| Kiran Nagarkar | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1942 Mumbai, Maharashtra |
| Occupation | Novelist Dramatist Screenwriter |
| Literary movement | Indian |
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www.kirannagarkar.com |
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Kiran Nagarkar (born 1942) is an Indian novelist, playwright, film and drama critic and screenwriter both in Marathi and English, and is one of the most significant writers of postcolonial India.[1]
Amongst his most known works are Saat Sakkam Trechalis (Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974, Ravan and Eddie (1994), and the epic novel, Cuckold (book) (1997) for which he was awarded the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award in English by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.[1][2][3]
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Nagarkar is notable among Indian writers for having written acclaimed novels in more than one language. His first novel, Saat Sakkam Trechalis (later published in English as Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) is considered one of the landmark works of Marathi literature. His novel Ravan and Eddie, begun in Marathi but completed in English, was not published until 1994.[4]
Since Ravan and Eddie, all Nagarkar's novels have been written in English. His third novel, Cuckold on mystic Meerabai's husband, Bhoj Raj, was published in 1997 and won the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award. It has been translated into a number of languages and has become one of the most beloved contemporary Indian novels, both in India and in Europe. 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.[5][6][7]
In 1978, Nagarkar wrote the play Bedtime Story, based partly on the Mahābhārata. Its performance was extra-legally banned for 17 years by fundamentalist parties, including the Shiv Sena. Nagarkar's theatre work also includes Kabirache Kay Karayche and Stranger Amongst Us, and his screenplay work includes The Broken Circle, The Widow and Her Friends, and The Elephant on the Mouse, a film for children. His 1985 screenplay, The Highly Improbable Adventures of Ravan and Eddie, is currently being filmed by Dev Benegal, critically acclaimed director of English, August and Split Wide Open (1999). In the latter film, Nagarkar played the part of Brother Bono[8]
Nagarkar comes from a lower middle class family. Because his parents belonged to a branch of Brahmoism, which in Maharashtra was called the Prarthana Samaj, he could be said to have a hybrid background. A Westward-looking attitude towards Hinduism runs in his family; his grandfather attended the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.
Nagarkar studied at Fergusson College in Pune and the S.I.E.S. College in Mumbai.