Reliving the Golden Era

Clad in a white sari,a lady takes the stage against a pitch black backdrop.

Clad in a white sari,a lady takes the stage against a pitch black backdrop. Theres pin drop silence as she sings Ajeeb dastaan hai yeh… (from the 1960-movie Dil Apna Aur Preet Parai). When she stops singing,anchor Rahul Solapurkar comes onto the stage to interact with the audience and talk about Indian cinema. He then slips into the side wings as the light dims and a video of Ude jab jab zulfein teri… (Naya Daur,1957),featuring Dilip Kumar and Vyjayanthimala,starts playing. The beginning of the musical drama,Black and White,which marks the milestones of Bollywood from 1945 to 1968,captures the audience from the word go.

From the 40s to the 60s,cinema was black and white. There was a hero and villain and nothing in between life was that simple. Now,cinema has ventured into the in-betweens,the shades of grey. But we miss that simplicity and so we came up with a musical to relive that era. Our aim is to have the audience leave with a sense of nostalgia, says Milind Oak,who has conceptualised and directed the play. The production house also has another show titled Trendsetters,which starts with the last song of Black and White and is a sequel depicting the beginning of the colour era.

Written by Pravin Joshi,the musical drama has been a success across the world. Niche productions,with a troupe of 20,have completed 259 shows in the US,UK,Dubai and Muscat. In India,cities such as Mumbai,Delhi,Chennai,Jaipur,Bangalore,Surat,Nagpur,Jalgaon,Sangli,Kolhapur,Aurangabad,Nasik and Kolkata have also run the show. Till now,the troupe has been presenting Black and White in three parts,each featuring a different set of songs. For the troupes 260th performance staged in Pune on Friday there was a compilation of all three parts. The show will further travel to Kochi,Malegaon,Mumbai and Delhi. Incidentally,even the first performance of Black and White was held in Pune on March 31,2007.

Oak finds the role of the anchor rather interesting because he gives trivia that is not found in articles or biographies of legendary actors and singers. Narrating one such story,he says,Kishore Kumar used to always ask his assistant Bapu coffee piya?’ and only when Bapu said yes,would he start recording. The question was code language to know if the producers had paid the advance or not. One day,he asked Bapu the same question thrice,but there was no response. So Kumar took of his headphones and told the musicians that he could not sing due to a bad throat and left the studio. On the way,when he cribbed about how producers dont pay money on time,Bapu told him nervously that it was their own production he was recording for.

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