Bombay Dreams in the city of broken hearts

KARACHI: A bomb blast took place in one corner of the city and as people ran for their lives in Malir, the curtain was raised as Bombay Dreams, a musical directed by Shah Sharabeel, premiered at the Karachi Arts council on Tuesday night.

Bombay Dreams which is considered one of the milestones of modern day theatre bagged three Tony awards, the highest achievement in live American theatre, for best costume design, best choreography and best orchestrations when it was staged for the first time.

The local rendition of the same musical, albeit without live music, managed to bring the people of Karachi to their feet after two and a half hour entertainment filled hours with AR Rahman’s tunes adding a new dimension to the theatrical experience.

Based in Bombay, the play shows a small community of people living in slums of the city. Everyone from eunuchs to paan sellers are part of this community that suffers from issues like poverty and the threat of being evacuated; however, what makes them forget their problems and unites this community is Bollywood and when “Munni Badnaam Hui” and “Sheila ki Jawani” is played, no one cares about hunger and clothing.

The play follows the journey of Akash, a young boy from the slums and his journey to Bollywood.

Sharabeel did justice to the musical aspect of the play as throughout the entire production, the audience was kept enthralled as each member of the cast was motivated to keep performing on stage and at no point was a character stagnant. The first glimpse the audience had of the mise-en-scene (when everything appears before the audience in its arrangement) was so gripping with all the characters standing like statues with light emanating from the phul jaris they held and then breaking into song.

The set was another aspect that was appreciated and the entire auditorium was decorated like a wedding with vertically aligned lights and the top of the stage had ‘Salam Bombay’ written in yellow lights.

The lighting was perfect, spots smoothly followed the characters. Simon, the gaffer, must be mentioned for the ease with which he managed to pull off such a complex and continuously changing set up.

However, the best aspect of the play was the casting. Two of the main leads were cast only three days ago, Gohar Rasheed who took on the role of Akash never let the audience feel that the play was under rehearsed. However Saquib Sumeer who played the head of the eunuchs takes the cake for his outstanding acting skills as he infused energy even in the weakest of scenes with his body gestures. Special appreciation must be given to Sharabeel who totally changed Sumeer’s acting style as he earlier used to follow text book acting methods.

From choreography to make up and costumes to set design, the play was very impressive and one could tell the entire cast had worked immensely hard on it.

It is only plays like these that can revive theatre in Karachi which has sadly been given the identity of either period plays in very technical Urdu or plays pertaining to human rights or in some cases are frame by frame imitations of films.

There is still a long way to go for Sharabeel and Centre Stage Productions but the question to ask is when will he produce a play with live music and when will the producer finally create an original Pakistani play on the same scale?

Be that as it may, Bombay Dreams is a must see. It runs till February 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 27^th, 2011.