Background
His father a lawyer died when he was sixteen.
His father a lawyer died when he was sixteen.
He made significant contribution to novel, short story, travelogue, criticism, memoirs and drama. He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1968. Born as Madan Mohan Guglani on 8 January 1925 in Amritsar, Punjab.
He did his Master of Arts in English and Hindi from Punjab University, Lahore.
He started his career as a teacher, and he taught in two colleges and a school, and edited a short story magazine before deciding to write full-time. His noted novels are Andhere Band Kamare (Closed Dark Rooms) and (The Tomorrow That Never Comes).
His plays Ashadh Ka Ek Din (One Day in Aashad) (1958), play a major role in reviving Hindi theatre in the 1960s and Adhe Adhure (The Incomplete Ones or Halfway House) (1959) are highly regarded. His debut play Ashadh Ka Ek Din was first performed by Kolkata-based Hindi theatre group Anamika, under director Shyamanand Jalan (1960) and subsequently by Ebrahim Alkazi at National School of Drama Delhi in 1962, which established Mohan Rakesh as the first modern Hindi playwright.
His plays continue to be performed and receive acclaim worldwide.
One Day in the Season of Rain, Aparna Dharwadker and Vinay Dharwadker"s authorised English translation of Ashadh Ka Ek Din, premiered at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin, United States of America in 2010 and travelled to the Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival (Region 3) in 2011. Prominent Indian directors Om Shivpuri, Shyamanand Jalan, Arvind Gaur and Ram Gopal Bajaj directed this play. In 2005, this very writing process of the play, and Mohan Rakesh"s diary, writings, and letters about the play, were recreated in a play titled Manuscript, by a Delhi theatre group.
His story "Uski Roti" (One"s Bread) was made into an eponymous film by Mani Kaul in 1971, for which he also wrote the dialogue.