May 19 2008
Noted Marathi play righter Vijay Tendulkar dead!
Noted playwright and a Padma Bhushan awardee, Vijay Tendulkar has passed away in Pune today after a protracted illness. He was a multifaceted personality and his Ghasiram Kotwal that he penned in 1972 is considered one of the best political satires written with a historical backdrop.
He was 80 and was suffering from myasthenia gravis, a muscular disorder. He had been admitted to a city hospital a few weeks back and died on Monday at 8 am at his residence.
He wrote as many as 25 one act plays in addition to novels and short stories.
Tendulkar began his career as a journalist and wrote many widely read newspaper columns. In 1974-75 he was given the Jawaharlal Nehru fellowship.
Tendulkar, whose experimentation with socially controversial themes jolted the orthodox Marathi theatre, won the National Film Award in 1977 for his screenplay of Shyam Benegal’s movie Manthan. He also wrote the screenplays for other critically acclaimed films like Nishant, Akrosh and Ardh Satya.
The author of controversial works like Ghashiram Kotwal and Sakharam Binder was also awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
A large number of theatre and film personalities, including Amol Palekar and Lalan Sarang, visited the hospital to pay their last respect to the author.
The mortal remains of Tendulkar were cremated soon after his death without religious rituals as per his wish.
His two daughters, brother Suresh and a large number of theatre and film personalities were present while his cremation.
