Kiran Nagarkar | |
|---|---|
 2013 – at the bookfair of Leipzig, Germany | |
| Born | (1942-04-02)2 April 1942 |
| Died | (aged 77) Mumbai,Maharashtra, India |
| Occupation |
|
| Literary movement | Indian |
| Notable awards | Sahitya Akademi Award, Order of Merit of Germany |
| Spouse | Tulsi Vatsal |
| Website | |
| kirannagarkar | |
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 ofpost-colonial India.[1]
Amongst his notable works areSaat Sakkam Trechalis (tr.Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974),Ravan and Eddie (1994), andCuckold (1997) for which he was awarded the 2001Sahitya Akademi Award in English by theSahitya 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 theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.[4]
Nagarkar was born on 2 April 1942 in Bombay, nowMumbai, in a middle-classMaharashtrian family, the younger of two sons to Sulochana and Kamalkant Nagarkar.[5][6][7] His grandfather, B. B. Nagarkar, was aBrahmo and had attended the 1893Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.[8]He studied atFergusson College inPune and theS.I.E.S. College inMumbai.[9][6] He graduated with a bachelor's degree in 1964 and a master's degree inEnglish 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 abrain haemorrhage at a friend's place during celebrations for theGanesh Chaturthi festival.[13] He remained in a coma for two days and died on 5 September 2019.[9]
Nagarkar is notable among Indian writers for having written acclaimed novels in more than one language. His first novel,Saat Sakkam Trechalis published inMarathi in 1974, was translated into English by Shubha Slee in 1980 and published in 1995 asSeven Sixes Are Forty Three.[14] It is considered a landmark work ofMarathi literature.[15] His novelRavan and Eddie, begun inMarathi but completed in English, was not published until 1994.[16]SinceRavan and Eddie, all Nagarkar's novels have been written in English and also translated intoGerman.[13]
His third novel,Cuckold, based upon the mysticMeerabai's husband,Bhoj Raj, was published in 1997 and won the 2001Sahitya 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 publishedThe Extras, a sequel toRavan 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 ofKabir, the 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. It also critiqued the rise of Hindu majoritarianism in India.[12]
In 1978, Nagarkar wrote the playBedtime Story, based partly on theMahābhārata. Its performance was extra-legallybanned for 17 years byHindu nationalist[14]fundamentalist parties,[21] including theShiv Sena,[22][23][24][25] afar-right political party;[26]Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) andHindu 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 aboutcensorship 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 includesKabirache Kay Karayche andStranger Amongst Us, and his screenplay work includesThe Broken Circle,The Widow and Her Friends, andThe Elephant on the Mouse, a film for children.[28][29] He played the role of Brother Bono as acameo appearance inDev Benegal's MovieSplit Wide Open.[30]
Kiran Nagarkar was awarded theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and Sahitya Akademi Award among others. He also received theRockefeller grant and a scholarship from the city of Munich.[13]
Novels
Plays and screenplays
In 1977-78, the [Shiv Sena] party, along with the RSS and the Hindu Mahasabha, extra-legally bannedBedtime Story, a play written by Kiran Nagarkar.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
