Themes in Mahesh Dattani's Tara and Dance Like a Man

The play Tara (1990) carries the theme of unequal treatment given to male and female children even when they are born physically attached twins. The point of equality between male and female and equal opportunities given to both are much superficial. In reality, a female has to face inequality at every level, it may be a family or society. The issue of inequality is not restricted to the people of lower strata or poor people only; rather it is a universal issue. Technologically a man is much advanced but at the level of thoughts and actions, his all claims of liberty and progress are hollow and shallow. Woman is still not capable of taking decision on her own. She is bounded by her own prejudices, patriarchal thoughts of the family and of society at large. The position of girl-child in Indian family, culture and society is intensively portrayed here for the readers’ analysis. The man-women relationship between Mr. Patel and his wife Bharati is much inharmonious which one comes through during their interactions. In Tara, the discrepancies and disastrous consequences of the patriarchal pattern of decision leads to the psychological realization of Bharati’s guilt-ridden soul is explored.