Dance like a Man , livre ebook

Mahesh Dattani
Dance Like a Man A Screenplay co-written with Pamela Rooks

PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Dance Like a Man A Screenplay co-written with Pamela Rooks
Copyright
PENGUIN BOOKS
COLLECTED PLAYS VOLUME TWO
Mahesh Dattani, born in Bangalore on 7 August 1958 studied in Baldwin s High School and St. Joseph s College of Arts and Science, Bangalore.
He has worked as a copywriter in an advertising firm and subsequently with his father in the family business. His theatre group Playpen was formed in 1984, and he has directed several plays for them, ranging from classical Greek to contemporary works. In 1986, he wrote his first full-length play, Where There s a Will , and from 1995, he has been working full-time in theatre. In 1998, he set up his own theatre studio dedicated to training and showcasing new talents in acting, directing and stage writing, the first in the country to specifically focus on new works.
Dattani is also a film-maker and his films have been screened in India and abroad to critical and public acclaim. His film Dance Like a Man has won the award for the Best Picture in English awarded by the National Panorama.
In 1998, Dattani won the Sahitya Akademi award for his book of plays Final Solutions and Other Plays , published by East-West Books Chennai, thus becoming the first English language playwright to win the award.
Dattani teaches theatre courses at the summer sessions programme of Portland State University, Oregon, USA, and conducts workshops regularly at his studio and elsewhere. He also writes plays for BBC Radio 4.
He lives in Bangalore.
Dance like a Man
A Screenplay co-written with Pamela Rooks

A Note on the Play
I have a chair that belonged to my father and, since his death, has now passed on to me. Through some unwritten rule, it is understood that this is my chair and nobody else will sit on it. I used this chair on stage for the play s Amritlal Parekh, the autocratic father, to use and nobody else sat on it-a metaphor of the unwritten rules of authority that so many of us come to accept as part of the Indian joint family. The younger Jairaj tries to go against this in the play that examines authority and prejudice socially and culturally and as we sit in the dark watching the story unfold between time past and time present, Mahesh Dattani forces us to examine our own individual and collective consciousness.
Are we the liberal-minded persons we would like to believe we are or do we blindly kowtow to unwritten laws of family conduct that is the easier path to take?
In a city like Chennai, where everyone knows a dancer or has a dancer in the family, Dance Like a Man was bound to strike a familiar chord. The challenge to both my actors and myself as director was not just to bring the issues that the play raises to the fore but also to bridge Dattani s verbal ingenuity with a strong visual element.
I used a minimalistic approach to set design, which gave me the freedom to choreograph movement and composition with broad strokes, sometimes sculptural in quality and often fluid like a dancer in full flow. It was a challenge at every level of production.
To me, this was a personal journey, knowing that my own life, like Jairaj in the play has not been easy in trying to march to the beat of a different drummer.
Mithran Devanesen (Mithran Devanesen is a Chennai-based theatre director and one of India s leading set and light designer.)
The film was released in India in September 2004. Principal characters: RATNA Shobana LATA Anoushka Ravishankar JAIRAJ Arif Zakaria VISHWAS Samir Soni AMRITLAL PAREKH Mohan Agashe CHANDRAKALA Arundhati Nag
The screenplay was co-written with Pamela Rooks, based on the play of the same title by Mahesh Dattani. The film was directed by Pamela Rooks. Camera Sunny Joseph Music Ganesh/Kumaresh Sound Dileep Subramaniam Art Direction Shashidhar Adappa Casting Dolly Thakore Costumes Himani Dehilvi
We hear the sound of dancing bells and perhaps the mridangam .
Fade in. Black backdrop .
Close-up of two pairs of feet with dancing bells, eyes darkly kohled, or hands with henna in various dance expressions. The identity of the dancers is not revealed. The music is backed with strong vocal rhythmic syllables. The dancers keep pace with the music as their feet execute a technically complex rhythmic pattern. The music builds to a crescendo increasing the complexity of their footwork, till the male pair of feet cannot keep pace anymore. The male pair of feet give up and walk away out of frame. Intersperse these images that fade in and out with the main titles. Fade to black as music fades .
Interior/Exterior. Muthiah s modest living room. Late afternoon.
Ratna and Jairaj are seated on the floor. Muthiah is seated on a cushion next to them. Sreenivas is seated in front of them .
Ratna hands a bundle of notes to Sreenivas, who begins to count them .
SREENIVAS (looking up) . What, Madam? Times have changed.
RATNA . I really can t afford to-Seri! (Oh all right!). How much more do you want?
MUTHIAH . Give him another thousand.
RATNA (taking out the money reluctantly) . I hope you two are not going to disappear when I want you for rehearsals.
SREENIVAS (taking the money) . Don t worry, madam. My blessings are always with you and your daughter.
Sreenivas gets up to leave. He steps out to wear his chappals .
RATNA (to Jairaj) . I hope that Vanamala is not going to charge us double.
JAIRAJ . Don t worry, we will speak to her . . .
MUTHIAH . Don t worry amma, I will speak to her.
RATNA . Don t worry, don t worry these men say . . .
We hear a loud crash. They rush out .
Cut to:
Top of stairs .
Ratna, Jairaj and Muthiah look on at Sreenivas lying on the floor, his dhoti undone, clutching his arm in agony .
Close on Ratna. Horrified .
RATNA . Aiyo, Devere! (Oh God!)
Jairaj and Muthiah rush to help him. Sreenivas is howling in agony throughout .
(On top of stairs, hysterical.) Uchcha! (The madman!)
JAIRAJ (helping Muthiah take Sreenivas down the stairs) . Ratna, go home. We will take him to the hospital.
RATNA (yelling from top of the stairs) . Take back our money from that clumsy fool!
Jairaj looks at Ratna to shut her up .
The camera moves away from Ratna .
(Striking her forehead with her palm.) Karma! Karma! (To Jairaj.) It s your father s curse on us!
Cut to:
Interior. Living room. Parekh bungalow. Evening.
Camera pans slowly across an antique table holding several framed photographs. These are largely of a couple, together or separately, in various classical dance postures .
The camera comes to rest on a photograph of a middle-aged man, dressed in formal Indian clothes, gazing sternly at the camera. A hand comes into the frame and lifts the photograph as the camera travels to the face of a young man in his twenties. This is Vishwas, a pleasant-looking, slightly plump individual. He gazes quizzically at the photograph .
YOUNG WOMAN (background) . That s him.
Vishwas turns sharply .
This house was built by my grandad.
Medium shot as Lata, an attractive young woman of about twenty, walks upto Vishwas .
LATA . He was a great social reformer. Used to hold political meetings in this very room.
LATA . Oh, a politician!
Lata takes the photograph from Vishwas and looks at it .
LATA . Not really. Well-he did stand for elections once but he lost. Amma says he blamed it all on dad. Of course that was all long before I was born so ... I don t really know.
VISHWAS . They must have had some fights. What with your father being a dancer.
She puts the photograph down and looks around the room. We see it now: a large, high-ceilinged room with furniture that is at least half-a-century old .
LATA . They had their differences, but Daddy always respected him. He ll never sell this house-he s kept it just the way it was.
VISHWAS . That s it!
LATA . Huh?
VISHWAS . So that s what it is!
LATA . What?
VISHWAS . This room reminded me of something. Now I know what-an antique shop!
LATA . Well, everything here is at least forty or fifty years old.
Vishwas looks around a high-ceiling room with stain-glass windows .
VISHWAS . Wow, I ve never seen a house like this! Old-fashioned wood, probably rotting-
LATA . Do you know how much this land is worth?
VISHWAS . Maybe, your dad should sell it. The contractors would pay a pile to get a multi-storey building up here.
LATA . Are you crazy? They ve spent all their dancing lives here. Even before marriage, they practised with the same guru under this very roof.
Cut to:
Interior. Dance Hall. Parekh bungalow. Evening .
Empty hall. The door opens even as we hear Lata whisper to Vishwas Take off your shoes .
Lata enters first followed by Vishwas. In silence Lata walks towards one side of the room which has old musical instruments and pictures of gurus .
Close-up. of Lata as she reverently hold a pair of dancing bells close to her face. Lata closes her eyes almost meditating .
Cut to:
Interior. Dance Hall. Parekh bungalow. Day. Flashback. Circa mid-seventies .
Note: This scene intercuts with the next as appropriate .
Close-up. of a young man executing a complex piece of nritta. This is Jairaj, Lata s father in his youth. He wears a plain cotton dhoti and dancing bells on his ankles. His bare chest is covered with a sheen of perspiration .
Close-up of the guru, an elderly man with long hair. He sits cross-legged on the floor, giving Jairaj vocal rhythmic patterns .
Camera revolves around the dancing figure .
Intercut with Close-up of the guru and a young, beautiful woman, Ratna, who watches Jairaj, her mouth partially-open .
Cut to:
Camera revolves around Lata .
LATA . Can you believe it? These are the same bells my father wore for his debut! Ooh! I get goosebumps every time I touch them. This room has something special in it.
Intercut with Close-up of Ratna looking at Jairaj .
We come back to Lata