BHARATI PAWASKAR
Indian actor, film director, screen writer, playwright and a Rhodes Scholar, Girish Karnad dominated the South Indian cinema and Bollywood for decades. A recipient of Jnanpith Award, Karnad was conferred Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the government of India. Karnad who passed away at 81 on June 10 this year, composed plays often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. Theatre educationist Padmashree Josalkar, who worked closely with Karnad, would be sharing memories of her association with this veteran celeb during her upcoming talk in Goa.
The talk will look at Girish Karnad’s contribution to theatre and the use of mythological themes. She will also give her interpretation of one of the characters from Karnad’s play. “Girish Karnad has played a significant role in my theatre life. As an actor, and co-actor, I learned a lot from him. How quickly he could get in and out of a character, was what amazed me. As a playwright, he is par excellence, especially his portraits of female characters. They are so sensitively portrayed. With him, it is an end of an era of playwrighting with innate ‘Indianness’, deeply rooted in culture and yet farsighted sensibilities,” states Padmashree Josalkar.
Sharing a memory with Karnad she quips, “Due to my commitment to theatre teaching in Goa, acting was absolutely neglected. I had last acted in 1987, just before coming to Goa. On a visit to Kala Academy, Girish Karnad commented about it and this actually had me bristled. So, around 1993, when my sister B Jayashree got an offer to direct Girija along with Deepa Dhanraj, she casted me for a lead role and sent an official letter from the ministry. Now this could not be ignored, so I got to act.”
However, Josalkar’s association with theatre and films is since her childhood days. “My grandfather, Dr Gubbi Veeranna owned a travelling theatre company and everyone from the family would act in it. I began performing at the age of four in the company. Veterans like B V Karanth, and those who later went into movies - Dr Rajkumar, G V Iyyer, Balakrishna, Narsimharaju, were from the company and so were extended family.” In her teens she began acting with four leading amateur groups and also dubbed for actresses who worked in Kannada films.
A product of NSD (National School of Drama), New Delhi, Josalkar has been teaching theatre for 35 years. It was Josalkar along with her husband (late Vasant Josalkar) who established the School of Drama for Kala Academy Goa of which she remained the director from 2000- 2018. “We both were invited by Kala Academy in 1987 to establish a theatre course in Goa. Until then we were in Delhi and I taught theatre at Sardar Patel Vidyalaya - which was my hands-on-experience at the impact theatre could have on school going children,” recalls Josalkar.
Coming to Goa as a theatre academician, she realised that there is theatre everywhere here, yet it has not got its due credit - it is only entertainment. And as was everywhere, generally families were unsupportive towards pursuing theatre. “It was essential for theatre to be seen as viable,” she felt. Also, parents should have the opportunity to experience what theatre has to offer for the students where there’s a proactive learning and not yet another subject to be mastered, she realised. “This could be achieved only when theatre is a regular subject in the school curriculum,” she thought.
“Dr Jagadish Surlakar, as chairman of the Goa Board did initiate action. We prepared a syllabus which could be implemented in People’s High School and Balbharati, Ribandar. To bring it to all schools required a different approach, which included funds and recognition. Therefore, when Hartman D’souza discussed with me that India Foundation for Arts (IFA), Bengaluru promotes such projects, the possibility of getting grants for a pilot project grew stronger,” she maintains.
It took the Josalkars considerable time and energy to write this project, ‘Theatre in Goan Schools’ where she presented theatre as a serious study for personality development, acquiring social skills, research methodology, where a student is nurtured like a flower and not a container to pour knowledge. The project brought together Kala Academy Goa, the Directorate of Education, Goa Board for Secondary and Higher Secondary Education and the funding body, India Foundation for the Arts.
What started as a two-page report took drafts upon redrafts and got approval as a 75-page document! Finally, it took off just before 2000 at Pernem, Valpoi and Canacona - as a pilot project. It was successful. Later, the directorate of Art and Culture took the project ahead in 2008 and has successfully continued with it reaching more and more schools. By 2018, 100 schools in Goa were teaching theatre as part of their regular curriculum and by now 23 teachers from the Drama School have been employed as drama teachers. That’s an achievement credited to Padmashree Josalkar’s name!
