This collection brings together for the first time, award-winning playwright Vijay Tendulkar’s best-known plays, translated from Marathi. It includes a preface by Tendulkar on his induction into the art of writing plays, and a piece on what he considers to be the essential skills of a playwright. The introduction by Samik Bandyopadhyay discusses the role of power in Tendulkar’s plays. The plays deal with the complexity of human relationship. Each contains a subtle critique of modern Indian society, and a distinct character and message. Kamala is an indictment of the success-oriented male society in which women are mere stepping stones for the achievements of men. Silence ! The Court is in Session combines social criticism with the tragedy of an individual victimized by society. Sakharam Binder explores the complications of human nature, two necessary components of which are sex and violence. The Vultures depicts the economic and moral degeneration of a family. Encounter in Umbugland is a political satire and Ghashiram Kotwal, set in Maharashtra in the late eighteenth century, recounts the power game played out in terms of caste ascendancy in politics. A Friend’s Story is a stark commentary on the nature of both heterosexual and homosexual love. Kanyadaan explores the texture of modernity and social change in India through a marriage between two people of different castes and backgrounds. A compilation of eight plays, this volume is a collector’s item which will make Tendulkar’s works easily accessible to students and aficionados of modern Indian theatre.
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