K L Saigal - The play.

9th October evening as the rains lashed the city, I was busy trying to get to the place that has become synonymous with plays in Bangalore, RangaShankara.

I was more than relieved to get there in time as they are extremely strict on the timings and there are even buzzers and alarms that remind people of the time! Late comers are punished too !

As my friends and I walked in, I almost had a feeling that we were in for a treat and treat it indeed was !

K L Saigal - the renowned singer who was an inspiration to legends like Kishore Kumar was the name of this hindi play and hence,it had to be a musical.The play was to be a biography of sorts on this great singer.

As the lights went out,into the spotlight came ,dressed in Black Sherwani, the eternal Britisher in almost every Indian patriotic movie, the stage actor par excellence , Tom Alter.As the play started ,one was amazed at the fluency in both hindi and urdu( you dont have to question his English speaking skills!). He was the narrator and it was so beautifully done, that one never felt the discontinuity between the scenes which might have cropped up as an issue if someone less talented did this.

Coming to the primary character of the play, there was the super talented Uday Chandra ,who even sang exactly like K L Saigal,and he portrayed the character beautifully.The ghazals he sang were so really meaningful and the poetry was exquisite.

The play highlighted lot of important details in his life that included his creativity,his struggle to the top,his eagerness to learn new things,his relationship with the great singers and music directors of his generation like Pankaj Mullick,Anil Biswas and his addiction to alcohol which finally led to his downfall. Some of the scenes were really touching and will remain etched in most of our minds.

The scene where he is teaching a young Bengali girl how to sing a ghazal is simply brilliant.She sings well,but Saigal saab is not impressed.He then tells her ,"Gao math.Apnao. Zikr aur riyaz karo" . I would have paid the entire entry fee just to hear this being said.

Another event which was equally scincillating was one of the last scenes of the play where they show the Allahabad conference taking place with all the top music stars of that era like Ustad Faiyaz Khan, who K L Saigal considered to be absolutely god level.The conference had janta shouting out for more and more of Saigal saab which ended up in him performing for the 1st 2 hours and the others were left open mouthed at his brilliance.At the end of the conference,Saigal saab asks Ustadji whether he can become one of his students to which Ustadji
replies , "Mein tumhe bahut dher sunaa. Mujhe behethereen ko aur behether banaana nahin aata ! " Subhan Allah ! I can't believe that this kind of humility ever existed!

Apart from that,the rib tickling comedy in the 2nd half added to the beauty of the play.The Bengali perspective of North India and vice versa was brought out to roaring applause from the audience.

The play ended with the eternal haunting melody composed by the great Naushad,"jab dil hi toot gaya,hum jeeke kya karen" playing in the background.A splendid play it was and the people incharge of the play deservedly got a standing ovation.

All in all, a most entertaining play with excellent acting,simple settings and a solid script.The play dazzled in all its beauty and left an indelible impression on many of our minds.