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The precolonial and colonial discourses on/of gender have come to be reviewed in the aftermath of India's Independence in 1947. The spirit of rethinking the "given," originated mostly under the alien/ colonial influences, creates a postcolonial situation that espouses a nationalistic consolidation on the one hand and looks into the alternative discourses marginalized by such consolidation on the other. As a result, different lost or marginal voices have come to the fore. Indian theatre, after the independence, lends a voice to these unacknowledged zones of silence. Plays have begun to question sexuality and gender, redefining not only the issues themselves but also the thematic purview of Indian theatre and the audience reception. In this context, the present paper seeks to read three plays: Vijay Tendulkar's A Friend's Story and Mahesh Dattani's Seven Steps Around the Fire and On a Muggy Night in Mumbai. The paper examines how the plays challenge the conventional sex-roles through transgender identities and same-sex relations in a heterosexist society and how they trace the evolution of post-independence Indian theatre to be able to deal openly with taboo topics such as alternative sexuality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The city of Mumbai, India, has always been represented in fictional narratives and mainstream Bollywood cinema as the land of endless opportunities, unfathomable surprises, and awe-inspiring success stories. The most educated migrants who come to the city from elsewhere (fortified by language and hope) aspire for a permanent address or a living space to call their own or to belong. And in fact, many of them do succeed in their aspirations and enterprises. However, the focus of this paper is on the scamper for space amongst the migrant middle class and particularly the process of appropriation and contestation for common spaces like corridor, terrace, and compound in the apartments. The paper argues as to how these acts of the migrants are orchestrated to inform and re-evoke their sense of being and identity. And this happens in cities such as Mumbai, as newer identities are being configured each day, resulting in complexities and threats of erasure. The argument is substantiated by the first author's own experiences and memories of the city. In addition, the paper also borrows from the narratives of Chandrima Pal, Gregory David Roberts, Vapu, and Rohinton Mistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]