When a young and rebellious Gauhar Jaan meets her older and broke self at the climax of 'Gauhar', a stage play that stitches the dichotomy of fame in one narrative, a houseful audience gave a standing ovation and thunderous applause.
The two-hour long musical based on the life of illustrious singer Gauhar Jaan, which premiered here last evening, sketches different shades and stages of her life- from being the most celebrated singer of her time to a lonely death.
Directed by Lillete Dubey, the play stars National Award winning actor Rajeshwari Sachdev as young Gauhar and eminent Sufi singer Zila Khan as older Gauhar in leads.
As Zila made her acting debut with this play, Rajeshwari took the challenge of singing live on the stage to internalise the character of 'Gauhar' to push the potential of realistic portrayal par excellence.
"When I was approached for the play, the only doubt I had was how I was going to play the singing part of it as I am not a classical singer," 41-year old Rajeshwari said.
"I started with regular riyaaz for one month with the play's musicians and the response I get from the audience pays off all the hard work," she said.
Based on Vikram Sampath's book 'My Name Is Gauhar Jaan!', the musical revisits the inner turbulence of the celebrated singer who was the first Indian to record her voice on the gramophone in 1902 when other singers of her time considered it as blasphemous.
Written by Mahesh Dattani, the play traces the darker side of the celebrated yesteryear singer whose deafening silence of loneliness often got lost in reverberations of music, dance and fandom.
Well illustrated by its rich narrative that goes back and
forth in time, Gauhar is portrayed both with star-like grace and child-like innocence where she rises to become a star destroyed in love and destroys self craving for the same love later in her life.
Rajeshwari said it took a lot of hard work to manifest the stance and body language of the character.
"We did rigorous rehearsals for a month, read the script, read the book to understand the minute complexity of the character," Rajeshwari said.
Known for her Sufi rendition Zila Khan, and daughter of sitar maestro Ustad Vilayat Khan, who played older Gauhar said that it was an experience of a lifetime as she got to innovate with the pace of the play set by the director.
"It was a different experience all together. When I am on stage as a singer, I have to set my own pace but in a play it's a wonderful shared responsibility of action and reaction," Zila said.
Politician Salman Khurshid and Union Minister Najma Heptulla were among art and theatre enthusiasts at the play's staging here.
Gauhar, which also stars Denzil Smith, Anuj Gurwara, Danny Sura, Gillian Pinto and Parinaz Jal in supporting roles, after being staged in Mumbai and Kolkata will also be staged in Gurgaon today.
