MAHESH DATTANI’S ON A MUGGY NIGHT IN MUMBAI AS A VOICE FROM THE MARGINS OF ALTERNATE SEXUALITY

Abstract

Mahesh Dattani is one of the significant playwrights of Indian English theatre who voices the issues of gender, religious tension and sexualities through his plays. The play, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, tries to explore the inner life of the people and thereby represent the marginalised abnormal sections of Indian society to render them normal.  In this context, the play is a representation and reflection of gay love and the intricacies of trust and betrayal involved. The playwright brings out these intricacies through the characterisation, that is, by making the characters speak their minds and validate that emotionally homosexuality is nothing very different from heterosexuality. If two men want to love one another, whats the harm? Dattani would say, the harm lies not in the individuals but in the oppressive, society and the norms it creates.

The present paper tries to analyze the ways in which the above observations are explicated in the play. In the light of the selected play, the paper brings out the argument on how those with alternate sexual orientations are easily victimized by the patterns of behaviour created by a society that is predominantly heterosexual and patriarchal. Also, it analyses the aspects of the play that makes it the voice of the voiceless homosexuals through the shades of gay characters created by Dattani.