Today’s Living Legend with Mr. Chandrashekhar Kambara
`Illustrious theatre playwright Mr. Chandrashekhar B. Kambara graced the ‘Living Legend’ series held at National School of Drama (NSD) Campus today. Mr. Chandrashekhar B. Kambara is a prominent Kannada playwright and poet, novelist, and folklorist and the President of the Sahitya Akademi. His dramatic oeuvre has drawn upon the folklore and theatrical forms of Karnataka, particularly the Bayalata and Yakshagana. As a true master of the art, Mr. Kambara used traditional folk art forms to explore contemporary reality and comment on themes ranging from socio-political to philosophical. Mr. Kambar is a recipient of Padma Shri and Sahitya Akademi awards, among others.
Kambara has to his credit 25 plays, 11 anthologies of poems, 5 novels, 16 research works and several scholarly write-ups on folk theatre, literature and education. Some of his popular plays include "Jokumaraswamy", "Jayasidnayaka", "Kadu Kudure", "Nayi Kathe", "Mahamayi", "Harakeya Kuri" and others. Talking about his works in various genres, he says, “I do poetry, I write for dramas and I compose novels, and don’t find any difference between the three. My aim is to narrate the story of the characters and it can be narrated through any of these mediums. I have created a play in three parts, in all different genres, narrating the same story.”
Kambara's plays mainly revolve around folk or mythology interlinked with contemporary issues, inculcating modern lifestyle with his hard-hitting poems. He has become a pioneer of such literature. His contribution as a playwright is significant not only to Kannada theatre but also to the Indian theatre in general as he achieved a blend of the folk and the modern theatrical forms. Talking about the importance of theatre, he says, “There is a lot happening in the world at any given point of time. There are many questions that are unanswered, there are many issues that are unaddressed, there is a vast space in the society and theatre fills that space. In my opinion, theatre acts like a mirror to the society.”
Kambara has served as the chairman of National School of Drama Society, New Delhi from 1996 to 2000. Sharing his regards for the institution, he says, “I have been associated with National School of Drama for more than 20 years now and I am proud of it. I have been to many theatre institutions in the world and NSD is one of the best. It was only after the establishment of National School of Drama that India carved its identity on the map of world theatre.”
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