Vijay Tendulkar

Career

Early career

Tendulkar began his career writing for newspapers. He had already written a play, Amchyavar Kon Prem Karnar? (transl. Who is going to love me?), and he wrote the play, Grihastha (transl. The Householder), in his early 20s. The latter did not receive much recognition from the audience, and he vowed never to write again.

Breaking the vow, in 1956 he wrote Shrimant, which established him as a good writer. Shrimant jolted the conservative audience of the times with its radical storyline, wherein an unmarried young woman decides to keep her unborn child while her rich father tries to "buy" her a husband in an attempt to save his social prestige.

Tendulkar's early struggle for survival and living for some time in tenements (Chawl) in Mumbai provided him first-hand experience about the life of the urban lower middle class. He thus brought new authenticity to their depiction in Marathi theatre. Tendulkar's writings rapidly changed the storyline of modern Marathi theatre in the 1950s and the 60s, with experimental presentations by theatre groups like Rangayan. Actors in these theatre groups like Shriram Lagoo, Mohan Agashe, and Sulabha Deshpande brought new authenticity and power to Tendulkar's stories while introducing new sensibilities in Marathi theatre.

Tendulkar wrote the play Gidhade (transl. The Vultures) in 1961, but it was not produced until 1970. The play was set in a morally collapsed family structure and explored the theme of violence. In his following creations, Tendulkar explored violence in its various forms: domestic, sexual, communal, and political. Thus, Gidhade proved to be a turning point in Tendulkar's writings about the establishment of his own unique writing style.

Based on a 1956 short story, Die Panne (transl. The Traps) by Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Tendulkar wrote the play, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (transl. Silence! The Court is in Session). It was presented on the stage for the first time in 1967 and proved to be one of his finest works. Satyadev Dubey presented it in movie form in 1971 with Tendulkar's collaboration as the screenplay writer.

1970s and 1980s

In his 1972 play, Sakharam Binder, Tendulkar dealt with the topic of domination of the male gender over the female. The main character, Sakharam, is a man devoid of ethics and morality, and professes not to believe in "outdated" social codes and conventional marriage. He accordingly uses the society for his pleasure. He regularly gives "shelter" to abandoned wives and uses them for his sexual gratification while remaining oblivious to the emotional and moral implications of his exploits. He justifies all his acts through claims of modern, unconventional thinking, and comes up with hollow arguments meant in fact to enslave women. Paradoxically, some of the women whom Sakharam had enslaved buy into his arguments and simultaneously badly want freedom from their enslavement.

In 1972, Tendulkar wrote another, even much more acclaimed play, Ghashiram Kotwal (transl. Officer Ghashiram), which dealt with political violence. The play is a political satire created as a musical drama set in 18th century Pune. It combined traditional Marathi folk music and drama with contemporary theatre techniques, creating a new paradigm for Marathi theatre. The play demonstrates Tendulkar's deep study of group psychology, and it brought him a Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship (1974–75) for a project titled, "An Enquiry into the Pattern of Growing Violence in Society and Its Relevance to Contemporary Theatre". With over 6,000 performances thus far in its original and translated versions, Ghashiram Kotwal remains one of the longest-running plays in the history of Indian theatre.

Tendulkar wrote screenplays for the movies Nishant (1974), Akrosh (transl. The Outrage; 1980), and Ardh Satya (transl. The Half-Truth; 1984) which established him as an important "Chronicler of Violence" of the present. He has written eleven movies in Hindi and eight movies in Marathi. The latter include Samana (transl. The Confrontation; 1975), Simhaasan (transl. The Throne; 1979), and Umbartha (transl. The Threshold; 1981). The last one is a groundbreaking feature film on women's activism in India. It was directed by Jabbar Patel and stars Smita Patil and Girish Karnad.

1990s to 2008

In 1991, Tendulkar wrote a metaphorical play, Safar, and in 2001 he wrote the play, The Masseur. He next wrote two novels – Kadambari: Ek and Kadambari: Don – about sexual fantasies of an ageing man. In 2004, he wrote a single-act play, His Fifth Woman – his first play in the English language – as a sequel to his earlier exploration of the plight of women in Sakharam Binder. This play was first performed at the Vijay Tendulkar Festival in New York in October 2004.

In the 1990s, Tendulkar wrote an acclaimed TV series, Swayamsiddha, in which his daughter Priya Tendulkar, noted Television actress of 'Rajani' fame, performed in the lead role. His last screenplay was for Eashwar Mime Co. (2005), an adaptation of Dibyendu Palit's story, Mukhabhinoy, and directed by theatre director, Shyamanand Jalan and with Ashish Vidyarthi and Pawan Malhotra as leads.

Family

He was the brother of acclaimed cartoonist and humourist Mangesh Tendulkar.

Death

Tendulkar died in Pune on 19 May 2008, battling the effects of the rare autoimmune disease myasthenia gravis.

Tendulkar's son Raja and wife Nirmala had died in 2001; his daughter Priya Tendulkar died the next year (2002) of a heart attack following a long battle with breast cancer.

Comment on Post-Godhra communal carnage

Following the post-Godhra communal carnage in Gujarat in 2002, Tendulkar reacted by saying that "If I had a pistol, I would shoot [Gujarat Chief Minister] Narendra Modi". This reaction of Tendulkar had evoked mixed reactions, local Modi supporters burning his effigies while others lauded his remark.

Later, when he was asked if it was not strange that he, who was known as a strong voice against death penalty, had a death wish for Modi, Tendulkar had said that "it was spontaneous anger, which I never see as a solution for anything. Anger doesn't solve problems."

Legacy

In his writing career spanning more than five decades, Tendulkar has written 27 full-length plays and 25 one-act plays. Several of his plays have proven to be Marathi theatre classics. His plays have been translated and performed in many Indian languages.

By providing insight into major social events and political upheavals during his adult life, Tendulkar became one of the most influential radical political voices in Maharashtra in recent times. He focused on political radicalism and political hegemony of the powerful and the hypocrisies in the Indian social mindset. His strong expression of human angst has resulted in his simultaneously receiving wide public acclaim and high censure from the orthodox and the officials.

Many of Tendulkar's plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals. Thus, the rise of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in the 1970s was reflected in Tendulkar's Ghashiram Kotwal. The true story of a journalist who purchased of a woman from the rural sex industry to reveal police and political involvement in this trade, only to abandon the woman once he had no further need for her, is detailed in Tendulkar's Kamala. The play was later made into a film Kamla. The real-life story of an actress whose acting career got ruined after her same-sex affair became public knowledge inspired Tendulkar to write Mitrachi Goshta.

Tendulkar has translated nine novels, two biographies, and five plays by other authors into Marathi.

Besides the foregoing, Tendulkar's oeuvre includes a biography; two novels; five anthologies of short stories; 16 plays for children, including Bale Miltat (1960) and Patlachya Poriche Lagin (1965); and five volumes of literary essays and social criticism, including Ratrani (1971), Kowali Unhe (1971), and Phuge Sobanche (1974). All in all, Tendulkar's writings have contributed to a significant transformation of the modern literary landscape in Marathi and other Indian languages.

In 2005, a documentary titled Tendulkar Ani Himsa: Kal Ani Aj ("Tendulkar and Violence: Then and Now") with English subtitles (produced by California Arts Association – CalAA - directed by Atul Pethe) was released. In 2007, a short film about Tendulkar, Ankahin, (director Santosh Ayachit) was released.

Awards

Tendulkar won Maharashtra State government awards in 1969 and 1972; and Maharashtra Gaurav Puraskar in 1999. He was honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1970, and again in 1998 with the academy's highest award for "lifetime contribution", the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship ("Ratna Sadasya"). In 1984, he received the Padma Bhushan award from the Government of India for his literary accomplishments.

In 1977, Tendulkar won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay for his screenplay of Shyam Benegals movie, Manthan (1976). He has written screenplays for many significant art movies, such as Nishant, Akrosh, Ardh Satya and Aghaat.

A comprehensive list of awards is given below:

• 1970 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
• 1970 Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay Award
• 1977 National Film Award for Best Screenplay: Manthan
• 1981 Filmfare Best Screenplay Award: Aakrosh
• 1981 Filmfare Best Story Award: Aakrosh
• 1983 Filmfare Best Screenplay Award: Ardh Satya
• 1984 Padma Bhushan
• 1993 Saraswati Samman
• 1998 Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship
• 1999 Kalidas Samman
• 2001 Katha Chudamani Award Khamosh! Adalat Jari Ha
• 2006 The Little Magazine SALAM Award