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The Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh produced RAJMUKUT in 1954. The Sangh had produced Shirwadkar's VAIJAYANTI based on Monna Vanna by Maurice Maeterlink. Before that Dr Amrut Narayan Bhalerao had asked Shirwadkar to adapt Oscar Wilde's AN IDEAL HUSBAND, which he did with the title DOORCHE DIVE. I had seen all these plays in those days, though I do not remember anything of DOORCHE DIVE.
My father, Bapurao Naik, was a very close associate of Dr Bhalerao. Dr Bhalerao, through his Mumbai Marathi Sahitya Sangh, had succeeded in reviving Marathi theatre with annual festivals of plays from 1944. Shirwadkar was the mainstay in this effort, with adaptations and original plays. My father returned from England, after spending three years there to study printing, in 1953. It was the days of the planning of RAJMUKUT, as described by Shirwadkar in the second chapter of this book. Shirwadkar even mentions my father's name in this context.
Bapurao Naik, apart from attending classes at the London School of printing and taking practical training at various factories, undertook a survey of the theatres in London and elsewhere in England, especially at Stratford. He collected all the plans of the various stages there in order to build a theatre for the Sahitya Sangh. This theatre now exists and is known as the Dr Bhalerao Natyagruha. Before this theatre was built (it was commissioned in 1964) there used to be an open air theatre on the same site in Girgaon.
It was in this open air theatre that RAJMUKUT was performed. Shirwadkar has described how the stage was adapted to simulate an Elizabethan stage. The sets were designed by D. G. Godse and the lighting was done by my father. I still remember him sitting in the orchestra pit and operate the dimmers. This kind of lighting was new to the Marathi stage.
In the play itself what I vividly remember still are the witches' scenes. 'All hail, Macbeth, thou shalt be king hereafter!' was translated as 'Aale ho aale, Rajeshwar aale!' I even remember Durgabai Khote in the famous sleep walking scene. She was dressed like a Maratha royal lady complete with a 9-yard saree and a jewel in her nose.
Just as Shirwadkar discovered Shakespeare in the small dark room of his uncle's house in Nashik (which he describes in the first chapter), I discovered Shakespeare in this production of RAJMUKUT.
Shirwadkar lived in Nashik and used to visit Mumbai very often. He would put up with his brother who lived in building no. 13 of the Government Officers Colony at Haji Ali. We too lived there in building no. 12. Damoo Kenkre, who had directed HAMLET, also lived there. It was Shirwadkar's habit to get up very late in the day. But then he would remain awake till very late in the night. My father, he and Damookaka would return home from the Sahitya Sangh and then the discourses would begin. These talks were very educative for me.
Daji Bhatawdekar lived in Girgaum. He wanted to do OTHELLO. Damookaka had already done HAMLET. That was Nana Jog's adaptation. He had played the lead and also directed the play. Dajimama also wanted to do the same. Shirwadkar had already adapted the play and had done some shows in Nashik with Baburao Sawant as Othello and Datta Bhat as Iago. I think Shirwadkar had himself directed the play. Or maybe not, maybe Sawant had directed. But Dajimama wanted to do it for the Sahitya Sangh.
The play was read at our place by Shirwadkar. Then it was decided that it should be done and Dajaimama should direct and play Othello. It was also decided that Datta Bhat, who had done Iago in Nashik, should be invited. He agreed. Damookaka played Cassio and his wife Lalitatai played Desdemona. The first show was in the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1963.
Shirwadkar had associated with the Sahitya Sangh for two decades. The Sangh had produced his DOOSRA PESHWA and KAUNTEYA. Both plays were very successful. Then the new theatre was built and commissioned in April 1964. We continued to live at Haji Ali till 1967 and then we shifted to Bandra.
I remember Shirwadkar read his VEEJ MHANALI DARATEELA in our house at Bandra. This play was based on Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi. Shirwadkar offered the play to Sahitya Sangh and Sudha Karmarkar wanted to play Laxmibai. But there were some differences of opinion and Shirwadkar gave his play to The Goa Hindu Association. The next play was NATASAMRAT which also went to The Goa Hindu Association. This play was based on KING LEAR. It was not an adaptation. Lear was replaced by a retired thespian. The story was the same, but with huge changes.
That ended Shirwadkar's association with Sahitya Sangh. In the meantime another play, YAYATI ANI DEVAYANI, was also produced by The Goa Hindu Association and directed by Gopinath Sawkar. Shirwadkar had not liked the production, and I remember him come to our house that night after the first show, very disappointed. It was on such occasions that I got a very close look at the man, and especially the poet.
Even before Shirwadkar was a playwright he was a poet. He was also a journalist, and a very upright and patriotic one. He was better known as a poet and he used the nom de plume Kusumagraj as a poet. But he never recited any poetry in our house. We had other poets do that quite often. But never Kusumagraj.
We used to go to Nashik every year, primarily to meet Shirwadkar. My father called him Kavi (poet). Kavi had a small group in Nashik. One of that group was Babasaheb Takle who was a jeweller, but also a hotelier. He owned a sprawling place on the outskirts of Nashik, and he called it a motel and named it Green View. This place has numerous cottages for guests and huge open spaces with trees. We used to motor down to Nashik. I would go to the city and pick up Shirwadkar from his home and bring him here in the evening. Then it would be a feast. But no poetry reading ever. No plays were also read. It was all conversation.
I remember one such conversation very vividly. Shirwadkar told us a story. This was told to him by Laxmanshastri Joshi, who was a Sanskrit scholar, an intellectual and a one-time Royist. M. N. Roy was a very prominent Marxist leader who was very close to Stalin. It was generally believed that Stalin was a great drinker. So one day Stalin told Roy that he was the greatest drinker in the world and that no one could beat him Even as they sat drinking Stalin fell down with excess drink. Now when Roy returned to India he told this story to Laxmanshastri. They too drank together and Roy claimed, on the basis of his episode with Stalin, that he was the greatest drinker. This story was told to Shirwadkar by Laxmanshastri, who then said that Roy passed out in that session. Shirwadkar had a smile on his face when he told us this story, implying that the title had now passed on to him. As usual after that evening's get-together I drove Shirwadkar back home that night!
Shirwadkar argues at length that it is wiser to adapt Shakespeare than translating him. He, however, also agrees that a translation is the nearest thing to the original. I was not satisfied with Shirwadkar's adaptations of MACBETH and OTHELLO as produced by Sahitya Sangh. We wanted to do OTHELLO in 1985. We read ZUNJARRAO (Deval's adaptation based on Mahadevshastri Kolhatkar's translation of 1861) and Shirwadkar's adaptation of 1963. And I decided to do a modern truthful translation. We did that and the production was acclaimed. I followed this by a truthful translation of MACBETH in 1987. I directed this play and it too was received well, though with reservations about my direction.
I had read Shodh Shakespearecha many years ago. I had liked it immensely then. During my translations of HAMLET, MACBETH and OTHELLO I had read a lot of critical writing on Shakespeare's plays and especially his tragedies, with special emphases on these three which I translated. I also studied many books while directing MACBETH. During all these studies, which included Bradley, Dover Wilson, Granville Barker, Stanislavski et al, I found that Shirwadkar was one Marathi writer who had done justice to Shakespeare. Shivrampant Paranjape (preface to his MANAJIRAO-MACBETH), Kusumavati Deshpande (preface to Nana Jog's HAMLET), P. K. Atre (preface to his Samrat Siwha-KING LEAR), G. V. Karandikar (preface to his RAJA LEAR), Gopal Ganesh Agarkar (preface to his VIKARAVILASIT-HAMLET) are some of the few scholarly analyses of the Shakespeare tragedies. Shirwadkar's essays on MACBETH and OTHELLO, which form a part of this book, can be considered as scholarly as any of the above prefaces. I too have tried my hand at this exercise while attempting to analyse HAMLET. I intend to analyse MACBETH and OTHELLO as well for the prefaces of my translation shortly to be published.
Mangesh Padgaonkar has translated THE TEMPEST, JULIUS CESAR and ROMEO AND JULIET into Marathi and has provided long prefaces to all three. These also form a part of the corpus. It should be noted that Karandikar, Shirwadkar and Padgaonkar are all noted and celebrated Marathi poets. Karandikar and before him Shirwadkar have been Dnyanapeeth awardees. Karandikar and Padgaonkar take a very critical pose while analysing their respective plays and do not let the poets in them creep in. But that is not so with Shirwadkar. The poet creeps in. And that is the real magic of his essays.
Shirwadkar the playwright, Shirwadkar the poet and Shirwadkar the socially aware intellectual are all known for the use of poetic flowery language in all the writings. His dialogues are poetic, his writings are poetic, and of course his poetry is poetic. It is full of imagery, very difficult to translate. But I have tried my best.
Shirwadkar has used a lot of quotations from Shakespeare in a translated form. These quotations in translation are very difficult to identify because they are hardly word to word. I have taken great pains to locate and identify these from the original plays, as I could hardly retranslate them. It was not comparatively easy for me in the case of OTHELLO and MACBETH, having translated and produced both, but it was a task locating the quotations from the other plays like Coriolanus, Julius Cesar and Henry IV. There may be mistakes. But I have tried my best.
*This is the Introduction to Arun Naik's English translation of Shirwadkar's book, Shodh Shakespearecha (In Search of Shakespeare). Arun Naik is an author, editor, printer, publisher, theatre critic, translator, theatre director and designer. His translations and productions of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Macbeth and Othello have been widely acclaimed in both academic and theatre circles. He teaches Dramatic Literature, Communication Skills, Creative Writing, Translation and Printing Technology. He has contributed to The Oxford Companion to Indian Theatre. He has travelled widely to study the latest in printing technology and in theatre.
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