Collected Plays of Mahesh Elkunchwar, Volume II brings together eight critically acclaimed plays--Holi, Flower of Blood, God Son, As One Discardeth Old Clothes, Autobiography, Party, Pond, and Apocalypse--by the noted Marathi playwright. 'Holi', the first play in the collection, is about a group of restless, directionless, and disillusioned youngsters on the campus, who finally vent their frustrations on a gullible victim, ending in a gruesome tragedy. 'Flower of Blood' is about the trauma of an aging woman and her daughter's discovery of her sexuality. 'God Son' is a study of emotional and physical abuse inflicted in the name of 'scientific' upbringing. 'As One Discardeth Old Clothes' delves into the mind of a man who is waiting to discard his mortal shackles and join the Supreme One. 'Autobiography' is about an old writer trying to write his autobiography and coming to terms with a lifetime of lies and deceit. 'Party' is a vignette of city sophisticates and urban artists and their vacuous, masked lives. 'Pond' and 'Apocalypse' are part of the Wada trilogy. While 'Pond' tries to portray the changing values of Dharangaonkar Deshpandes, the younger generation taking over and succumbing to the materialistic lifestyle that spells doom for them as well as others, 'Apocalypse' is indicative of a futuristic picture of India, her villages denuded of everything and turning them into a vast desert: environmental, economic, cultural, social, and spiritual. Translated by Shanta Gokhale, Supantha Bhattacharya, Irawati Karnik, and Ashish Rajadhyaksha, this volume includes a Foreword by Vijaya Mehta and an introduction by Ananda Lal. The volume also includes detailed notes on production of each of the eight plays and photographs of the staging of the plays.

With this trilogy, the author achieves a feat unique to playwriting in this country: developing a cycle which moves between many registers to unfold the evolving history of a family in present-day India mirroring the social and cultural shifts and changes that mark the 20th century. From "Old Stone Mansion", to "The Pool", to "Apocalypse", we follow the fortunes and struggles of the Deshpandes of Dharangon. This new English edition supplements the text with a new introduction and an interview with the playwright.

Satish Alekar has written, acted in, directed, and produced some of the most influential and progressive plays of post-Independence India, and is part of the trinity, with 'Vijay Tendulkar' and 'Mahesh Elkunchwar', that has shaped modern Marathi theatre. Alekar is widely recognized for his ability to portray the many deceptions and fallacies of Indian society, and his plays depict with wit and sensitivity, a world unable to come to terms with modernity and stifled by tradition. The six plays-'The Dread Departure' (Mahanirvan), 'Deluge' (Mahapoor), 'The Terrorist' (Atirekee), 'Dynasts' (Pidhijat), 'Begum Barve', and 'Mickey and the Memsahib' (Mickey ani Memsahib) -are divided thematically into two sections and both sections include introductions by noted theatre critic, Samik Bandyopadhyay. The book also includes an insightful interview of Alekar by Bandyopadhyay, notes on the production histories of the included plays, and a special section containing photographs of the performances of these plays.

In Party, Mahesh Elkunchwar takes a Chekhovian look at the members of the creative set in an Indian metropolis, with their pretensions, rivalries, aspirations, and frustrations, even as they are stalked like a guilty conscience by Amrit, the one among them who chose to drop out of the set and went over to live and fight with marginalized tribals who were being denuded progressively of their human rights by the land-grabbers. The play happens to be a party where Amrit s absence becomes more than a presence till the news of his death in an encounter with the police breaks up the party and shows up the irrelevance and the heartlessness of the games the creative set plays.

A collection of six critically acclaimed plays - 'Garbo', 'Desire in the Rocks', 'Old Stone Mansion', 'Reflection', 'Sonata' and 'An Actor Exits' - from the noted Marathi playwright, Mahesh Elkinchwar. The volume also includes critical notes on the theatre.

Celebrated Indian playwright Mahesh Elkunchwar has experimented with many forms of dramatic expression in a career that now spans more than four decades, producing works that range from the realist to the symbolic, expressionist to the theater of the absurd. This volume brings together four of his most widely staged plays from the 1970s and '80s. In Party (1972), Elkunchwar offers a Chekhovian look at members of a set of metropolitan intellectuals, contrasting their pretensions, petty rivalries, aspirations, and frustrations with the struggle of a young man who abandons the group to fight for the marginalized. In Flowers of Blood (1971) and Reflection (1987), he presents two young men--lovers from a small town lost in the big city--in whose struggle, which verges on the absurd, we see a searing portrait of contemporary Indian urban middle class. In Autobiography (1987), a successful septuagenarian writer sets out to dictate his memoirs to a quizzical young scholar--but it remains unwritten, as different versions of the truth clash, and the writer comes to confront an ego that he had never really known. Accompanied by an introduction setting the works in context and an interview with the author, this collection of plays will be a significant addition to the under-represented body of Indian plays available in English translation.

This selection of six contemporary plays explores a wide range of issues — familial, social, mythological, political — with women centre stage. The plays are distinct from each other in structure, theme and style, but are bound together by a common thread — the position and role of women in family, social and political systems. Issues such as sexual abuse, in-law relationships, the trauma of ageing, the struggle for women’s empowerment, love and passion, desire and revenge, and dynastic politics are discussed through the varying perspectives of a number of characters, bringing an immediacy and urgency to the subjects under consideration. What is significant about the plays is that they highlight the manipulation of the English language resulting with the introduction of an ‘Indian’ syntax. Multilingualism is used to offset the so-called ‘westernisation’ that has been the by-product of the systematic globalisation of ‘third world’ countries. While the plays are meant to be staged, they are also very reader-friendly and will be entertaining as well as educative for the general reader.