Ratnakar Matkari (1938-2020) was an award-winning, prolific contemporary Marathi author, director, playwright and artist. His works include a number of plays, one-act plays, novels, short-story collections and poetry both for adults and children. Matkari popularised the genre of “gudha-katha” or “mystery-thriller stories” in Marathi literature. His writing in this genre spanned horror, psychological thriller, supernatural and the macabre, and he sought to bring out the darkness in innocuous, everyday settings.