Mahesh Elkunchwar,playwright, does not have the political understanding of Tendulkar or Karnad

Mumbai Lit festival

Mahesh  Elkunchwar, playwright,   recalled at the Tata Literature festival in Mumbai last week   his experience of  being treated badly  and addressed in Hindi as  Saley  tum Marathi   (you bloody Marathi speaker)   by a Hindi writer  at a conference.

 In conversation with   Anahita Uberoi, director, at the Tata lit festival, he suggested that  this was  probably because of the image created by the Shiv Sena. All through seven days of the conference,  the Hindi writer never talked with him but later we became good friends, he said.

Elkunchwar is  at least   is well established and can  deal with such  discriminatory behaviour , common people face such problems at every level, yet  he has seldom shown much concern in his writing for this class.

Elkunchwar is surprisingly fit for his 85 years but  did not look at his best in his talking, he rambled a bit.

 Kumar Ketkar, who released  two of  Elkunchwar’s books, is  younger,  and is generally  very fit but  he slipped while getting  down from the dais and hurt himself.  He was given medical aid  and is o.k.

 Elkunchwar recalled his early days, singer Noor Jehan was his favourite singer in his  childhood and he felt betrayed by her migration to Pakistan, he has written about this in an essay.

    Writers  do behave meanly sometimes.  I talked with  Monika Gajendragadkar, noted Marathi  literary editor and  short story writer. As editor, she receives a number of poems  for publication in the prestigious Diwali ank of Mouj.  She has  to leave out some, and most of the poets  who are left out  have not forgiven her.

   This does happen.  My own experience  of a major Marathi playwright  about whom I wrote in glowing terms  in Times of India and  once in Femina, yes, it was once a serious magazine, from his early days,   fifty years ago but a little criticism later and now he does not even  acknowledge my presence.

  Kausar Munir, film dialogue writer and lyricist, was in conversation with poet, critic Ranjit Hoskote on the poetry of Mir Taki Mir whose poetry is translated  into English by Hoskote. During the  Q and A  Mahesh  Bajaj, a poetry lover from Pune, came up with the startling information that  the Charabagh  metro station in Lucknow has come up on the  burial site of  Mir.. (another instance of the havoc the Metro system  has caused everywhere, especially in small cities and historic ones.  In Lucknow the Metro is an utter failure, I have seen it.).  Bajaj   and his associates recently held  a meeting in Pune on  the poetry of Mir.

    The opening ceremony of the festival featuring  Pavan Varma’s  interaction with  Gulzar, lyricist, drew a big  and enthusiastic crowd. But some seemed disappointed,  Gulzar used some difficult words which clearly needed explanation to this  audience. Also  some of those familiar with Hindi literature were not too impressed.

 Mr Nadir Godrej  in his speech at the inaugural function  sprang a pleasant surprise by  speaking in verse.  Amy  Fernandes and  Quasar Thakore Padamsee are co directors of the festival  which was initiated years ago by Anil Dharkar.   I heard from Dolly Thakore this morning that Mr Godrej often recites verses in his lectures.

The festival ended with an address by Jane Goodall,  the widely respected zoologist and anthropologist, now 90,  on Reasons for Hope.

 Elkunchwar is benefiting from  the vacuum created by the passing away of  seniors  Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad. Both Tendulkar and Karnad came from very different backgrounds  and they took strong political positions. In comparison   Elkunchwar has played absolutely safe, he remains mum on the political scene, he made it a point   during his  interaction   to  show how pro-Muslim, secular he was  at the same time he remained silent on  forces  that are causing the rift.  Tendulkar came up the hard way, struggling for survival in his early days, sometimes he did not even have a proper shelter  over his head.  Karnad came from a fairly comfortable background and had much more exposure to  liberal  values from the West and closer home. I  recently found in my papers a letter written to the Times of India editor by Tendulkar as chief of  the Committee for the protection of democratic rights. And he took firm positions for years.Karnad also made clear his political position some time ago by wearing  the slogan on his  dress,  I am an Urban Naxal, taking a dig at the establishment. Elkunchwar seems to have good public relations skills when it comes to the forces in the cultural establishment, he has cultivated interests in  Western and Indian classical music and  makes it a point to  show  this.

  Some interpret    his writing  to show that  he is also some kind of a visionary when it comes to  environment, that is the  in thing now. But much of the damage to the environment comes from  imperialist forces, colonisation. Writers like Amitav Ghosh have dealt with this theme on a far larger scale and openly criticised powerful  political forces. Elkunchwar’s silence  on this  remains conspicuous. Kumar Ketkar in his brief speech at the  festival  mentioned the word dystopia in relation to the writing of   Elkunchwar but   some would say it is too big a concept to go with his writing.  Dystopia is not something one looks at from the comforts of one’s life and  he has led a life of comfort. It is  creditable that he has  made his  presence   in the cultural circuit  despite his living in a kind of isolation in Nagpur. There is much  that is progressive in his thinking but it is mainly the conservative  middle class cultural word that he seeks to  single out for blame, not the bigger forces.


 Satish Alekar should in fact figure with  Tendulkar and Karnad  because he has a similar stature but  he seems to keep a low profile. He comes from a  politically  very progressive  family, his mother’s father, N.V. or Kakasaheb Gadgil, was a member of Nehru’s first cabinet and  he   made common cause with  Bahujan samaj , supported progressive non-Brahmin sections in the Congress.

Vidyadhar Date is a senior journalist, culture critic and author of a book on public transport

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