Notes for film ‘Utsav’ in print soon

Manohara Granthamala and Girish Karnad shared an unbroken relationship for close to six decades.
“Girish wanted all his writings in Kannada to be published by us,”Ramakant Joshi, editor-publisher, Manohara Granthamala, says.
All 15 plays of Karnad in Kannada have appeared under the Manohar Granthamala imprint.
The journey began in 1961. “Karnad had left the manuscript of his maiden play ‘Yayati’ with my father before leaving for England.
Critic Keerthinath Kurtakoti improved it and requested us to publish it,”Joshi recalls.
While in England, Karnad extensively researched for his second play ‘Tughlaq’. He sent it to Manohar Granthamala again.
“While releasing the play at Tagore Hall, Basel Mission High School, (poet) Da Ra Bendre said ‘Tughlaq’was fit for staging at Delhi. When it was taken there,
Prime Minit,” Joshi says.
Joshi recalls Indira Gandhi left the hall during a scene showing the plight of people when ‘Tughlaq’moves his capital from Delhi to Daulatabad. “She just couldn’t digest it,” he says.
‘Tughlaq’was the play that cemented the relationship between the writer and publishing house.
After quitting his job at the Oxford University Press, Chennai, Karnad came to Dharwad on a two-year-scholarship. That was when he wrote his play ‘Hayavadana’.
G B Joshi, well-known writer and founder-publisher of Manohar Granthamala, brought out the social playwright in Karnad.
“He dared Karnad to write a social play, and not just mythological and historical ones, to prove himself as a playwright. ‘Anju Mallige’ and other social dramas are the results of my father’s challenge to Karnad,” says Joshi.
Karnad read out two chapters of ‘Nodanoduta Dinamana’(Days as They Pass), the second part of his autobiography, for Jayant Kaikini at the latter’s Gokarna residence.
Those, and some notes he had made for his Hindi movie ‘Utsav’(1984), are among his unpublished writings.
““We have a plan to bring out all these in a book,”Joshi told Showtime.