Mahesh Dattani‘’s Characters: Prisoners of their Past

Abstract

A study of Mahesh Dattani’s plays show that his characters are prisoners of their past. Their view of the present is coloured by some experience, incident or their strong belief in a particular way of life. All their actions are governed by their past history though, most of the times, they do not have the courage to confront this past. They have carried this burden of the past throughout their lives and they want their next generation to do the same. In the present paper an attempt has been made to study how the past of the protagonists of Dattani’s plays affect their present.