The Karanth case

 

                                             NK SINGH

The dramatic arrest of the prominent 57-year-old theatre director, B. V. Karanth on a charge of attempting to burn to death Vibha Mishra, the pretty 27-year-old heroine of his drama troupe at Bhopal last week has rocked the world of art. He had joined Bharat Bhavan, the lake-side House of Arts' at Bhopal, four years ago. 

Although Karanth has dabbled in films and produced nationally-acclaimed works like "Chomana Duddi" and "Kedu", he is better known as a theatre director and playwright. A diploma-holder from the National School of Drama, Delhi, and the Asian Theatre Institute, he started his career with the famous "Gubbi" company in his native Karnataka. He has directed world classics not only in, Kannada and Hindi, but also in Punjabi, Gujarati and Sanskrit.

He was director of the prestigious National School of Drama from 1977 to 1981 when he was persuaded by Mr Ashok Vajpeyi, LAS, the controversial "cultural messiah" of Madhya Pradesh, to shift to Bhopal, described by Indira Gandhi as the "cultural capital of India. 

He was appointed Director of Bharat Bhavan's Rangmandal, the State Government-backed repertory company, as well as a member of the trust that controls the sprawling multi-arts complex. He was later also appointed Chairman of the MP Film Development Corporation.

Friends, former colleagues and classmates of Karanth at the NSD are up in arms in support of the artist, reacting with shock and disbelief at the reports appearing in the newspapers. Nothing in their memories of a man they all deeply respect can make them believe the stories they read about him.

"I remember him as a very kind, soft, gentle person, madly creative and very absorbed in his work," said Mr Manohar Singh, the well-known actor and chief of the NSD's rep company.

The most striking thing about the man, feels Mr Ram Gopal Bajaj, an associate professor who has worked with Karanth in the NSD, is his idealism and commitment to art, to theatre, to making Hindi a national language. "His concerns were much wider than most people's" he says.

What has upset them most is the publicity the Karanth-Vibha Mishra episode has received. The press reports, they said angrily, are too sensational and very misleading. "Let the court decide who is guilty. Why should the press already pronounce him guilty?"

Indian Express

June 2, 1986