Karna beats the odds
PAROMITA PAIN
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The complexities of the theme were conveyed effectively through minimal dialogue.
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Abandoned at birth: Energetic representation.
Feeling abandoned or left out is all too common. Friends running off to play without you or your mother taking your sibling’s side when it’s obvious that it wasn’t your fault is stuff that most of us have been through. A play created collectively by the children of S.O.S. Chatnath Homes, Tambaram, under the direction of Dr. Koumarane Valavane, explored the nuances of abandonment and the issues of anger and the loss of self esteem it can cause. The piece,
titled, “This is Karna, I am his mother Kunti”, based on Karna’s story from the Mahabharata, had one important question to ask, “Do you know what an abandoned child does when his real mother comes to see him an
d tell him the truth?”
Performed at the Top Story at Alliance Françoise, the play showed that for Karna, among the greatest heroes of the epic, being abandoned by his mother at birth, defined the direction his life took. Laughed at by people, having no friends and with no access to the greatest teachers of his time, Karna’s was probably the loneliest of childhoods. But he beat the odds to emerge a great warrior and a humane king. He was loyal to his friends and ultimately died without complaint from them. But that was only one part of the story.
Dramatic highpoint
In this play, we see a more personal Karna — the Karna who had to deal with rejection and live with it simply because his mother couldn’t acknowledge his birth.
Not a dialogue heavy drama, the subtle nuances of so complex a theme were enacted with ease by the young actors. This was an energetic representation of how a person can actually make anger a motive to emerge the best. The minimal sets added to the dramatic tension. The last great battle of the Mahabharata was the highpoint. A complete departure from the usual clashing swords and death groans that portray battle, the young soldiers here rioted in clouds of rose petals whose colour
didn’t detract from the horror of the scene and whose scent hung heavy in the air, long after the curtains came down.
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