Vijay Tendulkar dies at 80 after prolonged illness

Mumbai: Eminent Marathi playwright Vijay Tendulkar, died in Pune last morning after a prolonged illness. He was 80.

Tendulkar also earned respect as a film and television screenplay writer, columnist, novelist, short story writer and a social commentator.

He had been suffering from myasthenia gravis, a debilitating muscular disorder. The end came at the Prayag Hospital, Pune.

Tendulkar was the father of late actress Priya Tendulkar. He is survived by his two daughters, Sushma and Tanuja, who were at his bedside when he breathed his last.

A large number of theatre and film personalities, including Amol Palekar and Mohan Agashe, visited the hospital to pay their respects to Tendulkar.

Social commentary

Tendulkar's social commentary not only entertained but also made people sit up and ponder about their hypocrisies. He is best remembered for his plays, Shantata! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence: the court is in session), written in 1967; Ghashiram Kotwal (Gashiram, the constable), 1972; and Sakharam Binder (Sakharam, the binder), 1972.

Born on January 6, 1928 into a Bhalavalikar Saraswat Brahmin family in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, where his father ran a small publishing business, Tendulkar wrote his first story at six and acted in his first play at the age of 11, inspired by watching western plays which prompted him to write his own play.

In his more than 50-year career, Tendulkar wrote 27 full length plays, 25 one-act plays, with several turning out to be Marathi theatre classics and being translated and enacted in other Indian languages.

He received the National Film Award for his screenplay of Shyam Benegal's movie Manthan (The Churning) in 1977 and was also honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship for lifetime achievement. He also wrote the script for critically acclaimed films like Nishant, Akrosh and Ardh Satya.

Describing him as one of the greatest playwrights to have influenced Indian theatre in a span of 50 years, Benegal said, "I respected his creativity and admired him as a human being."

Film director Govind Nihalani said: "Tendulkar brought modernity to Marathi theatre. He pioneered a paradigm shift in the vision of looking at society and reflecting it through theatre and cinema."

Maharashtra Governor S.C. Jamir mourned the loss. "Vijay Tendulkar was one of the most brilliant and progressive playwrights, activists and social thinkers produced by Maharashtra. As a fiercely independent thinker, Tendulkar fought for the rights of artists and citizens all his life," he said.

Father Cedric Prakash, a human rights activist and director of voluntary organisation Prashant, noted that Tendulkar was a man who always championed the cause of the underprivileged sections of society. "May the values which he stood for, continue to resonate in the lives of many of his admirers," he said.