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UGC MHRD E Pathshala UGC MHRD e Pathshala Subject: English Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Paper: 09: “Comparative Literature, Drama in India” Paper Coordinator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Module No 34: Girish Karnad: Broken Images Content Writer: Dr. Shrabani Basu, St. Francis College, Hyderabad Content Reviewer: Dr. Satyabrata Rout; University of Hyderabad Language Editor: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad 1. INTRODUCTION This module is about the celebrated playwright, director, scriptwriter and actor Girish Karnad, and more specifically explores one of his lesser known plays “Broken Images”. You would be looking at a brief account of Karnad’s life and work and then we would concentrate on the play itself, exploring the different themes and concerns that revolve around it. This module would also contain occasional interesting facts about the playwright and the play, with some self- assessment questions to test your understanding of the play. “Broken Images” or “Odakalu Bimba” in the original Kannada, was specifically written for Ranga Shankara’s opening festival in October 2004, but was not staged before March, 2005. Subsequently Karnad also wrote the English version – “A Heap of Broken Images,” which was later published as “Broken Images”. It was also translated in Hindi as “Bikhre Bimba.” DID YOU KNOW? With “Broken Images” staging in March, 2005, four interesting things happened: • Girish Karnad directed the play himself, something he has not done for forty years, his last stage direction being Badal Sircar’s Evam Indrajit. • This was the first time that Ranga Shankara had produced a play. • This was the first time that any of Karnad’s play debuted subsequently in two languages. • Karnad translated his own play in English. 2. GIRISH KARNAD’S LIFE AND CAREER Born in 1938 in Maharashtra, Girish Raghunath Karnad, has mostly written in Kannada. Educated in Karnataka University and later in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, Karnad’s initial career was in Oxford University Press in Chennai. After quitting this job, he got involved with the Chennai based amateur theatre group The Madras Players. He has been a Fulbright scholar in The University of Chicago and has served a year long tenure at the Pune Film and Television Institute of India (1974-75) and National Academy of Performing Arts (1988-93) as the Director. In spite of having Konkani as mother tongue, Karnad has resolutely written in Kannada, though most of his works have been translated into English and other vernacular languages. His rise as a playwright changed the much used westernized literary tradition of Kannada. Being inspired by a version of Mahabharata by C. Rajagopalachari, Karnad started writing plays in Kannada based on Indian mythology. His first play “Maa Nishaadh” was quickly followed by a remarkably prolific career including “Yayati” in 1961 and continued to subsequent famous ones like “Tughlaq”, “Hayavadana”, “Bali”, “Taledanda” or “Death by Beheading”, “Agni mattu Male” or “Fire and the Rain” etc. with the 2012 play “Benda Kalu on Toast”. Karnad made his acting and screen writing debut with a Kannada film adapted from U.R. Anathamurthy’s Samskara. He acted in multiple films directed by Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and more recently Nagesh Kukunoor. He has received Filmfare and National Awards for acting and directing, and Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Kannada Sahitya Akademi, Jnanpith Awards for his literary contribution. DID YOU KNOW? His rise as a playwright in 1960s, marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sircar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. 3. MAJOR THEMES IN KARNAD’S PLAYS Girish Karnad has been put together with Mohan Rakesh, Dharamveer Bharati, Vijay Tendulkar for thematic similarities and for creating a national theatre of India. 3.1. Retrieval of Indigenous Traditions and Culture of India It has often been said that Karnad, through his plays, manages to retrieve the rich cultural and mythological traditions of India and adapt them for the modern stage. He has unearthed modern reality enmeshed in “the Great and the Little tradition, the classical and the folk elements of Indian literature” (Mukherjee, 134). Karnad brings out the colorful folk tale techniques of the ancient story-telling tradition with masks, vibrant costumes, multi-layered narrative, speaking dolls, supernatural entities etc. However, Karnad’s success lies in perpetuating the transcendental reality beneath these mythological garbs. The audience can relate with the crisis on stage, even if it allegedly is having a thousand years ago. Thus, we have no trouble understanding the conflict between physique and intellect in Hayavadana, or the crisis of the Varnas in Taledanda or the changing society and the clash of tradition and human inclination in The Fire and the Rain. Through subtle adaptation of theatrical techniques from Parsi theatre, Yakshagana, Bayalala, Company Nataks and particularly from Sanskrit plays, Karnad successfully minimizes the demarcation between the performers and the audience. He also establishes the eternity of myths, proving that socio-cultural and philosophical realities only adapt themselves with the temporal axis, they do not change essentially. 3.2. Quest for Identity and Perfection amidst Duality and Incompletion Most of Karnad’s plays explore an individual’s quest for identity in a mottled and confusing background. Devadatta and Kapila in Hayavadana look for the ‘self’ they have lost as they exchanged body to survive and to find perfection. In Yayati, the old king exchanges age with his young son, but neither find any consolation of completion, as old age does not bring any wisdom and youth does not facilitate the sensual satiation. The Dreams of Tipu Sultan explores the conflict between the colonial and the cultural past. In Nagamandala, the snake’s transformation into a man to pursue Rani reinstates the fact that modern man cannot have one identity and every choice gives way to certain experiences and at times at the cost of penalty. DID YOU KNOW? Naga cult worship of Kerala is a kind of religious ritual. It is variously practiced in many parts of Kerala. It retains the impact of Hindu mythology. There are more than a dozen temples in Kerala dedicated to Naga and Naga-cult. Naga myths/Tales promote worship of serpents. A Hindu religious sub sect of Kerala, The Pulluva community is believed to have descended from Dravidian clan whose totem was the image of the hooded serpent. There is a belief that if serpent’s anger brings calamity, disasters and diseases, it can be pleased by the Pulluva alone in Kerala Naga trance is a cultural performance that is related to the nature and character of Naga. The planning of this performance entails a colorful picture of a Naga designed in the courtyard of the temple. Here the worship takes place with the ritualistic song and chanting in praise of the serpent with the help of musical instruments. An elaborate worship is done by the priest to the Naga to make man free from sin. The Pulluva women enter the sacred courtyard and begin to the Naga trance dance. Finally these women (orakkals) are ready to tell about the future of the devotees under the induced trance. After the foretelling, the women fall unconsciously marking the end of the ritual. 4. STAGE DIRECTION AND SETTING The play being a monodrama (one act, one performer), has minimum stage directions. There is a single moderate stage direction in the beginning of the play and only a few scattered ones throughout to facilitate the understanding of the audience and the readers. The setting is rather expensive as it asks for plasma screen, multiple television sets and if possible a revolving stage. Though, cheaper adaptations of the setting can be probably managed. The initial stage direction describes the interior of a typical television studio with a big plasma television hanging on one side, close enough and big enough for the audience to see from it. On the other side of the stage are a strategically placed chair and a typical semi-circular telly table. At the back of the stages, we are supposed to see several television sets with varying screen sizes. Moreover, a red bulb glows high above the table so as not to appear in the television screen. The only character Manjula Nayak enters at this point wearing a lapel mike, looking confident and easy in a television studio. She is described to be in her mid- thirties/ forties. The entire play runs through conversations between an image of Nayak that appears on the television screen and the Nayak on stage. There are cues for laughter, pause and tears, with certain stage-directions about frenzied behavior and aggressiveness and different facial expressions. There are three final stage direction where in a frenzied attempt to block the image, Manjula tries to disconnect the screen, but ends up syncing the image as the upper part of the body, as Malini’s personality takes over Manjula. The setting requires a revolving stage, where the entire studio will revolve showing all the televisions with different images of Manjula silently gesticulating on screen. Finally, there is a deafening cacophony where all the screens start emitting Kannada and English and one by one the screens are turned off, finally leaving the stage in darkness. DID YOU KNOW? • The play starred Arundhati Nag as Manjula Nayak and her doppelgänger in the Kannada and Hindi versions while Arundhati Raja played the same role in the English version. • The play earned itself positive reviews which subsequently resulted in a new production of it in English which was directed by Alyque Padamsee and featured Shabana Azmi playing the lead role of Manjula Sharma, a Hindi writer who is unsuccessful.
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