Nagamandala - Girish Karnad's Play By Nishumbita Theatre Group: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR NAGAMANDALA - GIRISH KARNAD'S...

Nishumbita is presenting Dr. Girish Karnad's famous play Nagamandala, on 10th January, at the Ravindra Bharathi auditorium. The play is directed by Rammohan Holagundi, and was written by Girish Karnad.

Nagamandala is based on two oral Kannada tales Karnad had heard from his mentor-friend and poet, translator and philologist A.K Ramanujan, to whom Karnad also dedicates the play.

It is a folktale transformed into the metaphor of the married woman. It comrpises 2 folktales transformed into one fabric where myth and superstition, fact and fantasy, instinct and reason, the particular and the general blend to produce a drama with universal evocations. Nagamandala tells the story of an unhappy bride who fills her loneliness by conjuring fantasies, dreams and illusions - involving a king cobra - to give meaning to her life.

The play was staged in other languages as well, and adapted into an award-winning Kannada film of the same name in 1997. Videsh, Deepa Mehta's movie starring Preity Zinta, was adapted from the play, too.

Rammohan Holagundi, teacher, trainer and theatre director of Nishumbita & Koshish, is a gold medallist in theatre from the Central University of Hyderabad. He is pursuing his doctoral studies in theatre from Osmania University. He has acted in over 60 productions, and has directed nearly 65. He has a number of children