Once Upon a Cinema: The 'Karate King' who also directed Malgudi Days

Once Upon a Cinema is series which will illuminate the dark, unexplored crevices of Indian cinema. In it, the writer will showcase stories and faces long forgotten, share uncommon perspectives about stars and filmmakers, and recount tales that have never been told. A man is confronted by six goons wearing black karategi and yellow belts. The man effortlessly beats all six to a pulp. A police officer, while arresting a brattish woman who ran over a poor milkman, is prevented from carrying out his duties by a sinister bald man, this time sporting a yellow karategi and a black belt, obviously an instructor. The inspector is initially taken by surprise but soon his own martial arts skills are on display, and he goes head-to-head with the karate instructor, quite literally. After a few hits, the disoriented karate instructor sees the inspector split into three, making elaborate “karate poses”. Needless to say who wins the bout. The first scene is from a film called Bhale Chathura (1990), and the second is from SP Sangliyana 2 (1990). In both cases, the man delivering the lethal chops and kicks is Shankar Nag, also known as the “Karate King”. Shankar Nagarakatte aka Shankar Nag ’s first foray into screen acting was as a veritable Indian samurai. But let’s take a few steps back. Before finding his way into mainstream Kannada cinema, it was theatre that fired young Shankar Nag’s imagination. He was fascinated by the rich and diverse expanse of Marathi theatre, and plunged headlong into it. It was during his theatre days that he came in touch with Sai Paranjpye , who was making a name for herself staging plays in Marathi. This was also the time when Shankar met his future wife Arundhati Rao - who we Hindi filmgoers have seen in Dil Se, Sapnay and Paa. Some say that Shankar assisted Sai in some of her early films. It is unclear which specific ones, but going by the timeline he must have worked with her on Jadu Ka Shankh (1974), Sikandar (1976) and Sparsh (1980). Shankar was also an active participant in the Chhabildas Theatre Movement, a platform for Marathi experimental theatre spearheaded by the likes of Arvind and Sulabha Deshpande. During this period, he wasn’t just a budding actor. The 25 year-old Shankar Nag co-wrote the screenplay of a Marathi film about the legendary Chapekar brothers killing two British officers. The film was called 22 June 1897 (1979), and the others who formed part of the writing team were Nachiket Patwardhan and Vijay Tendulkar. By 1979, Shankar and Arundhati were married and the two of them made a beeline for their home state, intending to contribute to the thriving creative scene in Bangalore of the late 70s. While Arundhati continued working in theatre, Shankar wanted to get into films. He had already worked in a Marathi film called Sarvakshi, which co-starred Smita Patil and Nilu Phule. But the first notable Kannada film in which Shankar featured was Ondanondu Kaladalli (1979), directed by Girish Karnad . It might as well have been Girish’s tribute to Kurosawa. Sweeping in its scope, Ondanondu Kaladalli was a period action drama, meditating on medieval warriors and their honour codes. Shankar played a ronin-esque mercenary or soldier of fortune. His electric presence lent a certain authenticity to the film, with many critics drawing a parallel between him and Toshiro Mifune. For his very first Kannada film, Nag won the Silver Peacock award at the 7th International Film Festival of India (IFFI). In the same year, Shankar Nag made his first hardcore, out-there commercial spectacle called Seetharamu (1979). The theme was as delightfully bizarre as Indian mainstream cinema can get. The dead hero’s brain is transplanted into the heroine, and she acquires all his memories (and fighting skills), unleashing hell on his murderers. The film was later remade into the cult classic Diya aur Toofan (1995) featuring Mithun Chakraborty and Madhu. But the one film that made Shankar Nag a sensation amongst the masses was Auto Raja (1980), in which he plays an autorickshaw driver. Overnight, Shankar became a cult figure in Karnataka. To this day, autorickshaw drivers across the state revere him, and his face adorns their vehicles and the Shankar Nag Auto Drivers Association is still very active and omnipresent. The films that followed consolidated Shankar Nag’s status as an action hero. While his own sensibilities were more muted and artistic, Shankar infused his fight scenes with a lot of pizzazz and flourish. Most of his action roles had plenty of martial arts posturing, which led to the moniker “Karate King”, a term still associated with him. But while the stardom and mass appeal made him a household name in Karnataka, Shankar thirsted for the kind of work he had done before he became a star. And theatre provided him that sanity, which led him to set up a theatre group called Sanket. Shankar also soon delved into film directing with another classic, Minchina Ota (1980), where Shankar and his brother Anant Nag played carjacks who made their living by burgling cars on highways. Three years later, he remade it in Hindi as Laalach (1983) in which the brothers were replaced by Vinod Mehra and Ranjeet. Geetha (1981) was co-written by Shankar and his wife Arundhati, and had lilting music by Ilaiyaraaja . The film established Shankar as a romantic hero as well. The heroine was Akshata Rao aka Padmavati Rao, who has featured in major Bollywood vehicles like Pardes, Padmaavat and so on. Shankar’s 1985 directorial Accident was about an influential politician’s attempts to save his son, who had run over a bunch of pavement dwellers. One of the stories in a popular 2014 Argentinian anthology film called Wild Tales/ Relatos salvajes has an uncanny resemblance with Shankar’s film. The segment is named La Propuestos, and is about a wealthy father who tries to save his son from being sentenced for running over a pregnant woman. Between 1980 and 1987, Shankar Nag directed ten films. As an actor, he was on a roll, starring in film after film where he was mounted as a hero of the masses. He was wildly popular in Karnataka, but his nationwide familiarity is due to a work which is far removed from the commercial trappings which made him a bankable star. R.K. Narayan came away with a sour aftertaste from the making of the Hindi film Guide (1965), which was adapted from his novel of the same name. The story, like most of his tales, was set in a small south Indian town called Malgudi, but was transported by the makers to a north Indian setting and sensibility, which did not sit well with the writer. But when producer T.N. Narasimhan made the film Banker Margayya (1983), R.K. Narayan was satisfied with the output. So when Narasimhan decided to make a TV serial based on Narayan’s series of tales called Malgudi Days , Narayan provided his consent.

The quaint village of Agumbe was chosen as a stand-in for the fictional town of Malgudi, and Shankar Nag was chosen as the director. Shankar poured his heart and soul into the project, not only directing but appearing in a few episodes. Kannada superstars Vishnuvardhan and Girish Karnad also acted in the show. There is a certain aura that was created in the series, which the generations who grew up watching the show will vouch for. It was all Shankar Nag’s doing, by way of translating the look-and-feel of Malgudi into the screen. The serial was a hit and Shankar Nag attained nationwide fame as a director, if not an actor. And this time, it was for a work which was more in line with his true sensibilities as a creative entity. Shankar Nag was just 35 years old when his life was brutally cut short by an automobile accident. In barely three decades of existence, Shankar had built an enviable body of work on stage, in film and on television, while also being known for his radical ideas in urban planning (he had some revolutionary ideas about introducing cable cars, metro rail and low-cost housing). But to the millions of Kannadiga film lovers, he is also the beloved Auto Raja, the Karate King, the cult hero of the masses. Amborish is a National Film Award winning writer, biographer and film historian.

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