"Mumbai Musical" from the bouquet of Prithvi Theatre

Oct 22 : “Mumbai Musical” a celebration of 29 th festival of Prithvi Theatre has come to revive the royalty of this theatre which has survived race against time.

Every year Prithvi Theatre comes with new themes in the festival. The theatre is now nurtured in the guidance of Sanjana Kapoor, the grand daughter of Prithvi Raj Kapoor.

The cultural legacy inherited by her grandfather, which she has taken with utmost responsibility.

The daughter of Shashi Kapoor and Jennifer Kapoor took the sole responsibility of her father and grandfather to nurture their cherished dream, who once ruled her grand father’s life.

Mumbai Musical, the concept came during research days of last year’s festival which was to mark the birth centenary of Prithvi Raj Kapoor, who synthesised and acquired prominence in theatre.

Sanjana said “when we were researching for the birth centenary exhibition, we found so many things and he had such fabulous actors who were singers, musicians and dancers. We thought we would look for similar talent. Though earlier, Prithvi tried to break away from the music tradition to promote new theatre.”

She told that while the use of music as a part of theatre has ebbed, Prithvi is keeping its promise of showcasing and promoting the different.

The eleven day festival from November 01 to November 11 will showcase a variety of programmes including 12 musicals with 9 premiering production, platform performance a tradition of the festival, musical conversation and readings from the book ‘The making of Samovar’ (Samovar one of Mumbai’s favourite haunts) and the release of Prithvi theatre yearbook II: Kala desh ke seva mein, a theater memorabilia.

Aao sathi sapna dekhe, Aisa kehte hain, Babuji, Giribala, Jazz are the musical plays that will be played during the festival.

The hobby horse of Prithvi Raj Kapoor, who himself travelled with many theatre group before setting up his very own theatre PRITHVI THEATRE in 1944.

The Prithvi theatre was a travelling theatre company of 150 dedicated artist, writers, technician, and cooks performing plays throughout the country. The first production of this company was Kalidasa’s ‘Shakuntalam’, and then a number of other plays including Deewar, Pathan, Ghaddar, Aahuthi, Kalaakar, Paisa, Kissan etc.

These plays were written specifically for Prithvi Theatre and all the lead roles were played by Prithvi Raj Kapoor himself. His devotion led him to become one of the most successful artists who played myriad roles in his lifetime.

The added professionalism with humane touch, he brought Prithvi Theatre in vanguard.

During his touring days he felt a desire to have a space to provide his theatre group, a root from where it will grow its branches .He leased out a plot in Juhu in Bombay, with a hope to build a theatre on that land.

Sadly he could not realise this dream in his lifetime but his son Shashi Kapoor and wife Jennifer bought the land to set up a trust to build the theatre.

Shashi Kapoor, who married Jennifer, met her during a play, she died in 1984.

But the dreams are still kept alive with Sanjana’s dedicating effort and this festival promises to lure and entertained the theatre lover.