A Man Puts on a Woman’s Cloak
Ananya Kasaravalli’s 2016 film ‘Harikatha Prasanga’ (Chronicles of Hari)
Looking back at the Indian art films one has seen in the past five years, Ananya Kasaravalli’s Kannada language film Harikatha Prasanga (2016) is among the few that stand out. This movie is relatively less known hence the need for looking at it in some detail. It is set in the backdrop of Yakshagana, the traditional theater form of the Indian state of Karnataka. In Yakshagana, stories from epics or ancient texts (puranas) are performed by a dance and dialogue group to the accompaniment of background music. Traditionally the male-only performance culture has been prevalent in Yakshagana although there have been female artists of late who play both male and female roles.
Male-only performance culture
Male-only performance culture was present in other parts of the world too such as the ancient Greek theater, the English Renaissance theater and the Chinese opera. It continues even today in the Japanese Kabuki theater. Chen Kaige’s Palm d’Or winner, Farewell My Concubine (1993) features a male actor trained to play dàn (female roles) in the Peking Opera theater. Historically it was feared in England by the Renaissance anti-theatricality that theater “effeminated” the mind of male actors cross-dressing to play female roles and the female costume they wore could alter the gender of the male body beneath the costume. The film Harikatha Prasanga takes up the case of a male Yakshagana artiste — playing female roles — undergoing a gender identity crisis. It is not sure whether this is based on a true story. However, this idea offers scope for an imaginative film. The story is written by Gopalakrishna Pai who is the co-scriptwriter along with Ananya Kasaravalli and her father Girish Kasaravalli — one of the leading lights of Indian art cinema.
Synopsis
As per tradition, a male artiste Harishchandra — Hari in short — is made to play the female part in his Yakshagana troupe. Hari is popular, particularly among women who come to see his performance from far off places. Playing female roles in the Yakshagana performances night after night, Hari starts identifying himself with the opposite gender and wears female clothes during the day too. The opposition for it from the public forces him to leave his theater troupe. This story repeats in other troupes he joins. He is not wanted by his family either. Does it lead to a tragic end?
Structure
The narration of Hari’s story is punctuated with a parallel track containing interviews conducted by two documentary filmmakers who set out to know more about Hari, wondering whether he committed suicide. They meet various Yakshagana artistes and come to know contradictory opinions about him. Such a narrative style is usually adopted when there is a mystery surrounding the central character. The plot could be linear or non-linear. Harikatha Prasanga is of the former kind as events occur in it in a chronological order. But the film comes up with a variation. The interviewees call the deceased artiste by different names. This means that there were several artistes like Hari who played female roles and took to wearing female clothes in their daily lives. They suffered from the stigma attached to transgenders. One of the two interviewers jokes that she has come to see Hari (which is one of the names of god Vishnu) in everybody. The Hari character in the film has been conceived as a paradigm of male Yakshagana artistes who play female roles, leading tragic lives. The idea appears to be to piece together a story from the accounts of the interviewees and make a social criticism. This will work if there have been true occurances of many such artistes turning transgenders, getting a raw deal from the family and public in the process. Anyway, the main track can independently stand on its own.
**Article contains spoilers**
The Metamorphosis of Hari
The Yakshagana sequences have been chosen to resonate with the theme of the film. In the first sequence Hari plays the role of Prameela the beautiful woman warrior who established a kingdom for women as she hated men. It forebodes Hari’s entry into a woman’s world even if his dancing is not graceful. Hari wonders whether he is a man playing a woman or a woman playing a man. Kalyani, the lady who receives Yakshagana artistes at her home, points out that unlike other men who bring jasmine as in movies Hari brought kanakambaram (firecracker flowers). She identifies the effeminate Hari with the female roles he plays and says that only women understand feelings of other women. In the next Yakshagana sequence he is more refined as Prabhavathi readying for welcoming her beloved. The last sequence in which Hari plays Amba is significant as it echoes his situation. After the villagers’ protest against the saree clad Hari staying with him, the elderly benefactor cum co-artiste asks Hari whether he can go back to staying in his native place. When Hari explores it, his brother resents his return and shows hostility towards him. Hari’s sister and her family wouldn’t have anything to do with him and shut the door at his face. This is reminiscent of how Amba was rejected first by Salva and then by Bhishma. After taking a vow that she will avenge herself in the form of Shikandi, a eunuch, Amba curses Bhishma and jumps into the fire killing herself. Hari too is shown taking his life in the last part (although it is not in police record). This is when he is forced to come out of the woman’s world by shedding his saree and wear a dhoti.
Related film — Bannada Vesha (1988)
The colorful Yakshgana background of the film recalls yet another film set in that background made by director Ananya Kasaravalli’s father Girish Kasaravalli. The senior Kasaravalli’s remarkable film, Bannada Vesha (1988), too revolved around a Yakshagana artiste undergoing an identity crisis. Cast in the “Bannada Vesha” (Masked role) of Junjutti, the devil which others don’t want to do, he drives himself to exhaustion and collapses on the stage. The public thinks that the spirit has come on him and starts revering him. But this role of the devil alienates him from his family members. While he can stop playing the “Bannada Vesha” and start looking for a different role, Hari’s identification with the female gender is complete. Coming out of it will be tragic for him.
How does Harikatha Prasanga fare?
The film is shot mostly with a static camera, giving shots ample time for actors to perform. An example is the scene in which Hari in skirt sitting to the right of the frame, his mother sitting on the left and his brother Seena sitting in the middle. Hari informs them that he has quit the Yakshagana troupe as he can’t play one self at night and another during the day. Seena is upset to hear this and pours water on his head. It is the custom that when a relative passes away people take bath. Seena gives up Hari for dead by his response. The camera is static and there are no cuts from one character to another. The competent cinematography is by Udit Khurana with additional cinematography is by Balaji Manohar. Shrunga Vasudevan comes up with a memorable performance portraying the effeminate Hari undergoing an identity crisis.
Harikatha Prasanga is dedicated to Vaishali Kasaravalli, the mother of the director Ananya. Vaishali was a talented theater, film and TV actress. She also directed TV serials that were well received. It is good that Ananya continued with the pursuit of her artistic family. Perhaps the film could have focused more on the unique world of its unique character. However this is a worthy first film by the young filmmaker.
