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Mohan Rakesh

Born	Madan Mohan Guglani (1925-01-08)January 8, 1925 Amritsar, Undivided India
Died	January 3, 1972(1972-01-03) (aged 46) Delhi
Occupation	Novelist, Playwright

Mohan Rakesh (मोहन राकेश; January 8, 1925 – January 3, 1972) was one of the pioneers of the Nai Kahani ("New Story") literary movement of the Hindi literature in the 1950s. He wrote the first modern Hindi play, Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Aashad) (1958), which won a competition organized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi. He made significant contribution to novel, short story, travelogue, criticism, memoirs and drama.

He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968.

Early life and education

Born as Madan Mohan Guglani on January 8, 1925 in Amritsar, Punjab. His father a lawyer died when he was sixteen. He did his M.A. in English and Hindi from Punjab University, Lahore.

Career

He started his career as a teacher, and he taught in two colleges and a school, edited a short story magazine before deciding to write full-time. His noted novels are "Andhere Band Kamare" (Closed Dark Rooms) and Na Aane Wala Kal. His plays Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Aashad) (1958), play a major role in reviving Hindi theatre in 1960s and Adhe Adhure (The Incomplete Ones or Halfway House) (1959) are highly regarded. His debut play Ashadh Ka Ek Din was first performed by Kolkata-based Hindi theatre group Anamika, under director, Shyamanand Jalan (1960) and subsequently by Ebrahim Alkazi at National School of Drama Delhi in 1962, which established Mohan Rakesh as the first modern Hindi playwright. His plays continue to be performed and receive acclaim worldwide. One Day in the Season of Rain, Aparna Dharwadker and Vinay Dharwadker's authorized English translation of Ashadh Ka Ek Din, premiered at Carthage College in Kenosha, WI, USA in 2010 and traveled to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Region 3) in 2011.

"Leheron Ke Raj Hans' (The Swans of the Waves), the most noted play of Mohan Rakesh,an ancient Buddhist tale on the renunciation of the Buddha, and its after affects on his close family, was first written as short story and later turned it into a radio play for All India Radio Jalandhar, and broadcast under the title "Sundri", though his struggle over different versions of the play lasted for nearly 20 years, before creating his masterpiece. Prominent Indian directors Om Shivpuri, Shyamanand Jalan, Arvind Gaur and Ram Gopal Bajaj directed this play. In 2005, this very writing process of the play, and Mohan Rakesh’s diary, writings, letters about the play, was recreated in play titled “Manuscript”, by a Delhi theater group.

His story, Uski Roti (A Day's Bread) was made into an eponymous film, by Mani Kaul in 1971, for which he also wrote the screenplay.

Literary work

Novels (Upanyas)

Na Aane Wala Kal
Andhere Band Kamre
Antral
Bakalama khuda (1974)

Plays (Natak-Ekanki)

Aadhe Adhure (Halfway House) - Performed as Half-Hearted by M.A.D Playhouse Theater in New York City at the historic Cherry Lane Theatre in December 2013.
Leheron Ke Raj Hans
Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Ashadha)
Mohan Rakesh ke Sampurn Natak, 1993, Rajpal. ISBN 81-7028-152-0.
Rata bitane taka tatha anya dhvani nataka, 1974, Radhakrishna Prakashan. ISBN 81-7119-332-3. (Radio plays)