Balraj Pandit

Balraj Pandit was a well-known Hindi and Punjabi playwright besides being a theatre director, poet, painter and a popular teacher. His Paanchwan Sawaar (पांचवा सवार) is considered a classic and a significant play of Indian dramaturgy. The play has been staged many times by different theatre troupes with actors like Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri and Manohar Singh among other playing roles.[1] Lok Udaasi (ਲੋਕ ਉਦਾਸੀ) in Punjabi was another of his well-known plays besides Biwiyon Ka Madrasa[2] an adaptation of Molière's L'École des Femmes (The School for Wives).[3]

Balraj Pandit

Panditji, as he was fondly called, graduated from National School of Drama, New Delhi in 1969. He studied theatre under such stalwarts as Ebrahim Alkazi[4] and then after a short stint of teaching in NSD he joined Theatre and Television Department at Punjabi University in Patiala. He taught generations of students there till his retirement.

He lived at Patiala in Punjab until he died on 13 October 2006.[5]

Plays
  • Paanchwan Sawaar[6] -The play talks about how a middle-class young man turns into the neglected ‘Paanchwan Sawaar’ hopeful of rising and making it big in life. The play was originally written and directed by the famous playwright Balraj Pandit.
  • Biwiyon Ka Madarsa, adaptation of Molière's The School for Wives[7] - A Hindi version of Molière's 17th century classical farce 'The School for Wives' by Balraj Pandit.
  • Lok Udaasi[8] - The play is one of the most historic Punjabi productions written and directed by Balraj Pandit.
  • Adaptation of Premchand's story Kaffan [9]
  • Adaptation in Hindi of Evam Indrajit, a play about the mediocre class. The play subtly points towards Satrean Existentialism and denotes that life is a circle with no ending, it ends where it begins, it is an endless road.
  • Translation of Uma Anand's Aao Naatak Khelen by Balraj Pandit [10]

References
  1. "'Panchwan Sawar' staged". The Tribune. 13 December 2006.
  2. "Beewiyon Ka Madarsa: A comedy play staged". 8 September 2018.
  3. Jatinder Preet (13 October 2006). "Balraj Pandit No More". Slow Life.
  4. "Alumni". National School of Drama. Archived from the original on 1 December 2013.
  5. Anuradha Shukla (20 October 2006). "Fond memories mark Balraj Pandit's exit". The Tribune.
  6. Diwan Singh Bajeli (18 March 2005). "Life in Question". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 22 May 2005.
  7. http://www.natarang.org/catalogue-search.php?keywords=k&dd=0&cat=Brochure&index=200 Natrang Pratishtan
  8. "Architect of country's first state repertory company dies | Chandigarh News - Times of India". The Times of India.
  9. Kavita Nagpal (22 October 2011). "Dramatics of Speech". India Today.
  10. http://59.177.81.15:8000/cgi-bin/gw/chameleon?sessionid=2012011217062524887&skin=nccl&lng=en&inst=consortium&conf=.%2fchameleon.conf&host=localhost%2b1111%2bDEFAULT&patronhost=localhost%201111%20DEFAULT&sourcescreen=INITREQ&scant1=Ao%20natak%20khale%20%2f%20Uma%20Anand%3b%20illustrated%20by%20Miki%20Patel%3b%20translated%20by%20Balraj%20Pandit.&scanu1=4&elementcount=1&t1=Ao%20natak%20khale%20%2f%20Uma%20Anand%3b%20illustrated%20by%20Miki%20Patel%3b%20translated%20by%20Balraj%20Pandit.&u1=4&pos=1&itempos=1&rootsearch=FREEFORM&function=INITREQ&search=AUTHID&authid=37503&authidu=4 Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine National Book Trust
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