Playwright who put Malwani on centrestage through ‘Vastraharan’

Gangaram Gavankar, 1939 to 2025, wrote several plays of which ‘Vastraharan’ brought him on the centrestage of Marathi performing arts, as he deftly wove mythology, music and Malwani, the coastal dialect of Maharashtra, into a captivating theatrical experience

MUMBAI: Gangaram Gavankar wrote several plays of which ‘Vastraharan’ brought him on the centrestage of Marathi performing arts, as he deftly wove mythology, music and Malwani, the coastal dialect of Maharashtra, into a captivating theatrical experience.

Thane, India - 19 Feb. 2016 : Udhav Thackeray with Gangaram Gavankar President of natya Sammelan and former President Faiyaz Shaikh in The 96th Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Natya Sammelan inaugurated by Udhhav Thacekray at dadoji kond dev stadium on Friday , India, on Friday, February 19, 2016. (Photo by Praful Gangurde)

The narrative holds a mirror to a sleepy Konkan village populated by knaves, Good Samaritans, idlers and pesky uncles — all fallible and hence affable. The play-within-play device adds fun to the farce.

That between 1980 and 2025, ‘Vastraharan’ should clock over 5,300 performances is a testimony to Gavankar’s skill as playwright, said theatre scholar Arun Naik. Stating that ‘Vastraharan’ was a sensational hit, Naik said, “The play strikes a fair balance between Vijay Tendulkar’s classy ‘Ghashiram Kotwal’ and the rustic ‘tamasha’ of yore.”

Gavankar died on Tuesday at a suburban hospital after a brief illness. He is survived by children and grandchildren. He was 86.

‘Vastraharan’ caught Maharashtra’s imagination in the 1980s as it celebrated the joie de vivre of a village and its sound and smell, thus catching the attention of people across communities, castes and credo. “Actually, ‘Vastraharan’ is a reminder that the human endeavour of the ability to cope with crises with a smile on their lips is a universal experience – from the backwaters of Konkan to the upscale BKC,” said producer Prasad Kambli.

What made ‘Vastraharan’ special was that Gavankar tapped the vocabulary of Malwani to lend earthy robustness to his plot and protagonists as well, peppering the play with peppy one-liners and burlesque. Malwani has since acquired strong political overtones with politicos setting their gaze on ‘Aapla Konkan’. Malwani cuisine too has enhanced the region’s USP, said observers.

‘Vastraharan’ had a long, arduous journey — and so did Gavankar, said theatre veterans. Gavankar, so goes the story, wrote the play way back in the 1960s. A migrant from Malwan, he was steeped in the region’s folk tradition.

The playwright spent his early years in a slum in Diva, in Thane, and did odd jobs as a backstage labourer, getting to decipher the magical world of theatre. He later landed a job in the MTNL.

‘Vastraharan’ was staged in the 1970s by funster Raja Mayekar and his team in Mumbai’s ‘waadis’ where the Konkan migrants lived.

However, Macchindra Kambli, a talented actor groomed by the legendary Vijaya Mehta in ‘Ajab Nyaay Vartulaachaa’, the Marathi translation of Bertolt Brecht’s ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle’, turned producer, floated his own theatre group and presented ‘Vastraharan’ in its Malwani avatar, after he was thrown out of the original play, in February 1980.

While Gavankar and Kambli blended a bit of Brecht with the time-tested Dashavatari tradition of Konkan for the play’s final cut, director Ramesh Randive put the actors — many of who were either employees of BMC, Mazgaon Docks and Bombay Port Trust (now Mumbai Port Authority) or Macchindra’s cousins or both — through the paces.

“The play democratised middle class Marathi theatre,” said critic Meena Waishampayan.

The beginning wasn’t good enough, though. However, a letter of praise from P L Deshpande, Maharashtra’s cultural icon, which Kambli, with Deshpande’s permission, used for the play’s ad-campaign, set the cash registers jingling at the box office.

“Since then ‘Vastraharan’ has never seen a lean evening,” said Prasad Kambli, Machchindra’s son who helms Shri Bhadrakali Productions, his father’s theatre group.

The senior Kambli passed on in 2007 but not before garnering praise from greats such as Lata Mangeshkar (she was the chief guest at the play’s 800th show at the Shanmukhananda auditorium), singer Asha Bhosle, former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray and trade unionist George Fernandes, among many others, who adored the rib-tickling comedy, said Prasad.

“Such was the craze of ‘Vastraharan’ that tickets for the 5,000th performance, held at the Shanmukhananda auditorium in November 2009, was sold in black for ₹12,000, and the auditorium management had to bring out more chairs following instructions from the public works department officials, said Prasad.

He has, after a brief hiatus, revived the play. “I am looking forward to hosting the 5,555th performance of ‘Vastraharan’,” he added.

Meanwhile, Gavankar wrote a book, titled ‘Via Vastraharan’, chronicling his success story, and went on to pen Marathi plays such as ‘Doghee’, ‘Var Bhetoo Naka’ and ‘One Room Kitchen’, to name a few.