Date:05/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/05/stories/2008110551580600.htm

Karnataka - Mysore

Now, Kuvempu will come alive on the silver screen

Muralidhara Khajane

Ritwik Simha will portray the life and work of the poet
His father, C.R. Simha, will don the lead role

— PHOTO: M.A. SRIRAM

C.R. Simha in Kuvempu.

Mysore: A film is now being made on poet Kuvempu (K.V. Puttappa). Ritwik Simha, director, is all set to portray the life, work and vision of the Rashtrakavi on celluloid.

Widely regarded as the greatest poet of 20th century Kannada literature, Kuvempu is the first among the seven recipients of Jnanpith award for Kannada work.

He is the second among Kannada poets to be revered as Rashtrakavi after Manjeshwara Govinda Pai.

He is well-known for some of his phrases and in particular for his contribution to universal humanism.

It is significant that C.R. Simha, theatre and cine artiste, has been staging Rasa Rishi, a one-man play which takes viewers through the different stages of Kuvempu’s life. Now his son, Ritwik Simha, is shouldering the responsibility of making a film on Kuvempu with the same title with his father in the lead role. It is not easy to make a film on Kuvempu whose multi-dimensional persona is so much a part of the Kannadiga’s psyche. It is a challenging proposition.

It is also significant that except an attempt by Gnana Rajashekharan who has immortalised Subrahmanya Bharati in Tamil, no one has tried to portray the life of a poet on celluloid.

Shooting for the film commenced on Monday at Udayaravi, Kuvempu’s residence, in Jayalakshmipuram here.

Speaking to The Hindu, Ritwik Simha said that he decided to make the film inspired mostly by Attenborough’s Gandhi, Ketan Mehta’s Sardar Patel and Shyam Benegal’s Subhas Chandra Bose. He and his father started working on the script five years ago.

“Though it is difficult to bring the grandeur and the epic quality of Gandhi, it is possible to inculcate that film’s spirit. It is a biographical film which deals with how Putta, a young boy of Kuppalli, transformed into Rashtrakavi Kuvempu. The film is set in the period between 1910 and 1990,” he said.

Basavaraj wields the camera, poet H.S. Venkatesh Murthy and the senior Simha have penned the dialogues. The director is making use of Kuvempu’s poems extensively in the film.

He is planning to shoot the film in Kuppalli, the native place of the poet, and in and around Tirthahalli, and various locations in Mysore, where Kuvempu lived for a long time.

Portions of Kuvempu’s plays Jalagaara and Smashana Kurukshetra will be used in the film. The contemporaries of Kuvempu will also figure in it. Master Anil and Harish will don the roles of Kuvempu in his childhood and as a young man in the film, respectively.

“To make the film authentic it has been decided to cast newcomers, especially those with a theatre background,” the director said.

Shimoga Subbanna, Rajesh Krishnan, R.K. Padmanabha, Vijaya Prakash and Hemanth will sing for the film. Actor Upendra will also lend his peculiar voice.

“We have decided to compose new tunes for Kuvempu poems to make them effective,” said Manohar who has scored the music. Initially, the film will be made in Kannada. It will be released with sub-titles in other parts of the country and abroad later.

“After Kuvempu’s demise, and when I was staging Rasa Rishi, his daughter, Tarini, invited me to Udayaravi and handed over her father’s clothes to me. I am using them in the film. I am proud of playing the role of a humanitarian,” said the director’s father.

To whether the film is a docudrama on Kuvempu, Ritwik Simha said, “We have taken care not to make a docudrama.”

Ritwik Simha clarified that the film has no resemblance to Rasa Rishi. It is just a genesis for the film. He said that it is not an art film but a big-budget commercial film and will be released in theatres by February 2009.