Webber did 'Bombay Dreams' because of Rahman By Sanjay Suri, Indo-Asian News Service
London, May 16 (IANS) Andrew Lloyd Webber's "Bombay Dreams" releases June 19, but he says his musical offering would not have happened were it not for Indian music composer A.R. Rehman. Webber says he did "Bombay Dreams" because of Rahman. The story came later. "I just wanted to find something that Rahman could do as a composer." It all began with a Bollywood song Webber saw on Channel 4 that got him interested in Indian Hindi film music -- and a Bollywood musical. He can't remember which song. "I've never been able to find it. I got hold of a compilation of videos to try and find what I saw, which I've still not done. But every one of them was by Rahman and every one of them was great. So I went over to Bombay (Mumbai, which is home to India's gigantic Hindi film industry) and met him there with (director) Shekhar Kapur. "And Shekhar introduced us and we just decided to do it." Rahman, Webber says, "is in a league of his own. I'm not interested that much in the whole Bollywood genre. A lot of that music is really very Western, but Rahman isn't. "He has his own very particular style and turn of voice. I'm not interested in whether it is Chinese, Mongolian or American. All I'm concerned about is a good musical with a good score." What is particularly fascinating, Webber says, is the new turn of voice. "He's hugely melodic. These melodies could not have been written by a British person or an American." Speaking about Rahman's score for the play, Webber says: "It's very funny in places. It's very moving too. At the end of the day a musical comes down to just this; is the story any good, and are the songs any good. And I think I could say that in this both are first rate." Webber says Rahman could bring Indian music to the West now as no one has before. "The kind of music Indians have brought to the West, people like Ravi Shankar and others, was very limited in its reach, really. "Now Rahman is popular and writing really good tunes, as Paul McCartney did 30 years ago. He is in my opinion writing that sort of quality of melody... I think it will have an appeal in the West." Webber says he does not know whether "Bombay Dreams" will set a trend. "When you do something, that's the last thing you think of. If you say I want to do this because I want to set a trend, you can be 99 percent certain you're going to have a disaster." He believes the play can do a lot for Asians in Britain. "It would be great if some of the younger Asian people see this and feel encouraged to do something more like this themselves. There is so much talent among young Asians here." Webber says he's delighted with the lead actors. "We're very lucky we've got two kids who are marvellous. Good singers and good actors, too." Preeya Kalidas and Raza will carry the show with their acting and singing, which will of course be for real unlike in Bollywood. "The thing with Bollywood stars, as you know, is a lot of them don't really sing. We have a line in the musical where someone does say, 'Well, here we have the first Indian star who really sings.' It does get a huge laugh. "The thing is in London you'd have to sing, you couldn't possibly have the whole thing on track, though we do have one number done to a track, and it is mimed, and then they get it wrong. But that's for a laugh." Webber admits he had had his doubts earlier whether they would find the cast. "How many opportunities have there been for Asian musical theatre? When we first started to find out, a lot of the kids would say please don't call me at home, because I'm not sure my parents would like the idea that I'm going for a musical. But when it got a bit of publicity and became respectable, everybody came out of the woodwork. "I had to fight for respectability. I think that when everybody heard that Rahman is here doing the music, it was a very great help." Unusually for Webber, he is doing the production and not the music. "As a producer, I have to take the decisions about how it's going to be cast, how it's going to be presented. And of course since it's a musical, and that's the kind of thing I do, I have had an input into how the whole thing is structured. "You have to make sure the story is right, you have to make sure that the team is 101 percent joined at the hip, and I think they are here," says the director. --Indo-Asian News Service =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-W-E-B---S-I-T-E-=-=-= To Subscribe/Unsubscribe from GoaNet | http://www.goacom.com/goanet =================================================================== For (un)subscribing or for help, Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Dont want so many e=mails? Join GoaNet-Digest instead ! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Help support non-commercial projects in Goa by advertizing!! * * * * Your ad here !!
