Mahant, a period play staged for Kolhapurkars

As a part of 58th

Rajya Natya Spardha

being held at city’s Keshavrao Bhosale Natyagruha, Kolhapurkars witnessed

Mahant

, a period play drawing inspiration from Jean Anouilh’s play titled

Becket

.

The play was a depiction of conflict between Thomas Becket and King Henry II of England leading to Becket's assassination in 1170. Mahant, is the Marathi translation of the same play. The play was first directed by Arvind Deshpande in the year 1986. However, it did not gain enough popularity. However, V. V Shirwadkar’s (popularly known as

Kusumagraj

) script which drew inspiration from Becket, had become popular. It was this script, directed by Vasudev Maydeo, staged in the city as a part of this competition.

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