by Mysore Prabha

The doyen of Harikatha world, Sri Achyuta Das, is no more. In his passing away, he has left a void probably never to be filled.

Harikatha is one of our ancient, traditional art forms where philosophy and life values are taught to people in a musical form. My father K. Srikantiah, time and again says, “One can with effort become a singer, a dramatist, an orator, a scholar, a humorist, a linguist. But only a combination of all these qualifications added to excellent memory can make a person a Harikatha Vidwan.”

Such is the depth and merit of our Harikatha Art. This dying art was kept alive, thanks to a few scholars like Sri Achyuta Das. His Harikathas would have flashes of Karnatak music, Hindustani music, bhajans, humour, bhakti, satire, navarasas and worldly knowledge. No wonder it would reach out to a large number of people and attract a huge fan-following. Achyuta Das performed in various languages like Kannada, Marathi, Konkani, Tamil, Telugu, etc. Listening to three hours of his Harikatha would be equivalent to reading 300 hours of various books. That was the sort of knowledge that a listener would gain!

Achyuta Das was a very close friend to my father. His Harikatha performance was a regular fixture in our annual Sri Ramanavami Music Festival at Mysore for the past 40 years. He was a ‘Sadhu’ in the true sense of the word. Such was his affection for my father that he himself, would call us around December-January, give a date for his performance for our festival and then start off on his far-flung tours. And on the day of his programme, without any prior intimation, he would be at the venue of the programme in Mysore promptly at 6 pm, be it from Bangalore, Hassan, Maharashtra, Andhra, or even a place as remote as Chambal Valley! He used to tour all over India in his well-equipped caravan-like orange coloured van. He always had a kind word, a blessing, an encouragement to anyone and everyone who came to him.

Sri Achyuta Das has without doubt led a worthy life – touching a lot of lives with his discourses. It was our proud privilege to honour this saintly Vidwan during our silver jubilee Ramanavami Festival at Mysore in the year 1994. May his soul rest in peace.

Remembering Santa Bhadragiri Achyuta Das

by K. Vijay Kumar

With great sadness, I read about the demise of Harikatha Vidwan, exponent of this age old Katha Keerthana, Santa Bhadragiri Achyuta Das, only after reading Chiranjiv Singh’s fortnightly column in Vijaya Karnataka on Oct. 26, but not from any of a few prominent newspapers that I read daily.

I was so fond of listening to him, I would rarely miss any of his Harikathas from the days of his week-long programmes every year at Geetha Mandira in Halladakeri years ago.

Now I would like to recall how I had invited him to ATI somewhere in 1992 or so when Chiranjiv Singh was Director and I a Faculty Member, to address my Department’s (Information and Publicity) probationary officers who were undergoing a job course. I had suggested Achyuta Das to speak on effective communication and ethics in administration, as I had considered Achyuta Das himself a very effective communicator.

Our probationary officers were very apprehensive to listen to a Harikatha Vidwan. But, the Director Chiranjiv Singh himself sat through the session along with the officers.

It was a new experience to probationers to listen to him, who at the end wanted Das to come again to address them. After the session, Chiranjiv Singh took Achyuth Das to plant a sapling in the ATI, which is there even today as a remembrance of this great Harikatha Vidwan. May His Soul rest in peace.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / October 24th, 2013

Veteran playback singer Manna Dey died early Thursday morning at a private hospital here.

Sources at Narayana Hrudalaya hospital, where Mr. Dey had been admitted, said his end came around 3.50 am. “He died due to multi organ failure,” sources added.

Dey(94) had been admitted to the hospital due to age related complications.

The singer’s body will be kept in state at Ravindra Kalakshetra in Bangalore till noon on Thursday to facilitate his admirers, well wishers and fans to pay their last respects.

The cremation will take place Hebbal later in the day.

Mr. Dey had sung over 3,500 songs in as many as 16 different languages, including Kannada, in a career spanning 70 years.

He had sung Jayate Jayate Satyameva Jayate for film Margadarshi and Kuhu Kuhu for Kalavathi.

“He had sung for three Kannada films and would try to sing these songs in some of the functions he participated. He would associate himself with many social and cultural programmes in Bangalore,” said Lahari Velu, owner of Lahari Music Audio Company. “People of Karnataka feel, he is one of them,” he added.

Mr. Dey made Bangalore his home and stayed with his younger daughter in Kalyan Nagar, East of Bangalore.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banarjee had recently visited Bangalore to present him the Vishesh Maha Sangeet Samman. He was recipient of prestigious Dada Saheb Phalke award.

Though Mr. Dey had lived in Mumbai for more than 55 years, he has a special affection for Bangalore, as this is the place where he married his wife Sulochana.

On one of the occasion, he remembered the long walks he had with his wife in places such as Cubbon Park and Lalbagh. Despite his celebrity status, Mr. Dey’s simplicity and exceptional talent attracted him to many people in Bangalore.

“My association with Bangalore is 50 years old. My wife’s family lived here and I got married in Bangalore. Our marriage was solemnized at a ceremony held on Kenchappa Road, I used to love going to the Glass House at Lalbagh” Mr. Dey had recalled in a recent programme.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National / by Muralidhar Khajane & Tanu Kulkarni / Bangalore – October 24th, 2013

by: Nirmala Ravindran

The 10th edition of the Ranga Shankara theatre festival will celebrate the life and works of one of India’s best known playwrights — Girish Karnad

​Girish Karnad was all of 23 years old when he wrote Yayati, the story of a man cursed to be old before his time, and how he looks to pass the burden onto one of his sons. Karnad’s Yayati was much more than a tale adapted from mythology, it spoke about the angst of a burdened youth, as much as it did about the ageing king in a contemporary language.

From Yayati to his latest play, Boiled Beans on Toast, Karnad’s plays are about characters locked in conflict — moral, psychological and philosophical. Once Yayati was published and performed, there was no looking back for Karnad who studied philosophy in London as a Rhodes scholar. He went on to form the holy trinity of Indian theatre, along with Badal Sircar and Vijay Tendulkar and was responsible for defining modern Indian drama, a movement that was started by Dharamveer Bharati with his Andha Yug and Mohan Rakesh with Aashad ka ek din! Over the years, Karnad, who started out wanting to be a poet, has won many accolades and worn many hats — he is a well-known writer, a noted film actor and director and winner of several national awards. He has worked with Oxford University Press; he has been a director at the Nehru Center in London, and director at the Film and Television Institute of India.

Karnad’s best known and much loved persona however, has been as a playwright. Having chosen episodes from mythology and folktales, he contemporarised the way we look at theatre. As a thinker and intellectual he has courted controversy several times, but has been unafraid to speak his mind on several issues, ranging from Naipaul’s politics to the saffronisation of Karnataka politics.

To celebrate the 75th anniversary of arguably India’s best known playwright, Ranga Shankara commissioned eight of his best known plays to be re-imagined, reinterpreted and directed by young directors — all under 35 years of age, from across the country. Opening the festival is Tughlaq — the tale of the idealistic, but foolhardy emperor of India that Karnad chose to write as an allegory of Nehruvian politics of the ’60s. Tughlaq was translated into Hindi and directed by the legendary Ebrahim Alkazi and performed by The National School of Drama, thus establishing the 26-year-old Karnad as a force to reckon with in Indian Theatre. Tughlaq will be performed by Samudaya, one of Karnataka’s best known theatre groups in Kannada and is directed by Samkutty Pattomkari.

Closing the Ranga Shankara festival is Yayati (in English). Directed by Ashish D’Abreo of Rafiki Theatre, Yayati uses the protagonist’s obsession with youth as a starting point for an engagement about the fear of ageing and the quest for eternal youth in today’s world. While Kalabhedham, directed by Sam George, is the Malayalam version of Anju Mallige, a contemporary take on incest, Nagamandala will be performed in Bengali and is directed by Abanti Chakraborty. Dreams of Tipu Sultan a nd Fire and the Rain will both be performed in English, while Karnad’s latest play, Boiled Beans on Toast, an ode to Bangalore has been adapted by Aasakta Kalamanch Pune as Une Purey Shahar ek and is directed by Mohit Takalkar. Bali will be performed in Hindi and is directed by Aditee Biswas.

Though lovers of Karnad’s works are sure to miss Hayavadana, his most playful take on the complex body versus mind debate, there’s enough to keep theatre goers happy in the coming weeks. Besides the new plays there will also be a special tribute to Karnad by various theatre groups that will perform 10-minute montages from his plays. Also part of the festival is an arts appreciation course curated and facilitated by culture critic Sadanand Menon at which Karnad will share stories on how he writes. There will be a seminar on the portrayal of women in Karnad’s plays moderated by Dr Ashadevi and one on the politics in Karnad’s plays, moderated by Arshia Sattar. Also on the cards is a film show of Kaadu, directed by Karnad.

WHEN: October 18 to 27, daily 2 shows

WHERE: Ranga Shankara, JP Nagar

source: http://www.bangaloremirror.com / Bangalore Mirror / Home> Entertainment> Lounge / by Nirmala Ravindran / October 08th, 2013