Chandrasekhar Kambar is a leading poet, novelist, folklorist and dramatist writing in Kannada. ‘I belong geographically to a village, and sociologically to what was considered to be an oppressed, uneducated class. I am, therefore, a folk person simply because I honestly cannot be anything else.’ His plays rework his folk heritage from a contemporary perspective, blending folk performance forms, myths, legends, and ritual beliefs. The result is a colourful tapestry of music, dance, song, farce and narration which nevertheless delivers hardhitting blows at the feudal social system which still exists in rural India today. The three plays in this volume illustrate the broad range of Kambar’s playwriting. The Shadow of the Tiger is a symbolic and philosophic work concerned with illusion and reality, and contesting forms of truth. Tukra’s Dream centers on a poor villager who survives precariously on the very edges of rural society. In Alibaba and the Forty Thieves, the wellknown tale becomes an enjoyable spoof as well as a comment on greed. Celebrated as a poet in his home state of Karnataka, Kambar’s work is imbued with a poetic sensibility, laced with earthy humour.
There are no reviews yet.