Ghashiram Kotwal is a Marathi play written by
playwright Vijay Tendulkar in 1972 as a response to the rise of a local
political party, Shiv Sena, in Maharashta. The play is a political satire,
written as historical drama. Based on the life of Nana Phadnavis (1741–1800),
one of the prominent ministers in the court of the Peshwa of Pune. Its theme is
how men in power give rise to ideologies to serve their purposes, and later
destroy them when they become useless.
The play then made into a book has a historic
context. The idea that most strikes the audience is Tendulkar’s ethical concern
which is quite prominent throughout the book-from his understanding of
relationships to effectively dealing with the social evils of those times that
keeps us involved in the characters is their simplicity and realistic
perception on the part of the writer. All the characters seem so much like the
people we see or meet or have met sometime. Also Tendulkar is not a writer who
is struck with the Bharatmata Syndrome and explains the bitter reality of the
Indian society without sugarcoating anything.
The story begins with Ghashiram a Kanauji Brahmin
coming to the city of Pune to try his luck and gain some money from the then
rich city. His first appearance is in Bavankhanni a red light area in Pune
where he is dancing as a foil to Gulabi a lavani dancer. Beginnning as gulabi’s
servant he graduates to becoming the servant of Nana Phadavnis the antagonist
who is the chancellor of the Peshwa. Initially, Ghashiram is portrayed as an
obedient servant to Nana but as time goes by due to the ill treatment he gets
from Nana and the Brahmins in Pune he becomes power hungry. To the extent of
sacrificing his teen daughter Lalitagouri to the old Nana only to get the
respectable post of the Kotwal.
Its theme is how men in power give rise to
ideologies to serve their purposes, and later destroy them when they become
useless.It was first performed on 16 December 1972, by the Progressive Drama
Association in Pune. Jabbar Patel’sJ's production of the play in 1973 is
considered a classic in Modern Indian Theatre …The play stands out also for the
use "Tamasha" Genre in the play so you have a lot of singing and
dancing used here to good effect, here the "abhangas" (devotional
songs) mixed in with the "Lavnis" (Love songs)…. This play caused a
lot of controversy because some people believed that it hurt the feelings of
the Brahmin community and that it showed the statesman Nana Phadnavis in a bad
light. Hence it was temporarily banned in the state.
All in all Ghashiram Kotwal is a timeless piece of
writing. The issues that are primarily dealt with in the book still remain the
same even after so many years. Women still continue to be the ruled ones and
the caste conflict has now become the class conflict where the rich dominate
the poor and the cycle continues. It highlights the harsh reality that even
when times change human nature remains the same. Greed and lust for money were,
are and will always exist in human nature…
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