And his taking vocal stands against the Hindu Right didn’t start in the last few years; he spoke up at least from the early 1990s onwards. Karnad’s Yayati dates to 1961, when he was a mere lad of 22. That he wrote Yayati without virtually any previous theatre experience is remarkable enough, but that he wrote it in Kannada makes it doubly remarkable. Karnad’s playwriting oeuvre is so substantial and varied, both in form and content, that it is impossible to reduce it to neat generalisations. Student of power playTwo overarching themes stand out in Girish Karnad’s playwriting career.

Source: The Hindu June 11, 2019 18:22 UTC