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India Today
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- India Today
Theatre: The moving story
(NOTE: This article was originally published in the India Today issue dated June 2, 2025)Mumbai Star will mark the first time in its seven seasons that Aadyam—the Aditya Birla Group's decade-old initiative to promote theatre—presents a 'dance musical'. Director Nadir Khan says the play, which will be staged at Mumbai's St Andrew's Auditorium on May 24-25 and Delhi's Kamani Auditorium on June 14-15, is unlike 'anything I've ever done before'.advertisementHe says this even though, on paper, the production sounds similar to his last collaboration with Aadyam, 2018's #SingIndiaSing. They both feature and are named after fictional reality TV competition series. However, in Mumbai Star, the contest forms just '10 per cent of the story', which centres on aspiring dancer Dev who shifts from a coastal village to the titular city to follow his dreams. In Mumbai, he grapples with 'the exhilarating highs and crushing lows' of chasing fame. Khan describes the Hindi play as a tale 'of aspiration, hope and overcoming obstacles'.Unlike #SingIndiaSing, which was in English, with live singing, '85-90 per cent' of Mumbai Star is told through 'movement' set to recorded music by composer Dhruv Ghanekar. Because of this, Khan says, it's very much 'a co-creation' with choreographer Avantika Bahl and associate choreographer Surabhi Andrade. 'It wouldn't have existed without us getting onto the same page,' says Notably, there are only two actors, Rajit Kapur and Srishti Shrivastava, who serve as narrators, while the rest of the cast comprises 15 professional dancers who had to be 'multifaceted in terms of their knowledge of dance and mastery of their bodies'. That's because multiple forms are showcased on by Akarsh Khurana and Arghya Lahiri, with lyrics by Ishitta Arun, Mumbai Star was originally conceptualised by actor-producer Devika Shahani's The Dragon Rose Project for the Tokyo-based Min-On Concert Association, an organisation that promotes international performing arts exchanges. The play comes to India after a 20-city tour across Japan, where it was performed for 'more than 50,000 people' in of the reason it translated so well could be that most of the story is conveyed non-verbally. '[The dancers] are acting, but just with their bodies,' says Khan. 'The challenge was for them to make us feel a scene, and not just show beautiful movement.'Subscribe to India Today Magazine
The Star
02-05-2025
- Health
- The Star
Scrambling to put up price lists
New rule takes effect: Medicine prices compiled in a binder at a clinic for display. — AZMAN GHANI/The Star PETALING JAYA: Private clinics are still struggling to display the prices of the medicines they dispense, although a ruling requiring them to do so came into effect yesterday. Some have not even started doing so. Checks at clinics here found that some were in the midst of compiling and preparing their price lists due to Wednesday's gazettement of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering (Price Marking for Drugs) Order. Dr Nadir Khan, 60, said that he was busy preparing the price list while treating his patients. 'I began working on the list on Wednesday. I spent most of last night and this morning drawing up the list. 'Luckily, I have almost finished preparing it. All that's left is to print it out later,' he said in an interview. A 21-year-old clinic nurse , who only wanted to be known as Maisarah, said they had just managed to prepare the price list earlier yesterday. 'We have a simple medicine price list ready to be printed and put on display, but we are waiting for final instructions from our clinic headquarters,' she said. Many other clinics were also waiting for word from their headquarters, most of which were closed for Labour Day yesterday. One clinic in Puchong, however, displayed medicine prices in an 18-page binder. A nurse at the clinic, Aishah Maisara, 22, said they could produce the list due to their modern clinic management system that was installed less than a year ago. 'Our management system had a full list of our medication and prices all readily available. All we had to do was print it out into a binder that is now displayed at the front desk.' Many patients, however, were not impressed by the rule on price display. They said it was good for transparency but unlikely to affect their clinic choice. Accountant Nur Sara Shahera, 30, said the price displays were not going to make her go 'window shopping' for cheaper prices if she were ill. 'It could be risky for me to wander around clinics just to find cheaper prices. It is the last thing I will think about when I get sick. 'However, the prices displayed could be used as a point of reference when I need to visit other clinics,' she said when met at a clinic here. Hamrul Fahmi, 31, who works for a third-party administrator company, said that he would only use display pricing to compare prices to those at pharmacies to find the best deal. 'I will tell my doctor to give me a prescription so that I can verify which medications are cheaper at his clinic and which are cheaper at pharmacies,' he said. 'But I will still visit the same clinic because consultation with the doctor is still important.' Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said their members have begun displaying medicine prices since yesterday. 'We see the three-month phased educational approach to this enforcement as a good opportunity for all stakeholders to identify and address any challenges in the implementation. 'Ultimately, we want to ensure that the practice of price transparency benefits patients,' Dr Kuljit added.
