A walk down memory lane for old timers and a novel opportunity for the young to live the tragic romance for the first time, the epic retelling on stage of the iconic Mughal-e-Azam deserves all round applause. Prince Saleem and fiesty Anarkali relive their legendary romance as director Feroz Abbas Khan recreates the magnum opus on stage. Honestly, a theatrical adaption of the K. Asif &rsquo;s 1960 classic was never easy as it uses timeless music, opulent sets, memorable dialogues and stirring performances to tell the love story so deeply entrenched in popular culture that even a tribute could be taken as scurrilous if not treated with virtuosity. Its memorable dialogues and lilting music are part of cinematic lore, referred to by film scholars and college students alike. &ldquo;I always felt that yeh theatre hi hai (it&rsquo;s already very theatrical),&rdquo; says the soft-spoken Khan, whose career has encompassed theatre, film and television. Khan explains that in several ways, the original film is already a musical with theatrical aesthetics. &ldquo;It has songs, vocals, sufi, and qawwali. Its roots are also in theatre. The film was even inspired by a play called Anarkali,&rdquo; says the director, who has retained all original songs from the film, barring two. Khan, who has directed well-known dramas like Tumhari Amrita, Salesman Ramlal and Mahatma Vs Gandhi, says, &ldquo;Yes! It was a tough decision to create a drama from a film like Mughl-e-Azam. For me it was tougher to convince my audience to accept Mughl-e-Azam in a different medium because people are emotionally connected with the film, or they have read about it or they already know about it.&rdquo; Having directed both films and plays, Khan has learnt over the years that the two art forms differ broadly in terms of their aesthetics and language. Taking a close-up, for instance, is unattainable onstage. &ldquo;If I had a close-up, Anarkali&rsquo;s eyes would say everything,&rdquo; smiles Khan, who created a dream sequence to convey the same emotions. &ldquo;She&rsquo;s imagining her marriage to Salim, they&rsquo;re dreaming together, and then it goes into dialogue to supplement it.&rdquo; According to Khan, he has successfully translated most of the classic to theatre language. But in the process, he trimmed the three-hour, 18-minute film to a two-hour, 15-minute play. In fact, the story was originally created as a play, written in Lahore in 1922, titled Anarkali, he points out. The saga had various tellings in the film too, including the 1953 hit of the same name, starring Pradeep Kumar and Bina Rai. While K. Asif shot Mughal E-Azam over 500 days and took nine years to complete, Khan&rsquo;s play was set in motion in January and premiered in November this year. &ldquo;We know we can&rsquo;t measure up to the film,&rdquo; says Khan. &ldquo;But we&rsquo;ve surely created a new theatre experience,&rdquo; he declares. Thanks to Khan&rsquo;s tremendous effort, it&rsquo;s for the first time that Mughae-Azam is being presented in a Broadway format by an Indian. In a way we can say that for the first time in India, Broadway has taken off.<img src="http://magarticles.magzter.com/articles/10566/206374/588f2f746fbe1/1485778743_loc.jpg"" owidth=600 oheight=302" />Right from the curtain-up, it mesmerizes you with its visual treatment and beautiful live music. From Lata Mangeshkar&rsquo;s silvery voice welcoming viewers before the curtains are raised to Neil Patel&rsquo;s ornate set design, Manish Malhotra&rsquo;s shimmering costumes, David Lander&rsquo;s light design, Richard Nowel&rsquo;s sound, John Narun&rsquo;s projection design and Mayuri Upadhya&rsquo;s choreography, Khan has assembled a stellar team of technicians for the production. The company Shapoorji Pallonji, which had produced the original film, has also bankrolled the stage production. Mangeshkar&rsquo;s recorded message recalls her experience of singing the Naat Beqas Pe Karam Kijiye (Have Mercy on the Helpless) song for music composer Naushad. Mangeshkar congratulates Khan&rsquo;s team for bringing the film to the stage and wishes viewers a good time for the spectacle that is about to commence. From costumes to sets to lighting, the play seems to have roped in the best in the business to create this visual masterpiece. The drama starts with an introduction of Sangtarash, a sculptor and a narrator, who introduces Akbar&rsquo;s palace and beautifully carved windows and pillars come down in front of you. You think of a beautiful, fresh morning and the smell of lobaan creates that smoky and mysterious air all around. You think of a war between Prince Saleem and Emperor Akbar and the light projections create that impression of a battlefield. You are transported back to the Mughal Era where Saleem and Anarkali become a household name and you immediately connect with their love story. As the drama reaches it highpoint, like when Saleem and Anarkali are meeting away from prying eyes, you feel like warning them about the Emperor&rsquo;s arrival. Since music is at the core of MughalE-Azam&rsquo;s popularity, Khan put forward a non-negotiable condition while finalising the cast, that the actors must also be singers. &ldquo;My&nbsp;Anarkali should be able to sing. Madhubala couldn&rsquo;t.&rdquo; Khan firmly believes that a true musical involves live music and singing, and not lip-syncing to pre-recorded songs. &ldquo;Since it&rsquo;s a live presentation, our actress is singing live so finding someone who is a singer a dancer and an actress was the minimum requirement of the role,&rdquo; he explains. Composer Piyush Kanojia, who has reinterpreted the songs, adds, &ldquo;From &lsquo;Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya&rsquo; to &lsquo;Mohe Panghat Pe&rsquo;, we have re-recorded each song with live instruments and given it a new texture, while retaining&nbsp;its classic feel. Nobody can create such great music and we thought it was important to take people back in time and make them experience what they did when they first watched the songs of this film.&rdquo; Khan says, &ldquo;In cinema, you have the liberty for retake or close-ups, but in a drama we have no retakes. People will come to watch the drama with the film in the mind so without disturbing them giving a new memory was necessary. For me this drama is a tribute to K. Asifji. It&rsquo;s his work I am just presenting it in different medium.&rdquo; As daunting as it may sound, Khan wasn&rsquo;t too nervous. &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve done a substantial amount of theatre, so for me, it&rsquo;s part of my evolution as a director,&rdquo; he says. According to Khan, there are two kinds of audiences in the auditorium: those who have seen Mughal-E-Azam and those who haven&rsquo;t. &ldquo;I&rsquo;m more excited to hear from the former,&rdquo; he says. Recreating the film onstage has been a dream for Khan, ever since he saw the black and-white film re-released in colour in 2004. But it was only in January that he dared to actualise it. He approached the chairman of National Centre for the Performing Arts&nbsp;(NCPA) Khushroo N Suntook with the idea. &ldquo;He was so kicked that we immediately approached Shapoorji Pallonji, the producers of the film, for the rights,&rdquo; recalls Khan, adding that the producers didn&rsquo;t just agree to share the rights, but also offered to be partners in producing the play along with the NCPA. There was a team for light and projection work especially hired and they carried huge experience of Broadway too. John Narun, projection designer, whose experience includes working on Madonna&rsquo;s concerts and handling productions at the Radio City Mega&nbsp;Hall, New York. Designer Neil Patel, a recipient of the Obie Award and Helen Hayes Award, has worked on production design for the play. Narun, who comes with a professional Broadway experience says, &ldquo;To give an authentic look, I watched the film and studied many period films, read books and took help of internet. The way the windows or doors should be made, or what will give better impact through projection was all esearched.&rdquo; Just to add, there was a complete line production team behind the drama right from the ideation and execution. We also spoke to Namrata Ahmed from Rapid Water Production, who says, &ldquo;Mughal-e-Azam was certainly a drama on a grand scale, so there was a need for a complete and experienced line production group. A Line Producer for a drama does everything what a Director would need for executing his dream,&rdquo; she informs. &ldquo;It involves everything from story development to selecting the right kind of talent for different roles, recruiting them and negotiating for money etc. We were basically assisting the director on his every move. It was a massive responsibility.&rdquo; Choreographer Mayuri Upadhya says, &ldquo;We have 28 dancers in the show and it took me almost two months to put everything together. The first challenge for me was to select trained Kathak dancers and train them. We know the film took seven years to complete, but we were expected to do the same thing in just two months. We had to call dancers from different places in the country, like Indore and Delhi. Some of them have taken leave from their colleges and offices to be part of the troupe. I am not their Guru, but they all are from different gharanas, but they need to sync with each other. It is a huge culture change for them.&rdquo; Costumes also play a major role in the musical drama. Designer Manish Malhotra, who has created the costumes says, &ldquo;The costumes are presented with pure extravagance using jewelled tones such as shades of ruby red, emerald and royal blue with intricate zardozi embroidery and benarasi work on classic silhouettes. The kalidars have more flair and all the pieces have our signature touch of glamour and elegance. We created approximately 550 costumes for all characters, thoroughly researched on the functionality aspect by sitting through rehearsals, understanding the choreography and movement so each garment could allow absolute comfort and mobility.&rdquo; According to Malhotra, &ldquo;It was a very new thing for me also. In a film I can make changes, but here there is no chance of any mistake. I was so into the drama that I had to stop the production for my own stores.&rdquo; With a budget of around ₹1.5 crore, Mughal-e-Azam was the most expensive film made in its time. Unwilling to divulge the budget for the play, Deepesh Salgia, Group CEO, Shapoorji Pallonji, says, &ldquo;When it comes to classics, we don&rsquo;t talk of budgets.&rdquo; However, he says, &ldquo;The play is very expensive and made with a budget which is more than that of any other play till date. I can not reveal the complete cost, but can give you an idea, for example, the cost of costumes of the actors is almost equal to the cost of any drama. Whenever anything related to Mughl-e-Azam will be made, it will be larger than life.&rdquo; Mughal-e-Azam is very dear project, he says, adding, &ldquo;We are emotionally connected with the film. Some years back we launched the coloured version of the film, so when Feroz came up with this idea, we asked him to give more accurate details. After discussing the complete drama and his vision, we decided to sponsor it and we bore the compete cost.&rdquo;

Staging The Iconic

English

Spanish(español)

Bengali(বাঙালি)

Gujarati(ગુજરાતી)

Hindi(हिन्दी)

Malayalam(മലയാളം)

Tamil(தமிழ்)

Telugu(తెలుగు)

Art Soul Life

Gone too soon

TRANSCENDING BOUNDARIES

Symbols of NATURE

BETWEEN DREAMS AND ILLUSIONS

FINAL SHOW OF THE CHAOS TRILOGY III

ALIGNING Paths of Eight Artists

Celebrating Subtlety

ENGINEERING THE ARTISTIC VISION

LINES, LANDSCAPES AND LUCID TOUCH

CASTING PHAD IN NEW MOULD

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