Vijay Tendulkar

vijay tendulkar's death at 80 ,though not shocking,means loss for many in many way.ofcourse he was india's major playwright.his plays are translated into many indian languages which reached reader's and viewers throughout india.recently his plays were performed in usa.its range enthralled viewers.even thouh it was in marathi 'ghashiram kotwal' ,because it was visually so rich,that m.f. husain did a series of painting based on that.it was favorite play of mario miranda.
vijay tendulkar in his book 'mi ani natak' tells a moving story of his first play 'grihasthh"(in prface of oxford india's translation 'manus nawache bet' is mentioned as a first play which is not true) damu kenkare along with his friends was active in bharatiya vidya bhawan and tendulkar was almost forced to write a play.it was three act play.first two acts were ok,but third act was disappointing and viewers started making noise and kenkare disappeared from stage.tendulkar was totally dicouraged.and decided not to write a play in life again.then his father comforted him saying 'for a first time writer,play is good'just rewrite it.in rewriting it was improved.
in decade after 1953 vijaya mehata directed his many plays.'shrimant' was succesfull.back from alkazi's training she created new language for theater.gidhade was play wchich she directed and shocked many.inspiration for that came from gaitonde's story who once designed set for a play.and was in touch with bharatiya widya bhawan group.(held a studio there). he wrote 'manus nawache bet',shrimant,ashi pakhare yeti,kamala.gidhade ,ghashiram kotwaal, shantata !court chalu aahe!kanyadan...ashi pakhare yeti was light hearted play but almost 80 percent of his work was depicting violence and cruelty.marathi theater which was nurtured on a 'satwik' feel good emotional dramas this was a big shock.shiwasena banned sakharam binder.ghashiram when it was invited for show in England a huge uproar wwas created.in 'kanyadaan 'he portrays a dalit nayak who is drunkard and marries a brhmin girl.for dalit community which was moving away from past and progressing towards middle class, this was something indigestibles.
tendulkar was first daily columnist in marathi.his tender hearted ,witty columns become populer in maharashtra times in seventies.in book form they were in b.a. curriculam.he did journalism and described himself as a scribe.he wrote about severel eventss incuding comeback of chimanbhai patel and hanging.his piece about hanging reminds one of orwel and both ends with utturance of dying man'rama,rama'
he edited diwali magazine named 'jahirnama' and many non writers wrote in it.one engineer wrote about case of similarities in electronic co.'s name.priya tendulkar wrote about her experience in five star hotel.
he was full time writer.often to meet dead lines he used to write in train.his daughter priya bacame television celebrity.his son was a cmeraman.both died before him.his son took a huge loan from a bank to buy a boat.and he lost that.there was case in court and in older age tendulkar (BEING one of signitary)landed in court.yet he wrote about all this in detached tone.he wrote 2 novels and they were not recived well.in last few years he was active in many movements with medha patkar shabana azmi.he was very encouraging to younger writers and always available to them.whe he saw jayant pawar's adhantar he said it was one of the great play'ase natak mi lihu shakalo nasato.he aprecited manaswini lata ravindr's plays and wrote preface to he play's collection when she was hardly 26.
his films were mostly from new wave but 'ardhasatya' bacome populer and raj kapoor loved it .through night he saw it 3-4 times and called tendulkar in morning.he invited tendulkar for a breakfast and requested him to write something for him.tendulkar had one germ about man who witness eeverything in goverment.they worked on it for a while.it didn't work. ardhasatya was just 6 page story by his friend.tendulkar turned it intro great movie.in original end hero welinkar commit suicide.but it was changed.samana was another movie which won prestigious berlin award.
he was friend to many.his son loved pets and at certain time tendulkar's home was full with dog,cat,turtle,birds...
in last few years i visited him few times.once he was reading feynman(nobel winning physicist);' book.whch was bestseller and hugely populer.tendulkar said'i am loking for something.'i asked 'for what?' he said'i am seeking whether he feel any regreat for working on a bomb.there were 3 watches on table.when asked about it he said 'one is priya's and another my son's'.he lost son daughter and wife in some period of 2-3 years.watching and meeting him was like seeing a saint who has seen it all and chronicled it all.
now one more clock will go on ticking on the table .