When we talk about postcolonial Indian drama and theatre we cannot forget the name of Vijay Tendulkar who was one of India’s most impactful and compelling playwrights such as Girish Karnad, Habib Tanvir, and Badal Sircar who flourished the Indian drama by providing a new literary vision of postcolonial Indian theatre which keeps the contemporary concerns and subjects at its focal point in an unique, innovative and creative manner. Tendulkar’s prolific endeavor reigned over an extensive span of five decades. There are thirty plays, seven one act plays, four short stories, two novels, six collections of children’s plays and seventeen film scripts to his credit. Without any misgiving he is a creative leviathan in postmodern Indian era of drama both in terms of quality and quantity. He is a subterranean observer of Indian socio-cultural reality, a humanist, a ground-breaking playwright who incessantly experimented with form and structure. He has got the reputation of an astute designer of multi dimensional and multi-layered characters whose angst is analyzed within the ambit social quandary of the society. The central part of his works is his profound concern for human life within socio-cultural reality of post-colonial India. His inexorable literary output and social activism was a human response of a highly sensitive artist to the festered, wretched and pathetic social conditions of India. Until his death, he was devoted to this human cause, seeking justice for the marginalized, deprived and afflicted section of society. Unlike the makers of the confrontational theater of the late 1980s, he did not believe that an evening at the theater would change the society, but he was always hopeful that a good play could raise public awarenes...
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...India a: A wounded Civilization, New York: Penguin, 1980 , p.20.
8. Dharan N.S., “ Sakharam Binder: The Impotent fury of a Male Masochist”, The Plays of Vijay Tendulkar, Creative Books, New Delhi, 1999, p.67.
9. Burman, I. Man- woman Relationship in the Sakharam Binder, AtlanticPublishers, New- Delhi. 2006 p. 167.
10. Ibid p.164.
11. Tendulkar, Vijay. Interview. Elizabeth Roy. Indian Review of Books. Vol.2, no.7, April-May, 1993. Quoted by Samik Bandyopadhyay. Introduction. Vijay Tendulkar’s Collected Plays in Translation. New Delhi: OUP, 2002, xli-xlii.
12. Banerjee, Arundhati. Introduction. Five Plays of Vijay Tendulkar. Bombay: OUP, 1992, xv.
13. Jonathan Kalb, "An Indian Father Courage, Using and Losing Women." New York Times, November 3, 2004.
Note: All the lines of text are quoted from Vijay Tendulkar,Five Plays, Oxford University Press, New Delhi1992
One statement in the beginning of the book was especially poignant to any one who studies Indian culture, It is easy for us to feel a vicarious rage, a misery on behalf of these people, but Indians, dead and alive would only receive such feelings with pity or contempt; it is too easy to feel sympathy for a people who culture was wrecked..
This autobiographical narrative is a collection Bharati Mukherjee’s experience returning to India with her Canadian husband who is also the co-author. They both separately wrote about their experiences in the country and the daily life for it’s people. The book focuses on these two contrasting points of view and cultural backgrounds ("Days and Nights in Calcutta , Bharati Mukherjee”). It is rated four stars out of five on Amazon.com.
Noted theatre producer Sudhir Bhat, who died of a heart attack late last night in Hinduja hospital, was a man with a mission. His mission was to produce commercially successful Marathi plays and show case them for a Marathi diaspora, settled in the United States of America. He continued with this single motivational project for around three decades in which he produced over 80 plays, which accounted for 17,000 shows. Eight of his plays crossed the 1000 show mark,. He perfected theatre economics into an art and lived true to his notion of entertainment. His drama company Suyog (1985) produced some noteworthy plays like Char Divas Premache, Shree Tashi Sau, Eka Lagnachi Goshta, Hich Tar Premachi Gammat Aahe, Diwasa Tu Ratri Me, Moruchi Maushi, Ti Phulrani.
Gairola, Rahul. “Burning with Shame: Desire and South Asian Patriarchy, from Gayatri Spivak’s ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ to Deepa Mehta’s Fire.” Comparative Literature 54:4 (Fall 2002). 307-324. EBSCOhost.
Language as dramatic medium becomes very interesting in the Indian context especially if we keep in mind the fact that multilingualism and bilingualism are established facts of our literary culture. Indian writers like most educated Indians are usually bilingual to a large extent in their everyday dealings, and though most confine their literary activity to their mother tongue, there are a few who also write in English. Distinguishing functional bilingualism with intellectual and emotional bilingualism i.e. “between reading a language and knowing it through and through”, Ramachandra Guha notes that there has been a decline in intellectual bilingualism – in the ability to contribute “to literary or academic debate in that language”(39). However, Sudhanva Deshpande mentioning Girish Karnad among many others argues that theatre is an exception, “multilingualism is well established, and well entrenched, in Indian theatre” (74).
In a Passage to India the author, E. M Forster sends the message of India’s mistreatment and misrepresentation by Britain. Throughout the novel, the reader is able to observe how British and Indian characters are treated differently. The author demonstrates the British perspective of Indians being the ignorant characters in the novel, whose company leads to troubles. Another aspect of the British perspective is that Indians are being treated as inferiors to the British in their own country, because if it were not for the British, the social and political order in India will descend into chaos. The author demonstration of the British perspective encourages the reader to feel sympathetic towards Indians. Whenever Aziz and Ronny meet, Ronny seems to use a tone of arrogance and disrespect towards Indians. Also, in the conversation between MR. Turton, Adela, and Mrs. Moore about the natives, the tone of arrogance seems to be present, as well. The author indicates his favoritism towards Indians by representing them as the weak and helpless characters in the novel.
Aparna, Bhargava. Theatres of Independence: Drama, Theory, and Urban Performance in India Since 1947. New York: University of Iowa Press, 2009.
Nanda, Serena. Neither Man nor Woman: The Hijras of India. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub., 1990. Print.
−−−.“Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni’s Arranged marriage: A Perspective.” English Literature: Voices of Indian Diaspora. Ed.Malti Agarwal.New Delhi:Atlantic, 2009. !50-157.Print.
The hero worship continued with a new play ‘Vanger Pratapaditya’ written by Khirodeprasad Vidyavinod. In this drama, all incidents are depicted to have taken place during the reign of Akbar- evidently it lacked chronological sense. Bengalis are described as a nation weak in physical prowess. But once they
In Shimit Aman’s film Chak De! India, we examine the impact of India’s socio-political condition. In result, Aman’s film brings to light the political anxiety of post-colonial India. Furthermore, we are able to determine how the boundaries of Indian nation-states have an impact on the construction gender, sports, and space.
Thus, Tendulkar “His Fifth Woman” is a metaphysical-social allegory. It is an epoch-making play in the history of Indian English Drama.
Naikar,S.Basavaraj. “Tughlaq as an Experimenter” Ed .Tutun Mukherjee. Girish Karnad’a Plays: Performance and Critical Perspectives. New Delhi: Pencraft, 2008.Print.
10. Naik, M.K & Mokashi-Panekar, S: “Perspectives on Indian Drama in English”, Chennai, OUP, 1977.
Swann, Darius L. "Indian and Greek Drama: Two Definitions." Comparative Drama 3.2 (1969): 110-9. Web. 5 Apr. 2014.