| A reading of the editor's interview with Girish Karnad provides an insight into his creativity. It gives the reader a lot of information about the playwright and the influences that went into his plays. A writer talking about himself (or herself) throws more light on his/her creativity than other people writing about him/her. |
| Karnad here talks about the influence of Marathi literature (very rich in drama), the Yakshagana post-harvest performances he saw as a young boy in Karnataka, and the powerful impact of Strindberg's Miss Julie, directed by Ebrahim Alkazi at the Prithvi Theatre, among other things. He can be candidly self-critical. |
| Talking about one of his early plays, Yayati, he says, "It is an early play written with juvenile enthusiasm." What this reviewer found significant was his response to a question on his choice of theme: "A story must appeal to me. Excite me. Unless one is excited and inspired by a theme, one cannot write. I must feel the desire to share this excitement." |
| The editor asks him probing questions in an attempt to find out what made Karnad take up a particular story or write about a specific person. What made him write a play on Tuglaq? He says, "Tuglaq was a brilliant individual, yet is regarded as one of the biggest failures." As he researched Tuglaq, he found more and more paradoxes, and the possibilities of exploring them excited him no end. |
| Likewise, other plays are taken up and analysed. Mukherjee concludes with the observation that Karnad's plays depict both continuity and innovation. Her words, "Not satisfied with what he has already achieved, Karnad moves on with his creative explorations into new aspects of life and philosophy, art and technology." |
| There are 32 essays in the book, looking at the pedagogical as well as the performative aspects of the plays. It is not possible to discuss them individually within the short space of this review. One can only take up some, looking at the complexity of the plots and the ways in which they expand in different "dialectical dimensions". |
| Hayavadan is one of my favourite Karnad plays, and I have come across its different interpretations and stage productions. The four essays on the play in this book enables one to "read" the text in other ways, and that too without having to engage with any intrusion of theory or obfuscation of language, two things that deter a reader from taking up an academic work. |
| Does the director have a right to interpret a play in his/her own way, differing considerably from what the playwright offers? This is a controversial issue, especially if the playwright is living. Prasanna's essay, "Problematising Karnad's Dramaturgy", talks about occasions when there were differences between him and Karnad, and sounds disappointed that Karnad did not support him in 1984 when his anti-Indira Gandhi stance went against him as a director. It is bold of the editor to include an essay of this nature, but one still feels that in any such controversy, the playwright's version of the episode should be included as well. |
| Generally speaking, in such essay collections, quality tends not to be uniform, ranging from very good to mediocre. It goes to the editor's credit that the essays in this collection are indeed uniformly good. Also, there are essays on all the plays, even his yet unpublished work Flowers: A Dramatic Monologue, critiqued by Jasbir Jain in the concluding essay. The photographs provide the visual effect, significant since the performative aspect of the plays is taken up at length. |
| GIRISH KARNAD'S PLAYS: PERFORMANCE AND CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES |
| Edited by Tatun Mukherjee Pencraft International Price: Rs 695; Pages: 376 |
Top Section
Explore Business Standard