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Actor vs. actor

Girish Karnad's new play examines artistic predicament in a market-driven economy, writes HEMANGINI GUPTA

ODAKALU BIMBA, playwright-actor Girish Karnad's new play, begs to be watched. A Heap of Broken Images, in the English version, the play breaks from tradition in many ways. Firstly, it's co-directed by Karnad, marking his return to direction after over 30 years, the last time being Badal Sircar's Evam Indrajit, his translation which he himself directed in a Madras Players production. But the play also defies expectation in content and form, moving away from earlier preoccupations with historical themes. This one instead negotiates the intersections between people and technology in a one-hour play in separate English and Kannada versions.

The one-person cast comprises Arundhati Nag of Ranga Shankara in the Kannada version and Arundhati Raja of ART (Artistes Repertory Theatre) in the English. Since Karnad wrote the play for Ranga Shankara, both performances will premier there.

Odakalu Bimba is particularly relevant in Bangalore, explains Karnad, since India's IT capital is a prime example of how technology and the media constantly invade and affect people's lives. The `image' referred to in the title of the play is the electronic image and the play examines what would happen when, instead of our interaction with other images, we are forced to confront our own.

Themes of technology and the media intersecting with our lives are explored through the protagonist of the play Manjula Nayak, a Kannada short-story writer. She could be any author, or in fact authors all around, explains Karnad. The protagonist turns to writing in English after indifferent success as a writer in Kannada and strikes gold. International markets open up to her writing and global audiences recognise her name.

Karnad then shifts from larger concerns of technology interfacing with the individual to a perhaps more personal theme: the predicament of an author in a market-driven economy.

Kannada vs. English

Referring to how writing in English can open up an author's world, with attractive monetary gains and exposure through invitations to foreign colleges, Karnad also dwells on the flip side — authors decried as having "sold out" to larger markets, sometimes accused of compromising on identity and one's roots by writing in English. Through his exploration of this double-edged sword, Karnad simultaneously brings to the fore some of the English-Kannada debates that surrounded the opening of Ranga Shankara; indeed this play was meant to be performed at the opening.

Real-life experiences

"The play is about my response to the electronic age; how it affects your emotions. It's based on real-life experiences," explains Karnad, adding that the play is likely to be one of the first attempts on the Kannada stage to explore the emotional problems arising from technology.

Apart from its multidimensional theme, the play also grapples with technology itself using an unusual format wherein the actors confront electronic images of themselves. "It was very challenging," admits Arundhati Raja, who plays Manjula in the English version. "Although I have done theatre for some 30 years, here I had to film stuff, which was completely new to me. When you're acting alone you can often improvise, but here the image will not stop for you, so you have to be perfect. But it was great having the playwright on hand, and that makes it very different from just reading off a text."

Arundhati Nag also dwells on the importance of being able to work with a contemporary text, written especially for Ranga Shankara and with the playwright available to thrash out issues.

But theatre is an actor's medium, as Karnad points out, and much of Odakalu Bimba is expected to evolve from the actor's own experiences and sensibilities. The play will likely be different in English and Kannada, since "English developed as a technical language; of the 21st Century," as Karnad remarked. The conflicts and medians of an English-speaking protagonist also promise to be different from a Kannada-speaking one, particularly in the interaction with both technology and language.

The play's Kannada version is on March 22, 23, 24 at Ranga Shankara and on March 25, 26, 27 in English. Tickets are available at Ranga Shankara (Ph: 26592777) and at Sankar's (Ph: 25586867).

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