Entertainment

Playwright - Sohaila Kapur
Playwright - Sohaila Kapur

Mumbai beat for Manchester


24/10/2003

BOLLYWOOD is back on the stage again - this time as a gritty musical featuring colourful characters from the teaming city's street life.
'Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan' - (This is Mumbai My Sweet is touring the UK and was recently performed at Manchester's Contact Theatre.
In true Bollywood style a cast of 11 sing and dance their way through an extravagant plot.
The life of Mumbai portrayed through several characters - a Hindu girl in love with a Muslim boy, a prostitute fighting for her rights and those of her roguish clients; a cop with a conscience, a fascist jailor, a shady film producer and an idealistic politician lost in a daydream of conquering the corrupt.
Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan (YHMMJ) is written by playwright, Sohaila Kapur (sister of film director Shekar Kapur who also devised the original idea for Bombay Dreams) and is directed by Sanjay Roy.
Sohaila said she had the idea of YHMMJ for several years and was waiting for the right moment to put the show together.
"Bollywood has always been big in India and with Asians around the globe," she said.
"We love our musicals, we like sentimental characters and the flamboyant costumes and everything that is Bollywood and this has caught up with the rest of the world who have taken notice of the industry.
"And now was the ideal opportunity to bring Bollywood to the stage.
"The idea came from Bollywood films in the sixties and seventies. They were more simple then unlike the sex driven and overdone special effects films we see today.
"Families would go together to watch feel good Bollywood movies and came out from the theatres feeling happy.
"I wanted to create that same feeling with YHMMJ."
Some people may say YHMMJ is just another 'Bombay Dreams' but Sohaila insists her film is nothing like Webber's musical.
She said: "Dreams is a larger than life West End production - the budget, the storylines and the style is very different.
"YHMMJ is a medium budget community production that everybody would be able to come and watch.
"The characters are based on the working class in Mumbai and not the high elite as in Bombay Dreams."
Sohaila who has worked in television, theatre and for the press said she felt a good play is one which stays with the audience long after they have left the theatre.
She added: "It would be disappointing if people went home and didn't even think about the production or talked about it among their family and friends."


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