Harish Sridhar’s Kalankari is about love, lust & everything in between

Kalank in Hindi means disgrace; kari is a Tamil suffix to refer to a woman’s status, profession or activity. Kamakshi, the protagonist of a play by Harish Sridhar, is tagged kalankari; let’s find out why. “The play, Kalankari, focuses on Kamakshi who is said to be carrying a curse — anyone who spends a night with her ends up dying the next morning,” Harish begins to tell us.

The plot revolves around Kamakshi’s predicament of taking care of her family with the help of her single working mother, after her father’s death. When she meets a man who wishes to take his own life, they devise a plan to help each other out.

Here’s when the plot takes a twist. Harish explains, “The conflict arises when they check to see if the curse is for real. As they do it, they grow closer to one another and their vulnerabilities surface. Whether the curse is real or is just a rumour; whether he dies or not, forms the rest of the play.”

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A dark comedy, Kalankari tries to address a few issues that plague the present  time, especially mental health, while understanding the sensitive nature of the subject. Interestingly, Harish got the idea of writing this play while he was reading a short story by Anton Chehkov. “I wanted to explore the importance of female agency, the male gaze with a bit of supernatural element added to it,” he says, adding, “I didn’t want to spoon-feed the audience or lecture them, but show the struggles of a single mother, explore fate and lust in an unconventional setting along with a bit of wackiness mixed to it.”

Harish is confident the play is sure to “entertain the audience with a lot of laughs but leave them with a lot to think about as well”.

Kalankari’s cast includes Smruthi Mohankumar, who plays Kamakshi. Smruthi is an actress and was last seen in Siva Karthikeyan’s Prince. Sukanya Balasubramanian, one of the supporting actors, is actively involved in theatre as well. The music is arranged by Badhri Seshadri, founder of Motta Maadi Music. “We are trying to push the usual norms of theatre music with this story complimenting the atypical storyline,” says Harish, and adds, “The lighting will be done by a long time collaborator of mine, Praveen, who is also behind the posters, which have received a lot of attention as well.”
The play runs for close to an hour.

Tickets at Rs 299.
August 20, 6.30 pm.
At Medai – The Stage, Alwarpet.

 Email: rupam@newindianexpress.com
 Twitter: @rupsjain

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