Hmmm ... I’d mentioned an illicit love affair, didn’t I? Yes.. it was quite a delicious one too. Ok, ok! Enough of me joking around. Basically Laila had put forth an intriguing idea of a murder-mystery musical to Shammu Bhai and we all decided that it would be something really fun to do. So Laila wrote the main script called “Murir Moa”, with GrooveTrap providing the music as the live band. And yes... some of us had to act.. hehe.
Oh! .. What is a murder-mystery musical you ask?
I’m sure the ‘musical’ part is self-explanatory. As for the murder mystery.. it was a comic take on the classic whodunnit mysteries we’re all so familiar with – at least to those who’re into popular detective stories or TV series. Members of the audience who attended the musical basically saw a murder take place (not a real one of course) at the onset of the show. Then they were all provided with clues – that is, the motives for the murder and all sorts of other sordid details on each character’s part started to come glaringly under the spotlight (pun intended!). From the clues the audience were then left to guess the identity of the perpetrator of the crime, before the solution was revealed during the final act. And as is typical, the investigation was carried out by an amateur sleuth.. well an inspector in this case.. played by Laila .. assisted by her bungle-head of a sub-inspector played by her friend Murali, who’s got great comic timing. Oh..and no one could leave the show as everyone in the room was a suspect until proven otherwise. Some of the audience members also had to sit in the interrogation chair mind you!
Me? I played the rich, tragic (black) widow.. Nargis.. of the poor, poor murdered soul.. Chor Khan.. sigh. Incidentally the play was called “Murir Moa” because my soon-to-be-dead hubby was a businessman and he was murdered at the launching party of his latest product of...(you guessed it!) Murir Moa! Anyways.. the so-called illicit love affair was between Nargis and her young lover, Asif.. who was played by Jasper :D
Chotu Khan.. the lead vocalist of the band “Stonefree”.. played.. Chotu Khan.. the younger brother of Chor Khan. It was funny how Chotu bhai ended up playing a character having his own name. Though he’d been quite nervous about his part (“I’m a musician...not an actor”) he ended up giving one of the best performances of that night.
As I was meant to play a rich.. but not a sophisticated.. missus, I had to get the proper look. Kuhu, the famous artist and fashion designer, who is also Laila’s mum, was our Costume Supervisor. She took me to Ban Thai, where she instructed Qamrul (the owner) that I was to be given a garishly 60s look. And so the transformation begun. I could hardly recognize myself in the mirror once he was done. I think that was meant to be the point.
The best part about the whole episode I must say were the rehearsals. Particularly the ones with Jasper. It was so so funny to watch Jasper trying to remember his lines! Though singing comes as naturally to him as breathing.. acting was a whole different ball game for him. It was cute to see how Laila’s voice kept rising in impatience at certain times when she was trying to teach Jasper some tricks on how to memorize his lines.. lol.
Anyways, you’ll all have to undergo the torture of reading just one more post before I start on the MJ tribute. There is NO way I’m going to leave out the experience of doing our very first “Tribute”.. which is a regular musical event held by a major event management firm here. In our case, it was a tribute to classic rock and GrooveTrap went on to perform the songs of not only as legendary a band as Led Zeppelin, but to share the stage with a similarly legendary band of this country... MILES.
So till my next post.. have a listen to some of the more less-famous tracks of these two bands. Yes... I mean other than “Stairway to Heaven” or “Chaad Tara” :P
Cheers!
Snapshots from the show. Credits: Bijoy
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