THEfirst timeI missedGirish
Karnad wasinUtsav(1984),an ad-
aptationofMrichhakatika, a 10-act
Sanskrit dramapennedby Sudraka,
an ancient playwright.Thefilm had
arrivedat the boxofficeriding on the
inexorablecharmsof Rekha. People
camein droves.Someravedabout
RekhaandAnuradhaPatel; othersof
Shashi Kapoor whoplayed Sam-
sthanakin thefilm. Somecouldeven
recallthe partsplayedby Neena
Gupta,Amjad Khan andShekhar
Suman. NonecouldrecallKarnad.
Therein lay his success. Like
OscarWildewouldhaveit, Karnad’s
aimwasto revealthe art andconceal
the artist.As the directorofUtsav, he
chiselledeachof his characterswith
meticulouscare.Eachcharacter had
a storyto tell.Eachcharacteradded
to the valueof thefilm. Thesuccess of
Karnadlay in making theaudience
talkof his workrather thanthe man.ThenexttimeI almostmissed
GirishKarnadwasjusta yearor so
later. This time, it was K.
Viswanath’sSurSangamwherehe
playedan ageingclassicalartist,Pan-
dit Shivshankar Shastri,whowants
to passon his vastknowledgeto the
nextgeneration. As he waitsfor the
lastleafof theautumnof his life to
drop,therestepsin thelittlesonof
Tulsi(Jayaprada).Shastri’smusicis
in safehands. Fine,butwhydid one
almostmiss Karnad? Well,thistime,
he immersedhimselfcompletely in
thecharacterof theseasonedmusi-
cian.Nothing, absolutelynothing,
couldtake theviewers’ attention
awayfromhis nuanced performance,
not evenJayaprada’sbeautyanddig-
nified performance.When he per-
formed to Rajan-Sajan Mishra’sExploringmythologyandlegend,
GirishKarnad(1938-2019) confronted
contemporaryissuesby askinguneasy
questionsaboutinstitutions.BYZIYAUS SALAM
K.BHAGYAPRAKASHIrrepressible
storyteller
OBITUARY