Ghashiram Kotwal

                                               

Ghashiram Kotwal is a Marathi play written by playwright Vijay Tendulkar in 1972, as his response to the rise of a local political party, Shiv Sena, in Maharashta. The play is a political satire, written as historical drama. Based on the life of Nana Phadnavis(1741-1800), one of the prominent ministers in the court of the Peshwa of Pune. Its theme is how men in power give rise to ideologies to serve their purposes, and later destroy them when they become useless.It was first performed on 16 December 1972, by the Progressive Drama Association in Pune. Jabbar Patel’sJ's production of the play in 1973 is considered a classic in Modern Indian Theatre …The play stands out also for the use "Tamasha" Genre in the play so you have a lot of singing and dancing used here to good effect, here the "abhangas" (devotional songs) mixed in with the "Lavnis" (Love songs)…. This play caused a lot of controversy because some people believed that it hurt the feelings of the Brahmin community and that it showed the statesman Nana Phadnavis in a bad light. Hence it was temporarily banned in the state