Jhadazadati, the novel that fetched him the Sahitya Akademi Award is based on the life and plight of the people displaced by the construction of big dams. Widely translated into almost all languages in India, Mr. Patil’s social and historical novels have a mass as well as a class appeal. Mahanayak was the result of an extensive study and research for seven years during which Mr. Patil traveled through Japan, Germany, England and Burma, where Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army had created history. The novel, which came out of a long arduous research, was originally published in Marathi and went into six editions.

Keerti Ramachandra, born in 1947, is presently a freelance editor and translator. Editing, translating, teaching, working as a tourist guide, she has done it all. Quite conversant in seven Indian languages, translating works from Marathi and Kannada into English is more than a serious hobby for her. Keerti has edited and translated a number of important books, including Home and Away, a collection of Kannada short stories by Ramachandra Sharma, and Sleepwalkers, a novella by Joginder Paul. She was awarded the prestigious A. K. Ramanujan award for translation in 1995.

Praise for Mahanayak

Patil succeeds in his task as the book is a racy affair, highlighting the clash of wills that characterised Bose's life – be it his titanic clashes with Mahatma Gandhi in the Congress or his armed struggle against the allies. – The Week

What makes Mahanayak different is that unlike other books on Netaji, Patil has created a character who is human, with failings and strengths, and who still emerges as a renaissance figure.    – The Times of India