Women racing towards liberation – fast, magnificent and free

There’s a marvellous new book of plays out: Ottam aur Anya Natak – Ottam and Other Plays – by Sapan Saran, published by Vaam Prakashan. Each of the three plays in the book has a woman at its centre.

While theatre is rife with portrayals of women as victims or heroines, long-suffering, silent and strong, Saran is not interested in that trope – her protagonists simply aspire to live life on their own terms and determinedly nurture that spirit in a world that is always trying to show them their place.

Ottam, the third play in Saran’s book, engages with a topic close to my heart – running. “Ottam” is the Tamil word for running. The protagonist Akai lives to run. One may say that running is her life. In a beautiful little scene, Saran captures the utter joy of running: Akai’s father is trying to teach her to play the parai, a percussion instrument that belongs to the Paraiyar caste.

Akai, bored with the slowness of the tempo, starts messing around. She tells her father she’d much prefer to run. He challenges her, “Run through the river as I beat my drum”. She takes up the challenge and flies off. Anxious for his daughter at...

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