16 Alternative Sexuality: A Reading of Mahesh Dattani’s On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Bravely Fought the Queen

Dr. Saurabhi Sarmah

One of the most significant writers of contemporary Indian drama, Mahesh Dattani has elevated Indian drama in English to a major genre of social criticism. He is the first Indian playwright to win the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award in 1998 for his collection of plays

–Final Solutions and Other plays. His diverse experience as a member of the urban Indian society has a great influence on his writings who considers theatre as a reliable means of representing the society. So, as a playwright, he is more concerned about representing the society as it is and as experienced by him. Dattani strongly believes that ‘who you are is reflected in your writings’. According to him, it is the society from which his plays originate, and eventually, it is the society again to which they go back. He is a playwright with a background in acting, directing and scripting. He has his own theatre company – Playpen, in Bangalore.

Dattani rejects the concept of a choice or a particular identity to render his thoughts and responses pertaining to the contemporary society, and his own life. He does not like to be categorised as a postcolonial writer. Rather, he is concerned about representing those themes that would best represent the contemporary scenario. In his plays, he uses a lively and recognisable Indian English to best suit the voice of the urban Indian society. His writings make an effort to reproduce his own time and place – which is the contemporary urban India.

In his theatrical writings, there is an inherent attempt to make visible the invisible yet existing realities. He is a courageous and innovative writer and voices the unseen and the unheard through his plays. He writes about the experience of the marginalised sections of our society such as minorities, gays, and women in his writings. His plays centre on the themes of homosexuality, politics of gender, identity, family politics and violence to name a few. He plays seem to critique and question the dominant gender identities. Because of his attempt to reveal the ‘invisible’ issues, he receives both grave and appreciative responses from the audience, reader and the critic.

He has written many plays which include Where There’s a Will, Thirty Days in September, Seven Steps Around the Fire, Dance Like a Man, Tara, Bravely Fought the Queen, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai, Brief Candle etc. These plays are some of his noteworthy contributions to Indian English drama which represent the everyday realities of the modern urban populace. His treatment of the issues of homosexuality, politics of capitalism and violence against women in Bravely Fought the Queen, and profound childhood trauma and child sexual abuse in Thirty Days in September has opened up discussion on certain hidden realities, compelling the audience to explore the dark side of the surface. Final solutions is resonant with the theme of communal prejudices that still exist in the society. The play revolves around the theme of communal violence and its historical and contemporary repercussions. No final solution to the situation is given in the play; but there is an implication that a great deal depends on the choices that people make to bring about changes in the society. The play has been performed in various places and translated into different regional languages. Tara is a play about two Siamese twins Tara and Chandan with three legs, and their family’s preference for the male child Chandan. Seven Steps around the Fire represents the story of Uma who is a victim of gender specific violence who is mentally tortured for not being able to give birth to a child. On a Muggy Night in Mumbai is another play where Dattani boldly discuss the issues concerning gay and lesbianism. His Brief Candle is a play about a group of cancer patients who ae trying to stage a comedy in order to raise fund for their treatment. It is a play within a play where the reader finds rehearsals being done for the comedy, representing the realities concerning the cancer patients.

Dattani always maintain non-judgemental stance when it comes to conclusion. It is the audience who is made to think on the issues. He only brings forward the issues, but abstains from sermonising. For Dattani, staging is all the more important. Theatre for his is a shared experience between the playwright, society, director, actors and the audience. According to him, understanding the dynamics of theatre is of great importance to a playwright. This staging aspect that makes a play different from a novel or a poem. He is playwright who very much believes in the potentialities of theatre that can turn itself into an agent for social change by generating awareness the social problem.

In this module, we will discuss Dattani’s handling of a very crucial issue of our time that is the presence of alternative sexuality in Indian society in his two plays namely On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Bravely Fought the Queen.

What is alternative sexuality?

Sexual orientation that is a deviation from the dominant heterosexual norm is known as alternative sexuality. These different sexual orientations include- gays, lesbianism, and transgender category. However, there is a difference between sex, gender and sexuality. Sex refers to the biological categories like man and women while gender refers to the cultural and social meanings and identities imposed on each sex. But the term sexuality has a different meaning than sex and gender; it is a major theme in contemporary debate on identity developed along with psychoanalysis, queer theory and feminism. It is a set of orientations, positions and desires. It can also be called a psychoanalytic drive (Julian 2005: 76). According to the essentialist philosophy, sexualities are biological and hence they are fixed. Hence, any deviation from the static heterosexual practices is subjected to marginalization and abuse. People possessing alternate sexualities are forced to confine themselves to a miserable silence by the power of legal, social, medical and religious practices.

In simple term, sexuality or sexual orientation refers to sexual practices, an emotional and sexual attraction of an individual towards another individual. A person’s individual and social identity is dependent on these sexual orientations/attractions. It may an attraction to members of the opposite sex which is known as heterosexuality; an attraction towards the member of the both the sexes which is known as bisexuality or an attraction towards the member of the same sex which is known as homosexuality. However, these are some of the terms which the society uses to categorise the sexual differences in people. Not only, there are social categorisations of the sexual differences, there are also marginalisations of certain categories based on the dominant and normative practices. In our society, the normative practice is heterosexually which has been an accepted norm. In a society where heterosexuality is the accepted order, homosexuality or alternative sexuality which goes against the heterosexual practices is always looked down upon by the society.

In India, homosexuality is a taboo for the civil society and the government. However, it is said to have a historical origin; in the past it was not considered as a criminal act as it is considered now. The latest Supreme Court judgement on homosexuality defines it as a criminal offence setting aside the Delhi high court judgement in 2009 which had decriminalised sexual relation between persons belonging to the same sex. Although, the Supreme Court has made it a legalised offence, homosexuality still exists in India being a normal and natural variation of human sexual orientation.

As a result, people who have an alternative sexual orientation, be it gay, lesbianism or transgender, they have to face oppression and negligence. Their deviation from the normative gender identity gives them a minority status making most of them psychologically suffer. Marginalised individuals are those who are cut off or separated from the mainstream social order which is the heterosexual order. They become marginal. So, who is a marginal individual? The concept of marginality was first coined by Robert Park in 1928 to refer to a person or group that had been cut off or isolated from the mainstreams social life. The same is applicable to the individuals who possess alternative sexualities. They face the same kind of isolation from the mainstream social life. In order to cope up with the mainstream order, they either put mask by repressing their actual identity or embrace withdrawal from the society and hypocrisy. Many a times, we see gay man marrying a heterosexual woman and trying to lead a happy life; thus repressing his actual self and deceiving the other. The forced marriage of the gays to a woman or of a lesbian to a heterosexual man makes them both suffer. Sometimes, the result of such compulsory social bonding takes a toll on the life of the man or woman. In a recent such incident, an Indian origin man in Britain strangled his wife to death to hide his homosexuality just a few months after their marriage.

Although homosexuality or alternative sexualities are considered as a legal offence in India, debates and discussions surrounding alternative sexualities have been going on in India which help this otherwise silenced voices to be heard. Besides, many instances of activism for the rights of the minorities are also noticeable in India by NGOs like Naz foundation, Equal India Alliance to name a few. Such NGOs have helped in breaking their silence and reducing their misery to a little extent. But, the majority of our society cannot accept this issue as normal, and they possess strong bias against those who do not belong to the heterosexual order. Such social attitude increases the sense of isolation experienced by of the gays, lesbians and the transgender and pushes them into a life of misery and humiliation. This whole idea of non- belongingness and isolation has been nicely represented by Ranjit in On a Muggy Night in Mumbai who says “…yes, I am sometimes regretful of being an Indian, because I can’t seem to be both Indian and gay”.

On a Muggy Night in Mumbai:

It is a play about a community of homosexuals, especially the gays. The play deals with the stories of Kamalesh, Ed, Ranjit, Sharad, Bunny, Deepali and Kiran. Apart from Deepali (who is a lesbian) and Kiran (who is a heterosexual), the rest of the characters are gay. On a Muggy Night in Mumbai unveils the presence of homosexuality in India and the pressure and constrains under which the homosexuals have to continue their living in India. Under such social repression, they embrace hypocrisy as a means of escape. The play takes the reader to two different worlds — one is the inner and the private world of the homosexuals and other is the outer world dominated by the heterosexual order, and the clash between these two worlds.

Bravely Fought the Queen:

Apparently, Bravely Fought the Queen is a play about a number of women characters and their experience of different forms of violence in different phases of their life. However, the play is also about the invisible presence of homosexuality in Indian society. The play takes place at the Trivedi household which consists of Jiten and Nitin; their two wives Dolly and Alka andkiran ,the mother of Jiten and Nitin. Sridhar and Lalitha is the another couple that appears on stage. Both are related to the Trivedi household via business ties. The play is divided in to three parts namely – “The Women” “The Men” and “Free for all”. The two worlds namely “The Women” and “The Men” meet and confront each other directly in the third section which is named as “Free for all”. In this third section the play reaches its climax exposing the hidden realities of homosexuality, alcoholism, adultery and violence affecting the lives of the characters.

Alternative sexuality in On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Bravely Fought the Queen.

Both the plays, On a Muggy Night in Mumbai and Bravely Fought the Queen represent the presence of alternative sexuality in India in different settings. On a Muggy Night in Mumbai is a play mainly dominated by the theme of alternative sexuality while the Bravely Fought the Queen discusses alternative sexuality along with another major issue of violence against women.

Set in Mumbai, the play On a Muggy Night in Mumbai deals with issue of gay sex and lesbianism. The play begins in the apartment of Kamalesh, the chief protagonist of the paly. The reader can see Kamalesh interacting with the security guard who is also a gay whom Kamalesh offers money in return for sexual gratification. Underneath his heterosexual identity with a wife, the security guard is a gay in reality who is afraid of accepting his gay identity publicly.

Centering on Kamalesh’s life, the play proceeds to represent a group of well to do homosexuals and lesbians, their self-discoveries, their revelations and the dilemmas they carry with them. Kamalesh, the chief protagonist is represented as a weak and sensitive fellow who is completely broken up after he becomes separated from his gay partner Prakash. Prakash like Kamalesh is also afraid of publicly revealing his gay identity. Hence, he decides to marry Kiran, Kamalesh’s sister, so that he can continue his love affair with Kamalesh as his brother-in-law. Under his pseudonym as Ed, Prakash is in love with Kamalesh’s sister Kiran while as Prakash he is the lover of Kamalesh. Likewise, Bunny – another gay character in the play also maintains a double stance by performing the role of a good husband at home and taking care of his wife and children, and enjoys being a gay with his male partners. Ranjit enjoys his gay identity by visiting aboard where he has a gay partner. Only Sharad is bold enough to accept his gay identity publicly and comfortable with his life. On the other hand, Deepali is a representative of lesbianism in the play. She is bold, more restrained and comfortable with her lesbian identity. Contrary to what is happening inside the flat of Kamalesh, there is a wedding that is going on outside the flat. The wedding stands for the heterosexual world which celebrates the union of a man and a woman. The projection of the wedding in this context intensifies the contrast between the two worlds – the heterosexual and the homosexual.

The whole play has been nicely summarized by John MacRae in the note on the play. According to Rae, it is not simply the first play in Indian theatre to handle openly gay themes of love, partnership, trust and betrayal. It is also a play about how society creates patterns of behaviour and how easy it is for the individuals to fall victim to the expectations society cerates.

On a Muggy Night in Mumbai provides an authentic representation of the existential dilemma and identity crisis faced by the gays and lesbians. They have to be under the constant fear of being labelled as “abnormal” or the “pervert”. The normative discursive practices are so dominant in our society that whatever does not come under these practices is immediately side-lined.

Dattani has chosen Mumbai as the backdrop for this play because it one of the metros where the marginalised and alternative sexes think that they will find a space to live their lives. They hope to find some kind of acceptance of their marginalised sexualities in such metros. The intolerance against them creates a claustrophobic environment for them everywhere. Hence they assemble in Kamalesh’s flat to find a space of their own— a space for them to belong to, far away from the outside world.

Apart from highlighting the presence of homosexuality in society, the play also highlights the psychological and performative aspect of gender. Performance is the outer layer of gender but the inner layer of gender is psychological. A person may behave like a man outside, but inside in his mind he may considers himself effeminate. The performative aspect of gender is always dominated by the heterosexual norms which are considered as the normal order, and that is the reason why the gay men in the play try to put up the face of a heterosexual man and perform accordingly so that they can avoid excommunication. The heterosexual order is so dominant that any deviation from it is considered as abnormal. These are the same compulsory heterosexual norms that suppress women in all social relations. The same issue has been discussed by Adrienne Rich in her discussion on compulsory heterosexuality in her essay on “Compulsory heterosexuality and lesbian existence”. According to Rich, compulsory heterosexuality is a tool by which patriarchy maintains its hegemonic authority. The same observation has been made by Gayle Rubin according to whom the suppression and oppression of homosexuality is a product of the same patricidal system that oppress women.

Thus, On Muggy night in Mumbai deals with the entire community of the homosexuals and how the homosexuals put up a performance of normal sexuality under the social pressure. The speech of Bunny reveals the repressed environment in which they have to live. He says: “I know. Just as the man whom my loves does not exist. I have denied a lot of things. The only people who know me—l the real me—are present here in this room. And you all hate me for being hypocrite….” (2014: 102). He is a gay man who publicly avoids his gay friends but in private he needs their love. It is the social fear of rejection that compels him to put a mask on his real sexual orientation.

Dattani has represented this same issue in his other highly acclaimed play Bravely Fought the Queen where he unveils the presence of homosexuality in India. Like On a Muggy night in Mumbai, this play also puts emphasis on the idea of performance in the everyday lives of the characters. They use performance as a medium of continuing their living and hiding their actual selves and sexualities. Nitin, who is married to Alka, performs the role of a heterosexual male in order to hide his gay identity and adjust with heterosexual social order.

Unlike On a Muggy night in Mumbai which is play about the community of the homosexuals; Bravely Fought the Queen approaches this issue through the story of Alka and Nitin. In the course of its action, we come to know that Alka’s marriage with Nitin is a forced which makes her life completely miserable. Nitin adopts a very indifferent outlook to her which makes her crazy. Her loneliness becomes so intense that she has to take recourse to total alcoholism to cope up with her present life. In her conjugal life, Alka is made to feel like an unwanted object. Once, Nitin throws her out of her out of the house only because of offending his mother Baa.

This strange and violent behaviour towards Alka undoubtedly puts a question mark on Nitin’s character. What could be reason of such neglect towards one’s own wife? Why is he so indifferent to her? The answer to all these doubts comes into light when Nitin reveals his gay identity and his relationship with Praful, Alka’s own brother.

Nitin: He tricked you too, didn’t he? …Those time when I used to spend night at your place, I used to sleep on his cot. And he would sleep on a mattress on the floor, beside me…I loved him to. He told me to get married…How could I? And to whom?…He told me that you knew. That he had told you about me. And that it did not matter to you. You only wanted the security of a marriage.

Not only Praful tricked Nitin saying that Alka knows about Nitin’s gay idenity, he also ticked Alka by keeping her in the dark about his and Nitin’s sexual relationship. Actually, Praful used Alka to fulfil his selfish motive – that is to continue his homosexual relationship with Nitin. Thus, Alka falls prey of Praful’s conspiracy which leads to her unhappy marriage with Nitin. Thus, Alka turns into a plaything for the Trivedi household as well as for her brother.

Here Dattani draws our attention to the adverse outcome of one’s tendency to hide his/her sexuality and continue it privately. Praful tries to hide his sexuality publicly, but privately he continues his relationship with Nitin. In order to do so, he has used his sister Alka by forcing her to marry Nitin. Thus, Praful’s hypocrisy ruins the life of the two, both Alka and Nitin.

Dattani also brings into light the most dangerous outcome of the society’s denial of homosexuality and trying to erase it by social isolation, legal punishment and psychological counselling. Unable to bear such social pressure, Ed tries to adopt compulsory heterosexuality and lead a normal life by visiting a psychiatrist. But, his attempt to be a forced heterosexual also goes in vain when Kiran sees the intimate photograph of Ed and Kamalesh and gets to know about his homosexual identity. This creates an acute feeling of isolation in Ed and he tries to commit suicide.

The presence of homosexuality in Indian society is not a new issue. But as it is considered as taboo, people having alternative sexual orientations are bound to hide their sexual orientations which lead to various other complications in society. However, Mahesh Dattani has taken a bold step to reveal the presence of this invisible issue in our society. Earlier, Vijay Tendulkar has also made an attempt to represent this issue in his play A Friend’s Story. But, what makes Dattani’s treatment of homosexuality or alternative sexuality remarkable is that he does not treat a homosexual merely as victim. Many of them fight back and find out their means of survival. Dattani also brings into discussion the selfishness and hypocrisy taken up by many homosexual individuals to fulfil their sexual needs. This is evident in the character of Praful in Bravely Fought the Queen whose hypocritical stance towards his partner and sister ruin the life of both. In his relationship with Nitin, Praful performs the role of a victimiser and Nitin becomes the victim, who in return makes Alka suffer. The same recourse to hypocrisy is also noticeable in the characters of Kamalesh and Ed. Both decide to use Kiran to fulfil their selfish motive. Kamalesh agrees to fix his sister Kiran’s marriage with Ed so that he can be in close contact with Ed. Ed also considers that this marriage would be a convenient option to restart their relationship. While doing so, none of them bothers about Kiran who really loves Ed and plans to start a new life with Ed, after undergoing abuse and a divorce from her first husband. Thus, like Alka in Bravely Fought the Queen, here Kiran becomes a plaything, a victim of their hypocrisy and manipulation.

The two different plays discussed in this module deal with one common issue, that is the presence of alternative sexualities in India and the kind of suppression and disguise under which these people have to live. Directly or indirectly, the dominant heterosexual order enforces them to adhere to it and those who try to defy this order are termed as aberrant or unnatural. In order to get rid of such social ostracism, the homosexuals adopt various manipulative and hypocritical means which become heavy on themselves and others. Both the plays represent a realistic and balanced representation of the various aspects concerning alternative sexuality in India. Delivering his presentation on ‘The Playwright’s Quest’ at Confluence – Asia International Literary Festival, held in Guwahati, Dattani said “Theatre being a mirror to society has a great deal of truth to society, has a great deal of truth, no matter whatever theatre one creates”. This is what he actually follows in his own writings where we see an overt attempt to mirror the contemporary urban Indian society. His plays give voice to the unheard and the unseen; thereby using theatre as a space for the minorities to be seen and heard. However, as a playwright, he seems to maintain a non- judgmental stance while scripting these social concerns, and makes the audience contemplate on these issues by themselves.

Reference

• Dattani, Mahesh. On a Muggy Nnight In Mumbai in Mahesh Dattni. Collected Plays. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2000. 2014 ( Rpt)
• Dattani, Mahesh. Bravely Fought the Queen in Mahesh Dattni. Collected Plays. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 2000. 2014( Rpt)
• Dattani, Mahesh. Collected Play. Penguin Books. Gurgaon, 2000. (2014 Rpt)
• Gelpi and Albert Gelpi. Ed. Adrienne Rich’s Poetry and Prose. New York:
• http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1701077
• http://rupkatha.com/dattani-brief-candle/
• http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Supreme-Court-makes-homosexuality-a-crime-again/articleshow/27230690.cms
• http://www.ndtv.com/article/diaspora/indian-origin-man-killed-wife-in-england-to-hide-his-homosexuality-497655
• http://www.the-criterion.com/V3/n2/Jaspal.pdf
• Mukherjee, Tutun. Ed. The Plays of Mahesh Dattani, an Anthology of Recent Criticism. New Delhi. Pencraft International, 2012.
• Rich, Adrienne. “Compulsory Heterosexuality and Lesbian Existence” in Barbara C.
• W.W. Norton & Company, 1993.Print.
• Wolfreys, Julian, Ruth Robins et al. ed. Key concepts in Literary Theory. Atlantic Publishers, New Delhi, 2005 (Rpt)