Taking it forward
|
Karnataka Nataka Academy's seminar on Girish Karnad's plays raised some interesting questions
|
GLOBAL IMPACT The ability to universalise an individual's predicament gives Karnad's plays a worldwide appeal
Girish Karnad's plays have received wide critical acclaim. Most of his plays are rooted in the Indian mythology, folklore and history, even as they wear an overt Western sensibility. However, this modern playwright — with the framework of history and mythology — examines the crisis of an individual who, a product of his time, is wedged in a deep psychological and philosophical conflict. The ability to universalise an individual's predicament is perhaps what gives Karnad's works a worldwide appeal. In a manner of moving away from his usual signature themes, Girish Karnad's recent play, Odakalu Bimba, talks of the invasive nature of technology over people's lives.
If there is one faction that attributes Girish Karnad's success as a playwright to his deep intellectual engagement with an individual as a product of his times, there are detractors who feel that his plays "dwell on arcane myths and parochial ethnicity" (as observed by S. Kalidas and Rehmat Merchant in the article Renaissance Man). They further indict that "his characters are not flesh-and-blood individuals but broad representations of their class or ideology." Playwrights like Mahesh Dattani even-handedly say: "He has a historic vision but a contemporary voice."
The recent seminar organised by Karnataka Nataka Academy and Ranga Shankara on Girish Karnad's plays discussed all this and more. It started out on the premise that Girish Karnad is one of the most important playwrights of the post-'60s era, a period when literary form, content and style was being subject to a great deal of experimentation. Giraddi Govindraj, former chairperson of the Karnataka Sahitya Academy, who presided over the seminar, pointed out that literature had come a long way since Girish Karnad began his writing career. "Critics at various points have expressed their displeasure over Karnad's plays as never addressing contemporary issues," he said and threw the house open for discussion.
This observation, however, meant different things for different people in the audience. For a passionate student of drama, who swore by T.P. Kailasam and refused to look beyond, asked if there was any Girish Karnad play that could be regarded as a play for all times. While many of the respondents chose to gloss over this assumption, some thought it was a sacrilege to compare the two playwrights of two different sensibilities. Some even thought T.P. Kailasam was outdated, while others vehemently disagreed to say that he was more pertinent in the present valueless system.
B. Suresha, who's had a long association with theatre and is a maker of tele-serials, felt that Karnad's plays were too perfect in terms of structure, and left very little room for the director's imagination. He cited the example of Jayatheertha Joshi's fantastic production of Taledanda in Gadag on the steps of a Kalyani (water tank) and said how other productions of the play paled in comparison.
Unless a director embarks on creative flights like Jayatheertha Joshi did, it is bound to fail, he averred. He even spoke of Chidambara Rao Jambe's production of the same play which used Basavanna's vachanas as interludes, elevating the play to higher planes even as it induced an element of drama.
Actor Lakshmi Chandrashekar further strengthened Suresha's argument saying that, for her, Taledanda was more exciting as a reading experience than as a stage production. And this she said was probably due to its "structural perfectness", which left little room for a director to make creative departures.
The play Taledanda did take up major part of the discussion with yet another participant saying how Basavanna, the protagonist of the play, becomes a weak character. Giraddi Govindaraj intervened: "That's the problem with good people. They don't make for good literary texts. Even in Harishchandra Kavya, Harishchandra comes across as a tame dullard. But look at the evil, villainous characters like Shakuni, Keechaka... they make for such vibrant literary works!"
Compelled by Giraddi's observation, Dr. K. Marulasiddappa remarked that Basavanna comes across as a satvika, a mild-mannered man, even in P. Lankesh's Sankranti and H.S. Shivaprakash's play Mahachaitra. With the non-availability of sufficient historical evidences, what we learn from the Veershaiva Purana is that he was a man of righteous anger.
In fact, there are suggestions that he could have played a role in Bijjala's killing. It shocks us, because we have now constructed Basavanna as Gandhiji of the 12th Century, he explained.
Interestingly, the seminar had a large number of women participants and they did raise the question of women in Karnad's plays. Vijayamma, the writer-activist had an interesting take on that. "The women in Karnad's plays never weep over their problems. They are not weak and know for sure what they want from their lives. They even procure it and that's very important to me," she explained.
Unlike most seminars that tend to lose focus, with all its rambling, this one did seem to have a sense of coherence. Not that all questions raised found answers. Not that doubts were cleared and differences resolved. But it did initiate a dialogue.
DEEPA GANESH
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
