I was asked by Seen and Heard International to review two performances in quick succession: one featuring Zubin Mehta conducting the Symphony Orchestra of India and the second, Operalia 2024.
Here are the links to my reviews:
Operalia 2024 in Mumbai: a mixed bag – Seen and Heard International (seenandheard-international.com)
Comments are welcome on the S&H website, below each review!
Modern remakes of classic musicals rarely hit the mark, much less present a worthy alternative to the original. An exception is Steven Spielberg’s magnificent “West Side Story”.
Part-hommage to, part-enhancement of Jerome Robbins’
path-breaking original film, which in turn was based on his Broadway staging
inspired by Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet”, the film speaks to a modern
audience in language that is gritty and contemporary, while still remaining
grounded in the now somewhat old-fashioned format of a musical.
To begin with, it is far more violent, not just in the
bloody, bone-crushing fights but also in dancing that is visceral enough to be
called aggressive. This is immediately apparent in the Prologue which begins,
like in the original film, with balletic leaps; but soon becomes genuinely
frightening and sets the tone for this film.
The original Prologue was filmed in New York City on
the lot which was ear-marked for demolition to make way for what is now Lincoln
Center. Here, the film is set in that actual locale, which is shown partly
destroyed. Thus, the turf-war between rival gangs becomes all the more
desperate, as both are now vying for supremacy in a fast-dwindling patch of
real-estate. In this, the “Jets” are made up of USA-born children of European
immigrants, while the “Sharks” are immigrants themselves from Puerto Rico,
after it became part of the USA. Thus, there is a cultural and linguistic
(English/Spanish) divide, adding to the battle over limited resources; and the
conflict between Shakespeare’s Montagues and Capulets is given real,
contemporary resonance.
In this scenario, the plight of the “star-crossed
lovers” Tony and Maria, also becomes all the more poignant. Maria’s brother
Bernardo, leader of the Sharks, becomes the Tybalt-character, while Mercutio is
represented by Riff, the leader of the Jets and Tony’s best friend.
Tony Kushner’s screenplay, augmented from the
original, adds colour and motivation not only to individual characters but also
the larger groups they come from; and even to the forces of law-and-order,
charged with the unenviable task of policing these troubled streets while
dealing with their own prejudices.
All the characters from the original play/film are
given revised backgrounds; but the one given a near-total make-over is that of
Doc, who runs the neighbourhood drugstore where the Jets hang out. Here, it is
Doc’s widow Valentina who owns the shop. She is played by Rita Moreno, who won
an Academy Award for her portrayal of Anita, Bernardo’s firebrand girlfriend,
in the earlier film. As a Puerto Rican who married a white American, Valentina
becomes the example to which Tony and Maria aspire; and it is appropriate that
the song “Somewhere” with the lyrics “There’s a place for us, a time and place
for us” is given to her.
Ms Moreno delivers a deeply moving characterisation;
and newcomer Rachel Zegler is utterly believable and sincere in the role of
Maria. It’s a shame that both were not nominated for Academy Awards. Everyone
else gives committed performances, true to their characters and making-up a
fabulous, tightly-knit ensemble.
But it is evident that Director Steven Spielberg is
the real star of the show. This is passionate and supremely skilful film-making,
aided by the starkly-etched cinematography of Janusz Kaminski. Both bring this
sadly present-day, urban war vividly to the screen.
Even so, and rightly so, one is left with the words
that end Maria and Anita’s final duet: “When love comes so strong, there is no
right or wrong; your love is your life”.
The independence of a country is never
easily won. It takes men of commitment, daring, strong ideals and breadth of
vision to galvanise a nation and throw the intruder out. This actually happened
in
Fifty-three years on and nationalism is a forgotten emotion. And no wonder, for we have become a nation riddled with greed, pettiness and hypocrisy; with scant respect for law-and-order, discipline or decency; aping the worst of the West and paying mere lip-service to our own heritage.
"It Happens only in India" is the English version of Shafaat Khan's Marathi play, "Shobha Yatra", a scathing expose of what we have become vis-a-vis what our founding-fathers fought and died for.
The play drives its point home by way of an ingenious juxtaposition. Six people, each dressed-up as a character from India's freedom-struggle, are about to take part in a ceremonial procession commemorating fifty years of Independence; ironically, organised by an underworld don or "Bhai". The procession keeps getting delayed; and the group waits in a godown, unable to leave as they are in costume, "trapped in history".
As they wait, they reveal their own natures, superficially similar to those of the historical personages they are portraying; but, in actuality, diametrically opposing their idealism and all that they stood for. Each "actor" is linked, overtly or covertly, to the unseen, sinister figure of the Bhai who is pulling their strings --- all except the woman playing the Rani of Jhansi, a school-teacher who could be pregnant. She becomes a symbol for the Motherland, threatened with annihilation.
Shafaat Khan's play draws from many genres --- comedy, satire, thriller and Theatre of the Absurd, combining all these in a multi-layered and richly provocative tapestry of truth and make-believe, historical reference and present-day reality, masks and faces, wheels within wheels.
The original Marathi production, directed by Ganesh Yadav, tears into the script and goes for the jugular in a manner that keeps one at seat's edge. Actors enter and exit at will, seemingly without reason; the production revels in real and hallucinatory images of terror and violence, all highlighting the play's Absurdist leanings.
Vikram Kapadia's production is quite different. It is based on Shanta Gokhale's English translation, which flows naturally and is easy on the ear. The director has preferred to retain Hindi in certain passages. One wishes he had also encouraged the actors to use Marathi interjections. With names like Bapat, Jadhav and Sabnis, it is surprising that these characters never communicate in their mother-tongue, however fleetingly.
This production is, in a word, tame. Gone is the wildness, the headlong pace, the feeling of unpredictability. Moreover the play has been cut, most damagingly in the scenes involving the school-teacher/Rani. Scenes have been transposed and shuffled at will, severely compromising the building of tension. This re-arrangement often puts similar episodes back-to-back with "buffers" removed, making the play seem repetitious and long-winded.
Initially, one welcomes the relaxed pace, the ability to drink-in detail. But the tempo-rhythm hardly ever accelerates; there are far too many pauses and delays in actors' responses, pointing to insufficient rehearsal and the fact that the cast for any given show depends on who is available on that day, as each role has been double-cast.
Having seen both, the Marathi and English productions, each twice, one becomes aware that the latter lacks the cohesion and confident drive of an unvarying team in sync with each other.
Even though the actors in the English production seem somewhat tentative, they generally turn-in committed, professional performances, some better than others; Hemu Adhikari's Bapat/Gandhi and Suruchi Aulakh's Barbie being particularly memorable. However, nobody eclipses the sheer incandescence of Vidula Mungekar's school-teacher/Rani in the Marathi version.
The sets and lighting seem somewhat self-conscious. The fastidious harmony suits the English production's sedate tone; but is a far cry from the heady combination of hyper-realistic set and vividly imaginative lighting in the Marathi production.
For those who do not understand Marathi,
"It Happens Only in
The importance of "Shobha Yatra" can never be over-estimated. In the derivative world of contemporary Indian theatre, it is a work of rare originality. Its path-breaking style and raw, pithy substance make it one of the great plays of our time.
This is the text of a lecture I had given at the NCPA some years ago, prior to a screening of Verdi's opera "Macbeth" based on Shakespeare's play.
FROM STAGE….TO STAGE
Shakespeare’s
Scottish tragedy --- in the words of
Be that as it may, it certainly inspired Giuseppe Verdi to write some
of his most impassioned music; making a decisive attempt to break from the
musical strictures and conventions of opera in the mid-19th Century,
to the extent of giving the text paramount importance in many scenes; with
the music becoming subservient to its needs.
The best example of this is Macbeth’s
“dagger” soliloquy in the opera. It follows Shakespeare closely; and its music
is lyrical yet declamatory, free-flowing WITH the text, instead of adapting the
latter to any formal musical structure. Verdi’s markings and instructions are
astonishingly detailed and descriptive here, purely “expressive” in nature,
totally motivated by dramatic pulse and impulse. In fact, for the duet that
follows with Lady Macbeth, Verdi insisted (and I quote) that this “definitely
must not be sung” but “acted and declaimed with hollow, masked voices”. And as
for Lady Macbeth herself, Verdi rejected the original choice of singer because
she had (and again I quote) “a wonderful voice, clear, flexible and strong,
while Lady Macbeth’s voice should be hard, stifled and dark. Madame Tadolini
has the voice of an angel, and Lady Macbeth’s should be that of a devil.”
Surely this was unprecedented in the history of opera till then; and it
goes to show how Verdi, in “Macbeth”, took the art of the lyric stage, a stage
further.
Another example of this; and an extremely important one: in the play,
after the murder of
A line of such immense significance is given an equally significant musical
motif, ending with the rise and fall of a semitone on the word “finito”. It
haunts the opera in various guises, just as the image of
And what has David Pountney, the director of the performance you are
about to see, done with all this? He is a true “auteur”, investing each
character, event and idea in “Macbeth” with an image that is unique and
startling, forcing you to re-evaluate your previous impressions and see these
entities afresh, often in a completely different, revelatory light. One such
example is that of the letter in which Macbeth narrates the prophecies of the
witches to his wife. This is what starts the ball rolling; its "image"
is repeated in the second scene with the witches and, significantly, during the
sleepwalking scene.
Yet, despite his very personal interpretation of the components,
Pountney presents the spine of the play, its germ, with frightening
lucidity --- unnatural events, when set into motion by man, have unnatural and
dire consequences. And he conveys this in an interpretation that is very much
in sync with Verdi’s music; and yet is very much of our time, loaded with
symbolism familiar to a modern sensibility, thus taking Shakespeare’s, and
Verdi’s, “Macbeth” another “stage” further.
So, William Shakespeare through Giuseppe
Verdi through David Pountney to us, will be our topic of discussion
after the screening. During which, the only sounds we need to hear are those of
music, NOT mobiles. And since this will be a long evening, there will be a
short intermission after Act 2, approximately 80 minutes from now.
Enjoy the
film.
Thank you.
