Dattani’s Bravely Fought the Queen, a dark domestic tragedy set in the urban background of Bangalore, focuses on the

issues, ‘concerns and challenges of the urban Indian society’. Dattani shows his awareness and concerns about the
multi layered politics of the gendered self, on the one hand through the operations of patriarchy, and on the other,
through the invisible but equally important issues of alternate sexualities. The deliberately structured undersized plant,
stunted in growth, confined in wires resembling a ‘dwarfish maturity’, go on to represent an image of the contemporary
society-- deformed, dehumanised to a large extent, yet bearing within it the seeds of life and the potential to survive,
fighting against all odds.
The play which opens into the world of the aristocratic and prosperous women living in joint families in which Lalitha
arrives as an intruder. She peeps into their caged world and presents a glimpse of their everyday life where a woman’s
daily activities consist of catering to family needs, with occasional indulgences in beauty regimes, social gatherings,
planning ball dances, wearing facial masks or listening to thumris. The first act entitled ‘the women’ reveals the fissures
of tension beneath the façade of the perfectly regulated lives of two upper-middle-class women of Trivedi family, namely
Dolly and Alka. At the outset of the play Lalitha is projected as a modern Indian woman quite unlike Dolly or Alka. She
claims that she is a cosmopolitan woman who engages herself in freelance writing for an occasional woman’s column
for the Times. She reviews cultural events, practises meditation, indulges in poetic compositions and shares a passion
for growing bonsais. By the end of the play it becomes evident that most of these women are either tormented figures
caught in loveless or troubled marriage relationships, abused and ill treated beyond measure by the patriarchal world or
they are rendered as passive entities safely ensconced and marginalised within the protective confines of their
husband’s world. Most of them are victims of domestic violence, deception, loneliness and boredom and seek escapes
from their mundane life in various ways. Dolly shares the surreal fancy of a secret and passionate relationship with her
cook Kanhaiya to escape from her purposeless and meaningless marital life with her adulterous husband Jiten; Alka
finds respite from her frustrating marriage to homosexual Nitin by drowning herself in alcohol; Baa shouts at her
daughter-in-laws to give vent to her displaced anger which had accumulated due to years of exploitation, violence and
torture to which she was subjected in the hands of her abusive husband, whereas Lalitha cultivates bonsais to fulfil the
emptiness of her childless life.
Lalitha’s passion for growing bonsais has a symbolic significance in the play. The small plants reared with utmost care
are integral to Lalitha’s identity. Traditionally bonsai implies a Japanese art of gardening where plants are grown in
miniature forms on trays or small pots. Implementing the techniques of pruning, root reduction, grafting and defoliation,
small trees are grown that mimic the shape and style of full grown trees. In the course of the play the symbol of the
miniscule plant or bonsai goes on to assume a profound significance with respect to the lives of the characters depicted
in the play. The art of wiring and trimming of the plants symbolically allude to the process of control and domination of
women by the laws and tenets of the patriarchy. The stunted growth thus becomes suggestive of the restrictive life of
the women in the play as well as the women of the Indian society in general who are forced to fit into the pre-ordained
identities of the mother, the daughter and the wife throughout their life.
Lalitha being a childless woman attend the bonsais with a maternal love. She trims and prunes the saplings with utmost
care. She has brought one of her self-created bonsais as a gift for the Trivedis when she comes to visit them to discuss
the masked ball event with Dolly Trivedi on her husband’s boss’s request. Dolly is amused with Lalitha’s unconventional
gift, Alka is merely curious. Lalitha confesses to Alka that it is an art which she has been practising for years.
Lalitha: I suppose it comes with a bit practise. In the beginning, you will have a lot of dead shoots on
your hands. But then you learn and it…comes. Anyone can do it. You first find a sapling of your choice.
It could be of any tree. I myself prefer fruit trees because when they are fully grown (giggles)-I guess
you can’t call them fully grown-but when they’ve reached their (demonstrates with her hands) dwarfed
maturity, they really look bizarre with pea-sized mangoes or oranges!
She is devoted in her craft which was her hobby as well her means of transcending the confines of her barren lonely life.
Thus the symbol of bonsai assumes a strategic significance in the play as Dattani also uses it as a dominant metaphor
in his exploration of the complex psyche of his characters. The grotesque looking trees despite their short stature could
bear fruit, in spite of their stunted growth and they possess the perseverance to survive and in a way symbolically hint at
the characteristic trait inherent to Lalitha’s identity, who desperately seeks to survive in a world where everything else is
crumbling and falling into pieces. The ‘bonsai’ symbol representing ‘dwarfish identity’ becomes a visual representation of
Dattani’s representation of the marginalised consciousness of the women. Daksha, the spastic child of Dolly and Jiten,
is an obvious parallel to the stunted and dwarfish bonsai, a deformed child born in pain due to violence inflicted upon
her mother, whereas Alka too appears constrained by the patriarchal discourses of society resembling the bonsai born
as a result of forced stunting. In Act II of the play entitled “the Men” too the bonsai image reappears albeit differently.
Jiten and Nitin do not share Sridhar’s enthusiasm or fondness for the art of bonsai which he has acquired from his wife
Lalitha. Dattani’s use of the image of the ‘bonsai’ is an instance of such a powerful symbol which extends beyond the
action and setting of the play to hint at greater social and existential realities.
In Act III of the play entitled ‘Free For All’ the characters are made to confront to each other and through the
agonised encounter between individuals the facades are shattered exposing the ugly realities of their lives. Alka
confesses how she was forced to marry her homosexual husband by her own brother Praful and Dolly claims that the
only time she had secured a moral victory over her violent, abusive and sexually promiscuous husband was when she
gave birth to her daughter Daksha. Alka’s dance in the rain in a way signifies her instinctive urge for freedom and
individuality. She refuses to accept the rigid shackles of the patriarchal society and become the fettered ‘bonsai’ unable
to grow or breathe as per her own wish. On their way back home Lalitha and Sridhar pick up the bonsai that Lalitha has
brought as a gift for the Trivedis: “I can’t let it die! What a waste of effort!’ In the final evaluation as Lalitha and Sridhar
embrace each other after the holocaust of the tragedy is over. They emerge as the real survivors at the end of the play.
In their dreams of a shared household, domesticity and acts of nurturing a form of life in shape of the bonsai they
represent the typical Indian middle class family, where ‘adjustments and acceptances are celebrated as’ worthy
feminine virtues.