SEVEN STEPS AROUND THE FIRE

Uma, daughter of the Vice-Chancellor of Bangalore University, is married to Chief Superintendent Suresh Rao, who has high expectations of succeeding his father as Police Commissioner. But it is Uma, a post-graduate student of Sociology, who is the sleuth in this relationship, and using rather unconventional means, she uncovers the truth behind a murder in the city’s hijra community. As an unwilling accomplice in her detective exploits, Constable Munswamy (tasked by Superintendent Rao with keeping his wife out of trouble) provides an excellent comic foil. The relationship between the three characters is beautifully crafted, and is all the more successful for fitting within an established pattern of detective fiction. Dattani holds “a mirror up to society” in this, as in his other plays, while subverting a familiar genre. His plays often feature characters who are questioning their identity, and who feel isolated in some way. Uma certainly feels isolated in her marriage and this sense of isolation makes her empathize with Anarkali, the hijra she befriends.

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