‘Rangabhishma’ of Indian Theatre
A little boy from a small village of Dakshina Karnataka chose the road not taken and eventually became the King of Indian theatre Guru BV Karanth. He is a film director and Theatre practitioner who brought the South Indian theatre to the forefront. He was a director, actor and musician of modern Indian theatre both in Kannada and Hindi and one of the pioneers of Hindi New wave Cinema.
His works brought the Kannada theatre from the old and formal proscenium style and shaped the form by bringing a lot of new aspects to it. His plays touched upon different aspects of theatre like language, music and stylization. A few of his trendsetters were Jokumara Swamy, Sankranti, and Huchu Kudure, which were directed during the 1970s. One of the major features of Karanths works is his innovative use of music. He merged classical, traditional and folk forms in his compositions.
He joined the Gubbi Theatre Company formed by Gubbi Veeranna who was responsible for putting Kannada theatre on the map. Later, he went on to pursue a Master's in Arts and also trained in Hindustani music, in Benaras.
In 1974, Karanth founded the theatre group Benaka which is now considered one of the South Indian stagecraft. Karanth’s famous plays were performed by Benaka like Sattvara Neralu, Hayavadana, Evam Indrajith, Sankaranti, Jokumaraswamy, Kattale Belaku and even Shakesperean plays such as Hamlet. His music brings out the emotion which could revolve around human nature and feelings mixed with mythology and folklore. His genre of “Adaptive music” which was beyond the framework of classical music and his productions were the testimony.
Karanth branched out to the cinema during the 1970s. He directed films like Vamsha Vriksha which was codirected by Girish Karnad. His movies were critically acclaimed and have won six National awards for direction and music.
His major contribution to theatre came in 1977 when he became the director of the National School of Drama, Delhi. Karanth travelled all over the country, and set up workshops and other programs to encourage and revive folk theatre. It was a mission that he carried forward after stepping down as a director. He brought the Madhya Pradesh folk theatre to the masses when he was working for Ranga Mandal repertory under the Government of India. Many people started watching plays in local dialects Bundelkhandi and Chattisgarhi.
He directed 150 plays in Kannada and other regional languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Malayalam and Urdu. In his lifetime, Karanth built a versatile and prolific portfolio and left behind a formidable legacy bringing revolutionary changes to Indian theatre.
The documentary ‘BV Karanth Baba’ starts by mentioning his autobiography in Kannada titled “Illiralaare, Allige Hogalaare “(I can’t stay here, I won’t go there) compiled by well-known Kannada writer Vaidehi. From there the film unfolds the life of Karanth through the memories of his family members and colleagues which was a creative way of approaching the content. We can see that, unlike other films and documentaries, this work looks very simple, organic but experimental and imaginative. Almost all the shots are captured in natural light and setting. One of the striking parts of the documentary is where writer Vaidehi reads out a few lines from his autobiography.
The film shows his initial involvement with theatre at the age of eight. He appeared on the stage for the first time in a play called Nanna Gopala directed by P.K Narayana. There are certain recreated visuals of his childhood and schooldays in the documentary to give a more lucid and creative presentation. Throughout the film, the director has tried to include Karanths unique compositions as background music.
The film gradually takes the audience to different places where he spends his life by tracing the left behind a legacy of the great theatre practitioner. Kashinath, a Hindi writer remembers him by stating that Karanth was one of the persons who brought the most challenging works of Jaishankar prasad onto the stage which many directors have shied away from. Kuwarji Agarwal, one of his college mates in Banaras shares the memory of how he accurately did the casting for the role of Chanakya in a historical play when many actors were lining up to bag that role. Kriti Jain and Anuradha Kapoor explained how he trained his students at the National School of drama. Prasanna a theatre artist added that Karanth was one such personality who travelled all over India just like Gandhiji to understand the pulse of India.
Srinivasa Kappana pinpointed how Karanth always thinks out of the box and he can convert any given space into a theatrical space. Madhavan Nair, a Malayalam film actor who was his classmate at the National School of drama says that he was a learned man but he always wanted to learn more and more.
