Mulshankar Mulani

Mulshankar Harinand Mulani (1 November 1867 – 14 December 1957) was a Gujarati playwright from the Gujarati theatre of India. After working as a village development officer and as an editor with a weekly newspaper, he joined the Mumbai Gujarati Natak Mandali, a theatre company, where he worked as a playwright for decades. He wrote more than fifty plays on social, mythological and historical subjects including commercially or critically successful plays like Rajbeej, Ajabkumari (1899, 1912), Saubhagya Sundari (1901), Nandbatrisi (1906) and Krishnacharitra (1906).

Early life He was born on 1 November 1867 in Chavand (now in Amreli district, Gujarat, India) to the religious Prashnora Nagar Brahmin family of Harinand Dayanad and Mankunwar.

Theatre career Mulani met Prabhurai Popatlal, who offered him a job as a play editor in the Mumbai Gujarati Natak Mandali, a theatre company, for a salary of five rupees. He transcribed copies of the plays also. His Ek Ja Bhool (1919), written for Royal Natak Mandali, had a discussion on a drone in its script. He had written more than fifty plays on social, mythological and historical subjects; about twenty eight staged, four not staged and fourteen adapted plays. His popular plays include Rajbeej (1891), Ajabkumari (1899, 1912), Saubhagyasundari (1901), Nandbatrisi (1906) and Krishnacharitra (1906). Krishnacharitra and Devkanya are published as books. His Porus Sikandar is published but never performed on the stage.

He wrote and composed songs for musical plays with help of his knowledge of folk-tunes and metres before writing plays. His songs for Kulin Kanta became popular.

His plays depict the most noticeable features of old Gujarati theatre, including the technique of setting, music and acting, and the theme of triumph of good over evil was central in his plays. He drew inspiration from historical or mythological episodes and wove it in the contemporary events. His plays also focused on the conflicts arising from the human relations.

Recognition He was felicitated by the Bhavnagar Sahitya Sabha in 1944 and the Gujarat Sahitya Sabha in 1946 in Ahmedabad during the Rang Parishad, a theatre conference session. He was honoured in Bhangwadi Theatre, Bombay on 14 December 1948 and was awarded rupees 1,50,000.

Jaishankar Bhojak 'Sundari' had considered him the Shakespeare of Gujarat. Dinesh H. Bhatt has written a doctoral thesis on his life and works in 1966.