Girish Karnad’s Agni aur Barkha, which will be staged today at the SRC Auditorium, is a story of power, love, lust and sacrifice. Director KS Rajendran speaks about the narrative
Many still speak of the powerful performance by late theatre actor Manohar Singh in Tughlaq (written by playwright Girish Karnad) at the ruins of Old Fort in the 70s. Over the years, many of Karnad's plays including Hayavadana, Bali, et al. had been translated from Kannada to English and other languages which have been staged by numerous theatre groups and directors all over.
Then there is Agni mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain or Agni aur Barkha) which was first staged in 1996 by National School of Drama repertory directed by Prasanna. Karnad did raise a few objections with regard to the editing of the story but the play had 43 shows. Nineteen years later, the play was again staged in November 2014 as Agni aur Barkha by Shri Ram Centre Repertory Company under the direction of scholar and playwright KS Rajendran. Since then, they have travelled with the play in Bareilly, Gwalior and Jabalpur.
“The story has been drawn from Aranya Parva of the Mahabharata. There were two brothers Aravasu and Paravasu who belong to a Brahmin family who perform yajna which is a very rich tradition of preserving the Vedic rituals. There is a famine in the state and thus the yajna is conducted for about 10 years so that it would result in rain. Paravasu is selected to perform the ritual and he goes away leaving his wife Vishakha behind. Vishakha who was in love with Paravasu’s cousin called Yavakri meets him after her husband leaves. We see the love being rekindled since she’s lonely. This is noticed by Paravasu’s father who then curses her,” Rajendran briefs us about the plot.
While the other brother Aravasu falls in love with a tribal girl Nittilai and is also interested in theatre. Both considered as taboo.
“Girish Karnad’s stories are not simple narratives. He brings in complex elements and there is also a play within the play. The younger brother Aravasu goes and acts in the play which has been arranged for the yajna. At the same time, his story with the tribal girl also unfolds. Nittalai is married off to another man. But she is so attached to Aravasu that when she learns that he is being insulted by his elder brother, she leaves her husband and joins him. She is then killed by her husband and his brother,” he further elborates.
For the opening scene, they picked the mantras from Rigveda and made the actors learn them. “We summoned a Pundit to teach them how to recite the mantras and also worked on gestures.That was one scene I enjoyed very much. That also led me to think about what is Vachikam, the spoken word and its style and how they all come together,” he shares.