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Dr. KY Narayanaswamy

Popularly known as KYN, KY Narayanaswamy is a Kannada professor with Government Science College. He is a well-known expert in the fields of Kannada literature, playwriting, academic research, poetry, and critiquing. His PhD thesis “Neeradeevige” is an important milestone in the understanding of cultural associations that we have with water. His Sahitya-award-winning play Pampabharata deconstructs and reconstructs history from oral and cultural memory instead of written history. His stage adaptation of Kuvempu’s magnum opus Malegalalli Madumagalu is considered groundbreaking in its creative possibilities. His narrative style brings the actors and audience face to face in a unique manner. His other notable plays include Kalavu, Kaivara Nareyana, Vinura Vemana (Telugu), Shudra Tapasvi (Telugu translation), Hulisere, Anabhigna Shakuntala, Male Mantrika (adapted from English), and Chakraratna. These plays are representative of Kannada theatre’s search new frontiers in experimental theatre.

Notable Plays

1. Pampabharatha: Dr. KY Narayanaswamy’s Pampabharatha at a basic level is a reconstruction of the Kannada poet Pampa’s magnum opus Vikramarjunavijaya (which is a retelling of the Mahabharatha from Arjuna’s viewpoint) from the viewpoint of Karna. However, it is far from a mythological rendition, encompassing the commonality of politics, religion, femininity, and human nature across millennia of myth, history, and contemporary reality. Along with man, even gods and demigods face moral quandaries and become the playthings of fate. Pampabharatha is not based on Pampa’s version of the Mahabharatha, but it is a deconstruction of Pampa’s story. The play is a new text encompassing both Pampa’s story and the Mahabharatha. The play is not story-based but incident-based. The play links the past and the present and provides a glimpse of the future. KYN’s unique narrative style, his use of the nuances of language, and the organic manner in which the scenes are interwoven highlight KYN’s skills as a playwright. While traditional Kannada plays have previously focused on contemporary relevance, Pampabharatha far exceeds this style by being discursive. Pampabharatha forms a uniquely challenging play for the director, performers, and the audience in the ideas that it explores and initiates in our minds.

Pampabharatha is not based on Pampa’s version of the Mahabharatha, but it is a deconstruction of Pampa’s play. The play is a new text encompassing both Pampa’s story and the Mahabharatha. The play is not story-based but incident-based. The play links the past and the present and provides a glimpse of the future. KYN’s unique narrative style, his use of the nuances of language, and the organic manner in which the scenes are interwoven highlight KYN’s skills as a playwright. While traditional Kannada plays have previously focused on contemporary relevance, Pampabharatha far exceeds this style by being discursive.

2. Anabhigna Shakuntala: Dr. KY Narayanaswamy’s Anabhigna Shakuntala (The Unidentified Shakuntala) is an alternative retelling of the events leading to the death of Kalidasa, who History says was found dead in the house of a prostitute in Colombo. At the beginning of the play, Kalidasa has been found murdered in a prostitute’s house in Colombo. As he was reading out his play Shakuntala to a gathered audience, he was knifed by an assassin in the crowd. The assassin’s identity is not known, but at the time of arrival of the police, Kalidasa is found dying in the arms of the prostitute. The woman is arrested, but strangely does not protest her innocence or guilt. She wordlessly submits to a death sentence in the morning, and has been lodged in jail. The reflection of the play’s sutradhar emerges from a mirror to probe this mystery, and posing as a magistrate, attempts to question the woman. Simultaneously, two other women arrive in the wake of Kalidasa’s death, and we find that all three women were in love with Kalidasa. The story of Kalidasa is then pieced together by the narratives of these three women, and in the end, the truth behind the murder is revealed.

At a deeper level, Anabhigna Shakuntala is a complex montage of ideas that deals with the question and loss of identity, commonly defined concepts of society, feminism, and the equations of power from the political to the personal sphere. Since its first staging, the play has won critical and popular acclaim at various theatre festivals in the country.