of his ownlanguageandthe scentof
the soil.He decidedto devotehimself
to Kannada, thoughhe couldhave
expressedhimself in English too.
Soon,he wasto immerse himselfin
mythologyandfolklore, divingdeep
intoancienttimesto restoreforgot-
tengemsof theagethatwas.As he
exploredclassicalSanskrit plays,his
first play,Yayati, waspublished in
1961.In theplay, he questions the
concept of familyandits demandson
the individual.
Threeyears later,he cameup
with a one-act radio play, Ma
Nishada, wherehe questionedthe
roleof Ramin theepic.Thencame
Hayavadana, and the world of
theatre sat up andtooknotice. Kar-
nadaskeduneasy questionsandre-
fusedto kowtowto stereotypes.If in
Ma Nishada he asked questions
aboutRam,inHayavadana, based
on Kathasaritsagara (an 11thcentury
retelling of legendsandfairytales),
he raised thequestionof thecon-
ceptsof beautyandidentity.
Manysummerslater, he gaveus
Tughlaq, based on thelifeof the
maverick sultan of Delhi.Yetagain,
he askedquestionsabout theking:
washe a manaheadof his times,a
genius,or justa manmarriedto his
whims?It requireda raredareto ask
suchquestionsin a nationwhere
onlyhistoriansare allowedto dissect
kingsandtheirtimes.‘TUGHLAQ’, ANEXCEPTION
Incidentally,Tughlaqwasa rareoc-
casionin Karnad’slifewhen oneof
his works arousedhypefor the scale,
its grandeur, its vision. Otherwise,be
it cinemaor theatre,his workwasall
aboutunderstatements, nicetiesand
nuances. Evenin out-and-outpot-
boilerslikePukar,ChinaGateand
EkThaTiger, he managed to carve
out a little,cordialspacefor himself.
Andwhen he got a betterrole,as in
Iqbal,DororAkarshan, he madea
goodfist of it.
Notthateverythinghe didwas
accepted withopenarms.WhenKar-
nadwroteTheDreamsof TipuSul-
tan, many criticisedhimfor givinga
nuanced character,waitingas they
werefor a hyper,larger-than-life
king.Tipuhadhisflawsjustas he
hadhis strengths.Karnadrefusedto
painthimin thecoloursof people’s
political predilection.
Thisindependentstreaktooka
backseatin his translationof Badal
Sircar’sEvamIndrajit. LikeinSur
Sangam, he let the director’svisiontobe conveyedto the viewer.EvamIn-
drajit, repletewithnihilism,liveson to
relatethe storyof Sircar.Justas Kar-
nad’sworkwillforeverspeakfor him.
Whateverthe mediumhe chose,art-
housecinema, commercial cinema,
theatre,actingor direction,Karnad’s
workdid all the talking.EvenMalgudi
Days, his best-knowntelevisionforay,
madequitea cutestatement.
Unsurprisingly, his playshave
beentranslated intootherIndian
languagesby stalwarts suchas B.V
Karanth—the two co-directed
Godhuli, a Hindifilm basedon a
Kannada novel—Ebrahim Alkazi,
Alyque Padamsee, Vijaya Mehta,
Satyadev Dubey, AmalAllanaand
ArvindGaur.Needone saymore
aboutart outlivingtheman! Incid-
entally,fourof his Kannadafilmsare
duefor releaselaterthisyear,notto
forgeta Telugufilm.
Blessed witha rarehumilityand
gentleness of manners, his work
spokethe loudest.To many, he wasa
theatredoyen.To others,he wasa
cinemagiant.To the largernation,he
wasa fearlessactivistwhobrookedno
infringementon thecommonman’s
rights.To all, he wasan irrepressible
genius.He goes awaywhenthe nation
needshimthe most. $THEHINDUARCHIVES