Since the day I came to Atlanta, I wanted to go to the Fox Theater. Last week, as I was browsing through www.sulekha.com for some programmes in Atlanta area, 'Bombay Dreams' caught my eye. The show that was first staged in London in 2002 and later in Braodway in 2004 is now in our city! All I knew about this programme is that the music is composed by A.R.Rahman. I always had a liking for theater, thanks to my friend Sundar who introduced me to this.
On 11-Aug-2006:
I wasn't sure about the dress code at Fox theater. Last year, when we went for the Atlanta Orchestra Symphony, I bought a new dress. So my husband was worried if I would buy another new dress for this also. Fortunate for him, I decided to wear a churidhar.
Our seat was located in the Orchestra level, right in front of the stage, some 10 rows from the front. The theater was really amazing. I liked the infrastructure. After sitting down I looked up and saw the night sky. I got confused 'cos it was sunny outside. Then I realised that a small strip in the ceiling was setup as the sky. The best part was that the clouds were moving and they even changed their shape just as in the real sky. That was amazing.
Bombay Dreams started - the opening scene was in the Bombay slum area. The story is about a slum boy with Bollywood dreams becoming a movie star. Every possible masala in Bollywood movies was incorporated. The actors were not Indians, they were either Americans or British, some of them were of Indian origin. I was mesmerized by their performance. It was like watching a Hindi movie - LIVE. The actors delivered the dialogues, danced and sang, all by themselves. The best was the rain dance - they had a water fountain on the stage and the actors danced and sang. Initially I thought that the voices were given by someone from behind. When I realised that the actors were singing on their own, I couldn't but admire them. There were more Americans than Desis in the audience. They seemed to understand the heavy accent and they enjoyed the songs and dances. There was a marriage scene too - very colourful. There was a villain, who kills the hero's eunuch friend. The hero then stops the marriage between the villain and the heroin. After a small dishum-dishum(heroin hits the villain), the security(or police) guy carries the villain away - just as in our movies. However, unlike our Indian movies, the drama closed with the hero kissing(French kiss) the heroin.
Highlight of the drama - there were 16 songs in the 2.5 hour show
Though the story, costumes and settings were not new for me, I enjoyed watching the actors perform live. In one of the duet songs, the hero and the heroin changed their costumes thrice. Even the dancers in the background changed their dresses. Their planning and timing should be appreciated.
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