Imaad Shah's first directorial effort to get staged next month

An oppressive afternoon is no match for a boisterous bunch of actors who have launched into song Their unfettered voices lift spiritedly above the hustle around them The Cannon Song is a merry number one that is best rendered after a couple of rounds of ale or any local brew but if you pay attention the lyrics narrate the disillusionment of grand wars and the shattering of heroic idealsThe cast of The Threepenny Opera in rehearsal at a theatre space in Dadar PicsDatta KumbharIts an unusual mix of rhythm and cynicism just the kind of thing that director Imaad Shah says he was going for Shah notoriously famous for his signature afro looks on at the rehearsal chorusing along with the cast and jotting down feedback Later he tells us that he is nervous not just because this is his maiden directorial venture but also because The Threepenny Opera is a formidable play straight from one of the greatest theatre innovators that the world has known Bertolt BrechtYoud assume that directing a play would be second nature to Shah After all the 30yearold is son to veterans Naseeruddin Shah and Ratna Pathak Shah who have earned the distinction of being the first family of theatre in India But Shah appears grounded even if ambitious Having first read the play in his midtwenties he says The songs in the play were really my first point of contact Over the years they have been performed by some wellknown singers such as Frank Sinatra says Shah who in another avatar is one half of electrofunk music duo MadboyMinkFrom left clockwise Meher Mistry Saba Azad Imaad Shah Bugs Bhargava and Arunoday SinghThe Threepenny Opera is not all about its songs however Cowritten by Brecht and Elisabeth Hauptmann it premiered in 1928 and reacted to opera as an art form for the elites It comments on class and economics with three of the lowliest groups on the social strata beggars gangsters and prostitutes taking it out on the streets with each otherAt the heart of the play there are fascinating characters who are amoral There is Mack the Knife the lord of Londons gangsters Then there is Jonathan Peachum the father of Mackies lover Polly Naturally as love stories go Jonathan the king of the beggars is Mackies adversary The actors who bring these characters to life are Arunoday Singh as Mackie Bugs Bhargava as Peachum and Meher Mistry as Celia Peachums wife Saba Azad the other half of MadboyMink plays the role of PollyWatching the cast rehearse we confess that Singhs stature and commandeering voice are a treat to the eyes and ears The Bollywood actor has recently made his foray into prominent theatre productions such as The Glass Menagerie Next the transformation of Mistry and Bhargava onstage as they get into character without the use of props makeup or costume will have you charmed What could be more creatively challenging than the King of the Beggars halfmad philosophical a Robin Hood of sorts but not quite says Bhargava an actor who gave his voice to King Louie in the Hindi version of The Jungle Book in 2016 However we have a hunch that the supporting cast which includes actors Suhas Ahuja Vivaan Shah Imaads younger brother and Edwin Joseph is certain to whisk you away into the lowly but passionate underbelly of London with their choreographed sequences and songsThe Threepenny Opera is a production from Motley the theatre group cofounded by Naseeruddin and Benjamin Gilani We ask the debutant director if the pressure of living up to the Shah legacy plays on his mind in his new role He says that his parents have certainly helped finetune a thing or two in the play The pressure to work with a text like this is anyway present I use this circumstance to goad myself further says Shah as he resumes a chorusWhere St Andrews Auditorium BandraWhen November 10 730 PM November 11 4 PM amp 730 PMEntry Rs 300 Rs 1250Call 26410926