On a Musical Note

It’s been almost 10 years since director Mira Nair showcased the great north Indian family with her cult film,Monsoon Wedding. Now,look out for its stage production on Broadway,based on the movie. In Delhi,to attend a screening of her movie The Namesake at the Pravasi Film Festival,Nair is writing the dialogues for the theatre version with the help of Sabrina Dhawan,the screenplay writer for the film. Vishal Bharadwaj is the music composer.

“It is not going to have an entirely Bollywood flavour,” says Nair,digging into a plate of gulab jamuns at The Habitat. The musical retains the elements and characters of the film where Lalit Verma (played by Naseeruddin Shah in the film) is the harassed father of the bride,preparing for her wedding. The other protagonist is Dubeyji (played by Vijay Raaz on the big screen),a wedding manager. “There will be a tent above the theatre audience. Dubey and his sidekicks will be aerialists on a trapeze who will build the tent above the audience,” explains Nair,who hasn’t finalised the cast. “In a musical,performers need to sing,dance and act as well so casting will take time,” says Nair,who also hopes to retain some of the movie cast.

To ensure that the musical is a grand spectacle,she has engaged African-American choreographer Bill T Jones,who recently did the Broadway musical Fela,based on life of the African composer-performer Fela Anikulapo Kuti. While the musical will open in 2011,the 52-year-old director is also feverishly completing the screen adaptation of Mohsin Hamid’s novel The Reluctant Fundamentalist. “Films have been made on the Partition,but nothing that represents the contemporary side of Pakistan,” says Nair,who assures that the film will not be a blueprint of the novel.