Atanu Ghosh remembers Girish Karnad

Actor, filmmaker, playwright and Rhodes Scholar Girish Karnad passed away at his Vittal Mallya Road residence in Bangalore on Monday morning. The Jnanpith Awardee was 81 and had been suffering from prolonged illness. Karnad had made his acting as well as screenwriting debut with the 1970

Kannada

film, Samskara. Then he went on to work in several south and Bollywood projects as actor, director and screenwriter.

Karnad, however, will be remembered for his coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada. He often used history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues and had his works translated into various Indian languages and helmed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B V Karanth and

Alyque Padamsee

, among others. He was also conferred the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan and won four Filmfare Awards — three for Best Director and one for Best Screenplay.

Remembering Karnad, Bengali filmmaker Atanu Ghosh said that his earliest memory of Karnad is an eternal favourite — as Swami's father in Malgudi Days. “Years back, when I met him at a festival in Bangalore, his eyes twinkled and he gave me a beaming smile on being reminded of the deep impression Malgudi Days had on us. Then he went on to discuss at length the impact of the classic — so characteristic of his warmth and generosity,” Ghosh said, adding, “The man who gave us such masterpieces as Tughlaq or Yayati, blending the best of history and mythology, also moved us deeply with his performances in Manthan, Nishant, Swami and so many other cult films of the Indian New Wave era. And it was such a pleasure watching him on stage.”

Bidding farewell to Karnad, Ghosh said, “I last met him when he came for the screening in Mayurakshi in Bangalore last year. And now, it’s time to say farewell to a modernist and an institution in true sense of the term. We rarely come across such profound people nowadays. We’ll miss you.”