A BOOK REVIEW OF THUNDER ON THE STAGE; A STUDY OF GIRISH KARNAD`S PLAYS

A BOOK REVIEWscholarly paper entitles "Displaying the theatrical
Thunder On Stage : A Study of Girish Karnad's PlaysEffectiveness : (Re-) cording through Techniques in
C.L. Khatri & Sudhir K. Arora (Ed). Book Enclave,Girish Karnad's Tughlaq forces the theatrical
Jaipur, India, 2008, Rs. 695 ISBN-978-81-8152-222-1effectiveness in this play. Dr. G.S. Jha presents
Girish Karnad (1938) is a significant name in IndianKarnad's Haya-vadana as a post colonial text is his
English drama. He has enriched the Indian drama byscholarly paper entitled "Girish Karnad's Hayavadana :
his dramatic skills. He wrote plays first in his adoptedA Post Colonial Fruition'. "Post-colonialist, despite all
language Kannada and then translated most of thencontroversies includes the question of identity,
into English. His originality as a dramatist lies in hisalienation, moral code, fulfillment, mythological
extraordinary skill of using myth, history and folktaleorientation, gender placement, meta-physical dualism,
to make the drama lively and thought provoking. Thisneo-colonial dialectic etc, Karnad plays with historical
anthology contains twenty two scholarly papers andand mythological episodes to prove his typical
these papers make an in depth study of Yayati,post-colonial stature." Dr. A. Vanitha throws light on
Tughlaq, Hayavadana, Bali : The Sacrifice, Nagathe magic realist attributes in Hayavadana (1975) in
Mandala. Tala-Danda. The Fire and the Rain. Thehis paper "The Third Eye Vision in Girish Karnad's
Dreams of Tipu Sultion. A heap of Broken ImagesHayavadana'. Dr. Kumud Agarwal presents
and Flowers. Dr. Khatri and Dr. Arora make us familiarHayavadana as evolutionary medium in her paper
with Karnad in the scholarly written Preface, "for his"Evolving the Man : A Note on Girish Karnad's
contribution to literature, he got many prestigiousHayavadana as Drama of Evolutionary Impulse in
award that include : Mysore State Award for YayatiMan." Binod Mishra presents scholarly paper entitled
(1962), Government of Mysore Rajyotsava Award"Girish Karnad's Bali : The Sacrifice : A voice of
(1970), Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for PlayReason against a saga of Myth." "Thus we find that
writing (1972), Padma Shri (1974)" "Writer of theKarnad's Bali based on spiritual rifts between two
Year" Award from Granthaloka Journal of the Bookreligion us sects challenges the idiosyncratic practice
Trade for Taladanda (1990), the Karnatak Sahityaand expose the hypocrisy of Man to God." Dr.
Akademi Award for the Most Creative Work forAnshuman Khanna presents dialogic ramifications in
Nagam and ala (1992), the B.H. Sridhar Award forKarnad's Bali in his paper "Dialogic Ramifications in
Taledanda (1992), the Padma Bhushan Award (1992)Karnad's Bale, The Sacrifice." Dr. Madhubala Saxena
...... the Sahitya Academy Award for Taledandapeeps into the characters of Karnad's play Bali in her
(1994), the Gubbi Veeranna Award (1997), thescholarly paper "Portraying the Inner Lands cape : A
Bhartiya Jnanpith Award (1999) and Kalidas SammanPeep into the characters of Girish Karnad's Bali : The
by the Government of Madhya Pradesh (1999)." InSacrifice. Dr. Shubha Mishra explores foricairlt's
the first paper of the anthology entitled "GirishParropticism in her paper entitled" Reading and (Mis)
Karnad : The Man and The Play Wright", Dr. Khatrereading Girish Karnad's, Bali : The Sacrifice, in the light
presents the marathon odyssey of Girish Karnad.of foucanlt's Panopticism.' Dr. Anupam Bansal and Dr.
"Karnad wanted to be a poet of English but heSatish Kumar presents women empowerment in
became a play Wright in Kannada and Indian EnglishGirish Karnad's Naga Mandala in their paper entitled
of par excellence. His plays proved to be an epoch"Emanicipating Women : A Note on Women
making both critically and in stage production." TheEmpowerment in Girish Karnad's Naga Mandala." Dr.
second paper entitled 'Brecht's Non-AristotelianR.R. Priyadharshini presents archetypal perspective in
Theory of Drama and Dramatic Art of Girish Karnad'her paper entitled "Girish Karnad's Naga Mandala : An
by Dr. R.N. Rai explores Brecht's theory of drama andArchetrypal Perspective". Dr. M.R. Verma explores
compares it with the dramatic art of Girish Karnad.Karnad's Tale-Tale-Danda : Present ness of the Past :
"Brechtian in fluency on Karnad made him sharplyDr. G.A. Ghanshyan and Raj Ralcha Singh explores
aware of the theatricality imaginativeness andjealousy and ego-the two important human aspects
inherent power of the Indian theatre. It sensitisedin the Fire and the Rain in their paper entitled "The
him to the rich potentialities of non-naturalisticFire and the Rain : A Tale of Inflated Egos', Dr.
techniques of our traditional theatre. AdmittingArchana Rathore explores classical myths in The Fire
Brecht's influence on his dramatic works Karnadand the Rain in her scholarly paper entitled "Vivifying
remarks that "Brecht's influence, received mainlythe classical Myths : A Note on Girish Karnad's. The
through his writing and without the benefit of hisFire and the Rain : Dr. (Mrs.) Gulshan Das and Ms.
theatrical productions, went some way in making usTanjiem Ara Khan finds myths in Girish Karnad's 'The
realize what could be done with the design ofFire and the Rain' in their paper "Intertextuality and
traditional theatre." (Karnad, 14) The third paper byRetelling of Myths in Girish Karand's The Fire and the
Dr. Jyoti Gupta and Dr. Sushma Sharma entitledRain. This anthology contains last two scholarly
'Existentialism in Girish Karnad' Yayati presentspapers by one of brilliant scholars of Indian English
existentialism in the play Yayati'. S.T. Kharat exploresLiterature Dr. S.K. Arora. In the first paper he
evil deception and violence in Karnad's play Tughlaq inpresents Karnad's The Dreams of Tipu Sultan as a
his play ' The Projection of Evil, Deception andpost colonial text. "The story of Tipu Sultan clearly
Violence in Girish Karnad's Tughlaq' "The play is thusexhibits that the English were afraid of Tipu Sultan.,
packed with intrigues machinations, blood-shed,the only person in South India, as they were very
terrible murders, violence and horror. There is a longwell aware of his capabilities and skill in handling the
chain of deception and violence. Seven to eight majoradministration and the defense system of his
characters are killed and countless people die duringKingdom." Dr. Arora presents aesthetics and breaking
the exodus." Dr. Rajendra Prasad Y. Shinde presentsof the Ethics in Karnad's Two Monologues in his
Tughlaq as a political saga in his scholarly paperscholarly paper. This anthology is unique in its own
"Tughlaq : A contemporary play by Girish Karnad." Dr.kind and both Dr. Khatri and Dr. Arora kind and both
N.K. Neb has raised some issues regarding theDr. Khatri and Dr. Arora are successful in their efforts.
dramatisation of the failure in the play 'Tughlaq' in hisThis anthology is a must read for every avid reader
paper entitled "Girish Karnad's Tughlaq :and student of English literature. Although the price
Dramatiesation of the Failure of DialogicalRs. 695 looks quite much.
co-existence.' "The failure of the dialogical discourseBy : Dr. Ram Sharma Senior Lecture in English C-26,
to take place lies in Tughlaq's centralising perspective.Shradhapuri Phase-2 Kankerkhera. Meerut Cantt -
Even the play Wright seems to realise this." Another250001 (U.P.) E-mail : dr.