“We would spread hundred tons of sand in those days to enact out the Persian epic Shahnama that tells the story of two great warriors, Rustom and his son Sohrab,” recollects Sandhya Sharma, co-founder, Sandhya Kalavidaru, a theatre collective in Bangalore. The troupe took birth during that golden era when theatre was the most powerful cultural medium.
As a boy S.V. Krishna Sharma, Founder and Director, Sandhya Kalavidaru, had great fascination for Kannada and Sanskrit literature. At Vijaya College he had formed a college theatre group which used to participate in various inter-college theatre competitions in Bangalore. “ Suyodhana , a play on the character Duryodhana of Mahabharata, was written when he was just 19. Now it has crossed 100 shows,” mentions Sandhya, who has been in-charge of organising and publicity of the team since inception.
His other plays like Poulasthyana Pranayakathe on the character Ravana of Ramayana too has seen about 80 shows and his relatively new play Satyam Vadha , the story of an advocate who gets entangled in a web of lies, has been getting a good response over the last four years.
A retired officer from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), Krishna Sharma has immersed himself in Kannada theatre from the early 70s. “It was his initiative that Kannada Rajyostava, Kannada Natakotsava etc. were being organised at ISRO,” says his wife Sandhya.
When Krishna Sharma was asked to adapt V.K. Gokak’s Bharata Sindhu Rashmi to stage, “he agreed without any hesitation and presented it successfully on All Indian Radio (AIR) which has graded him as ‘B-High’ grade artiste.” He has similarly scripted stories for Doordarshan and Zee Kannada. Currently, the duo review plays and dance performances for Kannada dailies.
Krishna Sharma has so far held various responsibilities on and off stage. He has written original stories, adapted, directed and acted in a variety of plays. “He is a finicky director and requires actors to deliver perfection through their roles. He therefore spends about 4-5 months training the actors before getting to the script. He has held a number of free workshops in body language, voice modulation, clarity of speech and expressions for amateur actors in Bangalore,” she informs.
What is special about his plays is the way he approaches a character and sympathises with what goes on in the character’s antahraala (mind). At the end of his mythological plays, the audience seem to have empathised with the characters -- Ravana and Duryodhana, the villains in Ramayana and Mahabharata respectively (according to popular narratives). This, she says, “Krishna Sharma has achieved through his plays treating every character and storyline with a positive approach.”
