Oscar-, BAFTA-, and Grammy-winning composer AR Rahman (“Slumdog Millionaire”) and revered “Elizabeth” and “Bandit Queen” filmmaker Shekhar Kapur have teamed as much as create the Expo 2020 Dubai fee “Why? The musical.”
The musical follows the journey of a curious woman who goes on a journey along with her grandfather in quest of the true that means of existence. Throughout her search, the woman is drawn into a distinct world the place the ability resides inside her to be the change she needs to be. Lead actors embody Bollywood actor Jaaved Jaaferi (“Sooryavanshi”) and Shubshri Kandiah, who performed the title function in Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Australian stage manufacturing of “Cinderella.” The manufacturing options sound design by Oscar winner Resul Pookutty (“Slumdog Millionaire”).
“The primary query a toddler asks is, why? And when the kid grows up and turns into sensible, they nonetheless ask why,” Kapur stated. Selection. “And that is the opposite factor: we’re very conscious of what’s occurring to our planet. We relate the 2 issues: why are we doing what we do with the planet? Why do we expect we’re separated from the planet? Why do not we consider that we come from the identical land?
Kapur and Rahman’s fee got here with out a mandate, which gave them carte blanche to create. They beforehand collaborated on the Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced musical “Bombay Goals” and the 2007 movie “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” however the duo say they’re continuously creating collectively and their course of has by no means stopped.
Roy Kapur Movies/Expo 2020 Dubai/Naman Ramachandran
“The fantastic thing about all of that is that nobody says to you, ‘We’ve to attend this viewers or that viewers,'” Rahman stated. Selection. “It’s as if we’re creating a complete style of leisure for a multicultural place like Dubai, which believes in unity, working collectively, transferring ahead collectively into the long run, sharing intelligence, useful resource swimming pools and nurturing expertise. So I stated, ‘Why do not we undertake that as a theme or thought for the songs?’ and we span all cultures, we span all perception techniques and we discover the anchor level for the songs and we convey issues that in all probability within the western perspective can be ignored. Make it inclusive, like a celebration of the world.”
The result’s a 45-minute present, carried out in English, with seven unique compositions by Rahman, with lyrics by Sohaila Kapur, Dana Dajani and Shivang Vaishnav, a solid of 100 dancers, musicians and performers, and costume design that showcases the range of the world
Kapur says that Rahman’s compositions converse to the concept of ”eternally” and current “an infinite high quality” to audiences by means of compositions and storytelling. In flip, Rahman says that Kapur “seems at all the things” and with “nice knowledge and foresight” provides concepts which have a “legendary high quality.”
“Why? The Musical” kicks off on Thursday (January 20, 2022) at Dubai’s Al Wasl Plaza, the world’s largest projection dome, and can proceed till February 27. Nevertheless, Expo 2020 Dubai isn’t the top of the highway for the musical, as each the creators have huge fan bases around the globe.“There will certainly be variations of ‘Why?’ In case you’re portray on a selected canvas, then you might have a distinct canvas, or in case you’re portray on a easy canvas, then it’s a must to paint on an enormous laptop,” Kapur stated. “You are taking the identical factor however you adapt it.”
Up subsequent for Rahman are two concert events by the Firdaus Orchestra, a ladies’s ensemble of fifty musicians from 23 Arab international locations curated by the composer, on February 6 and March 8, Worldwide Ladies’s Day, as a part of Expo 2020 Dubai. . Rahman and Firdaus simply launched a efficiency of Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” on Apple Music.
He additionally has a still-secret Hollywood animation venture and Mani Ratnam’s two-part magnum opus, “Ponniyin Selvan,” in addition to a number of Tamil-language and Bollywood movie soundtracks. His directorial debut, the digital actuality venture “Le Musk,” is full and Rahman is on the lookout for world set up areas to tour it earlier than taking it to India.
Kapur’s subsequent movie, the cross-cultural comedy What’s Love Obtained to Do with It?, starring Lily James, Shazad Latif and Emma Thompson, is due out this spring. He’s additionally engaged on “Circulate”, a multimedia venture that contemplates the results of stopping the stream of water, a metaphor for all times, by means of a sequence, a movie and a recreation. Work is underway in South Korea on a musical stage on the lifetime of Beethoven, the place the composer’s works are sung to fashionable music.