The exploration of the private self and the public image of a publicly-known personality is a sure-fire hit for both audience and creator in any literary medium; for the artiste for the incredibly rich gamut of complexities and subtleties that character-delineation now allows, and for the audience for that intriguing sense of curiosity and shock that the unfolding allows. 
Jnanpith -awardee playwright Girish Karnad, taking full opportunity of this tool, now adds the ‘technology and information-age’ dimension to his play, A Heap of Broken Images, written exclusively for Bangalore’s Ranga Shankara, an interesting new theatre in Bangalore, built by stage-personality Arundhati Nag; the fruition of a hope her late husband film director Shankar Nag had cherished.
‘A Heap of Broken Images’, written by Karnad in English has the Kannada version as ‘Odakalu Bimba’. The play, Karnad’s first directorial attempt after 35 years, is shared with KM Chaitanya, ‘youthful and knowledgeable on electronic technicalities’, as Karnad put it.
This one-act, sole-perfomer drama deals with the story of Manjula Nayak, a professor of English literature and a mediocre Kannada-language writer who suddenly finds acclaim and money with a best-selling novel in English. But Nayak is attacked by Kannada literary critics who denounce her writing in the English-language, a ‘lateral undertone’ in the play that bears not a little resemblance to Karnad’s own experience as a playwright who has faced broad criticism in Karnataka for being ‘westernised’ by writing ‘Indian English’ and detracting from the richness of regional literature.
“It’s not just me, it’s the whole genre of Indian writers in English who are attacked”, says Karnad, pointing to the literary scene in India today, where writers in English are rewarded with acclaim, recognition and money while regional writers have to fight hard for all of these. “It’s money and public recognition that English brings, that itself is a point of envy,” explains Karnad. And that is the underlying theme of this play; envy as part of the human condition that manifests itself in today’s globalised world, and the ‘politics of writing’ as Karnad refers to the literary scene today.
Karnad adds that writing in English brings international recognition while translation into other regional languages reaches a far broader Indian audience.
Quite true. In fact, many who have seen the English version of the play are curious to see ‘Odakalu Bimba’ in Kannada to see how the personality, played by Arundhati Nag, wrings itself out.
Indeed, Nayak’s talk on TV defending her choice of language in a talk she gives on a television channel sounds suspiciously like a repartee from Karnad to his detractors. Nayak’s alter ego on a television screen instead of the age-old ‘mirror-on-the-wall’ is an innovative method of including modern technology in drama. I suspect others will now follow this method.
Another interesting aspect that this use of technology introduces is yet again linked to the writer’s very survival in today’s world. “In the 70s one poster by ‘Ravindra Kalakshetra’ [ Bangalore’s State auditorium] would pack the theatre to a 3000-strong audience in two or three shows. Now the playwright is dependent on television, media and commercial advertisements for his work, both to cover costs and to gain recognition, “ says Karnad, adding that ‘physical infrastructural’ problems of cities, such as traffic problems, for example, now pose a threat to survival Bangalore. “Who will come to the theatre, braving traffic jams and scouting for parking space?” asks Karnad.
But, to get on with the play, the subsequent dramatic unfolding of Nayak’s innermost motives and actions form the ‘private self’ of the public image that continues to both intrigue and shock. Arundhati Raja’s performance as Manjula Nayak was convincing enough to grip the audience for about an hour; though she did have the advantage of mystery and intrigue on her side! But, as Karnad explains, he stuck to directing the play himself just so that all the technicalities of Nayak’s personality, critical to the play, could sustain.
An interesting and subtle work, A Heap of Broken Images is a tale the audience can take home.
