Read the full article on Film Companion, here: https://www.filmcompanion.in/remembering-girish-karnad-the-director-the-actor/
From ‘Kaadu’ and ‘Ondanondu Kaladalli’ to ‘Nishant’ and ‘Swami’, one of India’s greatest playwrights made a huge contribution to Indian cinema.
If Girish Karnad’s passing weren’t sad enough, the headlines about the “Tiger Zinda Hai actor passing away” were sadder. I suppose the logic was that few people, today, would have clicked a link that said: “Ondanondu Kaladalli director passes away”. We are a society where RD Burman is the furthest back RJs will go on a “retro classics” show. (And that too, only the composer’s post-1970s work.) So maybe it’s worth pointing out that Ondanondu Kaladalli (1978), which won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Kannada, is one of the finest Kurosawa homages made anywhere in the world. If we call Sholay a “curry Western”, this film would be a “curry Chanbara”. (The latter term refers to the samurai cinema that existed long before Akira Kurosawa brought the genre to worldwide attention with Seven Samurai.) These films aren’t just about action. They’re also about the drama being played out in a (usually lawless) period setting.
Continued at the link above.
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Vijay
June 17, 2019
I’m so glad you mention Ondanondu Kaladali.. Its one of my favorite movies, saw it when I didnt know Samurais or Kurosowa. But for Kannada audience this was a treat. We surely miss him. Only hope, this movie becomes the cult classic it surely deserves.
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shaviswa
June 17, 2019
Despite such good movies, I wonder why Kannada film industry is not as popular as its South Indian cousins. Even Malayalam industry – with its small target audience – gets more coverage.
Girish Karnad is a great guy – actor, director, writer. I first saw him in the Malgudi Days TV series (directed by another Kannada popular director Shankar Nag). And then later in pathetic films like Kaadhalan, Minsara Kanavu etc. Tamil industry wasted him actually.
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Anu Warrier
June 17, 2019
Saw him in Ondanondu Kaladalli way after I’d watched him in Swami (which, by the way, I detested for its ending). But we’d met him at Bal Bhavan in Bangalore while we were still in school. I remember him introducing the film we were about to watch. He always came across as such a ‘gentle’man.
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Sai Ashwin
June 18, 2019
“Tiger Zinda Hai is just another variant of this kind of cinema. It will be forgotten in a couple of decades. If anything, we must be grateful to these films. In a way, they allowed Karnad to make the work that really mattered.”
This is pure savage from BR.
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An Jo
June 21, 2019
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An Jo
June 23, 2019
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An Jo
June 24, 2019
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