Bombay Calling

Right now, Rahman breathes music, thinks music and talks music. He has created 19 songs for the one-and-a-half-hour musical. While talking about Bombay Dreams, he often breaks into Ta ra ra rum…Ta ra ra ra…, ‘‘For months I haven’t thought of anything else,’ he says with a relaxed smile. ‘‘For months I have lived here,’’ he points to a back room in the Covent Garden-based headquarters of Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Company. Webber, the legendary but often derided creator of musicals such as Cats, Evita and The Phantom of the Opera, has found a worthy successor and for the first time has passed on the baton to this prodigious son of India.

Bombay Dreams will open at the Apollo Victoria Theatre where Webber’s superhit musical, Starlight Express will drop the curtains after a successful 18-year run. Says Webber, ‘‘Though it could run for another year, I wanted a big theatre for Bombay Dreams.’’

London’s theatre district will never be same again. Only a few months ago the Arts Council of England, in a report titled Eclipse, accused West End theatres of being ‘‘choked with racism.’’ Bombay Dreams is about to lighten some of that guilt. ‘‘Most of our actors are British-born talented young Asians,’’ says Webber.

Webber has placed inordinate confidence in Rahman: ‘‘I found him fabulous, brilliant and there was never a doubt in my mind.’’ He calls Rahman ‘‘the Paul McCartney of our times.’’ Indians may be mad about Rahman but placing œ4.5 million on an unknown Bollywood music director was ‘‘a bit of a risk,’’ admits Webber today. ‘‘We had difficulty in raising money. We didn’t know how the audience would react.’’

Webber, however, remembers the risk he took with Cats. ‘‘Initially we thought the audience will laugh at us. Then it picked up,’’ he says. After 21 years, the longest running musical both on Broadway and the West End finally closed last week, on May 11. Could Bombay Dreams emulate the success of Cats? ‘‘Musicals don’t last long now, if it runs for five years it would be great,’’ says a hopeful Webber.

The idea of this grand project originated in Webber’s kitchen. While surfing channels, he caught a glimpse of Rahman’s Chaiyya Chaiyya on Channel 4 and the sounds were never to fade from his mind. He asked his friend Shekhar Kapur, director of Elizabeth, about Rahman. He went to Southall and bought all the available Rahman CDs. He and his wife even went to Harrow Safari to see Dil Se. Webber instinctively felt that he was listening to the music of a ‘‘melodic genius.’’

Rahman was promptly summoned to London. ‘‘It was all unexpected,’’ says the musician. His boyish smile reveals his excitement. ‘‘I am allowed to push boundaries,’’ he says. Though 70 per cent of the music is original, some of his most memorable numbers are retained. Shakalaka Baby, Webber’s favourite song, is sung by the lead actress Preeya Kalidas. The single is to be released in June with the opening of the play.

How could Webber, the composer, stay away from such an ambitious project? Rahman answers first. ‘‘He doesn’t interfere. I have complete creative freedom,’’ he says. Webber agrees, ‘‘It’s his work. I come only to advise him what would work or not in a live stage production. That’s where my contribution ends.’’

Bombay Dreams is full of twists and turns, dreadful poverty and ill-gotten wealth, and the mafia’s murderous intrigues. Set amidst the crime and corruption of the great metropolis, it is the story of two young love-birds, singing some of the most romantic lyrics penned by Don Black, who wrote the lyrics for the award-winning Sunset Boulevard and got an Oscar for his song Born Free.

The story line was constructed jointly by Kapur and Webber and given to Meera Syal, the author of Anita and Me and the spirit behind the hugely successful BBC comedy series Goodness Gracious Me. Soon, the search began for the lead actors. ‘‘At that time they had not even heard of me,’ says Kalidas, the leading lady of Bombay Dreams. ‘‘For me it was a pleasant surprise,’’ she adds, her eyes sparkling. ‘‘I never dreamed of this role. I was auditioned at least five times. I did their workshop as well. Then I heard nothing for six months.’’

The call came in October 2001. ‘‘I was on the sets of Bollywood Queen, a film in which I am doing the lead role of Gina, an independent young Asian girl from the East End. My friends burst in with joy. I didn’t scream nor did I cry, but emotions were flowing inside me. I was overwhelmed,’’ she says. Like any Asian kid, Kalidas too was brought up on a diet of Bollywood videos. ‘‘Ram Lakhan was one of my early films. I used to sing and dance all around on songs from the film,’’ says Kalidas. At the age of 11, she was sent to London’s famous Sylvia Young Theatre School. Once out of school, television roles started trickling in. In the latest blockbuster, Bend It Like Beckham, she appears as Pinky’s friend Monica. ‘‘My biggest challenge is to play Priya, strong-willed, ambitious, passionate, a bit naive, but not all the way through,’’ says the young actor.

Bombay Dreams is a rags to riches story — a slum child rising to dizzying heights in the celluloid world. Aakash is a small kid when his parents die resisting slum-clearing bulldozers. The orphaned child grows in the company of his eunuch-friend and follower Sweetie (Raj Ghatak). Now an ambitious young man, his carefree life is once again interrupted by the bulldozers. With his life on the verge of another devastation, Aakash is determined not to be defeated by circumstances.

But this is Bombay, a city of multiple layers, where poverty and affluence coexist with somewhat uneasy acquiescence. In another part of the city, Priya, the daughter of Bollywood movie mogul Madan Kumar (Dalip Tahil) has staked her reputation on the Miss Earth beauty contest. She is opposed by feminist campaigners (remember Bachchan’s failed Miss World venture?) who disrupt her show. Enter Aakash, the omni-talented orphan from the slums, to save the show by an impromptu song and dance performance. The world is enthralled, movie mogul Madan has found a star and the seed of romance has been planted in Priya’s heart. However, Priya is engaged to Vikram (Ramon Tikaram) ‘‘a good looking, well settled, a bit unreliable,wealthy lawyer.’’

Meanwhile, Madan is harassed by the mafia don, J K (Raad Rawi). For a while the movie mughal ends up in jail. (Remember Bharat Shah?) He stages his comeback with a risky venture, casting Aakash in his new movie A Diamond in the Rough. Aakash has to pay a heartbreaking price. In his glitzy new world, there is no place for the friendly slumdwellers among whom he had survived so far.

But tragedy arrives. Madan is murdered by JK’s men. JK’s lawyer friend, Vikram, is also involved. In Priya’s hour of grief, Vikram is cool and calculating, while Aakash is warm and comforting. The pendulum of love swings and a heartbroken Priya seeks solace in the arms of Aakash. JK and Vikram plot another slum demolition drive. Only a superstar can stop the crushing bulldozers. The eunuch Sweetie takes it upon herself to expose the plotters, Vikram and JK. But Sweetie is killed before she can reach Aakash. Meanwhile, Priya’s production Truth or Lies bombs at the box office. Again it is Aakash, not Vikram, who lifts Priya’s morale. Her dilemma continues — Aakash, whom she has begun to love or Vikram whom she is engaged to marry.

The wedding is scheduled as planned. At the eleventh hour Aakash overhears a conversation between Vikram and JK that they were responsible for the murders of Madan and Sweetie. Aakash abandons fame, returns to his roots, brings all his former pals and crashes into Priya and Vikram’s wedding. He exposes the villainous Vikram and also stops the bulldozers. Aakash and Priya unite and the sun rises over another Mumbai day.