Page 40 - Seniorstoday December 2022 Issue
P. 40
city of vice and depravity. The outsider to of Maharashtra, but its many translations
the Brahmin-dominated city just wants to have worked across the country. What’s
make a living, but is falsely accused of theft more, the gist of Tendulkar’s writing can
and imprisoned. To take revenge, he uses be read as an allegory of how a population
his young daughter Gauri as a pawn to can be manipulated by an unscrupulous
ensnare Phadnavis, a debauched exploiter of ruling establishment. There is also a note of
women, and become the police chief of Pune. caution built in-- an autocratic regime can be
He unleashes a rule of astounding brutality overturned when the people revolt.
to avenge his humiliation. After a group of Ghashiram Kotwal has been the subject of
innocent men suffocate and die in prison, the innumerable studies and scholarly papers.
Brahmins appeal to the Peshwa. His daughter A film was made on it in 1976, by a collective
dies too and it is time for Ghashiram’s of experimental filmmakers. The beauty
downfall. Having outlived his usefulness to of the play is that it is as timeless as it is
Phadnavis, he is publicly stoned to death by inimitable. Many have tried to blend folk form
an enraged mob. and contemporary content, but none with
The ethos of the play is steeped in the culture Tendulkar’s dexterity and intellectual rigour.
40
