The Plays of Girish Karnad: Critical Perspectives ?

The postcolonial Indian theatre saw many meaningful encounters with our tradition. The drive to return and re-discover our tradition was inspired by a search for roots and identity. This was part of the whole process of decolonization of our life-style, values, social institutions, creative forms and cultural modes. Girish Karnad, a famous Indian playwright, probed into the Indian past to re-interpret it and make it relevant for the present times. There is a unique amalgam of the elements of tradition and contemporary in the plays of Karnad. It seems that themes taken from folklores, myths and Indian history turned into a vehicle to express contemporary issues like feminism, marginalization of castes and minority religions, violence, increasing fundamentalism, denigrating Indian politics and existentialism.