→External links: rm super cat |
expanded |
||
Line 1: | Line 1: | ||
{{underconstruction}} |
|||
{{otheruses|Karanth (disambiguation)}} |
{{otheruses|Karanth (disambiguation)}} |
||
[[Image:Karanth.jpg| |
[[Image:Karanth.jpg|200px|thumb|right]] |
||
'''Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth''' ([[Kannada language|Kannada]] |
'''Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth''' ([[Kannada language|Kannada]]) (d. [[1 September]], [[2002]]) was a much decorated film and theatre personality from [[India]]. He was an alumnus of the [[National School of Drama]] ([[1962]] batch) and later, its director. He has directed many successful plays and has directed award winning [[Kannada]] movies. The [[Government of India]] honoured him with the [[Padma Shri]]. |
||
==Career== |
|||
Karanth's passion for theatre started at an early age. Born in Manchi, a village in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, in 1928 Karanth's first tryst with theater was when he was in standard III — he acted in ''Nanna Gopala'', a play directed by P.K. Narayana. He then ran away from home and joined the legendary Gubbi Veeranna drama company where he worked alongside [[Dr. Rajkumar]]<ref>http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/03spec.htm</ref> who also was starting out then as a novice. |
|||
[[Gubbi Veeranna]] sent Karanth to Banares to do his Masters in Arts where he also underwent training in [[Hindustani music]] under Guru Omkarnath Thakur. |
|||
Thereafter, along with his wife, Prema Karanth, Karanth set up "BeNaKa", one of Bangalore's oldest theater groups. It is an acronym for Bengalooru Nagara Kalavidaru. Then, Prema took up a teaching job in Delhi and supported Karanth through the National School of Drama. He was to return the compliment after he graduated from the NSD, and eventually became its director. |
|||
He later graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, in 1962, then headed by Ibrahim Alkazi. Between 1969 and 1972, he worked as a drama instructor at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi after which the couple returned to Bangalore. Here Karanth dabbled in some cinema as well as music and was involved with the likes of Girish Karnad and U R Ananthamurthy in these ventures. |
|||
He then returned to the NSD, this time as its Director in 1977. As the director of NSD, Karanth took theater to far flung corners of India. He conducted several workshops in places far away as Madurai in Tamil Nadu. After his stint as the director of NSD, the Madhya Pradesh government invited him to head the Rangamandal repertory under the aegis of the Bharat Bhavan. After rendering yoeman service to the theater scene in Madhya Pradesh between '81 and '86, Karanth returned to Karnataka. In 1989, the Karnataka government invited him to set up a repertory in Mysore, which he named 'Rangayana' and headed until 1995.<ref>http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1920/stories/20021011005912100.htm</ref> |
|||
<!--He brought together young men and women from all over Karnataka and built up a professional theatre movement, organised with the best contemporary knowhow, on a sylvan campus in Mysore. He and his students built themselves a beautiful open-air theatre in the best traditions of Greek amphitheatres. His troupe put up some of the best theatre Karnataka had witnessed, and toured both the country and overseas with these plays. |
|||
Karanth wanted the repertory to spin off professionally on its own after a point, but that never happened. After some time, government grants dried up. Rangayana folded up and Karanth returned to Bangalore. |
|||
==Legacy== |
|||
Karanth entered the Kannada theater scene in the late 60s and early 70s. His entry brought about a sea change in Kannada theater which then was steeped in the old, formal proscenium style. His plays like Jokumara Swamy, Sankranti, Huchu Kudure and Oedipus to name a few, which were directed in the early 70s, were hailed as trendsetters. These plays touched upon all aspects of theater like language, music, song, stylisation <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1920/stories/20021011005912100.htm|accessdate=2007-02-06|title="A genius"|quote=Recalling the sense of excitement and exhilaration she and a group of young friends felt when they first saw Jokkumbara Swamy, Sankranti, Huchu Kudurai and Oedipus, a set of plays he directed in the early 1970s, she said: "To Karanth theatre was celebration, infused with joie de vivre. You will never find a dull, prosaic Karanth play. His was the closest you could come to `total' theatre, where language, music, song, stylisation, often through folk forms, were all present."}}</ref> |
|||
The innovative use of music, was one Karanth's biggest contributions to theatre.<ref>"I would say this is an essential component of the Karanth legacy," said Lakshmi Chandrashekhar, leading stage artist and theatre critic.</ref> One of Karanth's strenghts was his ability to draw on classical, traditional and folk forms and fuse them in his compositions. His plays were less famous for design as for their musical content, which became part of the prose of theatre." |
|||
<!--Karanth's musical compositions were critically acclaimed for their uniqueness. His music had distinctly folksy overtones. He had a powerful singing voice that never failed to enthrall listeners. It had a raw, earthy quality that had a strangely hypnotic quality. The last film he scored the music for was Girish Karnad's national award-winning Kannada film Kannoora Heggadthi. |
|||
He was always trying to experiment with dramatic forms, and this is what his contemporaries remember most about him. "His staging of Macbeth in the Yakshagana folk style was unforgettable," recalls Jnanpith awardee U R Ananthamurthy. Adds film-maker M S Sathyu: "An era of theatre has come to an end with Karanth, not just in Karnataka, but all over India. We can only hope that he has inspired enough young artistes to become innovators and creators of drama, like he himself always was." --> |
|||
==Work== |
|||
Karanth directed over a hundred plays, more than half of which were in Kannada with Hindi close behind. He also directed plays in English, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Gujarati. Hayavadana (by Girish Karnad), Kattale Belaku, Huchu Kudure, Evam Indrajit, Oedipus, Sankranti, Jokumbara Swami, Sattavara Neralu, Huttava Bidare and Gokula Nirgamana are some of his most popular plays in Kannada. |
|||
Of the forty or so plays he directed in Hindi, Macbeth (using the traditional Yakshagana dance drama form), King Lear, Chandrahasa, Hayavadana, Ghasiram Kotwal, Mrichha Katika, Mudra Rakshasa, and Malavikagni Mitra are some of the more popular ones. Karanth also revelled in directing children and directed several children plays like Panchara Shale, Neeli Kudure, Heddayana, Alilu Rama and The Grateful Man. |
|||
==Contribution to Madhya Pradesh theater== |
|||
Karanth was largely responsible for starting the new theater movement in Madhya Pradesh. As director of the NSD, at the invitation of the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, he organised a training-cum-production camp in 1973. In the 1980s, he returned to set up the Rangmandal repertory in Bharat Bhavan in the 1980s. This was to be the first ever repertory in the state at that time and he became the main creative spirit behind the now,legendary Bharat Bhavan. |
|||
Rangmandal, for the first time, folk professionals were used for training contemporary actors, and the repertory also included folk performers among its members. Apart from Hindi, plays were also produced in dialects such as Bundelkhandi, Malavi and Chhatisgarhi which created huge ticket-buying audiences for the Rangmandal. |
|||
==Filmmaking== |
|||
Karanth also forayed into the world of cinema. He directed four feature films and four documentaries, apart from scoring the music for 26 films. He co-directed films like Vamsha Vriksha and Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane with Girirsh Karnad |
|||
==Awards and honours== |
|||
His movie [[Chomana Dudi]] (Choma's Drum) won him awards including the President's Gold Medal for the Best Film of the Year in 1976. He also won the award for the Best Music director twice for his films Ririshya Shrunga in 1977 and Ghatashradha in 1978. He has been decorated with the Padmashri(1981), the Kalidas Samman(Madhya Pradesh), the Sangeet Natak Akademi award(1976) and the Gubbi Veeranna award instituted by the Karnataka government. |
|||
<!--==Memory== |
|||
Prema plans to devote time to Babukodi Pratishta, the trust set up by Karanth a year ago. Karanth's large library and extraordinary collection of musical instruments will form part of a small museum. "We plan to organise theatre festivals, establish awards in his name, and publish his autobiography," she told Frontline. |
|||
==death== |
|||
The septuagenarian "missionary'' director, actor and musician of modern Indian theatre and Kannada and Hindi new wave cinema, B.V. Karanth, died at a private hospital here today after a prolonged illness.--> |
|||
==See also== |
|||
* [[Kannada theater]] |
|||
* [[K. V. Subbanna]] |
|||
* [[Benaka]] |
|||
* [[Ninasam]] |
|||
== External links == |
== External links == |
||
Line 9: | Line 59: | ||
* [http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/03spec.htm An obituary] |
* [http://www.rediff.com/news/2002/sep/03spec.htm An obituary] |
||
==References== |
|||
* http://nsd.gov.in/nsd_schoolfelicit.htm |
|||
* http://www.rangayana.org/profile.htm - rangayana |
|||
* http://www.udupipages.com/home/geleya.html -rathabeedi geleyaru |
|||
* http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2006/11/10/stories/2006111001930300.htm - karanth music |
|||
* http://www.ourkarnataka.com/Articles/obit/bvkaranth.htm |
|||
* http://www.themusicmagazine.com/spandana25.html |
|||
* http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/10/06/stories/2006100601560200.htm |
|||
* http://www.udupipages.com/home/prasanga/rrc6.html |
|||
* http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/jan282007/finearts1649262007127.asp |
|||
* http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2002/06/16/stories/2002061600250500.htm |
|||
<br clear="all"> |
<br clear="all"> |
Revision as of 00:43, 5 June 2007
Babukodi Venkataramana Karanth (Kannada) (d. 1 September, 2002) was a much decorated film and theatre personality from India. He was an alumnus of the National School of Drama (1962 batch) and later, its director. He has directed many successful plays and has directed award winning Kannada movies. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Shri.
Career
Karanth's passion for theatre started at an early age. Born in Manchi, a village in Bantwal taluk of Dakshina Kannada district, in 1928 Karanth's first tryst with theater was when he was in standard III — he acted in Nanna Gopala, a play directed by P.K. Narayana. He then ran away from home and joined the legendary Gubbi Veeranna drama company where he worked alongside Dr. Rajkumar[1] who also was starting out then as a novice.
Gubbi Veeranna sent Karanth to Banares to do his Masters in Arts where he also underwent training in Hindustani music under Guru Omkarnath Thakur.
Thereafter, along with his wife, Prema Karanth, Karanth set up "BeNaKa", one of Bangalore's oldest theater groups. It is an acronym for Bengalooru Nagara Kalavidaru. Then, Prema took up a teaching job in Delhi and supported Karanth through the National School of Drama. He was to return the compliment after he graduated from the NSD, and eventually became its director.
He later graduated from the National School of Drama (NSD), New Delhi, in 1962, then headed by Ibrahim Alkazi. Between 1969 and 1972, he worked as a drama instructor at the Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, New Delhi after which the couple returned to Bangalore. Here Karanth dabbled in some cinema as well as music and was involved with the likes of Girish Karnad and U R Ananthamurthy in these ventures.
He then returned to the NSD, this time as its Director in 1977. As the director of NSD, Karanth took theater to far flung corners of India. He conducted several workshops in places far away as Madurai in Tamil Nadu. After his stint as the director of NSD, the Madhya Pradesh government invited him to head the Rangamandal repertory under the aegis of the Bharat Bhavan. After rendering yoeman service to the theater scene in Madhya Pradesh between '81 and '86, Karanth returned to Karnataka. In 1989, the Karnataka government invited him to set up a repertory in Mysore, which he named 'Rangayana' and headed until 1995.[2]
Work
Karanth directed over a hundred plays, more than half of which were in Kannada with Hindi close behind. He also directed plays in English, Telugu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Urdu, Sanskrit and Gujarati. Hayavadana (by Girish Karnad), Kattale Belaku, Huchu Kudure, Evam Indrajit, Oedipus, Sankranti, Jokumbara Swami, Sattavara Neralu, Huttava Bidare and Gokula Nirgamana are some of his most popular plays in Kannada. Of the forty or so plays he directed in Hindi, Macbeth (using the traditional Yakshagana dance drama form), King Lear, Chandrahasa, Hayavadana, Ghasiram Kotwal, Mrichha Katika, Mudra Rakshasa, and Malavikagni Mitra are some of the more popular ones. Karanth also revelled in directing children and directed several children plays like Panchara Shale, Neeli Kudure, Heddayana, Alilu Rama and The Grateful Man.
Contribution to Madhya Pradesh theater
Karanth was largely responsible for starting the new theater movement in Madhya Pradesh. As director of the NSD, at the invitation of the Bharat Bhavan in Bhopal, he organised a training-cum-production camp in 1973. In the 1980s, he returned to set up the Rangmandal repertory in Bharat Bhavan in the 1980s. This was to be the first ever repertory in the state at that time and he became the main creative spirit behind the now,legendary Bharat Bhavan.
Rangmandal, for the first time, folk professionals were used for training contemporary actors, and the repertory also included folk performers among its members. Apart from Hindi, plays were also produced in dialects such as Bundelkhandi, Malavi and Chhatisgarhi which created huge ticket-buying audiences for the Rangmandal.
Filmmaking
Karanth also forayed into the world of cinema. He directed four feature films and four documentaries, apart from scoring the music for 26 films. He co-directed films like Vamsha Vriksha and Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane with Girirsh Karnad
Awards and honours
His movie Chomana Dudi (Choma's Drum) won him awards including the President's Gold Medal for the Best Film of the Year in 1976. He also won the award for the Best Music director twice for his films Ririshya Shrunga in 1977 and Ghatashradha in 1978. He has been decorated with the Padmashri(1981), the Kalidas Samman(Madhya Pradesh), the Sangeet Natak Akademi award(1976) and the Gubbi Veeranna award instituted by the Karnataka government.
See also
External links
References
- http://nsd.gov.in/nsd_schoolfelicit.htm
- http://www.rangayana.org/profile.htm - rangayana
- http://www.udupipages.com/home/geleya.html -rathabeedi geleyaru
- http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/fr/2006/11/10/stories/2006111001930300.htm - karanth music
- http://www.ourkarnataka.com/Articles/obit/bvkaranth.htm
- http://www.themusicmagazine.com/spandana25.html
- http://www.hindu.com/fr/2006/10/06/stories/2006100601560200.htm
- http://www.udupipages.com/home/prasanga/rrc6.html
- http://www.deccanherald.com/archives/jan282007/finearts1649262007127.asp
- http://www.thehindu.com/thehindu/mag/2002/06/16/stories/2002061600250500.htm