Gender Imbalance In Mahesh Dattani

Through the various elements of his play Tara the including dialogue, theme, plot, and setting, Mahesh Dattani skilfully highlights the social evils occurring in the contemporary world. This instability stems from the mother who is clearly an irrational person whose behavior, actions and deeds are integral to the theme of the play. The imbalance is nothing but the lack of equilibrium in the family which is in turn due to gender bias, Oedipus complex, guilt and the illogical decisions taken that then have a great impact on the lives of the family members. The highlight of the play is the gender bias that prevails in the family of the Patels and in the outside world and the degree of this imbalance is presented coherently in the play through …show more content…
Patel urges Chandan to accompany him to work and surreptitiously avoids Tara. The heat of their argument is broken by the entry of Roopa, a friend of Tara. She states the grounds of the argument to Roopa as: “ The men in the house were deciding on whether they were going to go hunting while the woman looked after the cave.” The above statement is metaphorical in nature to create an imagery regarding the status and roles of the two genders in a typical conservative society of present times. This adds to the existing imbalance in the play as Tara is not given the same opportunities and importance as Chandan. This again highlights the partiality demonstrated to the male …show more content…
She is again attempting to make Tara believe that she has unconditional love for her, a trait she ought to have demonstrated at the time of her birth. She is creating an imbalance in the family by convincing Tara that her father does not like her all that much. This is coherently understood when she says: “And I will make up for… for… your father, and I will make up for all the things God hasn’t given you.” She is obviously stating this in a depressed tone in order to make her claim more believable. She is also doing this to weaken Tara’s relationship with her father and win Tara’s trust all for herself. In the second half of this sentence, Bharathi brings to light the physical imbalance in her body. Tara does not approach the situation as a problem, but instead, has adapted to it. However, her mother portrays this as an obstacle for which she will do everything to make her happy. This brings further imbalance to the play as Tara might begin to view her father with skepticism.

Thus, from the above circumstances, it is apparent that the imbalance in the play stems from and centers around the irrational person of the family, the mother. On the other hand, Mr.Patel himself is portrayed as a very pragmatic person. The couple themselves exist with an imbalance in their marriage and this remains an underlying problem throughout the play that leads to many