It's we writers who protest: Kiran Nagarkar

On the last day Hyderabad Literary Fest, V. Nilesh spoke to novelist, playwriter, film and drama critic and screenwriter Kiran Nagarkar. Excerpts from the interview:

Q. Literary festivals are now seen as platforms where controversies erupt. Apart from waiting for a chance to meet writers and hear them talk, people also keep an eye on events at literary festivals, expecting some controversy. Why do you think literary festivals are becoming platforms for controversies?
The political atmosphere in the country has become such that people are not openly speaking up and it is mostly writers who do it. As many writers take part in literary festivals, they open up about what they feel is wrong.

Q. Many youngsters are publishing books in English in which stories revolve around the experiences of urban youth and the language used is also far more lucid as compared to books by veteran novelists and writers.
For some people, writing is purely business and they see it as a way to be famous. I do not have any problem if someone wants to earn money by publishing a book. It is his choice. But such books cannot form part of literature. Publishing a book has become easier. I never wrote a book for earning money, although money is welcome!

Q. You criticise yourself a lot and once said you do not have the confidence a good writer should have.
Some people are lucky, as they naturally possess good writing skills, but others are not. For those who do not possess it naturally, it is okay, but they have to be constantly critical of their own works.

Q. At the Lit-fest, you have criticised the movie Badlapur. Please elaborate.
The character Raghu (played by Varun Dhawan) in the movie stays calm with a vengeance in his heart. He did not do anything for 15 years in Badlapur village and suddenly one day he decides to take his revenge and acts upon it.
This does not make much sense. How can someone with so much of vengeance in his heart be calm for so long and suddenly, one day, start killing people?

Q. But many mainstream Bollywood and regional movies, present a chain of events which may not seem very logical
That’s the reason why I vomit the whole night after watching movies nowadays!

‘Bedtime Story’ enthralled all

The session by renowned writer Kiran Nagarkar, on his book Bedtime Story on the final day of the Hyderabad Literary Festival on Sunday, had the crowd in rapt attention.

The book, written in the post-Emergency period, retells Mahabharata in a different light. Its characters cross the moral expectations of the society. Nagarkar reminisced how the book was banned in the country when it was released and remained out of circulation for 17 years. Recently a new edition of the book was brought out. Said he, “It is Mahabharata with a twist where the characters play quite different roles and are contemporary in nature. The story shows how people have to be responsible and be part of the society.”

He read out excerpts from the book relating to the story of Eklavya and Draupadi and narrated them in the present-day social and political context.

He spoke of how his version of Mahabharata in Bedtime Story differed from the original. For instance, in the book, when Eklavya is asked by Dronacharya for his thumb as guru dakshina, Eklavya makes a thumb out of mud and spittle and presents it to him saying, “Like guru, like gift.”

Nagarkar also criticised the comment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, that Indians knew about plastic surgery thousands of years ago, citing the mythological story of transplanting a human head on elephant god, Ganesha. Such comments, mixing mythology with science, were bad in taste, he felt.