, "Mahesh Dattani as a Pioneer of Indian Drama", Volume 15 Issue 4, April 2026, International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR), Pages: 1205-1206, https://www.ijsr.net/getabstract.php?paperid=MR26421140952, DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.21275/MR26421140952