Actor Girish Karnad

Girish Raghunath Karnad is a contemporary writer, playwright, screenwriter, actor and movie director in Kannada language. His rise as a prominent playwright in 1960s, marked the coming of age of Modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did it in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He is the latest of seven recipients of Jnanpith Award for Kannada, the highest literary honour conferred in India.For four decades Karnad has been composing plays, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. He has translated his major plays into English, and has received critical acclaim across India. His plays have been translated into several Indian languages and directed by eminent directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B. V. Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan and Amal Allana. He is also active in the world of Indian cinema working as an actor, director, and screenwriter, both in Hindi and Kannada cinema, earning numerous awards along the way. He was conferred Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India.Girish Karnad was born in Matheran, Maharashtra, into a Konkani-speaking Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmin family. His initial schooling was in Marathi and he grew up in Sirsi, Karnataka, here he was exposed to travelling theatre groups, Natak Mandalis as his parents were deeply interested in their plays. As a youngster, Karnad was an ardent admirer of Yakshagana and the theater in his village.He earned his Bachelors of Arts degree in Mathematics and Statistics, from Karnatak Arts College, Dharwad (Karnataka University), in 1958. Upon graduation Karnad went to England and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Lincoln and Magdalen colleges in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar(1960–63), earning his Master of Arts degree in philosophy, political science and economics. After working with the Oxford University Press, Chennai for seven years (1963–70), he resigned to take to writing full time. While in Chennai he got involved with local amateur theatre group, The Madras Players. During 1987-88, he was at the University of Chicago as Visiting Professor and Fulbright Playwright-in-Residence. It was during his tenure at Chicago that Nagamandala had its world premiere at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis based on an English translation of the Kannada original that Karnad himself did. Most recently, he served as Director of the Nehru Centre and as Minister of Culture, in the Indian High Commission, London (2000–03).He has served as Director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974–1975) and Chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of the Performing Arts (1988–93).Karnad is most famous as a playwright. His plays, written in Kannada, have been widely translated into English and all major Indian languages. Karnad`s plays are written neither in English, in which he dreamed of earning international literary fame as a poet, nor in his mother tongue Konkani. Instead they are composed in his adopted language Kannada. When Karnad started writing plays, Kannada literature was highly influenced by the renaissance in Western literature. Writers would choose a subject which looked entirely alien to manifestation of native soil. C. Rajagopalachari`s version of the Mahabharat published in 1951, left a deep impact on him, and soon sometime in the mid 1950s, one day he experienced a rush of dialogues spoken by characters from the Mahabharata in his adopted language Kannada. "I could actually hear the dialogues being spoken into my ears..."I was just the scribe, " said Karnad in a later interview. Eventually Yayati was published in 1961, he was 23 years old. It is based on the story of King Yayati, one of the ancestors of the Pandavas, who was cursed into premature old age by his father-in-law, Shukracharya, incensed by Yayati`s infidelity. Yayati in turn asks his sons to sacrifice their youth for him, and one of them agrees. It ridicules the ironies of life through characters in Mahabharata and became an instant success, immediately translated and staged in several other Indian languages.In a situation like that Karnad found a new approach like drawing historical and mythological sources to tackle contemporary themes, and existentialist crisis of modern man, through his characters locked in psychological and philosophical conflicts. His next was Tughlaq (1964), his best loved play, about an idealist 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin Tughluq, and allegory on the Nehruvian era which started with ambitious idealism and ended up in disillusionment . This established Karnad, now 26-years old, as one of the most promising playwrights in the country. It was stage by the National School of Drama Repertory under the direction of Ebrahim Alkazi, with the actor Manohar Singh, playing the visionary king who later becomes disillusioned and turns bitter, amidst the historic Purana Qila in Delhi. It was later staged in London by the National School of Drama for the Festival of India in 1982. Hayavadana (1971) was based on a theme drawn from The Transposed Heads, a 1940 novella by Thomas Mann, which is originally found in Kathasaritsagara, herein he employed the folk theatre form of Yakshagana. A German version of the play, was directed by Vijaya Mehta as part of the repertoire of the Deutsches National Theatre, Weimar. Naga-Mandala (Play with Cobra, 1988) was based on a folk tale related to him by A. K. Ramanujam, brought him the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award for the Most Creative Work of 1989. It was directed by J. Garland Wright, as part of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. The theatre subsequently commissioned him to write the play, Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain). Though prior to it came Taledanda (Death by Beheading, 1990) which used the backdrop, the rise of Veerashaivism, a radical protest and reform movement in 12th century Karnataka to bring out current issues. Karnad himself has translated all his plays into English.A large number of his Kannada plays have been translated by Dr. Bhargavi P Rao. His play Agni Aur Varsha (The Fire and the Rain) was adapted into a Hindi film, Agni Varsha (2002).Karnad made his acting as well as screenwriting debut in a Kannada movie, Samskara (1970), based on a novel by U.R. Ananthamurthy and directed by Pattabhirama Reddy. That movie won the first President`s Golden Lotus Award for Kannada cinema. Over the years he had acted in a number Hindi and Kannada feature films, and worked with directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Shyam Benegal. In television, he played the role of Swami`s father in TV series Malgudi Days (1986-1987), based on R. K. Narayan`s books.He made his directorial debut with Vamsha Vriksha (1971), based on a Kannada novel by S.L. Bhairappa. It won him National Film Award for Best Direction along with B. V. Karanth, who co-directed the film. Later, Karnad directed several movies in Kannada and Hindi, including Godhuli (1977) and Utsav (1984). He has made number of documentaries, like one on the Kannada poet D. R. Bendre (1972), Kanaka-Purandara (English, 1988) on two medieval Bhakti poets of Karnataka, Kanaka Dasa and Purandara Dasa, and The Lamp in the Niche (English, 1989) on Sufism and the Bhakti movement. Many of his films and documentaries have won several national and international awards.Some of his famous Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu neenade magane, Ondanondu Kaladalli, Cheluvi and Kadu. A recently acclaimed movie by Karnad is Kanooru Heggaditi, based on a novel by Kannada writer Kuvempu.His Hindi movies include Nishaant (1975), Manthan (1976), Swami (1977) and Pukar (2000). He has acted in a number of Nagesh Kukunoor films, starting with Iqbal (2005) written by Vipul K Rawal, where his role of the ruthless cricket coach too got him critical acclaim. This was followed by Dor (2006), 8 x 10 Tasveer (2009), with lead actor Akshay Kumar and Aashayein (2010). A recently acclaimed movie by Karnad is Kanooru Heggaditi, based on a novel by Kannada writer Kuvempu.He recently acted in the movie called He also acted in critically acclaimed Kannada gangster movie Aa Dinagalu.He has played the role of Karadi, the sootradhar (narrator), for several stories in the popular audiobook series for kids, Karadi Tales. He has also been the voice of APJ Abdul Kalam, President of India, in the audiobook of Kalam`s autobiography by Charkha Audiobooks Wings of Fire.