Name Kiran Nagarkar Movies Split Wide Open | Role Novelist | |
Occupation Novelist dramatist screenwriter Books Ravan & Eddie, God's Little Soldier, Cuckold, Seven Sixes are Forty‑Three, The Extras: *ing Ravan & Eddie | ||
Kiran nagarkar novelist playwright social critic
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.
Contents
- Kiran nagarkar novelist playwright social critic
- Author kiran nagarkar on censorship vs creative freedom
- Novels
- Plays and screenplays
- Personal life
- Awards and honours
- Works
- References
Amongst his works are Saat Sakkam Trechalis (tr. Seven Sixes Are Forty Three) (1974), Ravan and Eddie (1994), and the epic novel, Cuckold (1997) for which he was awarded the 2001 Sahitya Akademi Award in English by the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters.
Author kiran nagarkar on censorship vs creative freedom
Novels
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. 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. In 2012, he published The Extras, a sequel to Ravan and Eddie that traces the adult lives of Ravan and Eddie as extras in Bollywood. The third and last book in the "Ravan and Eddie" series was written in 2015, "Rest in Peace' to complete a trilogy of sorts
Kiran Nagarkar was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, described as the 'highest tribute Germany can pay to individuals'.
Plays and screenplays
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. Nagarkar played the part of Brother Bono in Movie Split Wide Open
Personal life
Nagarkar comes from a lower-middle-class family. His parents belonged to a branch of Brahmoism, which in Maharashtra was called the Prarthana Samaj. A Westward-looking attitude towards Hinduism runs in his family; his grandfather attended the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions in Chicago.
From June to November 2011 he was 'writer in residence' of the Literaturhaus Zurich and the PWG Foundation in Zurich.
Nagarkar studied at Fergusson College in Pune and the S.I.E.S. College in Mumbai.
Awards and honours
Works
Novels
Plays and screenplays