Staging lectures

Girish Karnad was also a film director and actor

Girish Karnad was a person who wore multiple hats till he passed away in 2019. But the foremost of these was that of a post-colonial Indian dramatist who gave Kannada theatre the sort of direction that Badal Sircar did for Bengali plays, and Vijay Tendulkar did for Hindi ones. And the fact that he translated his own plays ensured that little was lost in translation when he performed them before a global audience, as was the case when Nagamandala premiered at a Chicago auditorium in 1988. No wonder, then, that he has received almost every conceivable literary honour in the country, including the biggest of them all, the Jnanpith Award in 1998.

A four-day series of lectures that Instucen, an educational trust, is organising will now shed further light on Karnad's work and legacy. Dr Sridhar Rajeswaran, director of the Centre for Advanced Studies in India, will host it. Rajeswaran is a person who has dedicated a chunk of his professional career in studying Karnad's works, and he tells us, "The first day will have a short introduction on Karnad, in terms of locating him as a post-colonial dramatist who was also a Renaissance man. He was heir apparent to multiple traditions, since he borrowed heavily from Greek and English theatre, and from local folklore."

Dr Sridhar Rajeswaran

The expert adds that he will also talk about how Karnad's plays depicted both historical events, such as in Tughlak, and mythical tales, including in Yayati, his first ever play that was based on The Mahabharata. And everything put together, Rajeswaran feels, "Anyone interested in knowing how drama is written in post-colonial India will have to pay obeisance to Karnad. And I don't mean that as hagiographic criticism. I really mean it."

On January 4 to 8, 5.30 to 7 pm
Log on to https://rzp.10/l/girishkarnadplays
Cost Rs 700