A young Gandhi timidly argues while a judge in a South African court pronounces his seemingly outrageous judgment. Just when your heart goes out to Gandhi, a troupe of dancers in the court break into a rhythmic display of jazz, breaking open everything from jazz hands to a coordinated fan kick, depicting the emotions and thoughts of the Father of the Nation.
This jazz number is just one of the 18 songs in the two-and-a-half hour long Broadway-style Gandhi, The Musical , based on the life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.
“Not Mahatma,” Danesh Khambata, writer and director of the play makes it clear. “But Mohandas: the son, husband, lawyer, and all other identities that made Gandhi a human; not Mahatma with a halo over his head.”
Produced by the National Centre of Performing Arts and made by Silly Point Productions, the play claims to be the first musical in India to explore the life of Gandhi. Deepa Gahlot, Head of Programming, Theatre and Film, NCPA, says, “We’ve seen musicals like Jesus Christ Superstar going down in history as Broadway classics, so why not something fun on Gandhi?”
Silly Point Productions, with plays like The Buckingham Secret , a cheeky play on the British royal family, or The Class Act , a play exploring the dynamics of students of varied religions intermingling in a classroom, has largely dealt with comedies. But Gandhi, The Musical comes as a rare breakaway. “This play is a musical, but still a serious one,” says Meherzad Patel, founding partner of Silly Point Productions.
Khambata says, “We’ve been asked if the play is a comedy because it is made by a production house like ours, but we’ve also managed to generate a buzz solely because we’re known to make out-of-the-box content, and what’s more unique than putting Gandhi in a musical?”
“We aren’t distancing ourselves from comedy,” Khambata says. “While the play is a serious one, it is packaged in a manner that is far more interesting than a history lesson or a documentary.”
The rehearsal room at the NCPA resounds with occasional bursts of music during the dry rehearsals. ‘ Vaishnava Jana To ’, dubstep and rock music play out in scenes depicting the Chauri Chaura riots and the Partition. The choice of music seems incongruent with the Gandhi’s life, but two years of research and writing lend authenticity to the musical. Khambata says, “We had to find out aspects of Gandhi’s life that were largely unexplored. Like Kasturba longing for Mohandas to return from South Africa, which we [brought] into our production.”
Scripting the play was daunting, but getting Gandhi’s demeanour, tone and body language right was another big challenge. Popular theatre artiste Chirag Vohra plays the older Gandhi, and Abhishek Krishnan his younger self. Vohra says, “I’ve played Gandhi once before, albeit very briefly. I read My Experiments with Truth and then sat through video recordings, and learnt his tone and accent through audio clippings.”
Set largely in the first half of the 20th century, Fali Unwala and Deanna Sethna worked extensively to make the sets and costumes look authentic and have thrown in 3D mapping to spice the play up. After months of practise, perfecting the finer details and experimenting with music, the stage is set for the play to transform “the boring historical lecture-esque feel of the life of Gandhi” into “the magical, musical feel.”
Gandhi, The Musical.August 13 to 21, Jamshed Bhabha Theatre, NCPA. Tickets: bookmyshow.com
The play is packaged in a way that is more interesting than
a history lesson
