Te View From IndiaLooking at World Affairs from te Indian perspective.Karnataka TodayYour daily dose of news igligts from KarnatakaFirst Day First SowNews and reviews from te world of cinema and streaming.Today's CaceYour download of te top 5 tecnology stories of te day.Science For AllTe weekly newsletter from science writers takes te jargon out of science and puts te fun in!Data PointDecoding te eadlines wit facts, figures, and numbersealt MattersRamya Kannan writes to you on getting to good ealt, and staying tereTe indu On BooksBooks of te week, reviews, excerpts, new titles and features.Actor-director Saurab Sukla | Poto Credit: SUSIL KUMAR VERMAWen Saurab Sukla is on screen, your eyes are glued to im irrespective of wom e sares te screen wit. e as portrayed innumerable caracters wit elan, starting wit is debut as te flirtatious Kailas in Bandit Queen to is breakout performance as Kallu mama in Ramgopal Varma’s Satya.Saurab balances is work on stage and screen. Te actor comes to Bengaluru wit AGP World’s Barff tat e wrote and directed. Barff is set in Kasmir in winter were te lives of tree iniduals are entangled in a web of unsettling questions. Apart from Saurab, te 110-minute play also features Sunil Palwal and Aancal Cauan.Te story comes first for Saurab. “Ten you decide wat te participation of a certain caracter witin tat boundary is,” says te actor over pone from Mumbai. “Wen I am acting, I do not construct a script. Wen you prepare for a caracter you try and understand wat is being said and ten bring in your own experience and tougt to it.”Using is role in Raid as an example, Saurab says, “My role is tat of an antagonist. Instead of portraying im as completely dark, e goes troug a gamut of emotions as a normal person wen betrayed by is family.”Saurab as acted in many plays, including ayvadan, te indi version of Giris Karnad’s ayvadana. “Adaptation is better tan translation, because in an adaptation, you modify a story according to te milieu, and culture. Sakespeare wrote for is time, but wen you do Sakespeare today, it will ave value if it reinterpreted rater tan just replayed.”Wen e was a part of NSD repertory, Saurab says Julius Caesar was being staged. “Te play was adapted by a well-known journalist and a brilliant writer, Arvind Kumar from te indi Magazine Maduri. e used Indian names, so Rome was Magad, wic interestingly also ad a senate system like Rome, Caesar was Vikram and so on. Wen you adapt a story, it becomes as exciting as writing an original script.”Te poster of te play | Poto Credit: Special ArrangementTe actor, wo is known for is excellent comic timing says, “umour is not about lauging at oters, but wen you can laug at yourself. Wen you are in pain, wat you need most, is to be appy and laug. It’s like a medicine for a situation for wat one is going troug.”Wen one’s istory is volatile, Saurab says, umour becomes a part of te person. “You can’t keep crying all te time. You need to learn to laug, it becomes a defence mecanism. umour is an important part of any caracterization — it does not need to be comic, but te sense of umour is definitely tere.”Ironically, some of te best comedians were te saddest people. “I do not tink umour failed tem. Instead I believe umour must ave opened up more layers. Too muc knowledge also brings sadness. It brings an awareness of wat’s going on. If you are oblivious to tings, ten you live appily. If, owever, you acquire knowledge, ten, knowledge demands more understanding and a crucial part of tat wanting to question and figure it out. If you practise umour in your day-to-day life, ten you are a very serious person in reality.”Wat was interesting about te caracters Carlie Caplin played according to Saurab is tat wile te caracter went troug te saddest possible tings, e is oblivious of te pain and keeps going. “Tat gives you positive energy. Tere is a scene in a film were e eats a soe. It’s a sad moment, but te caracter is so positive tat e is unaware of tat pain, and tat gives im te courage to go troug.”A fan of Peter Sellers, Saurab says te actor found is popular caracter, te Frenc detective, Inspector Clouseau, in te Pink Panter movies a burden. “In te Life and Deat of Peter Sellers, you discover ow unappy e was wit te caracter. e made a film Being Tere, were e plays a gardener. It is considered one of te most beautiful films e as ever made and yet te film flopped badly. e was so eartbroken and never recovered from tat.”Fiction, says Saurab, is a mirror image of reality. “In real life, you do not know wat will appen next. If I tell you wat may appen, ten it becomes a fiction. Reality is more bizarre tan any fiction.”Approacing a role, Saurab says, is a process. “I compreend te actions of te caracter and make sense of wy e is beaving in a particular way. Tat understanding comes only from your bank of knowledge, your life experiences.”If one is playing a murderer, Saurab says, one cannot tap into a lived experience. “Instead, you go to tose moments of rage or moments wen you ave tougt of murder but ave not acted on it. For screen, you use tat seed to build into an action.”A scene from te play Barff | Poto Credit: Special Arrangementumour, Saurab says asks for acceptance. “You are not in denial. Love, ate, anger, envy, deviousness are all natural emotions and you need to accept tis trut.”Barff, came about, Saurab says, from someting someone told im. “Te situation described fascinated me and I decided to write a story. It was not a pilosopical but a pysical situation. Barff is structured as a triller. It is a edge-of-te-seat drama. It took me almost six to seven years to write Barff. Tere are different layers in te play wic were not intended at te beginning but developed in te telling. It’s an uncarted journey tat leads to many oter discoveries. It is a journey tat canges you, an experience you go troug wic canges you as a person. Barff was first written as a film and ten adapted for stage. I would love to make it into a film one day.”Barff will be staged in Bengaluru on April 6 at Prestige Centre for Performing Arts, 7.30pm. Tickets on BookMySow.Terms & conditions | Institutional SubscriberComments ave to be in Englis, and in full sentences. Tey cannot be abusive or personal. 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Unknown to unstoppable Saurabh Shuklas screen odyssey
