https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Mahesh_ElkunchwarMahesh Elkunchwar - Revision history2026-07-31T15:06:13ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Mahesh_Elkunchwar&diff=467038&oldid=prevQtree2009 at 18:20, 21 February 20262026-02-21T18:20:47Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian dramatist}}<br />
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{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Mahesh Elkunchwar<br />
| image = <!-- just the filename, without the File: or Image: prefix or enclosing [[brackets]] --><br />
| alt = <br />
| caption = <br />
| birth_name = <br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1939|10|09}}<br />
| birth_place = Parwa, [[Maharashtra]]<br />
| death_date = <!-- {{Death date and age|df=yes|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} or {{Death-date and age|Month DD, YYYY|Month DD, YYYY}} (death date then birth date) --><br />
| death_place = <br />
| known_for = ''Yugant''<br /> ''[[Party (1984 film)|Party]]''<br /> ''[[Holi (1984 film)|Holi]]''<br /> ''[[Sonata (play)|Sonata]]''<br />''[[Wada chirebandi (play)|Wada chirebandi]]''<br /> ''[[Magna Talyakathi (play)|Magna Talyakathi]]''<br /> ''Mounarag''{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}<br />
| occupation = Playwright<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Mahesh Elkunchwar''' (born 9 October 1939) is an Indian playwright and screenplay writer in [[Marathi language]] with more than 20 plays to his name, in addition to his theoretical writings, critical works, and his active work in India's ''[[Parallel Cinema]]'' as actor{{citation needed|date=May 2017}} and screenwriter. Today along with [[Vijay Tendulkar]], he is credited as one of the most influential and progressive playwrights not just in [[Marathi theatre]], but also in [[Indian theatre]]. In 2014, he was awarded the [[Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship]], the highest honour in performing arts in [[India]].<ref name=mi>{{cite news|url=http://www.livemint.com/2009/02/06211922/Fringe-takes-centre-stage.html|title=Fringe takes centre stage: The importance of being Mahesh Elkunchwar and Satish Alekar in Marathi theatre|date=6 February 2009|publisher=Mint |access-date=26 March 2012}}</ref><br />
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==Early life and education==<br />
Born to a 9th generation [[Telugu Brahmin]] migrant family in Parwa village in [[Vidarbha]] region of [[Maharashtra]], at the age of four he had to leave his parents and leave a city where he grew up a lonely child and hardly interested in studies, and raised outside of Indian urban centres. As films and theatre were taboo in his family, he saw his first play when he moved to [[Nagpur]] for his matriculation. Here he studied at Morris College, and went on to do M.A. in English from [[Nagpur University]]. While still in college came the turning point in his life, when one day he went to watch a film and unable to get a movie ticket, he ended up watching a play. That play was a veteran theatre director [[Vijaya Mehta]]'s production of [[Vijay Tendulkar]]'s ''Mee jinkalo mee Haralo'' (I Won, I Lost) in 1965. Deeply influenced by the play, he went to watch play again the following day and decided to write plays. He devoted the next year to reading plays of all kind.<ref>{{cite news |title=I'm writer by default, says Elkunchwar|url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-13/nagpur/28139333_1_mahesh-elkunchwar-award-vijay-tendulkar |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120718201730/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-02-13/nagpur/28139333_1_mahesh-elkunchwar-award-vijay-tendulkar |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 July 2012 |work=[[The Times of India]] |date=13 February 2010 }}</ref><ref name=tribune1998>{{cite news |title=Urban folk theatre is artistic kleptomania|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/1998/98oct18/sunday/view.htm |work=[[The Tribune (Chandigarh)|The Tribune]] |date=18 October 1998 }}</ref><br />
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==Career==<br />
He taught English literature at Dharampeth Arts, Commerce College, Nagpur and M. P. Deo Memorial Science College, Nagpur, until retiring as its Head in 1999. He was a guest professor of screen play-writing at the Film and Television Institute, Pune in 2000–2001. He taught as a visiting professor at the National school of Drama, New Delhi for a number of years.<br />
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Elkunchwar has experimented with many forms of dramatic expression, ranging from the realistic to symbolic, [[Expressionist theater|expressionist]] to [[absurd theatre]] with theme ranging from creativity to life, sterility to death and has influenced modern Indian theatre for more than three decades.<ref name=mi/> Elkunchwar emerged onto the national theatre scene with the publication of his one-act play ''Sultan'' in 1967 in noted literary magazine ''Satyakatha''. This play was immediately noticed by Vijaya Mehta; she went on to direct four of his early plays, including ''Holi'' and ''Sultan'' in 1969 and 1970 for ''Rangayan''.<ref name=mi/> A number of commercial hits followed such as ''Holi'' (1969), ''Raktapushpa'' (1971), ''Party'' (1972), ''Virasat'' (1982), and ''Atamkatha'' (1987).<br />
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Considered a successor to [[Vijay Tendulkar]],<ref name=tribune1998/> Elkunchwar's plays are written in [[Marathi language|Marathi]], the Indian language that is spoken by approximately 90 million people. The plays have been subsequently translated into multiple Indian and Western languages (including English, French and German).<br />
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In 1984, his play ''Holi'' was made into the film ''[[Holi (1984 film)|Holi]]'' by [[Ketan Mehta]], for which he wrote the screenplay. In the same year, [[Govind Nihalani]] directed a film, ''[[Party (1984 film)|Party]]'', based on his eponymous play. Sonata (2017), a film starring [[Aparna Sen]], Shabana Azmi and Lilette Dubey was based on Elkunchwar's eponymous play.<br />
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A lesser known fact about him is as Mahesh Elkunchwar, the essayist. His collection of essays 'Maunraag' has broken new grounds in this genre, and was considered the book of the decade in 2012.{{Citation needed|date=February 2026}} An uncanny blend of autobiographical and meditative, his essay show his erudition and a vivid imagination.<br />
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==Plays by Mahesh Elkunchwar==<br />
<br />
* Rudravarsha (The Savage Year), 1966<br />
* Sultan (one act), 1967<br />
* Zumbar (one act), 1967<br />
* Eka Mhatarachya Khoon (An Old Man's Murder, one act), 1968<br />
* Kaifiyat (one act), 1967<br />
* Ek Osad Gaon (one act), 1969<br />
* Yatanaghar (The Chamber of Anguish), 1970<br />
* Garbo, 1970<br />
* Vasanakand (The Episode of Lust), 1972<br />
* Magna talyakathi<br />
* Party, 1976<br />
* Wada Chirebandi (Old Stone Mansion), 1985<br />
* Pratibimb (Reflection), 1987<br />
* Atmakatha (Autobiography), 1988<br />
* Magna Talyakathi (The Pond), 1991<br />
* Yuganta (The End of an Age)<br />
* Wasanani Jeernani (Tattered Clothes), 1995<br />
* Dharmaputra (Godson), 1998<br />
* [[Sonata (play)|Sonata]], 2000<br />
* Eka Natacha Mrityu (An Actor's Death), 2005<br />
* Raktapushp<br />
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Other works:<br />
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* Maunraag : collection of essays, Mouj Prakashan<br />
* Paschimprabha : collection of essays, Chakshu prakashan<br />
* Baatcheet : Interviews, Rajhans Prakashan <br />
* Saptak : lectures, Rajhans prakashan <br />
* Tribandh : Three essays, Mouj Prakashan<br />
* Vinashavela ( translation ) Mouj Prakashan<br />
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==Awards and recognition==<br />
Elkunchwar's plays have gained national and international critical attention, and his growing body of work has become part of India's post-colonial theatrical canon. <br />
Some Important Honours, Awards:<br />
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# [[Sangeet Natak Academi Award]] – 1989<br />
# Nandikar-1989{{clarify|date=May 2017}} <br />
# Maharashtra Gaurav –1990{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}<br />
# Maharashtra Foundation for ‘Yugant” –1997 {{citation needed|date=May 2017}}<br />
# [[Sahitya Akademi Award]] for his Trilogy '''Yugant'''<br />
# Saraswati Samman -2002{{clarify|date=May 2017}}<br />
#Janasthan 2011<br />
# Brittingham Visiting Scholar, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA in 2005 {{citation needed|date=May 2017}}<br />
# [[Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship]]2013<br />
# [[Kalidas Samman]] 2014-2015<br />
# Go. Ni. Dandekar Puraskar 2016<br />
# [[Vinda Karandikar Jeevan Gaurav Puraskar]]- 2018<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sahitya.marathi.gov.in/235/ |title=विंदा करंदीकर जीवन गौरव पुरस्कार – महाराष्ट्र राज्य साहित्य आणि संस्कृती मंडळ |website=sahitya.marathi.gov.in |access-date=12 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210502123728/https://sahitya.marathi.gov.in/235/ |archive-date=2 May 2021 |url-status=dead}}</ref><br />
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Works in translations:<br />
* {{cite book |title=City plays (Playscript)|author=Mahesh Elkunchwar |author2=[[Shanta Gokhale]] & [[Manjula Padmanabhan]] (translation) |publisher=Seagull Books|year=2004|isbn=8170462304}}<br />
<br />
Collected Plays of Mahesh Elkunchwar Volume I: Oxford University Press 2008<br />
<br />
Collected Plays of Mahesh Elkunchwar Volume II : Oxford University Press 2011<br />
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== References ==<br />
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<references /><br />
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==External links==<br />
* {{IMDb name|0253913}}<br />
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{{SangeetNatakAkademiFellowship}}<br />
{{Saraswati Samman}}<br />
{{Marathi Theatre}}<br />
{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Elkunchwar, Mahesh}}<br />
[[Category:1939 births]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:Indian male dramatists and playwrights]]<br />
[[Category:Marathi-language writers]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Saraswati Samman Award]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi]]<br />
[[Category:Marathi theatre]]<br />
[[Category:Writers from Nagpur]]<br />
[[Category:Maharashtra academics]]<br />
[[Category:Dramatists and playwrights from Maharashtra]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian male writers]]<br />
[[Category:Recipients of the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship]]</div>Qtree2009