Ramu Ramanathan
Born (1967-12-29) 29 December 1967
NationalityIndian
EducationBachelor of Science, Chemistry, University of Mumbai, 1988
SpouseKinnari Vohra
Websiteplacesotherthanthis.blogspot.com

Ramakrishnan Ramanathan, known as Ramu Ramanathan, is an Indian playwright and director. He has written plays including Mahadevbhai, Cotton 56, Polyester 84, Jazz, Comrade Kumbhakarna, and Postcards From Bardoli.

His book 3, Sakina Manzil And Other Plays,[1] is a collection of eight plays, published by Orient Blackswan in collaboration with the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU).[2]

Besides playwriting, Ramanathan is the editor of PrintWeek and WhatPackaging? magazines. He has been associated with the print industry for 30 years.[3]

He is the author of three books. 3, Sakina Manzil And Other Plays which is a collection of eight plays. And, two collections of poems, My Encounters with a Peacock and To Sit on A Stone - And Other Shorts.[4] In addition, he pens columns for newspapers.

He has also co-edited Book Binding with Adhesives along with P Sajith and Babri Masjid, 25 Years ... along with Irfan Engineer and Sameena Dalwai.

Early life

Ramanathan was born on 29 December 1967 in Kolkata and later moved to Mumbai. He completed his schooling from St. Stanislaus High School, Mumbai. In 1987, Ramanathan graduated from Mithibai College with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. He wrote his first one-act play in the same year, I am I. Later, he completed his Diploma in Journalism from Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai and MA in English Literature from the University of Mumbai.

Later, Ramanathan wrote 13 one-act plays for inter-collegiate competitions. Also he has written radio plays and radio documentaries for AIR (produced by S D Prins, a rare motivated officer in Akashvani). Along with Sunil Shanbag, he explored alternative spaces for plays on top of a water tank at the YWCA in Andheri which was transformed into an amphitheatre. Also, he founded and organised the IIT Theatre Fest in 2006 along with Raja Mohanty at the IDC in IIT. For ten years he edited a theatre journal for Prithvi Theatre called PT Notes which was published by Sanjna Kapoor. Later he co-edited the eSTQ bulletin from 2005. He ran a play-reading movement for more many years in which unperformed, unpublished plays (more than 75 plays in English, Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi) were read in front of an invited audience.

Publications

  • Combat, published by National School of Drama (2003)
  • Collaborators And Mahadevbhai, Sahitya Akademi (2006)
  • Tathasthu ("So Be It"), in The Little Magazine (2010)has
  • Mahadevbhai (in Marathi), Popular Prakashan (2011)
  • 3 Sakina Manzil and Other Plays (in English), Orient Blackswan (2012) - An anthology of eight plays: Shanti, Shanti It’s A War; The Boy Who Stopped Smiling; Curfew; Mahadevbhai (1892–1942); Collaborators; 3, Sakina Manzil; Shakespeare And She; Jazz.
  • Book Binding with Adhesives along with Tony Clark and P Sajith
  • My Encounters With a Peacock, Red River (2017)
  • Babri Masjid, 25 Years .. along with along with Irfan Engineer and Sameena Dalwai (Gyan Prakashan) (2017)
  • To Sit on A Stone - And Other Shorts, Red River (2020)
  • Mumbai Murmurings: 213* Tiny Tales of Theatre (Manipal Universal Press) (2023)
  • Two plays: Cotton 56, Polyester 84 and Comrade Kumbhakarna, Red River (2023)

Theatre experience

Ramu Ramanathan, Group Editor, PrintWeek India and Campaign India

In 1993, Ramanathan wrote Shanti, Shanti, It's A War (Best Play at The Hindu - All India Playscript Competition). This was produced by Madras Players. The play was penned in 1992, within the first ten days after 6 December.

In the mid-nineties, he wrote and directed a Gripp's play (a children's play) The Boy Who Stopped Smiling which performed 150-odd shows. More than one hundred of these shows were organized by Sanjna Kapoor, the producer of the play, who created a theatre network across the country.

Ramanathan directed Vaikom Mohammed Basheer’s Me Grandad ‘Ad An Elephant, and later Marguerite Duras’ L’amante Anglaise (both with university students) and Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Jean Genet’s Deathwatch and Vaclav Havel’s Audience and a play called Nothing (for V Theatre Group).

Similarly, his collaboration with a group of architecture students resulted in three plays and another piece called PM @ 3 pm. This group hosted a 7-day workshops on set design and theatre aesthetics, and fabricated four model sets of King Lear, for four language theatres’ directors in Mumbai. Later, the group staged three student productions: Yaar, What’s the Capital of Manipur!; The Sanjivani Super Show; Medha and Zoombish – II.

Ramu Ramanathan has conducted workshops for students and taught at KRIVIA, IDC (IIT Powai), University of Mumbai, Symbiosis (Pune), and has been associated with at least 20 educational institutes across the country.

Playwriting

TitleYearAcclamation
I Am I; What It Is; Gagan Mahal; Etc.(1987 to 1993)Award-winning inter-collegiate one-act plays
Nothing – A Play Without Words1990
Shanti, Shanti, It’s A War1993All India Best Play Award awarded by The Hindu
The Boy Who Stopped Smiling1998
Curfew1999Premiered at the Prithvi Theatre Festival
The Travel Show2000Premiered at the Prithvi Theatre Festival
Yaar, What’s The Capital Of Manipur!2002
Combat2002Premiered at the Kala Ghoda Festival
Mahadevbhai 1892-19422002
Collaborators2003Regional Award Winner of the BBC International Radio Playwriting Competition
Medha And Zoombish2004
3, Sakina Manzil2004
Chello Ank(in Gujarati)2004Bagged the best play award for the Bhupen Khakkhar Playwriting Competition organised by Mumbai Samachar, Friends of Bhupen Khakkar, Image Publications and Coffee Mates.
Cotton 56, Polyester 842006Bagged the META best play and best playwright award[5]
Three Ladies Of Ibsen2006
Medha And Zoombish II2007
Shakespeare And She2008
Jazz2008
Kashmir Kashmir2009
Comrade Kumbhakarna2011
The Diary Of A Word2012
Postcards From Bardoli2013

Theatrical adaptations

TitleYearAdapted from
Translator Of Ded Inch Upar (Into English)1997Hindi original by Nirmal Verma
L’ Amante Anglaise (In English)2002Based on French play by Marguerite Duras
Steppenwolf2002Based on Herman Hesse’s novel in German. Staged as part of the Herman Hesse Celebrations at Max Mueller Bhavan, Mumbai
The Train To Argentina2002Theatrical adaptation of play by Thuppatan
Gandhi Katha2003
The Sanjivani Super Show2004Adaptation of Adya Rangacharya’s Kannada play, SANJIVANI
A Play About A Painter2004Edoardo Erba’s Italian drama

Direction

TitleYearNotes
Krapp’s Last Tape1989Playwright: Samuel Beckett
Deathwatch1991Playwright: Jean Genet
Audience And Mistake (actor &c-Director)1994Playwright: Vaclav Havel
Credit Titles1997Playwright: Vijay Padki. A staged play-reading
The Boy Who Stopped Smiling1998
Me Grandad ‘Ad An Elephant1998Theatrical adaptation of the Malayalam novella by Vaikom Mohammed Basheer, into a dramatized presentation (Group co-ordination & direction) 1998-99
Angst. Angst. Coontah. Coontah. Boom. Bam. Dhandal. Dhamaal. Kaput. (Concept And Direction)2001Premiered at TECHFEST, IIT Mumbai
Time To Tell A Tale2001Co-produced with Katha Publishing and SNDT, University
Yaar, What’s The Capital Of Manipur!2002Co-produced by Kamala Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute of Architecture
Mahadevbhai 1892–19422002Premiered at the Prithvi Theatre Festival 2002
L’ Amante Anglaise (in English)2002Co-produced by Alliance Francaise, Mumbai
The Train To Argentina2002Premiered at the Varkhari Kerala Theatre Festival in Mumbai, on 25 December 2002
Gandhi Katha2003Staged reading, premiered at the Gujarati Forbes Sabha’s book launch of Narayan Desai’s four-volume biography on Mahatma Gandhi, in Mumbai on 2 October 2003
The Sanjivani Super Show2004Staged during the 100th Birth Anniversary of the Adya Rangacharya, at Mysore Association, Mumbai
Collaborators2003
A Play About A Painter2004Edoardo Erba’s Italian drama
Medha And Zoombish2004
Arabian Night2004Play by Ronald Schimmelpfennig
Medha And Zoombish II2007
Shakespeare And She2008

References

  1. "Playing with Words". 25 June 2012.
  2. "3, Sakina Manzil and Other Plays".
  3. "Author - Ramakrishnan Ramanathan". kalnet.kshec.kerala.gov.in. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  4. "RAMU RAMANATHAN". Jaipurliteraturefestival.org.
  5. "Mahindra Excellence in Theatre Awards".

The Eleventh Dr. Ashok Da Ranade Memorial Lecture: 8 ½ Reasons Why We Need Playwrights Today

Mumbai Local with Ramu Ramanathan: Voices of Dissent

Ramu Ramanathan: My favourite poets from KrakowVijay Tendulkar Biography by Ramu Ramanathan (Part 1)

Vijay Tendulkar Biography by Ramu Ramanathan (Part 2)

Ramu Ramanathan speaks to the translators of the books: Delhi and Anticlock - Fathima EV, Nandakumar K and Ministhy S

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