If a childhood spent in hardship, with a spirit undaunted by adverse circumstances produces in some individuals, extraordinary capabilities, success and fulfilment; it was so with the Karanth couple.

B V Karanth, to whom Prema Karanth was married for more than four decades, was teaching when they met through mutual friends. He remembered seeing her in Lalbag and had liked her looks. Their mutual friends arranged a meeting and the rest is theatre/film history.

They had shared their aspirations— while his was a consuming passion for theatre she charted a course of her own. It is Prema, the film-maker who proved a tremendous success almost overshadowing her husband’s extraordinary achievements in so many fields. Like him her story is that of innovation daring, courage, determination.

She had committed herself to children’s theatre and firmly believed that theatre had a role to play in terms of positive influence in children’s lives. She worked towards it ceaselessly; who else would have thought of Shakespeare’s King Lear for Indian teens in a half adaptation, half translation?

She directed plays which were as exciting as Karanths’ ‘Total theatre’. No individual had done this for children so far. She was busy every single minute, with no time to waste for small talk. One rarely saw her smile but when she did, it lighted up her whole being.

Her conversation usually confined itself to monosyllables. I had seen her off and on a few times when we exchanged a few words but they were meaningful.

Cinema success

Although highly unsuitable to her, she had stuck to her decision in casting  L V Sharada for the role of ‘Phaniyamma’ in the film by the same name, which she never regretted. Quite rightly, as this film fetched her awards like no other film did. She had inadvertently found a niche, as the ‘women’s voice’.

This film won her an award in the Mannheim Film Festival. Based on the biography by M K Indira, the film has a momentum of it’s own.

It is not so much a revolution or rebellion against orthodoxy, but the life of a child widow who was not cowed down by tradition but lived her life in serving others in pain and suffering.

Prema too, was a bit like her hero, her strength of character never failed to impress. Despite being so much a part of the glamour attached to films and theatre and all the extra temptations one is exposed to— she was a full time wife, cooking and caring, remaining in the kitchen when her husband was in town chatting with friends over a glass of ‘gundu’.

She seemed to be supportive, rather than obtrusive or assertive, even socially doing her own thing, in her own way, not so much awed by her husband as being truly understanding as a friend would be, though not obviously so.

She was a woman of many parts— the whole adding something more to have made her a unique person.
First a teacher, an actor at NSD, a wife and theatre personality, filmmaker, art director, founder of the children’s section of ‘Bengaluru Nagara Kalavidaru’, director of children’s plays, costume designer, writer.

Her life was her vocation, having no family to speak of. Like her husband she was a trouper in the real sense of the word.

The real Prema

Very few had a glimpse of her true nature; The celebrity syndrome never touched her. She was indifferent to socialising even when she herself was a star attraction. 

Feminism, as interpreted in the West, had nothing to do with her films— which portray the female psyche as a separate identity; and this is so refreshing at these times, when there is so much of fuss about this ‘ism’— everywhere in arts, literature and the entertainment industry.

To fall prey to such an ‘ism’ is to deprive oneself of creativity and sincerity which have contributed to Prema Karant’s success. Add to it dedication and we have a ‘movement towards creativity’ a phrase which her husband was fond of using.

She had untapped depths in her which, had she lived, would have found expression. She was a passionate person and her intensity had at rare moments burst forth.

Just some days ago she had mentioned the fact of her having, ‘heart blocks’ and had openly wondered where the money was going to come from.

Struggling till the last moment she has made a perfect exit. She has gone with a bang, not a whimper; her husband was not so lucky.