Troubled monarchs... Karnad, Sajnani come full circle

Bengaluru: Girish Karnad's final play landed in Arjun Sajnani's lap, seemingly out of the blue, in July 2019, when Karnad stopped by at Sajnani's restaurant, Sunny's for lunch. Sajnani, who had been on a hiatus from theatre for some years, agreed at once. It would be the ailing playwright's swan song - Crossing to Talikota was the story of 'Aliya' Ramaraya and the fall of the Vijayanagar empire. It was, Karnad said at the Bangalore Literature Festival last year, one of the events that changed the course of Karnataka's history. The iconic playwright, however, passed away before the staging. Crossing to Talikota will make its world premier on October 2, here in Bengaluru.

“This was about the Ramaraya's hubris, the intensity with which he tried to prove to the world that he was as much a royal as the Vijayanagar emperors,” says Sajnani. Ramaraya, who belonged to a lower caste, was sensitive about this, of being deemed less-than his father in law, Krishna Deva Raya and his successors. The battle itself, which has been given numerous interpretations over the years, had taken on a decidedly religious undertone - Hampi had been destroyed by Muslim invaders for religious dominance, goes the mainstream view.

But was it? Ramaraya was known (and later criticised) for involving himself with the Sultans who ruled alongside the Vijayangar empire and had even appointed the Gilani brothers as commanders in his own army. When the sultanate of Bijapur united against him, Ramaraya, who was poised to win, was betrayed by his commanders. "Karnad looks at it through a subterranean lens but what I like best is that he sees the battle as political, not religious."

Sajnani's  production of Girish Karnad's Tughlaq became one of his biggest successes - another story of a troubled monarch. They come full circle, perhaps, with the tragic tale of 'Aliya' Ramaraya.

"Who would refuse to read a script written by you," was theatre person Arjun Sajnani’s response when Girish Karnad handed him a copy of what would be his last play. It began one afternoon in July 2018, as Karnad stopped by Arjun's restaurant, Sunny's for lunch, which he did often at the time. The script, Crossing to Talikota, arrived promptly, later that day.

"I sat on it for three months," Arjun says, a fortnight before Crossing To Talikota makes its world premiere here in Bengaluru. The memory makes him smile: "He used to come in quite often and would watch me carefully, trying to see what my reaction was... I said to him 'Girish, you've written a movie, not a play!" It was an expansive script, the story of the Battle of Talikota and the fall of the Vijaynagara empire. “More like an opera,” says Arjun, than a play. But Karnad, in his usual, canny way, had made the right choice.

In January, screenplay writer Shama Zaidi, an old friend of Arjun, came to visit. "She told me it was criminal that I have stopped doing theatre. It was not very nice to hear and it did spark something and I asked her to find me a play." Coincidentally, the play Shama had in mind happened to be Crossing to Talikota. "I was unsure, because it's a 30-man show and requires at least a hundred people on stage. She offered to help."

Karnad was told that day and he was, says Arjun, "over the moon about it. He was very clever. he only gave me scripts that he knew would suit me. He sent me Fire and Rain one day, out of the blue and the rest was history." Their association goes back a long way and Arjun would go on to direct Karnad's Tughlaq.

Pressure was mounting as an excited Karnad, "told everyone that Arjun was going to do his play." The matter was settled, however, when Arjun received an email from Nandan Nilekani, who had heard the news too. "He said they thought highly of it and would like to finance it. That was an injection of adrenaline into my jugular, I went berserk!"

SETTING THE STAGE
"I went to Girish and told him we were opening on October 2," says Arjun. "His wife, Saras, was so happy, she promised to bring him to the opening, wheelchair or not." Karnad's health was failing and he was aware of this himself. Never one to interact too much with the director, he simply gave Arjun, the license to interpret the script.

"He was bedridden for a lot of the time but we did a lot of emailing back and forth, I had a grand time chatting with him. He would come here on occasion but that grew less as he became sicker," says Arjun. On one instance, when Arjun told Karnad what he planned to do with a particular scene, the playwright said, "It's your play, you do what you want with it." That would be one of their last chats.

As Arjun began his own reading, he discovered a complex script, packed with historical detail - a real political drama. Crossing to Talikota deals with the battle of Vijayanagar, the life of Aliya Rama Raya, the son-in-law of the Vijaynagar empire, Krishna Deva Raya. "There is a lot of underlying caste consciousness in the play," says Arjun. "It deals with very subterranean themes but Girish sees everything in that light, really."

The cast came together, with stalwarts like Ashok Mandanna, Veena Sajnani and Swati De, among others, with music by Prakash Sontakke and costumes design by Priya Benegal. “She’s going all out, they’re going to be real period pieces,” says Arjun. Lighting is by Pradeep Belawadi and production design by Arun Sagar. “Luckily for us,” he chuckles, “The play involves characters of our vintage, the lead character is 76 years old!” It’s a mammoth effort, with ‘minimalist furniture’, which totally belies the scale of the set. “We’re changing sets every two pages."

THE NARRATIVE
As he examines the script now, after months of work, Arjun describes what he calls a simple, linear narrative. That wasn't so when he began. "For the first time in my career, I held readings for two months before I got on the floor," he says. "When we put it together now, it seems like a simple narrative. But to get there, needed a lot of work. It doesn't have an emotional backing or an emotional subplot, apart from one, which is quite abstruse."

Arjun’s nervousness is palpable, as the big day approaches. “I hope it goes well,” he says, over and over. “Girish will be watching, I’m sure.” Karnad's family will fly down from all over the world for the premier, "I do get a little teary  eyed because Girish won't be there to see it himself," Arjun smiles.