Latest news with #GirishKarnad
The Hindu
23-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Revisiting Girish Karnad's Wedding album
At the age of 35, playwright, filmmaker and actor, Girish Karnad, found significant success in the world of arts, with his films winning awards and accolades. His journey and life have been documented by the late actor-director himself in his memoir, This Life at Play (originally written by him in Kannada, and later translated into English by him and Srinath Perur). It is in this memoir that Girish shares the story of his birth. His mother had exclaimed to his father during lunch one day: 'And we had thought of not having him.' When Girish demanded to know more, he was told how she had felt that the three children they had would suffice, so they had booked an appointment with a doctor in Pune, but returned home when the doctor didn't show up and the couple never went back either. Reeling from this unexpected story, Girish dedicates his memoir to Dr. Madhumalathi Gune, whom he held responsible for his (and the memoir's) existence. The core of the play In his play, Wedding Album, written many decades later, Girish Karnad touches upon topics such as family secrets, nursing grievances, withholding or suddenly revealing life-altering information. The idiosyncrasies and hidden lives of families; their funny dances, sidestepping their histories; upholding of societal dividers such as caste and religion; their overlooking of serious issues like abuse; their perpetuation of dysfunctional patterns and lack of self-reflection — all forming the core of the play, which was recently performed by the Courtyard Koota community theatre group at Bangalore International Centre (BIC). The story revolves around Vidula, the youngest daughter of the family, who is to get married. The plan is to get her and the groom to meet and spend all of a week 'getting to know each other.' This is to run in parallel with wedding arrangements like purchase of jewellery and saris, planning of guest lists and gifts. A hefty advance has already been made towards the wedding venue. The possible marriage of Vidula and Ashwin, a classic NRI catch, becomes, not just a lens to view other marriages but also a platform to plot and pitch other marriages. Girish's Wedding Album exposes the national obsession of families with the institution of marriage. A mother's untold story In his autobiography, Girish writes empathetically of his mother's struggles to gain an education despite an early marriage, motherhood and widowhood. Raising a child at her parents' place, she doggedly pursued any avenue towards studying and earning a livelihood, much against the social norms of her time. She didn't just succeed in that pursuit, but dared to design her own second marriage, giving herself another chance at family life. Her new life brought her joy, wealth, more children, more accomplishments (theirs) to celebrate. Yet, Girish writes, she never 'stopped ruing that as herself, rather than as my father's wife or as our mother, she had nothing she could claim as her own achievement.' This is another thread he draws into the central narrative of Wedding Album in which Vidula, Hema and Rohit's mother, wife of Dr. Nadkarni, though not unhappy, lives with an undercurrent of sadness, even cautioning her younger daughter not to throw away her talents in bearing children. Girish writes in his memoir that Wedding Album draws from memories of the 'year of anguish and frustration' that he, his elder sister and mother went through, as they prepared for his younger sister's marriage. Natasha Iype, founder of Courtyard Koota, says this play was chosen by the community theatre group 'for its relatable theme and excellent script.' Though 'marriage felt a bit dated,' group readings showed how 'the issues raised in the play are still relevant.' They liked how 'the seemingly light-hearted approach concealed many nuances, almost in every scene and sentence.' She observes that the play 'sparked conversations and audience hung out even after the show,remarking how sad but true' the world of the play was. Though written and published in 2009, originally in Kannada as Maduveya Album, the Wedding Album continues to find resonance among theatre-makers and audience even today.
The Hindu
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Tell it Again: An honest attempt to preserve Girish Karnad's legacy
It has been six years since Girish Karnad, a prominent Indian playwright, filmmaker and public intellectual, passed away. However, he is still remembered for his contribution to Indian literature, cinema and theatre, especially Kannada and English. His legacy as a playwright and filmmaker is intertwined with his role as a public intellectual who fearlessly voiced his opinions, even when it put him at personal risk. The World of Girish Karnad, a one-and-half-year-old project, attempts to shine a spotlight on some of the lesser–known aspects of this polymath, and includes a weekly newsletter that explores themes and topics that were close to his heart. The Tell it Again newsletter, which commenced publication on January 2, 2024, aims to preserve and promote the legacy of Girish Karnad and engage a new generation with his works. According to Raghu Karnad, Girish's son, a journalist and writer, many of Girish's friends and associates advocated the need to keep his legacy alive. Fount of productivity Raghu and KM Chaitanya, one of Girish's filmmaking protégés, kept looking for ways to preserve Karnad's works for posterity. It was while sorting through his father's study that Raghu realised Girish was at his most productive in the mid '80s. 'That was when he was working on the film Utsav and completed his best-known play, Nagamandala. Going through his material — production drawings, images, notes and more, from that period inspired me to share them with the public,' says Raghu. Chaitanya, now a filmmaker in the Kannada film industry, says, 'I not only identify with a generation that grew up seeing and performing Karnad's plays, but I also listened to him hold forth on various issues including literature, culture and politics since the late 80s. Having associated with Girish on various projects, I had a lot of material that could be shared on social media, a platform where the present generation consumes information.' Chaitanya does not intend to post material alone, but hopes to create an organic connection with the new generation to make him more relevant. 'The idea is to present them with the multifaceted personality and genius that Girish was.' Harismita Vaideswaran, a research scholar at the University of Delhi, has explored themes and topics that Girish was interested in, wrote about or had an intimate connection with. 'Anything from plays and films, to a creative, academic or scholarly association, has the potential to be a theme for the newsletter.' The project aims to make use of extensive archival material to spotlight lesser-known aspects of the artiste. Harismita says, she admired Girish deeply and was moved by how he made sense of the world through history and mythology. 'His writings made me braver. It was love and admiration for his work and legacy that brought me into this project.' Abundant material Talking about the project, Harismita says, 'We reached out to friends and colleagues based on the specific aspects and timeframes of Girish's career and we received some wonderful photos from Mohan Agashe. Raghu and Chaitanya are encyclopaedic sources of archival material, footage and photographs. We also worked with the Ashoka Archive of Contemporary India, where a collection of his papers is housed.' The Instagram page and its accompanying newsletter Harismita says, is seen as an eclectic archival collage almost like a tapestry, alongside everyone who has been a part of Girish's life and those whose lives he has touched. Harismita adds that their aim was to collate material under one digital roof, in order to reach a new generation of people. 'Whenever I post interactive stories, it is wonderful to see young people, students, film enthusiasts and others, respond with their thoughts and comments.' Why Utsav? Utsav was chosen as the theme for the introductory newsletter simply because its material surfaced first. 'The material we gathered was widespread and often eclectic; it was mixed media in the form of papers, photographs, drawings, video footage, and even some correspondence. We felt a newsletter allowed us to incorporate all these disparate elements into a single, cohesive story. Since we began with Utsav, we have gone on to release 10 iterations of the newsletter,' says Harismita, adding the newsletters come out as and when the team gathers enough material for an edition. 'We looked at Nagamandala's literary and performance history, Girish's long-standing friendship with A K Ramanujan, and his relationships with Shyam Benegal and Satyadev Dubey,' she says, adding, 'But the newsletter closest to my heart is #10 'After Life,' a translation of one of Girish's writings that hadn't been published before.' Log on to to subscribe to the newsletter or follow @worldofgirishkarnad on instagram
New Indian Express
08-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
The great Indian wedding: Girish Karnad's 'Wedding Album' to be performed
Even as the mythologically inspired, dramatic worlds of playwright and actor Girish Karnad's Nagamandala, Hayavadana, Yayati, and Tughlaq continue to capture the attention and imaginations of playgoers and practitioners alike, with regular performances in the city, a staging of Wedding Album is, perhaps, a rare sight. One of the last plays he penned before his demise in 2019, Wedding Album will be performed at Bangalore International Centre on July 9 and Ranga Shankara on July 30. 'While Karnad was known for his mythological plays, he wrote urban stories in contemporary settings towards the end of his life. In this one, he takes on the institution of weddings and how the whole thing, with cultural sanction, has become absurd and nobody's questioning it,' explains play director Kishore Acharya. Wedding Album gives a glimpse into the house of a middle-class family in the 2000s, looking for a perfect match for their 21-year-old daughter. Their only condition: he must be in the US (United States). Through the ridiculous scenarios arising from the set-up and as the relationships between members of the family are unravelled, Karnad satirises arranged marriage, and the institution at the centre of all the chaos: caste. 'You're talking about an educated, upper-middle-class, 'upper caste' home. It's absurd that in the pursuit of getting their daughter married to someone in the US, they are willing to let go of a lot of things. The whole thing is hinging on the fact that the girl will pack up her life here and go live with someone she's met 24 hours ago. The only tick mark is that he's from the same caste and class,' says Acharya, adding that the play delves into the inter-generational relationships within the family. 'There are no heroes or moments of rebellion by younger characters. In the end, he shows that there is no difference and that we haven't evolved further. A lot of people can interpret it as hopeless, but it is showing a mirror to society.'
New Indian Express
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Sheila Bharat Ram Theatre Festival 2025 kicks off successfully, celebrating Delhi's rich theatre legacy
Delhi's theatre scene springs to life this week with the return of the Sheila Bharat Ram Theatre Festival, hosted by the city's iconic Shri Ram Centre of Performing Arts (SRPCA). This year, the repertory brings four in-house productions to the stage — each one distinct in form and spirit — as part of a growing effort to spotlight Hindi theatre's depth, diversity, and relevance in the digital age. 'This festival isn't just about showcasing good scripts, it's about keeping the fire of live performance alive,' says Hemant Bharat Ram, executive vice president of SRPCA. 'In a world where media consumption has become extremely individualistic and mostly online, theatre stands out as something truly unique.' The 2025 lineup includes playwright Girish Karnad's celebrated historical dramas Tughlaq and Agni Aur Barkha, Ram Dayal Sharma's folk-infused Daaku Sultana, and the new, contemporary play Stuck by Maneesh Verma. Each brings a different theatrical language to the stage — from epic period drama and musical folk traditions to slice-of-life realism.
