Human Relationship in the plays of Vijay Tendulkar

Abstract

newline The present study is a humble effort to show how Vijay Tendulkar s plays depict the raw reality and violence hidden behind the veneer of stereotypes and the veil of goodness, wellness and appropriateness through the interaction of different characters in different relationships. In this study the familial and extra-familial relationships have been used as the windows to peep into the social reality depicted by Tendulkar. As relations construct the basic constituents of society, an approach through these makes the effort more genuine and fructifying. newlineThe study takes into account only those eleven plays of Vijay Tendulkar which have either been translated into English or written originally in English. These include: Kamala, Silence! The Court is in Session, Sakharam Binder, The Vultures, Encounter in Umbugland, Baby, Ghashiram Kotwal, A Friend s Story, Kanyadaan, The Cyclist and His Fifth Woman. newlineTendulkar has obliged not only the Marathi theatre but also the Indian English theatre by raising the complex issues of human life which still remain unsettled. When most of the Marathi playwrights, with the exception of Mama Warekar and Rangnekar, were obsessed with arousing sentiments and merely amusing the audience, Tendulkar has the credit of transforming the stage into a socially conscious space where the audience were forced to come out of their comfort zones and encounter the ugliness and crudity of life without any moderation. In the pan-Indian frame also he along with the other harbingers of modernity which include stalwarts like Girish Karnad, Badal Sirkar and Mohan Rakesh has worked to match the aspirations and anguishes of the populace of a nascent and emerging nation whose earlier dreams of sudden reversal of fortune after the independence of India in 1947 were gradually destroyed by their face off with the social injustice and inequality. He has chosen the realistic/naturalistic mode to delineate the drama of the tussle between personal aspirations and societal constructs. newline