Dance Like a Man is a play of two acts by Mahesh Dattani. It is about the life of Jairaj and Ratna, a middle-class couple who are ardent lovers of Bharatanatyam. The play opens in the 1990s, when their daughter Lata is preparing for her arangetram (dance debut). When her fiancé Viswas comes to meet her family, and their conversations gradually reveal the past.
The story shifts between the past and the present in a series of flashbacks, focusing on the inner pain of Jairaj, his wife Ratna, and his father Amritlal Parekh, a conservative patriarch who is against his son’s interest in dance.
Dance Like a Man Summary
This play starts at the house of Jairaj and Ratna. Their daughter Lata is preparing to give her debut dance performance. Viswas, her fiancé, with marriage in mind. The atmosphere seems normal at first. But as the dialogues get deeper, the old tensions begin emerging.
Ratna and Jairaj act in contrary ways. Ratna is a domineering and vocal person, and Jairaj looks cold and resentful. Viswas can sense this discomfort. The couple discusses dance, their past careers, and how Lata is the future of their legacy. However, such chitchats slowly reveal buried feelings and past hurts.
Flashback: Jairaj’s Passion for Dance
In the form of flashback, we get a glimpse of the younger Jairaj, who aspires to be a professional Bharatanatyam dancer. He began to dance as a hobby and later takes it to be his ambition. His father, Amritlal Parekh, is a respected freedom fighter and social reformer who is against this decision of his son.
Amritlal thinks that dancing is not a man’s business—it is a woman’s business. The idea of a man dancing is humiliating and not masculine to him. He permits Jairaj to dance provided the latter does not humiliate the family. The worst part is, Jairaj wants to grow his hair like his guru, which he believes would enhance his Abhinaya (grace or expression) and his father gets furious to know this.
Ratna’s Role in the Marriage and Family
Ratna is a girl who is presented as a powerful young dancer. She does not marry Jairaj only because she loves him, but also to pursue her own dream of dancing. She sees Jairaj as her equal and partner in the art.
Nevertheless, in the course of time, it becomes evident that Ratna does not fully respect the talent of Jairaj. According to her, she is a better dancer. Amritlal intervenes in their lives, she secretly sides with him, hoping to gain his support for her own career. In doing so, she helps him keep Jairaj under control by weakening Jairaj’s independence as an artist.
The Tragedy of Jairaj’s Identity
Jairaj feels caught between his ambitious wife’s and father’s authority and loses confidence gradually. He wants to be an artist, but he is made to feel ashamed for not being “man enough.” Amritlal does not want him to grow long hair or wear costumes which look like a woman. Ratna also begins to restrict his performance opportunities.
Eventually, Jairaj ends up quitting dancing. He feels humiliated and betrayed. He becomes bitter, particularly towards Ratna, whom he accuses of using him and stealing his passion. He tells her that she took away his confidence bit by bit—by choosing the worst dance pieces for him, by making sure the lighting always favoured her, and by treating him as a background figure (a supporting dancer) in their performances.
The Death of Their Son
Another tragic period of their life is that Jairaj and Ratna had a small son, Shankar, who died. To some extent, he died because of neglect. They were very focused on dance and their careers that they abandoned the child to a caretaker who turned out to be an alcoholic. The babysitter would use a dose of afeem (opium) to make the child calm. Shankar died because of an overdose of afeem.
This tragedy brings to their relationship even more guilt and sorrow. Jairaj accuses Ratna, and Ratna says that Jairaj was a bad father. This loss remains a dark shadow in their life and is never fully healed.
Back to the Present: Lata’s Future
Lata is confident and talented. She is preparing to debut her the dance on the stage and is also considering marriage with Viswas. Ratna views Lata as a way of keeping herself alive and desires her to become an international dancer.
Viswas is uncertain, however. He is afraid of marrying into a family that is so engaged in dance. He questions Lata and tells her that she must not continue dancing after marriage. Lata is assertive and very sure of herself, revealing that she would never relinquish dancing for anyone.
All this Jairaj observes in silence. He views his daughter as the strength he lacked. He finally stands by her, secretly cheering her on to do what she wants in life, not as a daughter, wife or student, but as herself, as an artist.
Jairaj’s Acceptance
At the conclusion of the play, Jairaj realises his life. He understands that he has been manipulated and controlled, and he also realises he had even permitted it to happen. He understands clearly now that being a man does not mean power or control, it means staying true to yourself.
Jairaj is no longer interested in dancing. His daughter is now the owner of the stage. However, through giving up, he gets back part of his self-respect. He did not dance like a man in the eyes of society, but he has now ceased to dance according to others’ expectations.
Critical Appreciation of Dance Like a Man
Dance Like a Man is an Indian English play written by Mahesh Dattani. This play explores themes such as gender identity, family conflict, tradition vs personal ambition, and the burdens of patriarchy. The play is set in the environment of an Indian family of classical dancers and reveals how societal expectations crush individual freedom.
Title and Its Irony
The title, Dance Like a Man, is a clever irony. It seems to be a plain line, but there are lots of meanings in it. On the one hand, it is a stereotypical attitude of a father towards his son to behave in a masculine way. However, it also questions what it means to be a man.
Jairaj is always reminded by everyone that dance, particularly Bharatanatyam, is not suitable for a man. He is accused that he is becoming weak, feminine, even disgraceful because he pursues an art form that society considers “unmanly.”. The title, thus, asks the audience to answer: who defines masculinity? And why should art be divided by gender?
Structure and Technique
It is a two-act play which alternates between the past and present with the help of flashbacks. Such a structure enables Dattani to slowly reveal hidden tensions and past tragedies to keep the audience emotionally engaged. As the characters talk in the present, their memories take the play back in time, showing how the past still controls the present.
The language of Dattani is realistic and natural. No long-winded speeches or weighty monologues. The feelings are fostered by usual dialogues, silences, and insinuations. What is left unsaid is sometimes more powerful than what is said.
Themes in Dance Like A Man
1. Gender Roles and Patriarchy
Gender stereotyping is one theme that is very crucial in the play. The father figure, Amritlal Parekh, a respected freedom fighter, turns out to be the symbol of patriarchal authority. He feels that dance belongs to women only and that men are supposed to do more serious and so-called manly work in order to command respect. He does not want his son Jairaj to dance and keeps on abusing him because of his lack of masculinity.
This is an attitude deep-rooted in Indian society, in the sense that women are seen as delicate, emotional, and artistic, whereas men must be strong, powerful, and providers. Dattani challenges this binary illusion and depicts how it leads to hurt and loss.
2. Individual Freedom vs. Family Expectations
Another major theme in the play is the struggle between personal ambition and family devotion. Jairaj wants to pursue Bharatanatyam, but he is always foiled by his father who disapproves. His wife, Ratna, first appears to support him, but she is another person who uses him to build her own career.
The play shows that often, not every victory in the public realm is a victory of freedom. At times, the worst cages are created at home in the name of love, custom, or honour.
3. Ambition, Betrayal, and Marriage
The relationship between Jairaj and Ratna is complicated. They are wedded as dance partners, but with time, Ratna exploits the weakness of Jairaj in pushing her own agenda. Amritlal and she conspire to ensure that Jairaj becomes weaker while she shines brighter on the stage of life.
The betrayal is not wicked, but it is deeply human. Ratna too is a victim of patriarchy. She is aware of how the world of dance prefers women performers, and she employs her strengths where she can. Their marriage becomes a battleground of domination, accusation, and silent suffering.
4. Loss, Guilt and Emotional Paralysis
Another tragic element in the play is the death of Jairaj and Ratna’s little son, who is neglected to death. This is not detailed but it casts a shadow over their lives. Both accuse each other, but neither is able to forget.
This sorrow adds emotional depth to the play. It reveals that an unresolved grief can lead to lifelong bitterness. Jairaj becomes emotionless, and Ratna grows colder, as though unwilling to feel guilty about it.
5. Generational Gap
The generation gap is also highlighted in the play. Lata, the daughter of Jairaj and Ratna, represents a new, modern generation. She is talented, audacious, and willing to protect her independence. Her fiancé, Viswas, is decent and orthodox, he asks her whether she would continue dancing after marriage.
A change is evident when Lata firmly refuses to give up her dance. She will not lose her identity to fit someone else’s idea of what a woman should be.
Symbols and Symbolism
Dance itself is a strong symbol. It represents freedom, beauty, and expression, and equally represents control, competition, and belonging. To Jairaj, dance is more than a work of art; it is part of who he is. However, after being robbed of it by others, he is deprived of identity.
The house, where the play takes place, can also be described as a symbolic prison: full of memories, rules, and remnants of the past. It is only Lata who appears willing to move beyond it.
Dramatic Impact
The dramatic impact is successfully achieved by Dattani through emotional tension, realistic dialogue, and complex relationships. There is no melodrama, yet the pain is real. The play does not rely on action but creates an atmosphere of silence, revelation, and betrayal.
In the end, the audience is left reflecting not only on gender or family, but also on how easily dreams can be broken when people are forced to live to fulfil others’ expectations.
A Story of Loss and Strength
Dance Like a Man is an intense tale of an individual man struggling with identity, art, and society. The story of Jairaj is tragic yet very humane. It demonstrates how family, gender roles, and unspoken expectations may influence the life of a person.
Mahesh Dattani has perfectly fused domestic personal pain and social observation. The play does not provide easy answers; all it does is that it puts a mirror in front of Indian society, showing how we judge others and assign them gender roles, how we may betray the ones we love most, and how art may be both a gift and a weapon.
Finally, it does not matter whether a person is dancing like a man or a woman, but that he must dance with truth, dignity, and courage. It ends not with victory or defeat, but with knowledge. Lata dances. Jairaj watches. The cycle continues, but with a new hope.
Characters of Dance Like A Man
Jairaj Parekh
Jairaj is the central male character in the play, a man who once dreamed of becoming a successful Bharatanatyam dancer but ends up broken and bitter. He is sensitive, gentle in speech and a very passionate dancer. However, his passion to Dance puts at loggerheads with his father’s expectations as well as his wife’s ambitions.
Jairaj is brought up to believe that it is unnatural and improper for a man to love and practise Bharatanatyam from a very early age. His father, Amritlal Parekh, considers dance an effeminate job and does not feel it fits the nature of the man. He lets his father shape his life and career, and allows his wife, Ratna, to dictate his career.
We can identify a lack of security and silent frustration in the character of Jairaj. He is torn between being true to himself and being conventional. Ironically, he is robbed of his masculinity as well as his artistic drive: his father robs him of his status as a man and his wife robs him of his creative release. In one of the most heart-touching scenes, he tells Ratna that she is taking away his confidence bit by bit.
At the end of the play, Jairaj reconciles with life. He no longer has a desire to prove anything to anyone. He encourages his daughter’s dance career and fulfils his role in the home.
Ratna Parekh
Ratna is the wife and dancing partner of Jairaj. She is daring, gifted and persistent. She marries Jairaj because they share the same interest in Bharatanatyam, but soon she realises he does not have the same ambition and strength as she has.
Ratna has two roles in the play. On the one hand, she does not yield to the challenges of being a female artist in a conservative society. Conversely, she turns out to be a controller in the life of Jairaj. On her part, she silently partners with Amritlal so that Jairaj will be kept in control, not to ruin him, but so that her dance career can be progressive. She selects performances, stage lighting and dance items carefully in order to highlight her talent over his.
Ratna belittles Jairaj as a dancer as well as a man, though she does sincerely care about him. When their son dies due to neglect, she does not accept full blame and accuses Jairaj of being too weak to assume leadership in their family. Her relationship with her husband is a mix of love, control and dissatisfaction.
Ratna is not a bad character. She is an empowered woman who is struggling to succeed in a male-dominated world and she is doing it using whatever means she can.
Amritlal Parekh
Amritlal is Jairaj’s retired freedom fighter father. He is a respected person in society due to his political contribution, whereas he is strict and conservative at home and controlling. He strongly believes in gender roles and cannot cope with the idea that his son wants to become a dancer. Bharatanatyam, to him, is a profession that should be left to women or devadasis, and any man who dares to take up dance is weak and pathetic.
Amritlal is not a cruel man, but he applies emotional manipulation in order to make Jairaj dependent and submissive. He even goes to the extent of manipulating Jairaj through Ratna by controlling movement and every decision. Although he permits Ratna to go ahead with her dance performances, he goes too far when he attempts to do the same with Jairaj. He reflects the hypocrisy of patriarchy whereby “a woman in man’s world is considered progressive. But a man in woman’s world is considered pathetic” – a woman can break into the world of a man and be admired, but a man who dares to venture into a woman’s world is ridiculed.
His quote about a man being happy as a man is one of the things that sums up his shallow definition of masculinity. He feels that Jairaj should not be called a man considering that he decided to dance. What Amritlal fails to understand is not that he contradicts his son, but that he is not capable of conceiving any other form of masculinity. He is a man who cannot escape the past—he believes in political freedom but refuses to grant it to individuals at home.
By featuring Amritlal as a character, the author reminds the readers that even within circles of the progressive, one can be deeply conservative, and change in public life does not always imply change within the family.
Lata Parekh
Lata is the daughter of Jairaj and Ratna. She is young, free and energetic. She is also a gifted dancer, preparing for her arangetram (debut performance) at the start of the play. Lata is the face of a new generation of people who are not afraid to speak out and live their lives the way they want.
Lata is assertive compared to her father. She appears to be emotionally open, compared with her mother. She does not have the urge to blindly follow or bend her ideals. When Viswas, her fiancé, says it is possible that she will quit dancing after marriage, Lata firmly says no. She knows what she desires and will not allow marriage to govern her decisions.
Lata is also a symbol of hope and renewal in the play. She becomes the representative of both the old and the new. The reason she loves dance is because it is beautiful, not a means of power or survival. Her character demonstrates the possibility of paying tribute to the past without being controlled by it.
Lata is important, though she features in fewer scenes compared to the others. She is, in a way, the dream her parents could not live up to. Through her, we find the hope of freedom, equality and integrity in art.
Viswas
Viswas is the fiancé of Lata. He is well-behaved, inquisitive and a little afraid. His background is altogether different and he is not well acquainted with the way this family lives and breathes dance. His uncomfortable questions and conservative ideas demonstrate the reality of gender bias in society, which still persists.
He asks whether Lata will stop dancing when she gets married. He even appears undecided about marrying into the dancers family. Though he is neither aggressive nor conservative like Amritlal, his behaviour shows that social prejudices are still present, even in modern times. Through him, the play brings out key conversations among the characters.