A trio of aces

He is credited with presenting three of India’s greatest cultural and religious icons—Tulsidas, Kabeer and Vivekananda—on stage. His mono acts, staged in venues from Mumbai to Miami and Surat to Singapore, have earned him plaudits. Meet writer-director-actor-composer Shekhar Sen, who’s completed over 500 shows of his three plays worldwide.

The plays, scripted after months of research, using authentic sources, not just explode many myths about the iconic figures but have even earned flak for Sen.

When he first presented, in 1998, Tulsi, which is about the poet who penned Lord Ram’s lyrical biography Shree Ram Charit Manas, the Ram mandir-Babri masjid movement was at its peak. “Many thought the sangh parivar had propped me up to do this play. I tried telling people it was not about Ram, but about his biographer, an ardent devotee,” recalls Sen.

Full report here Times of India 

'Reading the play opened my eyes'

Cardiff councillor Jaswant Singh has spoken movingly about a new play based on the partition of British India

The Cardiff councillor Jaswant Singh has spoken movingly about a new translation of a play that reopened his mind to a tormented past.

Mazhar Tirmazi's drama A Lifetime on Tiptoes documents the partition of British India in 1947, which left 12.5 million people displaced and several thousand dead. Now an internet project to bring the play to wider audiences in Wales is being overseen by Cardiff-based artistic director, Dominic Rai.

Riverside councillor Singh, deputy lord mayor from 2008-09, was just nine years old when his mother told him they were leaving Pakistan for six weeks. The family never returned. Singh said:

"Reading A Lifetime on Tiptoes in English has opened my mind. I yearned to go back and see my land and family."

Full report here Gaurdian

Class struggle

Mariam Karim's The Betrayal of Selvamary is about the hypocrisy of the well-heeled... 

Mariam Karim, writer of The Betrayal of Selvamary — her maiden effort as a playwright — is an interesting mixture of the conservative and the liberal. While her play exposes the class, caste and communal mindset of the well-heeled with a ruthless confidence, her own reluctance to venture into the city on her own or rearrange domestic commitments are distinctly, if sweetly, suggestive of upper middle class correctness. 

The Betrayal... rips off the mask of benevolence many an honourable citizen would be found wearing. It also presents us with a set of people of the type we are used to seeing in urban environments across India: an architect, a corporate head, a well-educated mother of two, an ex-model, a poet, and so on. Mariam admits her characters are ‘regular' kinds of people caught in an extraordinary situation. 

But as to whether she showed the play to her friends and whether anyone caught a reflection in the mirror, she answers with a simple, “Oh yes, they've all liked it very much.” But then, Mariam is used to being taken seriously. Her first novel, My Little Boat, published by Penguin, was nominated for the Dublin International IMPAC Award and the Hutch Crossword Award. Her second, The Bereavement of Agnes Desmoulins, was long-listed for the Man Asian Literary Prize in 2009 even before publication.

Full report here The Hindu

Moily gets Moortidevi award

Pratibha Patil, the president of India will present the prestigious Moortidevi Award of Bharatiya Jnanpith to Dr M Veerappa Moily, Union Minister of Law and Justice for his outstanding work on Shri Ramayan Mahanveshanam on Thursday, March 18.

Moily is a rare politician-literary figure. An established writer in Kannada, he has authored, to date, four novels, three collections of poetry, three plays, collections of essays, besides his five-volume magnum opus Shri Ramayana Mahanveshanam. He was also awarded Second Father Kamil Bulke Ramayana International Award 2007. He is now penning another epic poem on Draupadi titled Shrimudi Parikramanam which is likely to be published within a year. His two volumes of ‘Musings On India’ is a collection of essays and lectures on Indian history, culture, and society. He has launched a Magna-Opus-Unleashing India in five Volumes. First two volumes ‘Road Map for Agrarian Wealth Creation’ and the second the ‘Water-Elixir of Life’ have already been published.

On of his major novels, Kotta, has been produced as a telefilms in both Kannada and Hindi, directed by M.S.Sathyu. His novels ‘Kotta and ‘Tembrare’ have been translated into Hindi, English, and many other Indian languages; parts of his ambitious epic have been translated into Hindi and Tamil. The English translation of the entire work is currently in the press.

As a writer, Moily is noted for his concern for the marginalized classes, authenticity of depiction, and skilful craftsmanship. His major works are always preceded by extensive research and discussion with concerned experts. Hence his works have a distinct place of their own in Kannada.

Many awards and honours have come seeking him, a few of which are: ‘Al Ameen Sadbhavana Award’(2000), ‘Devaraja Urs Prashasti (2001), ‘Aryabhata Award’(2001), and ‘Dr.B.R.Ambedkar Award (2002). Honorary Doctorate Degrees by Mangalore University (2009) and Russian Academy and National Law School University, Hyderabad have been bestowed on him.