Vijay Tendulkar - Legacy

Legacy

In his writing career spanning more than five decades, Tendulkar has written 27 full-length plays and 25 one-act plays. Several of his plays have proven to be Marathi theater classics. His plays have been translated and performed in many Indian languages.

By providing insight into major social events and political upheavals during his adult life, Tendulkar became one of the strongest radical political voices in Maharashtra in recent times. While contemporary writers were cautiously exploring the limits of social realism, he jumped into the cauldron of political radicalism, and courageously exposed political hegemony of the powerful and the hypocrisies in the Indian social mindset. His powerful expression of human angst has resulted in his simultaneously receiving both wide public acclaim, and high censure from the orthodox and the political bigwigs.

Many of Tendulkar's plays derived inspiration from real-life incidents or social upheavals. Thus, the rise of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra in the 1970s was reflected in Tendulkar's "Ghāshirām Kotwāl". The true story of a journalist who purchased of a woman from the rural sex industry in order to reveal police and political involvement in this trade, only to abandon the woman once he had no further need for her, is detailed in Tendulkar's "Kamalā". The real-life story of an actress whose acting career got ruined after her same-sex affair became public knowledge inspired Tendulkar to write "Mitrāchi Goshta".

Tendulkar has translated nine novels, two biographies, and five plays by other authors into Marathi.

Besides the foregoing, Tendulkar's oeuvre includes a biography; two novels; five anthologies of short stories; 16 plays for children, including "Bāle Miltāt" (1960) and "Pātlāchyā Poriche Lagin" (1965); and five volumes of literary essays and social criticism, including "Ratrani" (1971), "Kowali Unhe" (1971), and "Phuge Sobānche" (1974). All in all, Tendulkar's writings have contributed to a significant transformation of the modern literary landscape in both Marathi and other Indian languages.

In 2005, a documentary titled "Tendulkar Āni Himsā: Kāl Āni Āj' ("Tendulkar and Violence: Then and Now") with English subtitles (produced by California Arts Association - CalAA - directed by Atul Pethe) was released. In 2007, a short film about Tendulkar, "Ankahin" (Director Santosh Ayachit), was released.