નાટ્ય જગતના અદભુત લેખક શ્રી મધુ રાય

ગુજરાતી સાહિત્ય જગતમાં આઈ એન ટી નાટ્ય સંસ્થાનો જ્યારે જમાનો હતો ત્યારે સંતુ રંગીલી,  કુમારની અગાશી અને ખેલંદો જેવા ધરખમ નાટકોના લેખક શ્રી મધુ રાયનો પરોક્ષ પરિચય તો ઘણો હતો..કારણ કે જ્યારે પણ નાટ્ય પ્રયોગ હોય અને ના જોયું હોય તેવું ના બને પણ ૨૦૦૨ માં  જ્યારે ગઝલકાર આદિલ મન્સૂરી હ્યુસ્ટન આવ્યા ત્યારે તેમણે મધુ રાય વિષે ઘણી વાતો કરી હતી . તેઓ ગુજરાતી સાહિત્ય સરિતાની બેઠકમાં ટેલીફોન દ્વારા હાજર રહ્યાં હતાં અને તેમના નાટકો વિષે ઘણી વાત થઇ હતી.

તેમના સાહિત્યની માહિતી ગુજરાતીમાં અને તેમનો પરિચય  http://www.indianetzone.com/33/madhu_rye_indian_theatre_personality.htm
 ના સૌજન્યથી અત્રે મુક્યો છે

Madhu Rye  (pen name of Madhusudan Vallabhdas Thaker) was born in Jamkhambhalia, Jamnagar district, in Gujarat in 1942. His father taught in Calcutta, where he grew up. Renowned Gujarati literary figures in Calcutta such as playwright and novelist Shiv Kumar Joshi and the flamboyant literary figure Chandrakant Bakshi helped him get noticed in Gujarat and Mumbai literary circles where his works promptly won prizes in competitions and state awards thereafter; and his short stories became a fad in the late 1960s.

He moved to Ahmadabad in 1967, where he completed his first full-length play, ‘Koipan Ek Phulnu-nu Naam Bolo To’ or `Tell Me the Name of a Flower` which premiered in 1969 by Darpana. It was later adapted as a telefilm by Ketan Mehta and featured on the Nation Program of Plays on the All India Radio. This play very cleverly used stagecraft to tell a meta-theatrical murder mystery revolving around a young woman caught in her own imaginary myth.

In 1970 he was invited to participate in a 2-semester seminar in stagecraft techniques by the East West Center with University of Hawaii, Honolulu, USA. Upon his return in 1971, he launched  Akanth Sabarmati, a playwrights’ workshop that preached minimalist style and led a movement against the absurdist Gujarati playwriting of that time. The movement ran for 12 more years after depature of the author for the USA, during which time mighty writers such as Labhshankar Thaker, Chinu Modi and Indu Puwar honed their skills.

Rye grew popular with ‘Kumar-ni Agashi’ or ‘Kumar`s Terrace`. Both the ‘Flower’ and the ‘Terrace’ were translated by Vijay Padaki in English and performed by his Bangalore Little Theatre group in late eighties, and recently by other amateur groups in New Zealand and the USA.

In 1985 his novel ‘Kimble Ravenswood’ was made into a mini series on the national TV by Ketan Mehta. Rye adapted the same novel into a play in Gujarati ‘Yogesh Patel-nu Vevishal’ and English, ‘Engaging Mr. Patel’). All three English scripts collectively are published as ‘Three Gujarati Plays by Madhu Rye’ by the Gujarat State Sahitya Akademi, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India.

Pravin Joshi`s production of ‘Kumar-ni Agashi’ was staged in 1973 by Indian National Theatre, exposing the repressed sexuality of the upper middle class and nouveau riche. Rye’s adaptation of Show’s Pygmalion as Santu Rangili or `Enchanting Santu` in 1974 brought him national fame. He went on to adapt Anthony Shaffer’s ‘Sleuth’, Fredric Durrenmatt’s ‘The Visit’, and Ken Casey’s ‘One who flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ for the Indian National Theatre which were all performed with varied degrees of success. He has adapted his novels into drama, composed novels based on his plays, and wrote television scripts.

He was awarded the coveted Ranjitram Gold Medal for his lifetime achievement in 2000. He bagged the Bhupen Khakhar playwriting award for his play ‘Sura ane Shatrujit’ in 2004. He has written seven novels, four collections of short stories, eight plays and four collections of one act plays. Based on Madhu Rye’s novel Kimble Ravenswood, director Ashutosh Gowarikar is filming “What’s Your Rashee?’ in Hindi. Author’s own English translation of that novel is also now available.

Madhu Rye migrated to the USA in 1974 where he is currently writing a weekly column for the largest Gujarati daily Divya Bhaskar and working on a play for the film and theater personality Paresh Raval.

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