Sound of Musicals

Consequently,we’re being treated to a number of musicals this season — Fiddler on the Roof,Hello Dolly and the biographies of the poets Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Sahir Ludhianvi called Mujhse Pehli Si Mohabbat Mere Mehboob Na Maang and Sahir: His Life and Loves respectively,besides the National School of Drama’s Zara Bada Ek Basheer on the Malayalam writer Vaikom Mohammed Basheer.

“Musicals attract more people than ordinary plays,” says George Pulinkala,director of Fiddler on the Roof. His adaptation of the Broadway hit was staged before a packed house on October 31 and November 1.

The cast too finds creative satisfaction in the happy mélange of song,dance and acting. As Ravi Raj Sagar,director of another Broadway adaptation,Hello Dolly,says,“Musicals are fun to make and fun to watch.” KK Kohli,producer of Mujhse Pehli Si…,which was staged earlier this month,traces the audience’s “instant connect with musicals” to India’s music-rich folk theatre like nautanki and jatra. Abhilash Pillai,a faculty member at the NSD,who directed Zara Bada…,says,“A normal play cannot bring alive the world that occupied the writer Basheer — the stars,the particles of the moon,the tiny birds. We used around 14 songs and the dialogue was like punctuation to give the audience time to sink in what the lyrics had painted.”

Buoyed by the success of musicals in the Capital,Kohli is set to revive his 10-year-old musical Bichhrey Paani,a story of the undivided Punjab,for which he has culled independence-era songs like the one composed by students of the Lahore Government College after Bhagat Singh was sent to the gallows. For his plays,instrumentalists sit in the wings while the chorus is positioned backstage. Recorded music frequently bolsters live singing,but as Pramila Le Hunte,who directs Sahir — which has 17 live songs and 30 recorded tracks — says,“I’d like just one live instrument,a tabla or a string instrument,so that nothing distracts from Sahir’s lyrics.”

“It isn’t song and dance all the way,” says Sagar. For,there are choreographers to hire,musicians to choose and you need actors who can sing. Pulinkala auditions first for singers and then decides on the lead actors from among them,while Le Hunte “worked around the fact that the actor playing Sahir couldn’t sing”. “I used devices like having Sahir’s mother and his nurse — actor Aarti Wahi in double role — sing many songs. Another actor,Anil George,who plays Yash Chopra,sings Kabhi na jaon chhod kar. Thus,with only three singing actors,I put across the essence of Sahir’s life and music,” she says.

Musicals are also an expensive proposition — often costing double that of an ordinary play. Kohli paid around Rs 45,000 for instrumentalists alone when Mujhse Pehli Si… was staged. Fiddler was made on a budget of Rs 8 lakh,while Hello Dolly cost Rs 5 lakh. But then comes the first inkling of good tidings: “The first thing the sponsors ask is,‘Is it a comedy?’ Fortunately,most musicals are,” says Sagar. Such is the demand for Hello Dolly that Sagar has stopped bulk corporate bookings this year in order “to leave seats for other theatre lovers”. Call it the sweet song of success.

Sahir will be staged at Kamani on December 13. Hello Dolly will be staged at the Shri Ram Centre on November 21,December 5,6,12,13