It was an evening of song and play at GD Birla Sabhagar on June 15, as Sharon Prabhakar, our pop star from the ’80s, engaged the audience with Double the Impact, a two-hour performance held in association with t2.

Presented by city-based theatre group Theatrecian, the show opened with Sharon taking the mike to share her life’s journey in music and milestones.

According to Sharon, it all started for her in the small town of Nainital, where her mother, a music teacher, used to narrate fairy tales to her. These magical stories laid the foundation for her dreams and soon enough, a young Sharon was on her way to Bombay in a bid to realise her aspirations. 

The departure to a new city called for a song and Sharon supplied it with a powerful rendition of Frank Sinatra’s New York, New York. 

The next incident of note was Sharon getting selected to sing in Pearl Padamsee’s Godspell. Cue for the next song — the melodious Day by Day from Sharon’s very first musical.

The big break for this diva, however, came when she got a call from Bappi Lahiri to sing Meri jaisi haseena in the 1981 film Armaan. This also made for the most humorous part of the evening as Sharon described how she first met Ramanand Sagar and how the director had to come with his entourage to pick Sharon up and take her to Bandra, as she had no clue where this posh locality was located.

Sharon, as expected, executed the award-winning song to perfection before moving on to Amazing Grace, a song she learnt from her mother. 

Sharon’s mother went into coma in 1984, the same year she lost one of her closest friends. No surprise then that Sharon called 1984 a “watershed year in my life”. 

As she started narrating the story of her failed marriage, the mood in the auditorium became uncomfortably numb until the singer breathed fresh life with I Am Alive.

Sharon concluded the first half of the show with what everyone had been waiting for — her most popular song, Don’t Cry For Me Argentina from the play Evita. The pop star lived up to expectations as her powerful voice rolled back the years to produce the same magic that had first enthralled her admirers.

The songs were then followed by some action, as Sharon the actor teamed up with good friend Riyaaz Makaney to enact three short scripts portraying the vulnerability of couples who remain united in wedlock despite falling out of love. The stories explored the themes of misunderstanding, monotony and mutual incompatibility in long-term relationships in a manner that was both compact and refreshing. The skits provided ample laughter, which only served to accentuate their ultimate message — a broken marriage is better than a lost one.

Text: Priyam Marik
Pictures: Rashbehari Das