Satire meets marital realities in Sanchaya's ‘Ask Mr. YNK'

The Hindu

05-05-2025

Kannada theatre group Sanchaya is back with its new production Vishwamitra Menake Dance Madodu Enake, Ask Mr. YNK on May 6, at Ranga Shankara. The play premiered at the Chiguru festival by Prestige Centre for Performing Arts (PCPA) in March this year.
Directed by Chitrashekar Nonavinakere, the play is based on the book Ask Mr. YNK, aKannada satirical melodrama penned by well known author Jogi (Girish Rao Athwar), also known by his pen name Janaki. The play delves into the intricacies of Bengaluru's middle-class life, offering a humorous yet critical perspective on societal norms and contradictions.
Witty dialogues
The narrative centres around the character YNK inspired by the well known writer and journalist Y.N. Krishnamurthy, who serves as the protagonist in this play. YNK was known to capture the helplessness of middle-class life through his satirical and humorous writings. The team says taking this a step further, writer Jogi has uniquely portrayed the frustrations of marriage, relationships, and the cracks in male-female dynamics in the form of a play. Through YNK's witty dialogues and sharp observations, the play explores the paradoxes of the middle class in Bengaluru.
Speaking to The Hindu, Chitrashekar said that he decided to take up the play to address the issues young couples go through in marriages.
'When couples from the lower middle-class communities go through complications it often ends in violence, and with middle-class families it mostly ends with divorce. I see that a lot of young couples in my own circles, be it relatives or friends, go through this phase and take the wrong step instead of working on it. Through this play I want to talk about how delicately marriage should be handled, how partners or couples should think beyond their own shoes and make living together fun. Marriage is a beautiful phase, which they should be enjoying,' he said.
With young actors
Chitrashekar who is directing after more than two decades, said that it was initially a challenge to work with young actors. 'This play is all about marriage, family, understanding and more. However, except for one or two actors, all the actors in the play are very young, recently married or set to get married. For such actors it is hard to understand marital values, conflicts and more. Initially it took me a lot of homework for this play and took time for me to get the actors into the rhythm. But all the actors did so well that within days they grasped their characters and performed much beyond what they are capable of for their age,' he explained.
The play is performed by Rashmi Krishna, Sudarshan Venkatesh, Uma Shankar, Kanishka Goankar, Bharath Raavudi and others. Tickets for the show starting at 7.30 p.m. are available at the Ranga Shankara box-office and on BookMyShow.