Girish Karnad's 'Hayavadana': Theatre director Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry on directing the classic

Theatre director Padma Shri Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry.

Padma Shri awardee Neelam Man Singh Chowdhry clearly recalls watching a production of Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana sometime in the 1970s. The celebrated theatre director is elated that four decades later, she is opening the sixth edition of Aadyam Theatre with her own production of the play which is considered a modern Indian theatre classic. A magnificent combination of myth and folklore, song and speech, love and jealousy, humour and pathos, and hope and despair, the Kannada play was translated into Hindi by BV Karanth. Chowdhry has imbued her rendition of the play in a manner that makes it a fitting tribute to the brilliance of Karnad’s storytelling. Edited excerpts from a conversation with the director:

'Hayavadana' rehearsals by Aadyam Theatre.

You have worked with Girish Karnad’s text earlier as well, with Nagamandala. What did you think of Hayavadana when you first read it or saw a stage production of it?

The first time I saw a production of Hayavadana was when I was a student at the National School of Drama (Delhi). It was directed by Satyadev Dubey and had a formidable cast of Amrish Puri, Amol Palekar and Dina Pathak. Frankly speaking, I didn’t understand it then. I knew there was something magnificent about the text but it was beyond the comprehension of my 21-year-old self. The complexity, the mixing of animate and inanimate, characters, myths, duality and search for identity were all very complex questions posed in the play which I was not even aware existed. However, I knew it was something which had to be thought through, reflected on and I knew I was in the presence of greatness. Then I worked at Bharat Bhawan in Bhopal and was very much involved in the production done by BV Karanth, who was a close associate of Karnad and had translated the Kannada text into Hindi. So, some of its soul stuck in my head. It had been eight or nine years and I understood the text but I knew there were still many layers which were a little dense for me.

I had done Nagamandala thrice. The first time in 1989, then a fresh production in 2004 and then again in 2014 or so. So, when I was invited to work on Hayavadana, I was quite intrigued and looking forward to figuring  out the grammar of the performance.

The play was written in the 1970s. Four decades later, what do you make of the text and its relevance now?

In a sense there are certain things about the text which I have tossed around. Whenever I do a classical play such as a Phaedra or Yerma, I always bring it to the present moment because the body of the actor is connected with the now. The acting protocols are connected with this moment. I think a text becomes classic if it can travel through time. I make it travel through time, and even though the references are to Kali and Rudra and it has the myth of Hayavadana which is a metaphor of imperfection, there is a search for perfection but does perfection really exist? These are very fundamental and philosophical questions which haunt the mind and can be the experience of anybody living in any time and age. The whole point is to make it communicable and to make the myth into a metaphor which means a transportation of ideas.

For me, it is very important that the actors relate to it. Padmini in the play is today’s woman who defies, agitates and takes control of her own sexuality. To me the question of contemporaneity ceases to exist when you deal with fundamental questions of human experience such as love, hate, jealousy, desire, fear or uncertainty.

'Hayavadana' rehearsals by Aadyam Theatre.

Can you throw light in what other ways you have made changes to the text?

I have edited it hugely because I felt it was too wordy. I am more interested in body and other dimensions rather than too many words. I have also changed the ending. I’m sure Karnad wrote it in a very tongue-in-cheek manner, and I tossed it around.

Music played a pivotal role in the original play. Can you tell us how you have dealt with music in your production?

The music was composed by BV Karanth who I worked with for 22 years. I used the original music that Karanth ji had composed but I sort of recast it. The positioning of the music follows the pattern of the production rather than how it was designed.

'Hayavadana' rehearsals by Aadyam Theatre.

How do you feel about your first association with Aadyam Theatre?

I think it’s fantastic because how else do we get the opportunity to work on a scale such as this? People like me don’t have the resources and that kind of infrastructural support. Aadyam and Bhoomija Trust combined have just been phenomenal in terms of making so many things possible. I have about 14 musicians on stage which is a scale that suits the temperament of the play. These kinds of plays cannot be done without that kind of support. I feel very happy that Hayavadana has come to me.

The play will be staged on February 4 and 5 at St Andrew’s Auditorium, Mumbai.