Retelling a timeless tale

Pratibha Singh Baghel as Umrao Jaan

Some stories refuse to gr­ow old. It was in 1899 that Mirza Hadi Ruswa first wrote the book, Umrao Jaan Ada. Then, 82 years later, Muzzafar Ali adapted it for a film that's as timeless as the beauty of its lead actor Rekha. JP Dutta did the same later in 2006 with Aishwarya Rai. And there is now a musical on the classic story that will be staged in Mumbai this weekend, 120 years after it was first conceived.

Bollywood composer Salim Merchant has produced it along with his brother, Suleiman. The soundtrack of the 1981 film, Merchant tells us, means a lot to him since it's how he was introduced to the world of Bollywood music when he was a kid. "I was eight years old when my father would play the album a lot at home. I had just started learning western classical music on the piano back then. And this album, in many ways, was my first brush with Indian classical music because the songs have shades of ghazals, kh­­­ayals and thumris. So, I got really attached to it and about a year and a half ago, when we decided to produce a Broadway-style musical with live songs, I thought, 'Why don't we just redo Umrao Jaan?'" he says.

Salim Merchant

Though, he adds, they decided not to borrow from the plot of the film. The team opted to base it on the book instead. Thus, there are thus elements in the play that you won't find in either of the two movies. And Merchant says that they have also taken the liberty of adding new layers to the storyline. For example, the character of Gauhar Mirza, who is the caretaker of the kotha in Lucknow in which Umrao Jaan lives, is secretly in love with her in this production, and becomes a thorn in the relationship she shares with Nawab Sultan. Not just that, there are also four original compositions that have been created especially for this play.

In fact, Merchant tells us that he spent considerable time with Khayyam, who composed the soundtrack of the 1981 film, to pick his brain while thinking of the music for the play. "He was most happy and supportive, and told us stories about how he envisioned this album and what the recording process was like, just so that we could travel back in time to the '80s. That helped me a lot to come up with a palette for the sound, and we have stayed true to the originals in our renditions. The only thing we did, though, is that the interludes involve music meant for kathak, instead of mujras," Merchant says.

As such, this is a slightly different approach to the story of an ill-fated courtesan whose life is denied the rightful glory it deserves. But, Umrao Jaan is also a woman who constantly refused to bow down in the face of adversity. She was never afraid of walking into the lion's den. That's a facet of her personality that we can all learn from, says Pratibha Singh Baghel, who essays the lead character in the musical, for which she read the book, watched the films and took lessons in Urdu diction. "Umrao Jaan also experienced a lot of tragedy. There is a scene where she meets a friend of hers who is about to get married to a nawab. And she feels bad that she can't attend it because of the person she has become, someone who only performs at weddings. But we can all learn from her level of hard work and postive attitude she has towards like," Baghel says about a character whose resilience was such that whenever life threw lemons at her, she at least tried making lemonade, regardless of whether it turned out sweet or sour.

On Today and tomorrow, 3 pm and 7.30 pm
At Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, National Centre for Performing Arts, NCPA Marg, Nariman Point.
Log on to insider.in
Entry Rs 750 to Rs 5,500

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