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Dhriti Gandhi Ranjan
Dhriti Gandhi Ranjan

THEATRE

Mughal-e-Azam the musical brings nostalgia back to Delhi

mughal_final L-R: Mayuri Upadhya, Manish Malhotra, Feroz Abbas Khan, Deepesh Salgia, Farrahnaz Irani and Deepak Bajaj

Nostalgia in romantic films takes us back to the love saga of Salim and Anarkali in Mughal-e-Azam. Soon Delhiites will be able to enjoy the film’s heart touching performances, thunderous dialogues and mesmerising dance sequences live as the broadway-styled musical play, Mughal-e-Azam – The Musical. Directed by Feroz Abbas Khan of Tumhari Amrita fame, the two hours twenty minutes musical will be staged in Delhi from September 8-17 at Jawaharlal Nehru Auditorium.

Unlike popular faces, it will be staged by theatre actors, who have been specially auditioned for the various roles. Though the director has retained the original dialogues, audiences will be able to notice minor changes in the way they are delivered. 

“This has been done in order to connect with the current generation. The first part of my rehearsal was to get my actors forget that sound of the play because that was for that period. I wanted the play to sound very intimate. Therefore, the style of acting is very personal,” says Khan.

Acclaimed fashion designer Manish Malhotra has designed the costumes of the actors. He has created 550 pieces for the actors by sourcing the best material from across the India and giving each piece a modern fit by negating out clumsiness.

“For the musical, the brocades came from Benaras and bandhini came from Gujarat. Each of the costumes reflects the traditions and tehzeeb of the Delhi Sultanate,” he says. The fabrics, textures and embroidery will showcase the grandeur of the Mughal era. “The costumes of Akbar and Salim include chains that have been made by using pure metal. I wanted the authenticity from their head gear, armour to whatever they were wearing. So whether it is zardosi embroidery, tassel or the fabric, everything authentic has been brought for the musical,” he says.

A few songs have been removed from the original movie by the director and two new ones have been added for the play. In order to retain the charm of the musical, the play will feature live musicians. They will sing the evergreen songs including pyaar kia to darna kya. Narrative speech has also been added to connect with the audiences. The director has also been critical about the dancers used in the play. Trained Kathak dancers have been specially selected who have been trained by Mayuri Upadhya, the choreographer of the musical play.

Highlighting the aim of making the musical, Khan says, “This is my way of paying tribute to the film. Mughal-e-Azam is a legacy of memories that are very fragile and are edged deep into your heart and mind. I am doing this as a greatest respect to the original. This is a tribute to the masterpiece. So respecting the memories and adding a few new memories to it and making sure that this translates into the theatre production which we all can say, if not better, but can at least we have not led the nation down in terms of scale and quality of work.” 

The musical will be produced by NCPA along with Shapoorji Pallonji Group. Co-incidentally, Shapoorji Pallonji Group wasalso the producer of the original film that was released in 1961 and the colour version in 2004. The tickets of the show will be available at bookmyshow.com  

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