The Hindu : Karnataka News : Ananthamurthy goes on stage

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Karnataka

Ananthamurthy goes on stage

Muralidhara Khajane

Parivarthana of Mysore is staging a theatre presentation on the writer

The Jnanpith award winner is an important representative of ‘Navya’ literature
He has never distanced himself from controversies

— Photo: M.A. Sriram

U.R. Ananthamurthy

MYSORE: Parivarthana, a theatre troupe in Mysore engaged in bringing the best of theatre literature to Kannada, has embarked on an ambitious venture to portray writer U.R. Ananthamurthy on stage.

The troupe, which has staged adaptations of Anton Chekhov, Shakespeare and Arthur Miller in Mysore, on Thursday staged a play based on Dr. Ananthamurthy’s short stories and novels.

Parivarthana chose to call it theatre presentation rather than a play and named the experiment as “Endendoo Mugiyada Kathe”, which incidentally is the name of a collection of short stories by Dr. Ananthamurthy.

S.R. Ramesh is directing the play, adopted by K.P. Vasudevan. The shows will be on at Namana Kalamantapa at Krishnamurthypuram till Sunday. Prof. Ramesh, who took two years to conceptualise the presentation, says that Dr. Ananthamurthy is an important representative of the “Navya” movement in Kannada literature. His books and social engagements have made him famous.

To Dr. Ananthamurthy’s central themes belong the examination of the caste system, religious rules and traditions and the relationship between the existing cultural value system and the emerging new values of a changing world, he said.

Prof. Ramesh said that Dr. Ananthamurthy has never distanced himself from controversies. It is true that many of his works have created a storm in the field of literature. His views, Leftist leanings and social concerns are not only reflected in his short stores and novels but also writings and speeches. Dr. Ananthamurthy evinces interest in political and social issues and continues to exude enthusiasm even at the age of 75. “It is a first attempt to present the writer and his writings in Kannada,” he claims.

“Endendoo Mugiyada Kathe” is an attempt to present Dr. Ananthmurthy’s personality, literature, cultural moorings and intellectual discourses which he has engaged in over the years, he observes. “There is a plan to translate the script into English and take the theatre presentation outside Karnataka,” he said.

Prof. Vasudevan says, “It is not easy to confine Dr. Ananthamurthy’s multi-faceted personality into a two-and-a-half hour presentation. Dr. Ananthamurthy is an important person in our socio-cultural context and I thought of presenting his cogitations initially. I have started the script with his ‘Avasthe’ where he grows from Marxism and Lohiaism to individualism. Then I have tried to portray his conflicts with materialistic and meta-physical conflicts through ‘Aakaasha Mattu Bekku’. Then, I have introduced his biographical sketch through ‘Clip Joint’ which is a critical observation of the Western and the Eastern Worlds. In all, it is a journey of Dr. Ananthamurthy’s from Tirthahalli to Chamalapura, as the play ends with his role in that agitation.”

Jayaram Tatachar, a graduate from National School of Drama, says that he was thrilled when Prof. Ramesh offered him the role of the protagonist. “As an actor, it is a challenging role for me,” he adds.

According to experts, such experiments have been made only in the West with presentations on Bertolt Brecht and Oscar Wilde. Though Kailasam, Kuvempu and Lankesh were brought on the stage, the presentation on Dr. Ananthamurthy is different as the others focussed only on the works of those writers.

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