24-05-2025
‘Mumbai Star': A musical play that tries to rise above the cliches
The seventh edition of Aadyam Theatre Festival features, among other plays, a musical, Mumbai Star, directed by Nadir Khan. The story of an underdog, this production was conceived as a project by the Min-On Concert Association, Tokyo, and it has now come to India with a renewed vision. When you start watching the newly-minted Mumbai Star, you instinctively know what to expect. The story is full of every imaginable Hindi film trope possible. A young boy, Dev, from a coastal village in Maharashtra, hopes to make it big in Maximum City. The story takes you through hardships in the city, young love, discovery of a mentor, and a reality show that promises to transform lives. There is also friendship, conflict, and opposition to the love story.
Produced by Devika Shahani and choreographed by Avantika Bahl, the cast features 15 dancers and two actors— Rajit Kapur and Srishti Shrivastava. From its earlier dance musical avatar that toured Japan in 2023, it has been reimagined with a fresh narrator's arc by Akarsh Khurana and Arghya Lahiri. Mumbai Star is an exercise in scale and excesses with theatrics that have little to do with the story.
But it delivers exactly what it promises— the experience of a Western dance musical rooted in a modern Indian context. And it does it through a guru-shishya story embedded in Kathak, a dance form that Shahani wanted to include in the performance.
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Khan makes no qualms about the cliches in the play. He is joyful in the rehearsal room and as much a cheerleader of the cast as its director. 'I believe there is no story that has not been told. But the telling is brand new," he says. 'I see myself as a sponge, trying to absorb and learn everything I can. With this production, it's been an immersion into the world of dance. And we've only just got a foot in the door," he says. Khan had earlier directed Sing India Sing, a large-scale musical produced by Aadyam Theatre in 2018. 'That was my baptism by fire. It was unfamiliar territory. But, it's storytelling at the end of the day," he adds.
The 11 songs, composed by Dhruv Ghanekar, have been sung by leading vocalists like Sunidhi Chauhan, Kunal Ganjawala and Nakash Aziz. The Kathak pieces have been guest-choreographed by Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Uma Dogra. To portray the versatility of the dance landscape of the country, the performance also features jazz, and hip-hop, with the occasional romantic ballad. Choreographer Avantika Bahl was at first intimidated by the idea but soon got on board. 'It was a combination of forms that we wanted to bring on the stage. It has a little bit of everything, and that is an accurate representation of the dance world," she says.
Most of her learnings stemmed from the scale and the idea of looking beyond choreography and composition. 'With a dance show, the primary language is the physical vocabulary. Here we were at the crossroads of music, storytelling and dance. The idea was for them to hold hands and take the story forward," she says.
Kapur is a joy to watch on stage and brings a few laughs to the show. While he and Shrivastava add much-needed depth to the narrative and deliver heartwarming performances, the focus remains on the dance numbers. The songs are pre-recorded, and unlike most musical theatre shows, there is no live singing. Avenav Mukherjee steals the show as Dev, who evolves from a vulnerable boy into an overconfident performer.
Shahani believes her strength lies in building a great team. 'The most important thing is to get people, who come into the room with their whole soul," she says.
'Mumbai Star' will be performed on 25 May at the St Andrew's Auditorium, Mumbai, 4 pm and 7.30 pm and on 14-15 June at Kamani Auditorium, New Delhi, 7.30 pm.
Prachi Sibal is a Mumbai-based culture writer.
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