Karanth affair, scene out of Hindi film

                                            N.K. SINGH

It appears to be a scene straight out of a Hindi formula movie—something that the distinguished filmmaker of Chomana Duddi will never do professionally.

With both B. V. Karanth, the renowned drama director, and Ms Vibha Mishra, the actress he allegedly tried to burn to death, making contradictory statements to the police, the incident looks like a familiar movie plot where the hero suddenly takes responsibility for the crime and the heroine, on her part, tries to save the hero.

"Indian people love melodrama," the 57-year-old bearded recipient of the Padamshree said on Monday, soon after the Bhopal police arrested him on the charge of attempt to Smurder. The theatreman was explaining why Tendulkar's Ghasiram Kotwal full of violence, sex and melodrama, was more popular with audiences than Bretch's Causican chalk circle.

Karanth's affair is packed with all the elements of a melodrama. He has allegedly confessed in his statement to the police that he had set Vibha aflame after sprinkling kerosene on her clothes in a fit of blind anger. However, Ms Mishra, who is on her deathbed with 80 per cent burns, insists that she was burnt accidentally while cooking, a theory which has been challenged by the forensic expert. 

It looks like a pot-bailer episode. Karanth's 'confessional' statement recorded before the police as well as excerpts from some of the letters that were exchanged between him and Vibha unfold a tale of a passionate love-hate relationship.

Karanth allegedly accepted in his 'confessional' statement that he used force when Vibha tried to flee the room after she was set aflame. He closed the room from inside and gagged her when she started screaming. Medical examination proved he received six minor injuries on his hands in the scuffle. "I sprinkled kerosene on her and lit a match. She started screaming and I tried to stop her from screaming," said the tape-recorded statement.

After a few moments, the same Karanth tried to save Vibha. He also burnt his hands and received burns on his nose while trying to put out the e fire. He took her to the hospital although in extreme agony, Vibha even at that time was concerned about her career. "Has my face been burnt? Can I act," she kept asking the man allegedly responsible for her ordeal.

Vibha (27), who has a lower middle-class background, hails from Lucknow. A graduate of the National School of Drama, of which Karanth was a director earlier, the sensitive girl joined the Madhya Pradesh Rang-mandal, the State Government-backed repertory, soon after it was opened in 1982.

Karanth was brought to Bhopal by Mr Ashok Vajpeyi, a senior IAS officer, the unchallenged cultural king of Madhya Madhya Pradesh, and the secretary-trustee of Bharat Bhawan, the prestigious 'House of Arts'. As a director of Rangmandal, trustee of Bharat Bhawan and chairman of the MP Film Development Corporation he was allotted a government bungalow in the exclusive professor's colony area here. He stayed here alone. His wife, Mrs. Prema Karanth, also an eminent filmmaker, lives in Bangalore.

Karanth and Vibha, who stayed in the same colony in private rented accommodation, had an affair for quite some time, but of late they had developed strained relations, police sources said. While some of the "love letters" seized by the police spoke of the affair, a few recent ones showed bitterness, in which Ms Mishra claimed that she had not been given roles in a drama by Karanth. In one letter, according to the police, she even accused Karanth of having "spoiled" some other "young buds". 

Recording his "confessions", Karanth told the police, "I committed a ghastly act. The following are the extracts from his alleged tape-recorded confession in Hindi:

My name is B. V. Karanth. I am director of Rangmandal and chairman of Film Deyelopment Corporation. I have got Padmashree, I had intimate relationship with Vibha I went to the residence of Vibha at about 11.15 a.m. She was preparing bhajias. But I could not eat much. 

Then I told her that she was not following the rules and regulations of, rangmandal. She said that no member of Rangmandal was following them. I said that hardly made any difference. She should follow them."People think that I am partial," I told her. "It is your mistake that you got a trained person among untrained persons," she told me. "The biggest mistake I have committed is to join, Rangmandal," she said.

I tried to persuade her to participate in the play. But she remained adamant. She said, "Aap sahit Rangmandal me sabhi bade tuchche hein". (Everyone in Rangmandal including you is very cheap). "You are not capable of running the Rangmandal. You cannot make the right decision," she told me. "But why don't you come into the group and participate in the dramas," I asked her. "I have done five years of work within three years," she told me. "So what," I told her that I had done ten years of work within five years.

She told me that she did not trust me. "You are a liar and you have meted out injustice to me. Now I would not work," she told me. Then I told her that if she will not work she will not get her salary. "I will take it from Rangmandal," she told me. "Nahin to Rangmandal int se int baja doogi." (Otherwise I shall raze Rang-mandal to ground). "What will it achieve?" I asked her.

Then she called me impotent. She told me, "Get out. I want to spit on your face. You do nothing. You only try to boss over. I will not work". She insisted that she would not participate in the play. I told her that I would kill her. She challenged me. "Go ahead. An impotent person like you can do nothing."

Immediately after she asked me to go ahead, I went to the kitchen and brought out the kerosene container and a matchbox. I sprinkled kerosene on her and lit the match. She started screaming. I closed the doors. She was screaming and I closed her mouth with my hands.

Then I felt that I was committing excess. I tried to put out the fire. In the process, I had to remove her clothes. There were loud knocks on the doors. I put some clothes on her. Vibha was weeping. She was asking me whether her face was burnt and, if could she act in future. Then she asked me, "Sarji how are you here? Probably she said this to save me. So I just started pretending that I had gone to her house to get a book.

With our period of working together our physical relationship also grew. But it was not out of sex but out of sheer intimacy. Many times we had physical contact.

Indian Express

May 30, 1986