Anabhigna Shakuntala: A retelling of the death of Kalidasa

Dr KY Narayanaswamy's Anabhigna Shakuntala (The Unidentified Shakuntala) is an alternative retelling of the events leading up to the death of Kalidasa, who history says was found dead in the house of a prostitute in Colombo. The 95-minute Kannada play, which will be staged at Ranga Shankara on June 13 at 7.30 pm, will be presented by the Prasanga theatre group.
At the beginning of the play, Kalidasa has been found murdered in a prostitute's house in Colombo.As he was reading out his play Shakuntala to a gathered audience, he was knifed by an assassin in the crowd. The assassin's identity is not known, but at the time of the police's arrival, Kalidasa is found dying in the arms of the prostitute. The woman is arrested, but does not protest her innocence or guilt. She wordlessly submits to a death sentence in the morning, and has been lodged in jail. However, one of the characters in the play wishes to probe this mystery, and attempts to question the woman. Simultaneously, two other women arrive in the wake of Kalidasa's death, and it is revealed that all three women were in love with Kalidasa. The story of Kalidasa is then pieced together by the narratives of these three women, and in the end, the truth behind the murder is revealed.
At a deeper level, Anabhigna Shakuntala is a complex montage of ideas that deals with the question and loss of identity, commonly defined concepts of society, feminism, and the equations of power from the political to the personal sphere. Since its first staging, the play has won critical and popular acclaim at various theatre festivals in the country.