very interesting stuff about the communist-dominated literary establishment and the self-aggrandizing few who are considered the 'eminent litterateurs' cf. 'eminent historians', another bunch of rogues.
the tendency to ape white-guy literary formulae-du-jour is rampant.
the sad thing is that someone who is truly innovative is ignored and hounded.
that happened to ov vijayan in malayalam. he was almost certainly the greatest indian novelist of the last century, given his immense talent and his prodigious breadth of styles -- no two of his novels were alike, everything from the brechtian 'dharmapuri' to the faulknerian 'generations' to the transcendental 'gurusagaram'.
besides, vijayan invented magical realism independently of gabriel garcia marquez at roughly the same time. vijayan's first novel, that which turned malayalam literature upside down, was 'the legend of khasak', and it is as magical as anything the latin americans have produced.
yet, vijayan was never given the jnanpith prize. the reason was that he renounced the standard-issue communism of his youth and drew more and more from hindu philosophy and indian sources. i especially liked the relatively simple 'path of the prophet' and the epic 'generations'. as an apostate, of course, the comrades wanted to murder him, or at least do tejo-vadham. thus no jnanpith, although many lesser mortals got it. think sully prudhomme and tolstoy re. the nobel.
besides, vijayan did mock the dynasty quite harshly, with nehru as the 'hero' of the scatological 'dharmapuri', with his courtiers literally consuming his feces. vijayan's treatment of indira was almost as ruthless, with the gothic horror tales of 'the wart' and 'the foetus' (the eponymous hero of the latter being quite recognizably sanjay gandhi). in 'path of the prophet', the sikh sujan singh and his family are decimated by congress goons in the anti-sikh riots. thus vijayan -- a non-conformist anyway, who had no time for sycophancy or running with the herd -- did not endear himself to the powers-that-be.
malayalam too has its share of these 'sarkari' literary poseurs. they are the ones who get the awards and the encomiums. those who are true artists end up in the wilderness in this personality-cult-ridden and communist-addled establishment in india which is as corrupt as the rest of society.
so i am not surprised about bhyrappa, and i am glad someone is bringing out the truth and the whole truth about murthy. i like the analysis here about 'samskara' which i always thought was less wonderful than it was portrayed to be. (i have only seen the film.) i do wish sandeep would bring out the truth about another kannada literary mogul, the deliciously self-aggrandizing girish karnad.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: AH Venkitesh
Good one. Looks like commie professor runs away in this case.
Sunday Slug Fest: Anantha Murthy and Bhyrappa
June 04, 2007
Sandeep
Sandeep
This was waiting to happen:
Prof U R Ananthamurthy has declared he will not take part in literary functions in future.The decision came in the wake of strong criticism for his reaction on S L Bhyrappa's controversial novel Aavarana that appeared in a section of the media. Prof Ananthamurthy said he was "misquoted" and in the wake of strong criticism of his comments, decided not to take part in any literary functions.
Not Ananthamurthy's decision but his criticism of S L Bhyrappa.
This episode is a good jolt to shake off my sloth and post my thoughts on S L Bhyrappa's (latest) Aavarana.
... deleted.
10 comments:
Hello Rajeev,
Thanks for posting my entry on your blog. You're bang right on OVV, I've read most of his works and agree with your analysis. More about Bhyrappa in the coming days on my blog.
I've however, written a 4-part series on Girish Karnad: I've deconstructed most of his "plays." Here, if you want to read them:
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2005/05/10/denigrating-indian-culture-the-girish-karnad-way-part-1/
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2005/05/11/denigrating-indian-culture-caricaturing-yayati/
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2005/05/13/denigrating-indian-culture-eroticising-mricchakatika/
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2005/06/03/denigrating-indian-culture-confounding-yavakrida-part-1/
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2005/06/17/denigrating-indian-culture-confounding-yavakrida-part-2/
http://www.sandeepweb.com/2005/06/22/denigrating-indian-culture-concluding-thoughts/
Thanks.
sandeep, thank you for the pointers to what you have said about that champion self-promoter girish karnad. i have read the first piece, and look forward to the rest.
i did see 'fire and rain' mostly to see hampi, and i was impressed by chiranjeevi's robust acting. also, i thought prabhu deva finally got the perfect role :-). but the storyline appeared thin.
whatever happened to kannada film, anyway? there's only girish kasaravalli nowadays making an occasional good film. for the good old days of 'chomana dudi', 'vamsa vriksha', 'kaadu' etc! did i see 'hamsageethe' as a film? i can't remember.
Rajeev,
Fire and Rain is absolute nonsense. I have seen the play staged and it's all "full of sound and fury signifying nothing." It's also part of my series on Karnad's plays.
Kannada film industry has gone the Bollywood-crap-filmmaking way. I personally dislike Girish Kasarvalli's films. I've also seen Vamsha Vruksha, a horrible cinematic adaptation of Bhyrappa's classic work that catapulted him to fame.
Indeed, Hamsageethe is a film based on Ta Ra Su's novel of the same name. Apart from Anant Nag's performance, it's a pathetic work by G.V. Iyer. I speak from reading the book AND watching the movie. You might like it if you only watch the movie.
Cheers!
sandeep, nice posts on girish karnad. i have only known him as a good actor. we should probably start thinking of all popular figures/award winners as "secularits" unless otherwise proven.
bhyravappa's book has gone for 9th print in less than 4 months and this has upset the "secularists". www.churmuri.com has an exclusive interview with him. you can watch it here.
video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5832024563382464596
just as expected, the chindu has come out with support of URA who criticised Bhyravappa. the kannada literary circle is on fire and thankfully, Bhyravappa has got lots of support this time.
more about the chindu review here:
http://cbcnn.blogspot.com/2007/06/hindu-view-is-not-plural-anti-hindu.html
Dear HF,
They're all the same. I've followed the Kannada literary scene for a few years now and the picture is ugly.
URA is a card-carrying commie and I intend to do a series on him, like I did on Karnad.
BTW, the name is SL Bhyrappa :-)
Oops! Got the name mixed up. I cant wait for English version of his book.
Here is further insight on this issue posted in a kannada group.
__
Its a fact and Nobody can dispute the attrocities
carried out by the Muslim Rulers on indians in India.
Anantha Murthy is just an opportunist and is nowhere
stands with S.L Byrappa in quality of literature. Its
like comparing Dr. Raj's "Bangarada manyshya" movie
with Thriller Manju's Third class masala movies.
Anantha Murthy's books could not even sold full copies
of the first version itself. Most of the time it was
pushed to Government libraries with Influence. On the
other way Byrappa's "Bavarana" all 9 prints are sold
out and publishers are working out on 10th print.
thats y our gr8 person "Shivarama karantha" said,
wonder How such a corrupt minded uncivilized Anantha
Murthy mesmorised Politicians to get the Prestigious
"JNANAPEETHA" award to his cap??.
if he has any strength/skills let him show it in his
pen, instead of try to misuse the public opportunities
to criticise popular kannada writers.
Just b'cos he & his son married to a christians,
Murthy doesn't have any rights to insult the entire
Indians.
Danyavadagalu
how interesting. according to the previous poster, ananthamurthy and son are married to christists. which would explain why UAR is so anti-hindu. christists by (reverse) injection. or perhaps christism as a virus, sort of like syphilis or AIDS. and perhaps there's some money in it as well.
sorry to hear, sandeep, that you do not like girish k's films. i think he makes reasonably good ones, although i cannot name any that i have seen. i realize i haven't seen hamsageethe, nor have i read it. it is very sad that so little indian fiction is translated into english.
Hey Rajeev,
Christism or any other ism has nothing to do with URA's anti-Hindu rhetoric. In just a word it is: MONEY. URA is an opportunist par excellence. As I indicated in my post, he has knack of knowing very well in advance which direction the wind blows.
Well, it's not that Girish K's films are bad but they're pretty mediocre. I've seen better Kannada films. His latest, Naayi Neralu (Dog's Shadow) is a disaster. It was based on a superb novel by the same Bhyrappa. Girish has ruined it completely.
I always thought that our socialist tendencies destroyed the Indian economy; only now I realize that it did much greater damage - it uprooted culture and corroded history and literature.
We are all - in a sense living in a Tegmarkian world of multiple parallel universe's. We escape the Commiverse and get to Chirstiverse; on exit of which we are trapped in a Dhimmiverse - a series of collective mass mental illness.
On the subject of Kannada cinema - I do not know the language and had no means of knowing what was happening; but I was always partial to the Nag brothers who seemed to act quite well. I did like the TV adaptation of R.K Narayan's town of Malgudi; with the kid playing Swami - Master Manjunath doing a terrific job.
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