Mahesh Dattani

A Critical Study
 Mahesh Dattani is one of India’s most daring, creative, inventive

and notable playwrights in Indian English Literature. He does not
hesitate to highlight the taboo subjects in his plays. His plays have
been categorized as problem plays.
 He was born on August 7, 1958, in Bangalore, Karnataka.
 In the early 1980s, Dattani joined Bangalore Little Theatre and
participated in workshops in acting and directing plays.
 He founded his own company ‘Playpen’ for doing something
innovating in Indian English plays.
 His play Final Solutions won him the prestigious Sahitya Academy
Award.
 Mango Souffle won the Best Motion Picture Award at the Barcelona
Film Festival in 2002. Mahesh Dattani himself directed the film.
 Where There is a Will
 Tara
 Dance Like a Man
 Final Solution
 The Girl Who Touched the Star
 Seven Steps Around the Fire
 On a Muggy Night in Mumbai
 Do the Needful and
 Bravely Fought the Queen
 Thirty days in September
 Morning Raga
 Brief Candle
Gender Identity
Alternate Sexuality
Child Sexual Abuse
Communal Riot
Exploitation of Hijra Community
Suppression of Women
Theme of Crime
 It is a Radio play by Mahesh Dattani.
 It was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on January 9, 1999
with the title Seven Circles Around the Fire.
 This play was first performed on 6 August 1999, at
Museum Theatre in Chennai by MTC Production
and The Madras Players.
 The play deals with the socio-psychological crisis of
the eunuchs.
 It highlights the conflicts, anguish, dilemmas,
insecurities, fear, and frustrations of the Hijra
people.
It is a general view that the hijras are neither men nor women.
They hold a different gender. They have defective genitals.
Sathya Narayanan says that biologically hijra could be born with
ambiguous (hermaphrodite) genitals. The scientific reason
behind the birth of a hijra is that there is an abnormal level of
sex hormones during foetal development. Thus, they are neither
completely male nor female (Narayanan 2016 01). Most of the
hijras never exhibit a sexual orientation towards males or females
and they label themselves as the third gender. But they have got
the tendency to associate themselves with the female gender. The
society only on the basis of their defective genitals treats them
roughly and cruelly. And this cruelty does not end only at the
physical level; it extends to the social, educational and political
levels, too.
Dattani points out about Hijras:
“Nobody seems to know anything about them. Neither
do they. Did they come to this country with Islam, or
are they a part of our glorious Hindu tradition? Why
are they so obsessed with weddings and ceremonies of
childbirth? How do they come to know about these
weddings? Why do they just show up without being
invited? Are they just extortionists? And why do they
not take singing lessons? (Pause) is it true? Could it be
true what my mother used to say about them? Did they
really put a curse on her because they did not allow
them to sing and dance at their wedding? Or was that
their explanation for not being able to have children of
their own? Or… a reason to give to people for wanting
to adopt me?”(2000 16-17).
 Mahesh Dattani's Seven Steps Around the Fire is primarily a
tale of oppression of Hijra community. The play revolves
around Uma, the wife of chief superintendent, who wants to
study about hijras for her research work. In the course of
her interviewing Anarkali, a hijra who is accused of
murdering another hijra, Kamla, discovers something
sinister and diabolic in the murder. She unravels the
mystery of the murder and realizes that the so-called
powerful people with the help of law enforcement agencies
play an ugly part in crushing the rights of the marginalized.
Uma brings out the general social apathy of the
disadvantaged groups like hijras, who are also known as
eunuchs or transgender.
 Emotional crisis of Hijra community
 Theme of crime
 Hypocrisy of administration
 Suppression of Women
 Essential human goodness and qualities

embodied in Hijras
 The issue of alternate sexuality as a challenge to power
domination
 Anarkali, a hijra, was arrested wrongly in a murder case
of another Hijra, Kamala. She was
arrested only because Police could not find any other
culprit in the murder case.
 She was detained into a male section of the jail.
 She was exploited not only verbally but also
physically and mentally in the jail .
 Hijras are often addressed with pronoun “It” as if
they are not living beings.
 Kamala, another hijra, just because she secretly married
Subbu(minister’s son), she was burned to death.
 The whole story of the
play revolves around the
murder case of Kamala, a
beautiful Hijra. Anarkali,
another hijra, was
arrested wrongly. Uma, a
research scholar, solved
the murder case, in the
course of her research.
The hypocrisy of administration is exposed on
numerous occasions in the play:
 Authorities count hijras as neither male nor female
and address them with the phrases like ‘it’ and ‘this
thing’; they detain them in the male section of the jail.
 Police arrest Anarkali without having any proof
against her in the murder case of Kamala.
 In the last scene of the play, when the case was solved
and the Police come to know who the real culprit is,
no step is taken in the administration to make arrests.
The case is hushed up and the suicide of Subbu is
reported as an accident.
 The present play highlights not only the exploitation of hijra
people but also suppression of women. Uma, under the
patriarchal system, is dominated by her husband. She, not being
able to produce any child, she goes to consult a doctor in order
to have check ups. The doctor informs that she is alright and
now her husband needs to go for a check-up. When Uma asks
Suresh to visit the doctor, he gets angry.
Uma: I went to the doctor again. Your mother insisted she takes me.
Suresh: What did they say?
Uma: Nothing… They want to see you.
Suresh: I don’t think so.
Uma: Just a test for your sperm count.
Suresh: I don’t have to go… (Dattani 2000 32)
 Uma’s dependency on her husband for money reveals her

pathetic condition. She is very much willing to help Anarkali by
giving the money of the bail but she fails to do so because she
does not have money. For money, she is totally dependent on her
husband and father. Finally, she arranges the money of the bail
by telling a lie to her father.
 Hijras keep their relations with utmost honesty and
loyalty as we people do. They also have deep yearning
for love and family as we have. Although they are
denied to take seven steps around the fire, irrespective
of their steps in the fire, they have great emotional
bonding with one another. They are embodied with
essential human goodness and qualities. They love and
want to be loved by each other in the form of guru,
lover, mother, brother, daughter, sister, etc.
 The title of the play is quite apt and relevant. It is the story of a
beautiful hijra, Kamla who is murdered by the minister’s people
because his son, Subbu, is in love with Kamla and both of them have
got married secretly. Being a hijra, Kamala is denied to marry or take
the seven steps around the fire. On the contrary, she is forced to put
every step of her life into the fire (towards Death). Just because Kamala
and Subbu get married secretly, Kamala is burned to death. The fire,
which was once the proof of their matrimonial ceremony has now
turned to be destructive to their relationship and becomes the cause of
Kamala’s death. After a few days, Subbu’s marriage is arranged with a
beautiful girl. And in the marriage ceremony, hijras make their
inevitable presence. While watching Anarkali, Subbu is again
reminded of his love for Kamala and finds himself in frustration and,
as a result, he shoots himself with a gun.
 Dattani has used ten characters in the play for the first
time. Generally there are six- seven characters in other
plays. All the characters contribute to the development
of the play. Almost all of them are decisive in nature;
they plan things on their own without having any
prediction about the result of their actions.
Anarkali
Minister
Uma
Subbu Kamala
Salim Suresh Rao
Champa Munswamy
 Agarwal, Beena. Mahesh Dattani’s Plays: A New Horizon in
Indian Theatre. Book Enclave Jaipur, 2015. Print.
 Dattani, Mahesh. “Seven Steps Around the Fire”: Collected
Plays. Mumbai: Penguin Books, 2000. Print.
 Dinakar, A. Teaching Drama to Undergraduate Students:
Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around the Fire. Language in
India. Vol. 17, 11 Nov. 2017 www.languageinindia.com
 Gill, Lakhwinder. S. “Mahesh Dattani’s Seven Steps Around
the Fire: A Tale of an Oppression”. IJELLH, Vol. V, Issue.
IV, April 2017.
 Kumar, Shravan and Mehdi, Zeba. Seven Steps Around the
Fire: A World of Illusion. IJRTE. Vol.8, Issue. 3S3, Nov
2019.
 Comment on the appropriateness of the title of the
play Seven Steps Around the Fire.
 Bring out the character sketch of Anarkali in the play
Seven Steps Around the Fire.
 Discuss Seven Steps Around the Fire as a
problem play highlighting the oppression of the
transgender in Indian society.

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A Critical Study

 Mahesh Dattani is one of India’s most daring, creative, inventive

Child Sexual Abuse

 Essential human goodness and qualities

 Uma’s dependency on her husband for money reveals her

Salim Suresh Rao

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