COMPOSING FOR THE MONSOON WEDDING MUSICAL HAS INSPIRED ME TO WRITE PLAYS: VISHAL BHARDWAJ
When Vishal Bhardwaj and Mira Nair set out to work on a Broadway adaptation of her 2001 release Monsoon Wedding, little did Vishal know that this experience will finally lead him to start writing plays something that has been in the pipeline for long, especially after he directed the opera A Flowering Tree, which premiered in Paris in 2014. Vishal tells us that composing for the musical, that is currently running housefull at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, was more liberating than composing for a film.
THEATRE HAS INSPIRED ME TO WRITE MORE PLAYS'
Sharing with us his theatre experience, Vishal says, “Even before directing the opera, I had written lyrics for a play by Naseeruddin Shah in Mumbai. I have done backstage work at the National School of Drama too, when my friends used to work there, so I was acquainted with theatre. But I didn't know the joy of doing theatre until I worked on this musical.“
Vishal says the experience was different from that of making films. “When I directed an opera, I realised the difference between theatre and films. In theatre, you have limited space to create a scene, so one has to be more creative and imaginative. The theatre audience is more accepting and they believe in what you put out there. You also get more liberty to express yourself in theatre than in films. After doing an opera, mera bahut man tha ki main aage bhi stage direction karun. After doing the Monsoon Wedding musical, I feel that more strongly . I also want to write plays. There are so many stories, social, political issues and subjects on which you can't make films. Making films on such topics puts you under a lot of pressure, you need big money and a star to justify that money. All these ideas come to me when I am out of Mumbai, but when I go back to Mumbai, I get busy with the usual things. But this time, I am making a conscious effort to work on it.“
`COMPOSING MUSIC FOR BROADWAY WAS MORE LIBERATING THAN COMPOSING FOR MY OWN FILMS'
Vishal composed around 40 songs for the musical, of which 21 are part of the final production. He tells us that working with Mira, “not as a composer, but as a partner to the musical“, was a great experience. “It was a great experience working with Mira and the medium is new for both of us. We became good friends while exploring it together. In our industry , we do not make musicals like Chicago. So as a composer, I got a chance to do something which I was not doing even in my films, so it was great fun. When we create music for Bollywood films, there is so much pressure to create hit songs they should be popular and hit irrespective of the film.It doesn't matter if the song fits the story or not, it should just work with the audience. That sometimes deviates you from real music. You feel much more liberated when working on a musical.“
About how he adapted to writing music for English lyrics, Vishal says, “Sometimes, when I was composing, the lyricist, Susan Birkenhead, who is also a senior poet, would write an English poem, then I would change my music's expression as per those lyrics. Initially it was difficult for me as I had not composed for English lyrics, but as I got the hang of it, my Indian musical expression combined with English lyrics, creating an unique experience. Gale ki harkatein Indian hai, par language English hai. It had the risk of sounding funny , so I had to be very careful. Also, whenever there was an emotional situation or a conflict in the story , we had to musicalize it, and that was very interesting. In the Broadway language, a script is called a book, so whenever there were two pages of dialogues in the book, we needed a song. We also wrote a song to explain Shefali Shah's character in the film, who was subject to abuse in her childhood. This is the kind of music you don't usually get to make.“
Vishal adds, “I was not working as a direc tor after a long time. Usually the director has the last ally the director has the last word, and here I was not the director, woh bhi bada maza aaya mujhe, I got to observe another director. I also now know what people talk about backstage (laughs). The other good thing of a Broadway musical is that the author has the same powers as the director, which is rare. So, there are three authors for a musical lyricist, composer and the book writer, and they have the equal amount of say , power and creative liberty . This was actually very exciting to me that I am not a hired person, I am a partner to the project.“
Vishal says the only experience that comes close to this was composing Bismil from Haider. “I have been saying this that I became a director so that I can employ myself as a composer, jis tarah ke gaane mai banana chah raha tha woh kahin nahi thay. Jaise Haider ka woh gaana hai Bismil Bismil, us tarah ka situation milna impossible hai kisi film mein. That song has the feel of a Broadway musical, where a song explains the story , the plot,“ says Vishal.
`WE WANT TO BRING THE MONSOON WEDDING MUSICAL TO INDIA'
Before a musical hits Broadway , it is staged at another high-end venue, so that improvisations can be made to it. During its run at Berkley , Vishal had a special guest, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who wanted to come and watch the Musical.“He lives in California, where the Berkeley Repertoire theatre is. Berkeley is most prestigious in California and I got a mail that it has broken all records. Francis Coppola contacted the theatre and watched the musical and he loved it. I have a prior connection with him 10 years back, he had to shoot something in Mumbai, we have a common friend and he contacted me. We (his company) shot for him since he was unable to come to Mumbai, so when I met him I told him that we had worked together. He was very happy after watching the musical and said, `Bring more Indianness to America, this is so unique to Americans.' He also gave some suggestions to Mira and told her that something like Monsoon Wedding is an unseen and unheard scenario in America, so do it as much as possible,“ Vishal tells us. After the musical hits Broadway , the plan is to bring it to India. “We want to create this musical in Hindi and everything will be live on stage, something that the audience here hasn't seen in musicals, it is usually recorded music.“
When Vishal Bhardwaj and Mira Nair set out to work on a Broadway adaptation of her 2001 release Monsoon Wedding, little did Vishal know that this experience will finally lead him to start writing plays something that has been in the pipeline for long, especially after he directed the opera A Flowering Tree, which premiered in Paris in 2014. Vishal tells us that composing for the musical, that is currently running housefull at Berkeley Repertory Theatre in California, was more liberating than composing for a film.
THEATRE HAS INSPIRED ME TO WRITE MORE PLAYS'
Sharing with us his theatre experience, Vishal says, “Even before directing the opera, I had written lyrics for a play by Naseeruddin Shah in Mumbai. I have done backstage work at the National School of Drama too, when my friends used to work there, so I was acquainted with theatre. But I didn't know the joy of doing theatre until I worked on this musical.“
Vishal says the experience was different from that of making films. “When I directed an opera, I realised the difference between theatre and films. In theatre, you have limited space to create a scene, so one has to be more creative and imaginative. The theatre audience is more accepting and they believe in what you put out there. You also get more liberty to express yourself in theatre than in films. After doing an opera, mera bahut man tha ki main aage bhi stage direction karun. After doing the Monsoon Wedding musical, I feel that more strongly . I also want to write plays. There are so many stories, social, political issues and subjects on which you can't make films. Making films on such topics puts you under a lot of pressure, you need big money and a star to justify that money. All these ideas come to me when I am out of Mumbai, but when I go back to Mumbai, I get busy with the usual things. But this time, I am making a conscious effort to work on it.“
`COMPOSING MUSIC FOR BROADWAY WAS MORE LIBERATING THAN COMPOSING FOR MY OWN FILMS'
Vishal composed around 40 songs for the musical, of which 21 are part of the final production. He tells us that working with Mira, “not as a composer, but as a partner to the musical“, was a great experience. “It was a great experience working with Mira and the medium is new for both of us. We became good friends while exploring it together. In our industry , we do not make musicals like Chicago. So as a composer, I got a chance to do something which I was not doing even in my films, so it was great fun. When we create music for Bollywood films, there is so much pressure to create hit songs they should be popular and hit irrespective of the film.It doesn't matter if the song fits the story or not, it should just work with the audience. That sometimes deviates you from real music. You feel much more liberated when working on a musical.“
About how he adapted to writing music for English lyrics, Vishal says, “Sometimes, when I was composing, the lyricist, Susan Birkenhead, who is also a senior poet, would write an English poem, then I would change my music's expression as per those lyrics. Initially it was difficult for me as I had not composed for English lyrics, but as I got the hang of it, my Indian musical expression combined with English lyrics, creating an unique experience. Gale ki harkatein Indian hai, par language English hai. It had the risk of sounding funny , so I had to be very careful. Also, whenever there was an emotional situation or a conflict in the story , we had to musicalize it, and that was very interesting. In the Broadway language, a script is called a book, so whenever there were two pages of dialogues in the book, we needed a song. We also wrote a song to explain Shefali Shah's character in the film, who was subject to abuse in her childhood. This is the kind of music you don't usually get to make.“
Vishal adds, “I was not working as a direc tor after a long time. Usually the director has the last ally the director has the last word, and here I was not the director, woh bhi bada maza aaya mujhe, I got to observe another director. I also now know what people talk about backstage (laughs). The other good thing of a Broadway musical is that the author has the same powers as the director, which is rare. So, there are three authors for a musical lyricist, composer and the book writer, and they have the equal amount of say , power and creative liberty . This was actually very exciting to me that I am not a hired person, I am a partner to the project.“
Vishal says the only experience that comes close to this was composing Bismil from Haider. “I have been saying this that I became a director so that I can employ myself as a composer, jis tarah ke gaane mai banana chah raha tha woh kahin nahi thay. Jaise Haider ka woh gaana hai Bismil Bismil, us tarah ka situation milna impossible hai kisi film mein. That song has the feel of a Broadway musical, where a song explains the story , the plot,“ says Vishal.
`WE WANT TO BRING THE MONSOON WEDDING MUSICAL TO INDIA'
Before a musical hits Broadway , it is staged at another high-end venue, so that improvisations can be made to it. During its run at Berkley , Vishal had a special guest, filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, who wanted to come and watch the Musical.“He lives in California, where the Berkeley Repertoire theatre is. Berkeley is most prestigious in California and I got a mail that it has broken all records. Francis Coppola contacted the theatre and watched the musical and he loved it. I have a prior connection with him 10 years back, he had to shoot something in Mumbai, we have a common friend and he contacted me. We (his company) shot for him since he was unable to come to Mumbai, so when I met him I told him that we had worked together. He was very happy after watching the musical and said, `Bring more Indianness to America, this is so unique to Americans.' He also gave some suggestions to Mira and told her that something like Monsoon Wedding is an unseen and unheard scenario in America, so do it as much as possible,“ Vishal tells us. After the musical hits Broadway , the plan is to bring it to India. “We want to create this musical in Hindi and everything will be live on stage, something that the audience here hasn't seen in musicals, it is usually recorded music.“
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