Born on January 6,1928, Vijay Tendulkar began his playwriting career in the 1940’s, initially for college societies and later for the Bombay group Rangayan.  An important contemporary Playwright, he has to his credit a large body of work including some forty plays.  Among his plays are Shantala ! Court Chalu Ahe, which received the Kamladevi Chattopadhyay Award in 1970, Ghasiram Kotwal, Gidhade, and Manus Navache Bet.  Vijay Tendulkar received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for playwriting in 1970 and the Padma Bhushan in 1984.

 Tendulkar was equally at ease in the medium of films.  Among his well known screenplays are Nishant (1975), Manthan (1977), Akrosh (1980), Ardhasatya (1983) and Samna (1985)

 His short stories are collected in five volumes: Kachpatre (1958), Meshpatre, Dwandwa (1961), Gane (1966) and Phulapakharu (1970).  His journalistic writings on people and events are collected in Raatrani (1971) and Phuge Sabanche (1974).

 Amidst his multifarious activities, Tendulkar had found time to enrich Marathi literature by translating into Marathi, works of Mark Van Doren, Tennessee Williams, Henry James, Girish Karnad and Mohan Rakesh.

 Vijay Tendulkar enjoys the unique distinction of receiving the Maharastra Stage Government Award nine times.

 As a tribute to him we reproduce an article by the Editor of Stagebuzz which was published in Midday in 2003 when Tendulkar was felicitated at an award ceremony in New Delhi

Culture Cocktail

Manohar Khushalani

Rewarding Unsung Heroes

It was way back in the forties, when Indian Theatre was in its incipient state, when a modest, unassuming, and diligent backstage worker innovated and developed indigenous stage lights. His name was Chaman Lal. An event which is highly attended by the glitterati of Delhi and is looked forward to every year is the Chaman Lal Memorial Society Awards. This is the only society of its kind in India which recognizes the services of those artists of the country who unappreciated for their contribution to Stage Light Designing, Stage Craft, Make‑up, and Costume Designing. The Society has been honouring these back stage artists for the last 8 yrs and recognizing that these artists are as important as an actors performing on the stage. The Chief Guest this year was Raj Babbar. As Reoti Sharan Sharma, the President of the society put it, that although Raj Babbar is now a Member of Parliament, he was originally a graduate of NSD, and it was in that capacity that he had been invited. Sharma’s request that Babbar should re-enter stage as an actor, since he would be able to command large audiences was perhaps in a humorous vein. But an opportunity was lost in reminding Babbar that he had done absolutely nothing for solving the problems of the struggling Delhi theatre, which was in fact, wholly responsible for bringing him into lime light. The earlier Chief Guests of the award ceremony have been, Shashi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Ustad Amjad All Khan, Naseeruddin Shah, Vyjantimala Bali, Anupam Kher, Shabana Azmi and Farooque Sheikh

For the year of 2003, the society honoured the leading playwright, Vijay Tendulkar of Mumbai for his life time achievement in the theatre world, and the awardees in the technical arena were Dolly Ahluwalia Tiwari of Chandigarh for Costume Design,  . Vinay Capila of New Delhi for Stage Craft. This year an International organisation, ROSCO (U.K.), offered to sponsor one annual award this “Special Award” went  to N.K. Chaurasia of New Delhi for Stage Lighting. The awards carrie a cash presentation of Rs. 25,000, a Shawl and a Momento. These were presented at a glittering function at Kamani Auditorium.  Now that the society has started awarding playwrights as well, perhaps the name of Badal Sircar cannot be ignored for his path breaking plays like Evam Indrajeet. Sircar is perhaps the only Indian playwright of international eminence, who also directs his own plays. He is getting very old and should be preferably be rewarded during his life time itself.

One of  the major attraction at this award ceremony is that it is always  followed by a special multimedia, light and sound presentation which show cases the latest equipment available with R.K. Dhingra’s Modern Stage Service. Earlier Dhingra has been presenting annually revised versions of Manav. This year a new show, an anti war dance drama, Kyun, was launched. It was choreographed by Santosh Nair while Concept, Light Design and Direction were by Dhingra. As in previous years the audio visual and lighting effects were stunning. There were laser beams, reflected by finely oriented mirrors to create a symphony between music and synchronized lights. There were computerised profilers which bombarded the audience with lighting patterns. There were cutout of bombers projected on screen. A diaphanous curtain was used to project organic light patterns with actors performing behind and blending with the visual. Video film projections of the Normandy beach landing and world war two bombers were combined with remotely controlled spot lights giving the illusion of live search lights. There was a new flame machine which created the illusion of a live orange-yellow flame. While one lost count of the effects for which; Naresh Kapuria was responsible for the Environment, Navneet Wadhwa for Sound, Swarupp Ghosh for Laser Graphic Design and above all Dhingra and staff of Modern Stage Service who need to be complimented. However one felt that the overall effect of the presentation was scattered as compared to the earlier production of Manav which was more consolidated and integrated. However the human element introduced by the highly professional performance by all the dancers was remarkable. Amongst  them, Priyaanka Bose stood out for her amazing sense of rhythm and fluid body movements. (Author’s email: stagebuzz@gmail.com)