IThe curtains opened onto a packed house on Thursday evening as the Karnad Natakotsava 2018 kicked off in the city. Taledanda, staged in Kannada, drew a wider audience than even the organisers hoped to see, despite the immense popularity of the playwright to whom they are paying tribute.
Exactly thirty years ago, the Canara Union, a group of friends dedicated to reviving Konkani theatre, staged Girish Karnad's Tughlaq. Three decades later, they're still going strong - they return to the stage this weekend with four of Karnad's plays. Incidentally, this year also marks Karnad's 80th birthday - "Since he is a native Konkani speaker, we thought it fitting to choose his works," says Gautam Ubhaykar. A member of Canara Union, Gautham is a former DRDO scientist who returned to Bengaluru - and his passion, theatre - after he retired.
Even so, staging four plays in Konkani didn't make for an adequate tribute, remarked Gautham. "We wanted to have as wide a reach as possible, something that is more fitting to a playwright of his stature." They decided, therefore, on Hindi, Marathi and Kannada, aside from Konkani.
Agni and Pavsu
The process began, of course, with deciding which plays to choose. In the end, they decided on one example of each genre: "Every play Karnad has written is in a class of its own. In the end, we decided to pick the best-known plays from across the spectrum," said Gautham.
Taledanda is steeped in history, written in 1990 in the backdrop of the Ayodhya dispute. 800 years ago, a spiritual reformer named Basavanna rose to prominence in the city of Kalyan, drawing around him a congregation of poets, mystics, social revolutionaries and philosophers. The group was unmatched in their creativity and social committment, opposing idolatry, temple worship, gender discrimination and the caste system. Is egalitarianism merely wishful thinking? The attempt to create a classless society results in bloodshed.
The play was directed by Sandeep Pai and performed by the RangaSiri group.
The Hindi adaptation of Nagmandal, directed by Gautham himself, is based on local folklore - A playwright cursed by a demon is expected, once a month, to stay away through the night. As the story opens, the protagonist's eyes are heavy with sleep but he dare not let himself go - "If he does, he will be dead by morning," Gautham explains. He wanderrs down to the temple instead, where he meets Kahani, who offers to tell him a story...
Agni Ani Paavsu, staged for the second time since 2005, is among Karnad's most powerful works. Through a mythological work taken from the Mahabharatha, Karnad explores the ideas of love, marriage and respect. A young woman who marries a violent brute turns to magic for the answer. "She is given a love potion, which she decides to throw away, on an ant-hill." The ant-hill is home to a snake, which drinks the potion and falls in love with the young woman. "He takes the shape of her husband and visits her every night. She doesn't realise this man isn't actually her husband," Gautham explains. Who, in the end, is the true husband? "He looks at the institution of marriage as a state where a woman must resign herself to her husband's diktats, which he continues."
In 1990, when he was 22-years-old, Karnad wrote Tughlaq, the story of the controversial visionary. Tughlaq, known for his wish to bring about unity between Hindus and Muslims, decided to move his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. The mammoth journey was undertaken at great expense and all was well, until he decided to move back. Tughlaq is remembered more for his mistakes than the good he did - "He wanted inter-religious unity. At one point during his reign, he banned all prayers!" This was an unusual move to make, given the circumstances of the time. "He also introduced copper currency, saying the value of the coin depended on the strength of the king's face engraved on it. "Of course, the economy collapsed but it was a new way of looking at things."
This resonates very much with today's society: "That's the beauty of Karnad's plays, they will always be relevant."
What: Karnad Natakotsav 2018
When: 24 – 26 May – 7.30 PM, 27 May – 10 AM
Where: Chowdiah Memorial Hall, Vyalikaval
