‘Black and White’ attempts to bring back the golden era of Indian cinema through a musical show

The golden era of Indian cinema produced films in black and white, some of which are remembered for its soul-stirring music. The period between 1945 and 1968 is thus been one of the most magnificent years of the Hindi music industry. Eminent musicians such as KL Saigal and RD Burman endeavoured to paint the silver screen with their best poetry and music. The nostalgia is inevitable and to bring back the melody of the bygone era, Niche Entertainment will present ‘Black and White’.

The musical programme will be a collage of performances on screen and stage, aided by megascreen audio-visuals. The performers will be seen blending with celluloid, making music come alive on stage. Milind Oak, director of the show, says, “We are celebrating! And, since we are performing free-of-cost for the audience, there are added reasons to celebrate. Our aim will be to showcase the magic of the era which we have seen only on television.” Interestingly, the entire audience has been requested to participate in the celebration by dressing up in black and white clothes. “We have also organised prizes for best costume,” reveals Oak.

The presentation format of ‘Black and White’ is reminiscent of a stage musical where the singers act the characters. The performance touches the various aspects of the era through the medium of music, pictures, movie clips, anecdotes and trivia! Stalwarts like Bimal Roy, Shankar Jaykishan, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Dilip Kumar and many more will thus come alive through this show.

The singers of the show are Hrishikesh Ranade, Vibhavari Joshi, Jitendra Abhyankar and Swarada Godbole. The script for the show which has been staged all over India and also abroad is written by Pravin Joshi. “Black and White is not only a musical show. It is a soul-stirring musical trip of those days when songs brought alive the vibrant and lively colours of romance and comedy, or the deep, heavy hues of tragedy,” Oak adds.

Eminent actor Rahul Solapurkar will be seen hosting the show, and he says, “The show proceeds in a dramatic manner. I think it is one of the first experiments that we made with a musical programme. And, we are happy to receive good response from our audience.”

(The hundredth show of ‘Black and White’ will be held on Saturday, 9:30p.m, at Yashwantro Chavan Auditorium, Kothrud.) 

Sukirt D Gumaste/ DNA-Daily News & Analysis Source: 3D Syndication