Mahesh Elkunchwar

Mahesh Elkunchwar is a playwright and screenplay writer of Indian origin. He works primarily in the Marathi language, has written over 20 plays, and is also known for his critical and theoretical writings. Elkunchwar was born into a Telugu Brahmin migrant family in Parwa village in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra in 1939. At the age of four, he was separated from his parents and raised outside of Indian urban centers, which contributed to his lack of interest in studies and lonely childhood. Although his family considered films and theatre to be taboo, he discovered his passion for theatre when he moved to Nagpur for his matriculation and saw his first play.

He later studied at Morris College and earned an M.A. in English from Nagpur University. In 1965, he attended a performance of Vijay Tendulkar Vijay Tendulkar was born on 6th January 1928 in Mu >> Read More... 's play Mee jinkalo mee Haralo under the direction of seasoned theatre director Vijaya Mehta Vijaya Mehta is an acclaimed Indian television fil >> Read More... , which marked a defining moment in his life. This experience deeply influenced him, and he decided to become a playwright after watching the play twice and dedicating a year to reading plays of all kinds. Until his retirement as Head in 1999, Mahesh Elkunchwar taught English literature at Dharampeth Arts, Commerce College, and M.P. Deo Memorial Science College, both located in Nagpur. From 2000-2001, he taught screen playwriting in the capacity of a guest professor of at the FTII - Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, and later was part of the visiting faculty at the National School of Drama, New Delhi, for several years.

Elkunchwar is recognized for working with a variety of dramatic expression techniques, from expressionism to absurd theatre, realism to symbolism. For more than three decades, his plays have had a profound influence on contemporary Indian theatre. His works deal with topics like creativity, life, sterility, and death. When his one-act drama Sultan was published in the esteemed literary journal Satyakatha in 1967, he attained widespread notoriety. His early works were directed by Vijaya Mehta, including Holi and Sultan in 1969 and 1970 for Rangayan. He went on to produce commercial hits like Raktapushpa (1971), Virasat (1982), Party (1972), and Atamkatha (1987). Elkunchwar is considered a successor to Vijay Tendulkar and writes primarily in Marathi, a language spoken by approximately 90 million people in India. He wrote the screenplay for Ketan Mehta's 1984 film Holi, based on his play of the same name, and Govind Nihalani Born on 19 August 1940, Govind Nihalani hails from >> Read More... directed a film, Party, based on his eponymous play in the same year.

Sonata, a film released in 2017 and starring Aparna Sen A vetern filmmaker and actress, Aparna Sen has bee >> Read More... , Shabana Azmi Shabana Azmi is a film actress of Indian origin an >> Read More... , and Lilette Dubey, was also based on one of Elkunchwar's plays. In addition to his achievements as a playwright and screenplay writer, Elkunchwar is also an accomplished essayist. His collection of essays, Maunraag, broke new ground in the genre and was considered the book of the decade in 2012. His essays blend autobiography with meditation, demonstrating his erudition and vivid imagination. French, English and German are only a few of the Western and Indian languages into which his plays have been translated. Elkunchwar's playwriting career began with Rudravarsha (The Savage Year) in 1966, followed by several one-act plays like Eka Mhatarachya Khoon (An Old Man's Murder, one-act) (1968), Sultan (1967), Zumbar (1967), and Kaifiyat (1967).

Some of his popular plays include Atmakatha (Autobiography) (1988), Yatanaghar (The Chamber of Anguish) (1970), Vasanakand (The Episode of Lust) (1972), Pratibimb (Reflection) (1987), Garbo (1970), Wada Chirebandi (Old Stone Mansion) (1985), and Sonata (2000). Elkunchwar has received many prestigious awards for his contribution to theatre, including the Sangeet Natak Academi Award in 1989, Sahitya Akademi Award for his Trilogy Yugant, Saraswati Samman in 2002, Janasthan in 2011, Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2013, Kalidas Samman in 2014-2015, and Go. Ni. Dandekar Puraskar in 2016. Elkunchwar has also been recognized as a part of the Brittingham Visiting Faculty of Schoars at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA, in 2005.

Elkunchwar's works in translation include the Collected Plays of Mahesh Elkunchwar Volume I (2008) and Volume II (2011), published by Oxford University Press and City Plays (2004) translated by Shanta Gokhale Gokhale is an Indian writer who was born in Dahanu >> Read More... and Manjula Padmanabhan Manjula Padmanabhan is a journalist, playwright, a >> Read More... . Elkunchwar was honored with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship in 2014, the highest award for performing arts in India.