Chapter XIII CULTURE - Government of Karnataka

Culture 507
Sriranga has been a pioneer in this field. He has about 45 plays to his
credit and all his plays reflect social situations in the state. ‘Harijanavara’,
‘Prapancha Panipattu’, ‘Sandhyakala’, ‘Shoka Chakra’, ‘Kelu Janamejaya’, ‘Nee
Kode Naa Bide’, ‘Swargakke Mure Bagilu’, and ‘Agnisakshi’ are some notable
plays of Sriranga. The contributions of others are equally significant. Among
them G.B.Joshi, Girish Karnad, P.Lankesh, Chandrashekara Kambara are very
important. Some plays worthy of mention of these writers are Sattavara neralu,
‘Ma Nishada’, ‘Hayavadana’, ‘Anju Mallige’, ‘Hittina Hunja’, ‘Kranthi Bantu
Kranthi’, ‘Sangya Balya’, ‘Baka’, ‘Neralu.’, ‘Neeli Kagada’, ‘Jokumaraswamy’
etc.
Recent theatre enthusiasts like B.S.Venkataram, Prasanna, H.K.
Ramachandra Murthy, G.Shivanand, C,R. Simha and Ka.Vem. Rajagopal
adopted or translated many English plays of Brecht and staged them. In the
1980’s theatre enthusiasts like B.V.V. Raju, Srinivasa Raju, T.N. Seetharam,
Vishnu Kumar, ‘Shudra’ Sreenivasa and D.R. Nagaraj have been successful
in carrying the theatre tradition forward. B.V.V.Raju’s ‘Sandarbha’ and
‘Sannivesha’, T.N. Seetharam’s ‘Asphota’, Sreenivasa Raju’s ‘NaleYaarigu Illa’,
‘Yarillige Bandavaru’ and Vishnu Kumar’s ‘Donkubalada Nayakaru’ have made
them famous. The theatre movement has reached all districts centres while it
was restricted to Mysore, Dharwad and Bangalore initially. Young directors like
M.S.Prabhu, R. Nagesh,T.N.Narasimhan, C.G. Krishnaswamy and veterans
like Prasanna and Jayashree are in great demand. K.V. Subbanna of Heggodu
near Sagar has won the prestigious international Ramon Magsaysay award
for fostering the development of culture. This is a feather in Karnataka’s cap.
In the past decade, the theatre movement has undergone a sea-change. It
failed to sustain the interest of the audience and the plays folded up with
a whimper. Several important theatre personalities migrated to cinema and
many others went out of Kamataka in search of greener pastures. To overcome
this gloom, several trends came to the fore in this decade. Stage versions
of popular Kannada novels, short stories and even poems, appeared on the
scene, ‘Chomana Dudi,’ ‘Karimayi’, ‘Tabarana Kathe’, ‘Odalala’, ‘Samskara’,
‘Chidambara Rahasya’, ‘Chikaveera Rajendra’, ‘Kakana Kote’ ‘Kalki’, ‘Helathena
Kela’, ‘Saviraru Nadigalu’, ‘Vaishaka’, ‘Kusuma Bale’, ‘Bhoomigeetha’, ‘Kindari
Jogi’, ‘Mookajjiya Kanasugalu’ etc., were staged.
Another trend was the one-man-show by C.R. Simha in 1983, titled ‘Typical,
T.P.Kailasam’. Its success encouraged several similar attempts like ‘Neegikonda
Samsa’, ‘Shakespiyarana Swapna Nowke’, ‘Rasa Rushi-Kuvempu Darshana’
etc., came to light.
During this period several plays reached their hundred show-mark and
notched up a rare feat in Kannada amateur theatre. Benaka’s ‘Sattavara Neralu’,
Kalagangothri’s ‘Mukhya Manthri’, Ranga Sampada’s ‘Sangya Balya’, Yashaswi
Kalavidaru’s ‘Samsaradalli Sarigama’, Sanketh’s ‘Nodi Swamy Naavirode Heege’,
and ‘Nagamandala’, ‘Nataranga’s ‘Tughlaq’, Vedike’s ‘Typical T.P.Kailasam’.
Several other institutions and dedicated theatre people at different centres
of Karnataka are doing very useful service to the theatre movement. Ranga
Shankara Amara Kala Sangha, Samudaya, Samathentho (Mysore), Bhoomika,