A TRIBUTE TO A LEGEND, GIRISH KARNAD BY KAY S
GIRISH KARNAD - A JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL
Inspired from an obituary & narration by
Professor Ramesh Dutt
“People do not decide to become
extraordinary. They decide to accomplish
extraordinary things!” - Sir Edmund Hillary
Life is full of mysteries and
surprises and I believe that each one of us is born in a unique manner to
unravel our own mysteries to carve a niche for ourselves in this world. Some of us decide to do great things, think
out of the box, be different, and create revolutions to achieve greatness and
some of us live abysmally cribbing, complaining, and thinking negatively
throughout our lives passing away one fine day.
Girish Karnad was the former, a visionary, a thinker, a rebel who
decided to achieve greatness in a way that he found befitting. He found his niche and he bulldozed his way
through life doing everything he possibly could in a manner befitting his
personality, which undoubtedly was greatness personified. Yesterday, June 10, 2019, Girish Karnad, a
banyan tree fell, leaving this world and hopefully on to the next where I
believe, as I would envision, he will create another revolution and achieve
greatness again. May God rest his soul
in peace.
I present to you this excerpt as
a write-up on Girish Karnad, the legend, a phenomenon in his right inspired and
motivated by a bayaar or narration by our very own, Professor Ramesh Dutt, Dutt
Saab as I lovingly call him, a professor of History and English, a cinephile,
an ardent lover of nature, travel, and anything related to performing arts,
music, fine arts, and literature. He is
one human being, a wanderer, a wayfarer, a nomad of sorts who single-handedly
has donned the mantle of preserving and promoting an era of forgotten personalities, along with fading arts, music, literature, and everything in between.
He presented a obituary for Girish Karnad Sir today expressing his
condolences and his knowledge about this great personality who entered his name
in the annals of theatre, arts, and literature in a manner that can only be
expressed in one word, “Magnifique!!!” or Magnificient!
Girish Karnad was indeed a humanist
who carved a path for himself on his own, a rebel who chose to rebel against
everything related to injustice and an empathetic soul who carved a niche for
himself and created a genre of his own.
He was born on May 19, 1938. This
was an amazing individual who was the recipient of the prestigious Rhodes
scholarship in an era which was almost next to impossible, especially for an
Indian. The 1960s proved to be an era of
Girish Karnad where he brought a revolution into the Kannada literature &
performing arts industry just like Badal Sarkar in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in
Marathi and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He
was aptly awarded the Jnanpith award in 1988.
He was one writer who had the privilege of having had the best of
directors direct many of his plays. A multifaceted
and multitalented individual awarded with Padmashri and Padmabhushan, Girish
Karnad was one of the finished connoisseurs and promoters of art, history, and
literature. The Kannada film industry and Kannada literature got a brilliant
boost due to this individual. Starting
with Yayati, which he says he just sat and poured out randomly one fine day was
the beginning of his writing journey in Kannada, and this went on to be a classic. He was the finest and rarest individual one
could find. Having graduated in Dharwad,
he went to England, became the president of Oxford Union, came back worked for
some time, gets the Fulbright Scholarship, then goes on to become Director of
Film Institute in Pune. He then became
the Chairman of Sangeet Nayak Academy.
Girish Karnad wrote a play called
“Tughlaq,” which was controversial, however, he was not a stranger to
controversies and never cowed down or bowed down to any of these. This play was received brilliantly and became
famous. The NSD staged this for the first time where noted director of those
times Al-Qazi Saab directed this play with Manohar Singh in the main role. Tughlaq, an individual difficult to
understand, interpret, and decipher was given a new dimension by Girish Karnad
making Tughlaq immortal and created an identity of his own. Having smitten by
the film bug, he acted in his first film in 1975 and proved his mettle announcing
his arrival in the film industry winning the President's Award for this first
movie of his. Then came Malgudi Days,
one of my favorite serials of my childhood so much that I gave the nickname, “Chaami”
from that serial to my son. Although most of his films were in Kannada, the
most amazing thing was that he gave a distinct and new dimension to every role
he portrayed. He also acted in Nishant,
Manthan, Swami, Dorr, Sur Sangam, Iqbal, Ek Tha Tiger, and Tiger Zinda Hai, all
Hindi films, the last of which was in 2017 when he almost was ending his career
winning literally every award one could think of.
Girish Karnad’s existence itself
is a very unique one. As Dutt Saab
dearly quotes, he had the spirit of the seagull just like the one in Richard
Bach’s book, “Jonathan Livingston Seagull.”
In 2012, he was invited to speak in the Literary Festival in Mumbai
regarding his life in the theatre. In
this program, he spoke about the most acclaimed writer, V.S. Naipaul objectionably
and this created a furor for the organizers as V.S. Naipaul was an
internationally known writer across the world.
But Girish Karnad stood his ground and said what he had to. He did not stop at that and then said
Rabindranath Tagore’s plays are uncontrollable, and then said that the airport
in Bangalore has to be named after Tipu Sultan.
This created a lot of problems for him.
Slowly, he became an activist trying to fight the divisiveness of the
country and strength the secularism of this country. The last film he did in Kannada is yet to be
released based on our country. He achieved
the kind of success that one generally does not in one lifetime. He was indeed a human being who strived to
achieve success in multiple areas of life.
He also directed the famous movie, Utsav. His passing away was indeed a shock but his
name will live on. Truly speaking, in
Dutt Saab’s words, Girish Karnad was a seagull, an iconoclast who never
tolerated any sort of hypocrisies. This led him to get into the wrong side of
people being labelled in different ways, which unfortunately happened in the
last few years before his passing away.
He was an actor par excellence who interpreted and presented every role
with a dimension of his own. His demise
will be a great loss to the film industry, especially the Southern Indian
diaspora.
Girish Karnad’s death is a sort
of wake-up call to all of us bringing to fore the transient nature of our
lives. It brings us the harsh reality
that today is a fact, tomorrow is only an opinion. None can tell or predict what the next day or
the future will have in store, which brings us to the most important learning
one must realize and imbibe, “To achieve greatness one should live as if they
will never die” as Francois de La Rochefoucauld aptly put. The memory of the people might be short and
they might be forget him, but his works will live on for generations becoming a
guiding light for youngistan, the youth of the country a very valuable lesson
in life. Living life on one’s terms is
an intoxicating feeling and if one can do it, they should do it. One must always live and take the flight that
one wants to for that is what we are destined for - to soar above the clouds
like an eagle. As the writer, Elbert
Hubbard quoted, “Freedom cannot be bestowed, it must be achieved.” Girish Karnad was one such individual, a man
who fought for what is right irrespective of his bad health. Death is a fact that none cannot deny or
escape, it comes when it comes; but what we can do is live life to the fullest. A handful of us can achieve what Girish
Karnad Saab did and we bow down to pay respects to a great soul, a humanist, a
visionary, and a free soul who was indeed a Jonathan Livingston Seagull in his
right as Dutt Saab aptly describes him.
I end this with a poetry I wrote for him and hope that he shall live on
in his words and writings forever and ever.
A writer, an actor, a playwright
indeed
Also a humanist he was in every
deed
A passing of this soul rocks this
world,
In a world of souls that are
stone cold,
May his passing remind us of
greatness,
Leading us into light away from
darkness.
- Kay S
Author of Unfinished-A Woman's Tryst with Destiny
Comments
Post a Comment