Indian writer (1925?1972)
Mohan Rakesh
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Born
| Madan Mohan Guglani
[1]
(
1925-01-08
)
8 January 1925
Amritsar
,
Punjab
, India
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Died
| 3 December 1972
(1972-12-03)
(aged 47)
Delhi
, India
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Occupation
| Novelist, playwright
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Mohan Rakesh
(???? ?????; 8 January 1925 – 3 December 1972) was one of the pioneers of the
Nai Kahani
("New Story") literary movement of the
Hindi literature
in India in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play,
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
(One Day in Aashad) (1958), which won a competition organised by the
Sangeet Natak Akademi
. He made significant contributions to the novel, the short story, travelogue, criticism, memoir and drama.
[1]
Mohan Rakesh's Aadhe-adhure is one of the most significant plays about urbanmiddle class family and poignantly projects the transition of values in the changing urban scenario in India.
[2]
He was awarded the
Sangeet Natak Akademi Award
in 1968.
[3]
Early life and education
[
edit
]
He was born as Madan Mohan Guglani on 8 January 1925 in
Amritsar
in the
Punjab Province
of
British India
.
[
citation needed
]
His father was a lawyer who died when he was sixteen.
[
citation needed
]
Mohan Rakesh hailed from a
Sindhi
family. His father migrated from Sindh to Punjab long ago.
[1]
He did his M.A. in English and Hindi from
Punjab University, Lahore
.
[4]
[5]
Career
[
edit
]
He started his career as a postman at Dehradun from 1947 to 1949, after that he shifted to Delhi, but found a teaching job in
Jalandhar
, Punjab for a short while.
[
citation needed
]
Subsequently, he remained Head of the Hindi department at DAV College, Jalandhar (
Guru Nanak Dev University
) and taught Hindi at Bishop Cotton School in Shimla for two years before coming back to teaching Jalandhar. In Shimla, he had Ruskin Owen Bond among his students. Eventually, he resigned from his job in 1957 to write full-time. He also briefly edited Hindi literary journal
Sarika
, from 1962 to 1963.
[
citation needed
]
His novels are
Andhere Band Kamare
(
Closed Dark Rooms
) and
Na Aane Wala Kal
(The Tomorrow That Never Comes). His plays include
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
(
One Day in Aashad
) (1958), played a major role in reviving Hindi theatre in the 1960s
[6]
and
Adhe Adhure
(The Incomplete Ones or Halfway ouse) (1969). His debut play
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
was first performed by Kolkata-based Hindi theatre group
Anamika
, under director
Shyamanand Jalan
(1960)
[7]
and subsequently by
Ebrahim Alkazi
at
National School of Drama
Delhi in 1962, which established Mohan Rakesh as the first modern Hindi playwright.
[1]
His plays continue to be performed and receive acclaim worldwide.
One Day in the Season of Rain
, Aparna Dharwadker and Vinay Dharwadker's authorised English translation of
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
, premiered at
Carthage College
in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States in 2010 and traveled to the Kennedy Center
American College Theatre Festival
(Region 3) in 2011.
Lahron Ke Rajhans
(
The Swans of the Waves
), a play of Mohan Rakesh about an ancient Buddhist tale on the renunciation of the
Buddha
, and its aftereffects on his close family, was first written as a short story and later turned into a
radio play
for
All India Radio
Jalandhar
, and broadcast under the title
Sundri
, though his struggle over different versions of the play lasted for nearly 20 years.
[8]
Prominent Indian directors
Om Shivpuri
,
Shyamanand Jalan
,
Arvind Gaur
and
Ram Gopal Bajaj
directed this play.
[9]
In 2005, this very writing process of the play, and Mohan Rakesh's diary, writings, and letters about the play, were recreated in a play titled
Manuscript
, by a Delhi theatre group.
In July 1971, he received the
Jawarharlal Nehru Fellowship
for research on 'The Dramatic Word'. However, he could not complete it and died on 3 January 1972.
[10]
[11]
Personal life
[
edit
]
His second marriage in 1960 too ended soon. However, in his third marriage to Anita Aulakh in 1963, he had found love. At the time of the marriage Anita was 21 year old. After his death, she continued to live in Delhi and, now in her seventies, lives in East of Kailash neighbourhood. Her autobiographical work,
Satrein Aur Satrein
, was first serialized in the Hindi magazine
Sarika
, and later published in 2002.
[10]
[12]
Literary work
[
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]
Novels
(Upanyas)
[
edit
]
- Andhere Band Kamre
(1961)
- Na Aanewala Kal
(1968)
- Antaraal
(1972)
- Bakalama Khuda
(1974)
Plays
(Natak-Ekanki)
[
edit
]
]
History
[
edit
]
Posthumously published
[
edit
]
- Pairon Tale ki Zameen
(1973)
()
[10]
- Ande ke Chilke, anya ekanki tatha beej natak
(1973)
- Rata Bitane Taka Tatha Anya Dhvani Nataka
, 1974, Radhakrishna Prakashan.
ISBN
81-7119-332-3
. (Radio plays)
Translation
[
edit
]
- Mrichchkatikam
, (Sanskrit play)
- Shakuntalam
(Sanskrit play)
Story anthologies
(Kahani Sangrah)
[
edit
]
- 10 Pratinidhi Kahaniyan
(Mohan Rakesh)
- Rat ki Bahon Mein
- Mohan Rakesh ki meri prem Kahaniyan
Kannada translations
[
edit
]
Plays
[
edit
]
- Aashadada Ondu Dina by
Siddhaling Pattanshetti
(1973, 1978, 1979, 1988, 1993, 2000, 2011, 2012, 2017) (
Ashadh Ka Ek Din / ????? ?? ?? ???
(One Day in Ashadha, 1958))
- Alalegalalli Rajahamsagalu by
Siddhaling Pattanshetti
(1980, 1988, 2017) (
Lahron Ke Rajhans
/ ????? ?? ?????? (1963))
- Aadha Adhure by
Siddhaling Pattanshetti
(1976, 1989) (
Aadhe Adhure
/ ??? ????? (1969))
- Kaala Kelagina Nela by
Siddhaling Pattanshetti
(2011) (
Pairon Tale Ki Zameen
(1973))
Cinematic adaptations
[
edit
]
Two of his literary works were adapted by the filmmaker
Mani Kaul
. The first film was
Uski Roti
made in 1969 based on the short story of the same name. For this film, Mohan Rakesh wrote the dialogs.
[14]
The second film was
Ashadh Ka Ek Din
made in 1971, based on a play by Mohan Rakesh.
[15]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
Gabrielle H. Cody; Evert Sprinchorn (2007).
The Columbia encyclopedia of modern drama, Volume 2
.
Columbia University Press
. p. 1116.
ISBN
978-0-231-14424-7
.
- ^
Saraswat, Surbhi. “The Quest of Completeness: Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe Adhure.” Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, II, no. IX, 2014.
- ^
Drama ? Playwriting Awards
Sangeet Natak Akademi
Official listings.
Archived
7 June 2008 at the
Wayback Machine
- ^
Mohan Rakesh Biography and Works
- ^
Mohan Rakesh bio and books
- ^
Mohan Rakesh
- ^
Asha Kasbekar (2006).
Pop culture India!: media, arts, and lifestyle
. ABC-CLIO. p. 73.
ISBN
1-85109-636-1
.
- ^
Simona Sawhney (2008).
The modernity of Sanskrit
. Univ. of Minnesota Press. p. 73.
ISBN
978-0-8166-4996-9
.
- ^
More than just a manuscript!
[usurped]
Romesh Chander,
The Hindu
, 18 November 2005.
- ^
a
b
c
"Mohan Rakesh: A Rudimentary Sketch"
.
SOL, Delhi University
. Retrieved
18 July
2016
.
- ^
"Official list of Jawaharlal Nehru Fellows (1969-present)"
.
Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund
.
- ^
Poonam Saxena (14 March 2016).
"The love story of Anita and Mohan Rakesh"
.
Hindustan Times, Brunch
. Retrieved
18 July
2016
.
- ^
Saraswat, Surbhi. “The Quest of Completeness: Mohan Rakesh’s Aadhe Adhure.” Asian Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, II, no. IX, 2014.
- ^
Uski Roti (1971)
New York Times
- ^
"Talking theatre"
.
The Hindu
. 8 February 2019.
Further reading
[
edit
]
- Aadhunik Hindi Natak Ka Agradoot: Mohan Rakesh
- Mohan Rakesh’s Halfway House: Critical Perspectives, edited by Subhash Chandra. New Delhi, Asia Book, 2001,
ISBN
81-7851-004-9
. (Aadhe Adhure)
- Miss Pal by Mohan Rakesh
External links
[
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]
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