Kiran Nagarkar

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Template:Infobox writer Kiran Nagarkar (2 April 1942 – 5 September 2019) was an Indian novelist, playwright and screenwriter. A noted drama and film critic, he was one of the most significant writers of post-colonial India.[1]

Amongst his notable works are Saat Sakkam Trechalis (tr. Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974), Ravan and Eddie (1994), and Cuckold (1997) for which he was awarded the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award in English by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.[1][2][3] His novels written in English have been translated into German. In 2012, he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.[4]

Personal life

Nagarkar was born on 2 April 1942 in Bombay, now Mumbai, in a middle-class Maharashtrian family, the younger of two sons to Sulochana and Kamalkant Nagarkar.[5][6][7] His grandfather, B. B. Nagarkar, was a Brahmo and had attended the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.[8] He studied at Fergusson College in Pune and the S.I.E.S. College in Mumbai.[9][6] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a master's degree in English literature in 1967. After that, he worked as an advertising copywriter for 15 years.[7]

From June to November 2011 he was 'writer in residence' at the Literaturhaus Zurich and the PWG Foundation in Zurich.[10]

He was married to Tulsi Vatsal, sister of industrialist Anand Mehta.[9][11] Nagarkar was a life-long critic of the establishment and stood by his political views throughout his literary career.[12]

He was admitted to hospital on 2 September 2019, after suffering a brain haemorrhage at a friend's place during celebrations for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival.[13] He remained in a coma for two days and died on 5 September 2019.[9]

Novels

Nagarkar is notable among Indian writers for having written acclaimed novels in more than one language. His first novel, Saat Sakkam Trechalis published in Marathi in 1974, was translated into English by Shubha Slee in 1980 and published in 1995 as Seven Sixes Are Forty Three.[14] It is considered a landmark work of Marathi literature.[15] His novel Ravan and Eddie, begun in Marathi but completed in English, was not published until 1994.[16] Since Ravan and Eddie, all Nagarkar's novels have been written in English and also translated into German.[13]

His third novel, Cuckold, based upon the mystic Meerabai's husband, Bhoj Raj, was published in 1997 and won the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award. It took him nine years to write his next, God's Little Soldier, a tale of a liberal Muslim boy's tryst with religious orthodoxy, which was published in 2006, to mixed reviews.[17][18][19]

In 2012, he published The Extras, a sequel to Ravan and Eddie that traces the adult lives of Ravan and Eddie in Bollywood. The third and last book in the series, Rest in Peace, was written in 2015.[9]

His 2017 novel, Jasoda, is the story of a young women and mother, trying to raise her children in the arid lands of Kantagiri. Jasoda shows every lamentable tradition in the hinterlands in stark clarity. It is a testimony, according to the author, to the millions of women in the parched and scorched regions of India and find themselves between a rock and a husband.[20]

His 2019 novel, The Arsonist, is a re-imagining of the life of Kabir, the 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. It also critiqued the rise of Hindu majoritarianism in India.[12]

Plays and screenplays

In 1978, Nagarkar wrote the play Bedtime Story, based partly on the Mahābhārata. Its performance was extra-legally banned for 17 years by Hindu nationalist[14] fundamentalist parties,[21] including the Shiv Sena,[22][23][24][25] a far-right political party;[26] Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Mahasabha.[27] He warned about censorship faced by India in his introduction to the play: "Legal censorship in India can often be gauche, club-footed and hyper-protective of anything and everything but the freedoms of speech and expression. Extra-legal censorship in the country, however, is fearless and effective. It successfully prevented Bedtime Story from being performed for seventeen years."[14] In a 2018 interview, Nagarkar did not appear to be concerned about censorship in the country. He recalled past incidents when radical groups in Mumbai had threatened to prevent his play from staging. Nagarkar stated, "these things happen from time to time, and only then can we be assured that art is still living."[28]

Nagarkar's theatre work also includes Kabirache Kay Karayche and Stranger Amongst Us, and his screenplay work includes The Broken Circle, The Widow and Her Friends, and The Elephant on the Mouse, a film for children.[28][29] He played the role of Brother Bono as a cameo appearance in Dev Benegal's Movie Split Wide Open.[30]

Awards and honours

Kiran Nagarkar at the Chandigarh Literature Festival in 2010

Kiran Nagarkar was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and Sahitya Akademi Award among others. He also received the Rockefeller grant and a scholarship from the city of Munich.[13]

Works

Novels

Kiran Nagarkar at Chandigarh Literature Festival in 2016

Plays and screenplays

  • 1978: Bedtime Story[29]
  • Kabirache Kay Karayche[29]
  • Stranger Amongst Us[32]
  • The Broken Circle[28]
  • The Widow and Her Friends[28]
  • The Elephant on the Mouse[28]
  • Black Tulip[14]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Sanga, p. 177
  2. ↑ Sahitya Akademi Awards 1955–2007: English. -Sahitya Akademi Official website. Retrieved 30 April 2022.
  3. ↑ In Conversation: The artful storyteller. The Hindu(5 March 2006). Retrieved 24 November 2008.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Germany confers Cross of Order of Merit, to Babasaheb Kalyani, Kiran Nagarkar(7 November 2012). Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  5. ↑ Kiran Nagarkar: God's little soldier. rediff.com(2 May 2006). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Sahitya Akademi awardee novelist Kiran Nagarkar dead. Mint(5 September 2019). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Kiran Nagarkar, Novelist Who Chronicled Mumbai Life, Dies at 77. The New York Times(11 September 2019). Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  8. ↑ Unapologetically Nagarkar. Harmony Magazine. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  9. ↑ 9.00 9.01 9.02 9.03 9.04 9.05 9.06 9.07 9.08 9.09 Sahitya Akademi Award-winning writer Kiran Nagarkar dies at 77. The Hindu(6 September 2019). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  10. ↑ Der indische Romancier Kiran Nagarkar ist Zürichs neuer "writer in residence"(20 June 2011). Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  11. ↑ Humour and honours. Ahmedabad Mirror(12 November 2012). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 'I'm not trying to deny it has affected me': Kiran Nagarkar. Mint(22 June 2019). Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 Kiran Nagarkar - The born storyteller no more. mid-day(6 September 2019). Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 When Kiran Nagarkar said the unsayable. www.livemint.com(28 February 2015). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  15. ↑ Unapologetically Nagarkar, Harmony Magazine. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  16. ↑ The terrorist is inside us. The Tribune(15 April 2006). Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  17. ↑ The Soldier Reads. Outlook(24 April 2006). Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  18. ↑ LITERATURE: The light and the tunnel. The Hindu(13 April 2006). Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  19. ↑ Review:A Fancy Bird Too Heavy To Fly(8 May 2006). Retrieved 13 March 2010.
  20. ↑ She who shrugs and carries on: Jasoda by Kiran Nagarkar reviewed by Latha Anantharaman. The Hindu(23 December 2017). Retrieved 2 March 2021.
  21. ↑ Award-winning author Kiran Nagarkar dies. Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  22. ↑ Kiran Nagarkar's 'Bedtime Story and Black Tulip' a terrific read. www.news18.com(20 March 2015). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  23. ↑ The bilingual bard of Bombay and Mumbai, Kiran Nagarkar gave Indian writing in English an electric charge. The Indian Express(6 September 2019). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  24. ↑ Mumbai is indifferent to the rest of the country: author Kiran Nagarkar. Hindustan Times(17 March 2016). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  25. ↑ Duty to protest: Author. www.telegraphindia.com(29 October 2015). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  26. ↑ The sharp end of Indian politics. British Broadcasting Corporation News(10 February 2013). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  27. ↑ Bal Thackeray and the rise of Shiv Sena{{#if:|, {{{last}}}}. Roli Books Private Limited(2012). ISBN 9788174369918
  28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 A Conversation With Kiran Nagarkar On Art, Language & Freedom Of Expression. Silverscreen.in(7 March 2018). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 29.3 29.4 कादंबरीकार किरण नगरकर यांचे निधन. द वायर मराठी(5 September 2019). Retrieved 6 September 2019.
  30. ↑ The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum - Wide Angle. tribuneindia.com(2 April 2000). Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  31. ↑ The Hindu Literary Prize goes to Jerry Pinto. The Hindu(17 February 2013). Retrieved 18 February 2013.
  32. ↑ The critics gave me absolutely no support: Writer of Bed Time Story Kiran Nagarkar. DNA India(20 October 2013). Retrieved 6 September 2019.

References

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Interviews

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