Jokumaaraswaami - Dr. Chandrashekar Kambara

When you are tired of reading modern day stories and looking for something different or interesting, folk tales can be a good option. If the folk tale turns out to be good, then it wont be surprising to see you pick up more folk tales for your next reading. "jOkumaaraswaami", written by Dr. Chandrashekar Kambara, is one such interesting folk tale.

This 70 page short play written in rural kannada language , is about infidelity, power, romance and rebellion in a male dominated society of rural karnataka. It talks about the numerous misadventures of a landlord across the village while the landlady goes on with a single jackpot adventure of her life :).. Even though most part of the story unfolds in a single day and there is hardly any scope to describe a character in the play, the dialogues are so well written that one gets a fair idea of each character in the play just by their conversation. If an author can make a reader picturize his characters just by the conversation in a play, then the author is successful in getting the reader involved into the story.

A special highlight of this play is that the conversations are a mix of dialogues and songs. The songs are well written and placed at some crucial moments where the reader can appreciate the situation better and take the play to much more imaginative level by interpreting the feel of the songs in his own way. Its a way of giving a poetic touch to a play and I feel that Mr.Kambar has done it aptly in this play.

In the latest edition of this book, Kambar gives details of when this play was first performed and which actor did what role. If you know these actors well, then you will surely visualize them while reading the book. For example, Girish Karnad performed the role of landlord in the play and few pages into this play, I could imagine Karnad performing the act in front of me. It is common that we unknowingly start giving a face to the characters of a book while reading depending on whom our mind would recollect while reading about the character. In this case, the author makes it easy for us by giving a face to his characters before the play begins.

Worth reading and you will like it as well.