×
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Karnad play is about life in changing Bengaluru

‘Bendakaalu on Toast’ weaves together antiquity and modernity and contemplates life in the city
Last Updated 27 February 2020, 13:59 IST

Girish Karnad’s Kannada play, ‘Bendakaalu on Toast’ is being staged in the city till February 29 at Ranga Shankara, as part of their 15th anniversary
celebrations. Directed by S Surendranath, who also directed Karnad’s ‘Nagamandala’, the play captures the monstrosity that Bengaluru has become and the lives of its people. MS Sathyu has worked on the scenography for the play and artist S G Vasudev has designed the poster. In an interview with Metrolife, Surendranath talks about directing the play and more.

The play delves into the lives of ordinary people. Which is a difference from Karnad’s usual plays based on mythology or history...

Girish Karnad’s ‘Anju Mallige’ and ‘Maduve Album’ were about people from the city. His ‘Odakalu Bimba’ was about a writer in our times. ‘Flowers’ is about a priest. So he did write a lot about ordinary people and their lives.

Karnad’s speciality is to plonk stories of yore in contemporary times. To make situations and characters of yore resonate with the current times.

So an incident or character of some story will suddenly appear right in front of us. In the very title, ‘Bendakaalu on Toast’, antiquity and modernity are interwoven. This is Girish Karnad’s magical world of theatre.

What according to you is the significance of the play? And how relevant is it to today’s setting?

Life in a city can never be irrelevant. When a play talks about a city, it isn’t addressing just the city, it is about the people who inhabit it, about the people we live among, it is about our angst and happiness. It’s about the regret, violence, and irony therein. This is how we are living in Bengaluru. This is what we are a part of. We can see this life in any big city in the world.

The play also has an open ending. Your comments on that?

An ‘ending’ is not essential for every play, according to me. The characters in a play should continue to live. Life in the play should go on. This is what happens in this play. There is a clear cognisance of being at the end of the play but the play goes on, in a sense.

Have you brought about any changes to the original structure of the play?

A director should not change a play just for the sake of it. To a great extent, this is why I mostly direct the plays that I write. A director can make another playwright’s play his own by making subtle changes and interpretations. That becomes the way the director sees the play.

What are the metaphorical references in the play?

The way in which the nuances of life in a city become the nuances of our own life — this is the essence of this play. A horse race suddenly becomes the realisation of God! The monstrous growth of Bengaluru is reflected in the gradually increasing noise on the stage, to a point of it becoming unbearable.

Changing trends in human relationships

Karnad’s play, ‘Bendakaalu on Toast’ or Boiled beans on a Toast is about the city of Bengaluru and its people. The reflects the changing trends in human relationships in the modern Indian society. Using the founding myth of the city of Bengaluru as a backdrop, the director contemplates the lives of the people in the Silicon Valley of India. The playwright talks about the plight of the city and the changes that have happened over the years. The title of the play is a reference to the ‘bendakaalu’, the boiled beans legend on the origin of Bengaluru’s name.

ADVERTISEMENT
(Published 27 February 2020, 13:56 IST)

Follow us on

ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT