Devdas takes the stage

From Devdas – The Musical
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

For most of us the mention of Devdas, the iconic tale of love, brings to mind the images of Dilip Kumar and Shahrukh Khan, but Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic novella has now been adapted for the stage as a musical. The production to be premiered today at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore, will also have shows on April 22 and 23.

The 100-minute multi-starrer explores the saga of star-crossed lovers Devdas and Paro, torn apart by unfortunate circumstances. Re-told time and again, it now comes to life in a Broadway-style larger-than-life production with elaborate set designs, vibrant colours, evocative lighting and special effects to recreate Calcutta of the early 1900s.

Eminent British theatre director, writer, actor, and teacher Toby Gough, who previously scripted ‘The Merchants of Bollywood’, ‘Taj Express’ and is well-known for devising multicultural adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, is the creative director of this musical, co-directed by the renowned Ranga Godbole and produced by Ashvin Gidwani. The well known Tom Kitney is the technical director and production designer.

Music composition

This production features a formidable line up of actors such as Sunil Kumar Palwal, Aanchal Chauhan, Bhavna Pani, Jayesh Thakkar and Smita Jaykar. Writer Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s role is played by Arif Zakaria. Apart from songs from the original score of the Bollywood chartbuster, it also includes new melodies such as ‘Woh zindagi hi kya’, ‘Shyam rore rang me’, ‘Toota re manwa’ composed by Parivesh Singh and sung by popular singers Shaan, Kailash Kher, Alka Yagnik, Suresh Wadkar, Shail Hada, Bhoomi Trivedi and Antara Mitra.

From Devdas – The Musical
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement

The music is brought to life by choreography (Devendra Singh) that blends Indian classical and contemporary dance styles, featuring stunning performances and a fusion of Indian classic and contemporary dance styles. There will be two shows in Hindi with English surtitles at 8 p.m. today. The shows on April 22 and 23 (3 p.m. and 5 p.m.) in English will have Mandarin surtitles.

Talking about conceiving the musical, Toby Gough says, “Though Chattopadhyay is one of the most successful novelists in India, not many know about him. Devdas is almost an autobiography as it mirrors his life. So he seemed an ideal character to play the storyteller in this new version. It was a happy challenge, adapting a book into a musical, and translating all the emotional beats and character developments into songs and choreographies. We recreated the set through video design projections, evocative lighting and special effects.”

Three important characters

Sunil, who plays Devdas, says he drew inspiration from the book on filming Devdas, the Dilip Kumar starrer that he read at the FTII library. Since then it was my dream to play this iconic and complex character. He not just suffers from the pain of losing someone he loves, but not standing up for himself, letting down his family and not being able to deal with the trauma it brings along.”

Aanchal feels Paro’s emotions — discovering one’s strength when in love and becoming stronger to face the challenges — are experienced by most women. It brought me closer to Paro.

As for the other important and powerful character of Chandramukhi, Bhavna who portrays it in the musical, understood the nuances by observing the performances of Vyjantimala and Madhuri Dixit. “But I had to work really hard on the dances because it’s the role of a courtesan.”

The musical is presented by AGP World along with Arte Compass and Zee TV APAC .