I’ve always been a sucker for musicals. I remember getting hooked on Fiddler on the Roof and Oliver! rather early in life. I’m almost 40 now, and songs from both of these musicals are still regulars on my playlist. Their impact is so deep that we insisted on opening a children’s play based on an Enid Blyton novel with choreography set to ‘Who Will Buy?’ (from Oliver!) and friends named their theatre group Le Chayim (from Fiddler).

What I managed to watch were the film versions, of course, but I was aware that a lot of these lovely singing and dancing movies stemmed from stage. My first stage experience, I think, was when my parents took me to watch an Indian production of Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers. I don’t remember much about it, except that we spoke about it for days afterwards at home, and even sang one of its songs.

Jesus Christ

Through my school years, I devoured as many movie musicals as I could, always hoping to see them on stage someday. By the time I was in college, Alyque Padamsee had staged very popular versions of Jesus Christ Superstar, Man of La Mancha (with Dalip Tahil), and the wildly successful Evita with Sharon Prabhakar (and again, Dalip Tahil).

I never managed to catch them, but I did catch Rahul DaCunha’s version of JCS (as the Biblical rock opera is widely known) with Vishal Dadlani (then the lead singer of Pentagram) playing Judas. I could have made this up, but I think Boman Irani played Herod. I sat very far back, in the only affordable seats, but a good time was had. And Dadlani killed it with his rendition of ‘Gethsemane’.

After college I headed off for vacations to foreign shores. As is almost the cliché now, I was blown away by The Lion King on West End. I also saw a terrific production of Chicago before Richard Gere tap-danced his way into everyone’s hearts. I could list out all the musicals I have since watched and loved and we’d fill up the column pretty fast. But I’d rather focus on the niggling thought that remained at the back of my head. Where was the Indian musical? Why were we thriving only on Andrew Lloyd Webber?

I don’t want to disregard the vast and colourful history of musical theatre India has; it’s always been very rich in this regard. Even now people flock to see a Marathi sangeet natak, and the Ram Lila can never go out of fashion. Music and dance were used in temples from ancient times. But what about the contemporary Indian musical? Is it that Bollywood had so much song and dance that no vacuum was felt? Or didn’t we have enough actors who could also sing?

Season for song

The question was answered with a resounding ‘No’ in 2007, when the Prithvi Festival announced its theme. It was to be a season of musicals. And before we knew it, 11 were announced. Not all were spectacular, but there was suddenly a wide array of actors who could sing and singers who could act. I caught quite a few of the shows, and particularly loved Me Grandad ‘ad an Elephant (based on a novella by Vaikom Muhammad Basheer) and Aao Saathi Sapna Dekhe. The latter was an adaptation of The Fantasticks, so perhaps not as homegrown and conceptually delightful as the former, but it was a stunning adaptation, rooted in Northern India, with outstanding music by Sneha Khanwalkar.

Digvijay Savant directed Grandad, and it remains for me his best work (and an all-time favourite), and Swanand Kirkire was at the helm of Aao Saathi. I think I embarrassed him with my gushing when we were both competing at META the following year.

Lyrics and all

In my opinion, one of the factors that works in favour of a musical is when the songs are memorable. One may argue that the popular songs have been playing for years and have attained an unforgettable status, but I disagree. I remember songs from both Grandad and Aao Saathi even today, after seeing each play just once over a decade ago. The Lion King has a lot of the songs the movie made into instant classics, but one song — ‘He Lives in You’ — composed for the stage version, refuses to leave you after you’ve heard it once. Or ‘Solidarity’ from the musical version of Billy Elliot. Or ‘Hasa Diga Eebowai’ from The Book of Mormon, which is no melodic gem, but the writing is exemplary. (Don’t Google this if you’re under 18.) These are earworms. These are mementoes of the production that you take home.

In November, I saw two new Indian musicals. Gaa Re Maa, at the Prithvi Festival, and Sing India Sing, at the fourth season of Aadyam (which has seen some musicals already). Gaa Re Maa has music by Dhruv Ghanekar and the singing prowess of Sunita Rao, among others. Sing India Sing is the brainchild of Rahul DaCunha and Bugs Bhargava Krishna, with music by Clinton Cerejo, featuring Siddharth Basrur, among many talented singers. Both plays are set in the world of music, and feature an outsider fighting resistance to make a name for himself. Besides this, they’re not alike at all.

So, has the contemporary Indian musical come of age? I think it is definitely getting there. Does the genre have a future? Definitely, and it’s pretty bright. Does my future have a contemporary Indian musical production? It’s on the bucket list, but standards are getting very high and it’s a gargantuan task. Hats off to all those who’ve tried. Now, I just need to get more inspired than intimidated. After all, I’ve always been a sucker for musicals.

The writer is a theatre producer and director and hence often broke. To cope, he writes and directs films and web series and occasionally acts, albeit reluctantly.