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| Musically yours: Ayesha Dharker |
This isn’t just another musical because, in a sense, Bollywood and India are on show. From the London cast, only Ayesha is included. “There is a lot of interest,” says Ayesha, who adds Vogue has been doing a shoot to coincide with the opening.
I thought Ayesha’s role as Rani was pretty substantial in the London production — after all, her picture figured in most of the London Underground posters.
“The role of Rani has become much bigger,” she points out. Each morning, she walks past the dazzling, giant neon signs of Times Square to rehearsals in 42nd Street. “It’s very surreal, very ‘movie, movie’,” she laughs. She warns us that those of us who saw the musical in London might find the New York version unrecognisable. “The role of Shanti, which Madhur Jaffrey plays, is also much bigger. No one dies in the first act and there is no prison scene. In fact, Bombay Dreams has been through seismic changes,” she reveals. “Most of the ensemble have been in plays before but off Broadway,” explains Ayesha.
The cast names mean nothing to me, alas — Manu Narayan and Anisha Nagarajan, whom Ayesha rates highly, are the leads, the American equivalents of Raza Jaffrey and Preeya Kalidas in the London production. The former impressed American guests when the Indian consul in New York threw a party to promote Bombay Dreams.
Of course, some of the old team are present, too, — A. R. Rahman, Don Black, Farah Khan, and Steve Pimlott as director. Madhur Jaffrey appears to be playing mother hen to the young cast. “I thought she would be standoffish but she’s really sweet,” enthuses Ayesha. “Everyone has been asking her about food.”
As for the Broadway Theatre itself, it is massive. “It’s 1,800 seats but still has an intimate feel,” says Ayesha.
The PR folk, who have the job of filling the place, are raising the stakes. Barlow Hartman, the firm in charge of press and publicity, have told the New York press that Bombay Dreams “has quickly become the biggest hit currently playing in London’s West End”. Big glossy ads have already appeared in the New York press.
What guaranteed the musical’s success in London was the initial, overwhelmingly positive response of the British Asian community, plus the desire of Indians, who flew in to see the show. By and by, word of mouth ensured the Victoria Theatre became a regular stopping off point for foreign tourists visiting London.
New York is harder to predict but if Bombay Dreams succeeds in Broadway, the groundwork will have been prepared for Bollywood’s transition to the mainstream. Ayesha herself is quietly confident.
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| Close up: Padma Lakshmi and Salman Rushdie (above) and their photographer, Jay Mandal (below) |
A large swathe of north-east America is still covered by ice and snow after one of the coldest winters for years. From 30,000 ft, as you approach the American continent, the frozen sea resembles an Arctic wasteland.
This time I deliberately chose not to fly British Airways, Virgin or one of the American airlines but relied instead on the favourite of my childhood years, Air-India, to get me to New York.
US Immigration was not as bad as we have been led to expect. I was finger-printed and photographed, all within a couple of minutes, and then waived through with a joke from the immigration officer: “You should write a story about immigration.”
Perhaps being finger-printed and photographed, for which we have to thank our old friend, Osama bin Laden, will become routine procedure all over the world. Then we might feel less indignant at being subjected to such indignities.
It has also become common for passengers on internal flights to have to take off their shoes to ensure nothing is wedged in the heel. For this development, we have to thank the innovative skills of one Richard Reid, better known as the “shoe bomber”, because he apparently intended to blow up a flight with explosives hidden in his heel.
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| Lethal weapon: George W. Bush |
Will Bush win? I have been conducting a straw poll about what might happen in the presidential election by chatting to people on planes, trains, taxies and restaurants about whether President Bush will be back in the White House.
“The result isn’t a foregone conclusion,” said Lynda, a TV producer, in Philadelphia. “But New York and the big cities aren’t America. In small, remote towns, they don’t care about WMDs. They think George Bush did the right thing in chucking out a tyrant.”
Compared with September, 2002, when I was last in New York, one change is apparent — this may or may not be significant but there are fewer Stars & Stripes being flown.
Jay Mandal, or Jayanta Kumar Mandal, as he then was, remains chuffed that the Ananda Bazar Patrika gave this boy from Bishnupur a write-up when he cycled round the world. Don’t ask me why but the trip, started on “Christmas Eve, 1974, when I was 20”, was completed in January, 1991 — 16 years later.
The circumnavigation of the globe completed, though not without incident (“I was seriously injured by a truck in Tanzania”), Jay has settled in New York where he works as a photographer.
It’s good to hear someone say: “It’s not my profession, it’s my passion. I love it.”
Who has Mandal photographed? The bearded artist looks pained. Who has he not photographed?
He rattles off the names: “All the Indian Prime Ministers from Indira Gandhi onwards, then Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher; and I went with Bill Clinton to India after the Gujarat earthquake. He would call me in and say, ‘Jay, I want you to take this photograph’.”
Mandal knows the Indian scene in New York. “I have a coffee with the senior people at the UN, and then I share a coffee with Indian cabbies, road sweepers, candy store attendants.”
Salman Rushdie didn’t mind when Mandal recently photographed the author kissing Padma Lakshmi. “This made it clear they were, well, close,” said Mandal diplomatically.
Since there isn’t a sequel to Lagaan at the 76th Oscars on February 29, Indians will not be flooding into Hollywood this year to see the ceremony covered live from LA.
The film being talked about in New York is Osama, and, no, it is not the tale of a well-known Saudi gentleman. This 82-minute film is from Afghanistan and tells the story of a 12-year-old girl who disguises her sex and takes on a boy’s name to escape repression.
Osama won this year’s Golden Globe for best foreign film but failed to receive an Oscar nomination.
Directed by Siddiq Barmak, who was making his debut feature, the film has received good reviews. Osama shows that a film does not have to be big budget to be successful. The critic of USA Today, praised its “smooth mix of humanism and keen filmmaking instincts”.
Rushdie has confirmed to a friend: “Yes, Padma and I are engaged though it will probably be a long one — I have a book to finish and Padma has a movie to do. If you know anyone on the diary, please tell them it was lazy and inaccurate of them to suggest I’m not divorced yet, when, in fact, the divorce went through two years ago.”
