Jaywant Dalvi

Jaywant Dalvi Biography

Jaywant Dalvi was a prominent Marathi writer who wrote fiction, plays, and screenplays for Marathi and Hindi movies. He was best known as a dramatist. His satiric writings were often illustrated by the cartoonist Vasant Sarwate through his art. As a Bollywood screenwriter, his best work is Smita Patil and Naseeruddin Shah starrer Chakra (1981) and 1985 Hindi period drama film ‘Rao Saheb’ directed by Vijaya Mehta was based on Marathi novel Andharachya Parambya written by Dalvi. The movie also bagged two National awards. National award winning Marathi film Uttarayan (2005) was based on his play, Durgi. The plot of the movie Kavadase is based on his novel with the same name.

Jaywant Dalvi was born in Maharashtra in 1924 or 1925. He did his pre-college studies at Chikitsak Samuha Shirolkar High School in Mumbai. He started his literary career by short stories, though he shot to fame through his outstanding contributions to plays and novels. Sabhya grihastha ho! in 1973 was his first original play, written during his late 40s. Since then he made some great contributions to Marathi plays which include - Sandhya chhaya (1973), Barrister (1977), Suryasta (1978), Mahasagar (1979), Savitri (1981), Purush (1982), and Natigoti (1989). His last play, Sansargatha was staged in the year he passed away. He passed away in 1994.

Dalvi also had an illustrious career as a journalist cum editor. He worked as an assistant editor of Marathi newspapers Prabhat and Lokmanya, and later with USIS. But towards the end of his career, he was involved in writing and took a break from his journalist career. He wrote satire columns under the pseudonym: Thanthanpaal. In most of his works, his male characters suffer from frustrations. Many believe that Dalvi himself was a disturbed philosopher. He was associated with Seva dal, a service wing of socialist party.

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Updated: February 20, 2016