playback,one forgotKarnad was
merelydoinga lip-sync to Mishra’s
voice. Incidentally, Karnad, as
Jayapradarecalls today,“wasvery
particularabouthowa sceneshould
shapeup. Wewouldrehearsefor
long.Evenin songswhereI had a
smallrole,he wouldensureI was
presentat eachrehearsal.Weprac-
tisedtogether. Forinstance, thefirst
partof the song‘Sadh re mansur ko
sadhre.’”She started singingthe
song,morethan 30 years afterit was
picturisedon Karnadandher.Such
was the power of Karnad’s
performance.
It is thesameabilityto slipinto
theskinof thecharacterthatstood
Karnad in good stead when he
workedwithShyamBenegalin the
1970s.BothManthan(1976), where
he a playeda veterinarianwhocomes
to a villageto starta milkcooperative
scheme, andNishant(1975),where
he played a helpless schoolmaster
whosewife(ShabanaAzmi)is kid-
napped, conveyeda coupleof things.
First,he couldcarryafilm on his
shoulders,as inManthan. Then,in
Nishant, he couldholdhisownin
frontof the bigwigsof arthouse
cinema, including the likes of
ShabanaAzmi,NaseeruddinShah,
MohanAgashe,Anant Nag,Smita
PatilandKulbhushanKharbanda.
Eitherway,herewasan actorwho
wasa director’sdream.Heunder-
stoodthatcinemawasa director’s
medium. In fact,because of his abil-
ity to givefleshandsoulto his char-
acters,many of hisdirectors and
producersbecamerecipientsof view-
ers’loveandattention.
Onceat Delhi’sJagat cinema,
Karnad’s lesserknownfilmShama
(1981)wasplaying.Heessayedthe
roleof YusufAliKhan,a wealthy
landlordof BritishIndia.So credible
washis performance thatwhenthe
film’sproducer,KaderKhan, went to
thecinema for the film’srelease
show,a womanwalkedup to himto
kisshis hand,thankinghimfor mak-
ing sucha beautifulmovie.
Somethingsimilarhappenedin
thelate1970swhenSwami, with
Karnadco-starring withShabana
Azmiagain,playedat a hallnearthe
railwaystationin Delhi.Thistime, a
youngmanfromeasternUttarPra-
desh,walked up to thefilm’s director,
BasuChatterjee, huggedhimtight
andrequestedChatterjee to passon
his compliments to Ghanshyam,
Karnad’s character,a manwhois
usedandabused by hisstepfamilyuntilhis wifestandsup for him.Yet
again,so nuancedwasKarnad’s per-
formance thatthe viewerscould only
recall the name of his character
ratherthanthe actor.EVOLVING CRAFT
Thischisel-likefinishto hiscraft
tookmanyyearsto evolve. Afterall,
Karnadhadmadehis cinemadebut
as a directorwithB.V.Karanthin
VamshaVrikshain 1972.Thefilm,
likemany of his moviesin a career
spanningmorethanfourdecades,
wasbasedon a literaryworkof indis-
putablemerit,thistimewriterS.L.
Bhyrappa’s novel.
He wenton to act or directfilmsin
Hindi,Malayalam,Tamil,Teluguand
Marathitoo,but he was quintessen-
tiallyweddedto the soulof Karnataka,
notin a chauvinisticway,butin the
waya littleboy loveshis mother.His
lovefor Kannada did not meanhatred
for Englishor anyotherlanguage, or
evena feelingof superiority.
It wasa love affair that had taken
rootwhenhe left homeandheartto
travelall thewayto Englandwhere
he wasto study in Oxford,andriseto
be its studentunion presidentin
1962-63. It wason thislongjourney
thathe missedhis parents, the soundTHEHINDUARCHIVES
IN“SAMSKARA”(1970);(right)with
ShabanaAzmiin “Nishant”(1975);
(facingpage)in “Manthan”(1976).
THEHINDUARCHIVES