MUMBAI, Oct. 14 -- From print to celluloid to stage, 'Saangtye Aika' ('Listen to my story'), a riveting autobiography of Hansa Wadkar, the renowned film actor of the 1940s and tamasha artiste, has come a long way. The book, the first in Marathi to hold up the mirror to the world of cinema to reveal its seamier side, in sheer contradiction to its show of glamour, hasn't lost its equity in over five decades. It first rolled out of a modest printing press in Pune under the banner of Rajhans Prakashan helmed by then editor-publisher S G Majgaokar who was known for his modern and inclusive views. While Shyam Benegal turned 'Saangtye Aika' into 'Bhumika' ('The role') -- the Smita Patil-Amol Palekar-Anant Nag-Naseeruddin Shah-Amrish Puri starrer of 1977 -- Vishwas Sohoni, the avant-garde Marathi director, decided last year to re-interpret it, using single-person chorus as the narrative device. He chose his protege, noted actor Manasi Kulkarni as the protagonist. "After barely skimming through the first 15 pages I realised the relevance of 'Saangtye Aika' to the present times - be it cinema, politics or the corporate sector. Women have to struggle to retain their dignity both at home and place of work," Sohoni told HT, during a leisurely chat over 'chai' and 'bhajias' after a performance last week. Stating that she was "spellbound" while reading the book, Kulkarni said, "What I liked most about Hansabai is her ability to come to terms with life, rain or sunshine. She accepts things with courage and equanimity. Also, she watches her own life from a dignified distance." Not a box office sensation, the play languished for a while, until Aawishkaar, a reputed Mumbai-based drama group gave it the necessary push, evidenced by the cosy Keshav Gore Smarak Trust auditorium at Goregaon packed to capacity for a show held recently. The Hansa Wadkar story has acquired cult status in Maharashtra's literary world as she dared to expose the patriarchy and misogyny prevalent in the film industry. Many women artistes in Marathi cinema belonged to the 'kalavantin' (or 'deoli') community, the north Indian equivalent of which is the 'tawaif', spread across the Maharashtra-Karnataka-Goa border. While the British masters, weaned on Victorian values, clubbed 'kalavantin', 'devdasis' and 'tawaifs' as 'nautch girls' and consigned them to the dark corners of history, the Gandhians were eager to 'reform' them, little knowing that many singers were wealthy, read Premchand and Tagore, lived in style and secretly funded the freedom movement. Sensing that cinema was a great option to improve their lot and escape the social stigma attached to their centuries-old profession, the 'kalavantins' made a beeline for Pune, Kolhapur and Mumbai studios between the two World Wars in search of livelihood - and luck. Wadkar was one of them. Few opted for classical music and were trained by stalwarts such as Ustad Abdul Karim, Ustad Alladiya Khan and Pandit Ramkrishnabuwa Waze. Wadkar joined cinema at 12, married at 15 and became a mother at 16. Jagannath Bandarkar, a small-time contractor and Wadkars' neighbour, coerced Hansa into marrying him. The marriage was stormy and soon she got entangled in several relationships - none with any future. Life took strange turns and twists and Wadkar, who once was signed by prestigious studios such as Prabhat Film Company and Bombay Talkies, fell on bad days as she couldn't strike a balance between her personal and professional life. However, 'Saangtye Aika', her last film, turned out to be a runaway hit and Wadkar came into her own. Journalists Arun Sadhu and Sudhakar Anavalikar were the ghost writers. 'Saangtye Aika' soon spawned an avalanche of similar books by Durga Khote, Leela Chitnis, Snehaprabha Pradhan and Usha Kiran, among others. Lalita Pawar and Sulochana's biographies too were well received by readers and critics. These upper class female artistes too faced sexual harassment, but education and prosperity steeled their nerves to stand up to exploitation. Angered by a provocative article in 'Film India', actor Shanta Apte, a graduate and one of the leading heroines of the Prabhat Film Company, once walked, so goes the story, into the Fort office of 'Film India', a glossy film magazine costing Rs.10 in the 1940s, and whacked editor Baburao Patel with a cane. Wadkar lacked not courage, but Apte's social class, respectability and power. Stating that Marathi readers loved Wadkar's book as it contained bald truths about the film industry, and was written in a racy style, publisher Dilip Majgaokar said, "Wadkar was happy when she bagged the Maharashtra government's award for best book. She enjoyed her last 'take' of fame. Renowned critic-scholar W L Kulkarni wrote the preface for 'Saangtye Aika'." Celebrated playwright Vijay Tendulkar was set to team up with Wadkar to do a sequel to 'Saangtye Aika'. However, the project never took off following Wadkar's untimely death in 1972. While occupying the centre stage for seventy minutes, Kulkarni enacts a range of roles even as she fuses incidents and images, characters and conversations, music and mirth into a tightly woven narrative....