ABSTRACT
Narration in Indian epics is cyclic: stories within stories; stories turning in upon themselves; stories throwing out new offshoots like Deleuze’s rhizome or the many-spired (banyan tree-like) cathedral at Milan; stories which are the obverse or reverse of each other; stories which are repetitions or mirror-images. Ramayana (Rama’s story) and the Mahabharata (the Great Indian Epic) tell the stories of the gods and have provided heroes and villains to every film and every Indian story down to the present day. Famously, Sanskrit theatre has no tragedy. Since all action has a re-action (karma) there can be no tragic hero. Also sensitively and sensibly enough as in Shakespeare or more aptly, Aeschylus there are linguistic registers. Dattani himself is a product of Anglo-Indian schools. Films can be a cruel world for single young girls hoping for stardom in Bombay after coming out of Punjab villages.
