A Friend’s Story (Mitrachi Goshta) is a stark commentary on the nature of romantic love—both heterosexual and homosexual. In the world of Mitra, love has no redeeming qualities; it is a game of power that reduces players to bestial levels. Its expression, the sexual act, is no more than a sordid transaction. With the same brilliance that characterized his earlier plays like Ghashiram Kotwal, and Silence! The Court is in Session, Tendulkar here engages the theme of hunger for power. With its tightly-structured, economical and fast-paced plot, the play has all the hallmarks of Tendulkar’s consummate skills as a playwright. We are adroitly introduced to the college campus world of Bapu and Mitra: a destructive lesbian love; and the nurturing, constructive nature of a platonic heterosexual relationship, which, however, cannot avert disaster. Gowri Ramnarayan’s spontaneous and fluent translation makes this play eminently readable, appealing to students of theatre and the general reader alike.
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