Author: Vijay Tendulkar
Translator(s): Priya Adarkar/Shanta Gokhle/Eleanor Zelliot et al
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 2004
Language: English
Pages: 598
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0195669134
Description
This collection brings together for the first time, award-winning playwright Vijay Tendulkar’s best-known plays, translated from Marathi. It includes a preface by Tendulkar on his induction into the art of writing plays, and a piece on what he considers to be the essential skills of a playwright.
The introduction by Samik Bandyopadhyay discusses the role of power in Tendulkar’s plays.
The plays deal with the complexity of human relationships. Each contains a subtle critique of modern Indian society, and a distinct character and message. Kamala is an indictment of the success-oriented male society in which women are mere stepping stones for the achievements of men. Silence! The Court is in Session combines social criticism with the tragedy of an individual victimized by society. Sakharam Binder explores the complications of human nature, two necessary components of which are sex and violence. The Vultures depicts the economic and moral degeneration of a family.
Encounter in Umbugland is a political satire and Ghashiram Kotwal, set in Maharashtra in the late eighteenth century, recounts the power game played out in terms of caste ascendancy in politics. A Friend’s Story is a stark commentary on the nature of both heterosexual and homosexual love. Kanyadaan explores the texture of modernity and social change in India through a marriage between two people of different castes and backgrounds.
A compilation of eight plays, this volume is a collector’s item which will make Tendulkar’s works easily accessible to student sand aficionados of modern Indian theatre.
REVIEWS
India’s finest playwright’s most famous plays… are here… Together, they offer you a rare and powerful insight into middle-class India, and how it thinks.
-Sunday Observer
Reading…his plays…leaves one spellbound and shell-shocked… like all great playwrights Tendulkar is a gripping story-teller.
-Independent
Vijay Tendulkar’s place is assured; the historical position of his plays vis-à-vis the Indian dramatic tradition is assured… The plays…have had hugely successful runs, and have been critically acclaimed.
-Free Press Journal
Tendulkar is an astute craftsman…The uncertainty of the Vultures is a brilliant dramatic puzzle.
-Samik Bandhyopadhyay
Contents
Preface by Vijay Tendulkar
Characterization and Structure: Two Essentials for a Playwright by Vijay Tendulkar
Introduction by Samik Bandyopadhyay
Kamala
Translated by Priya Adarkar
Silence! The Court is in Session
Translate by Priya Adarkar
Sakharam Binder
Translated by Kumud Mehta and Shanta Gokhale
The Vultures
Translated by Priya Adarkar
Encounter in Umbugland
Translated by Priya Adarkar
Ghashiram Kotwal
Translated by Jayant Karve and Eleanor Zelliot
A Friend’s Story
Translated by Gowri Ramnarayan
Kanyadaan
Translated by Gowri Ramnarayan
Appendices
Appendix I
Appendix II
Appendix III
Appendix IV