nagpur the reading of maunraag a collection of marathi playwright mahesh elkunchwars essays in the city recently gave the audience a glimpse of his brilliant writings it has left his fans thirsting for more sanjay arvikar currently assistant director at press information bureau who has researched and commented on the writers works for three decades says he is the only dramatist in marathi language whose works have philosophical profundity once initiated into elkunchwars literary works the reader wants to know his entire repertoire this happened to arvikar too at 18 he first read the play garbo and got totally swept by its powerful characters and their complexities so vividly fleshed by elkunchwars pen i could not sleep for many nights as the play was penetrating and disturbing says arvikar who has spent 30 years researching and commenting upon the works of the writer it has also been the journey of my life i used to relate to holi in my younger years today i relate with paraag the most prominent of elkunchwars protagonist from the trilogy who metamorphosed from a spoiled disoriented person to a humanist who braced universal brotherhood and had a metaphysical quest arvikar tells toiexcerpts from an interviewq how would you describe elkunchwars worksa his initial works had western influence but holi was completely original depicting ethos of collegiate youth garbo is about youngsters living aimlessly but trying to find purpose in life there is also an element of play within a play as the characters are striving to find meaning of life by living another life it has traces of group therapy psychodrama the play element in elkunchwars works needs special attention in pratibimba there is a game of entering into each others mind in atmakatha there is a play of appearance and reality while in eka natacha mrityu there is a play of selfrealization using human body as a tool to explore as his writings progressed a subtle change in form was visible in the sense that he took realism further rakt pushp is an experimental play he certainly created new theatre language with it he is a visionary playwright who touches contemporary world and eternal questions he attempted to expand theatrical space to the space of entire world particularly in yugant atmakatha and eka natacha mrityuq is the dominant strain of his works autobiographicala his plays are not at all autobiographical but essays can be said to be so he started writing essays in 1975 but there was a big gap of six years after writing series of essays kalokhachi fule flowers of darkness and again after writing one essay in 1981 he took another break for nearly a decade later he consistently wrote essays which are now available in book form as maunraag and tribandh his vision of life is based on forgiveness courage compassion and universal brotherhood i would say his work can be termed as seminal in the context of indian theatreq what gets foreign writers and publishers