Bharati – A Musical Journey into Incredible India!
Bharati is a musical extravaganza and a delectable composite mix of the varied dances, music and folk traditions of India. The audience is guided through a scintillating sampling of India's rich and breath-taking diversity. The show gave the audience a flavour of the hidden treasures of its vast and enchanting geographical beauty including its regional, linguistic, historical and philosophical diversity; its myriad peoples, life-styles and traditions. Bharati was performed to packed audiences at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts from October 26 - November 6, 2011.
Contributed by Nita Balani who was absolutely enchanted by the musical Bharati!
The land of mystery, splendour and vast diversity was depicted beautifully in song, music, dance and theatre in the production Bharati, the Wonder that is India. It never failed to surprise and please the multicultural audience who were in a common journey to discover India. The Sony Centre for the Performing Arts was the ideal location with its hi-tech sound and lights and gave life to the entire troupe who have been performing this extravaganza in Toronto since Oct. 26th aptly coinciding with Diwali the festival of lights and finally ending on Nov. 6th with the celebration of Eid. This reflects the typical diversity and celebrations of diverse community festivals side by side in India.
The musical/theatrical production was a combination of the old traditional ways of storytelling combined with hi-tech audiovisuals. It skilfully made use of a strong narrator along with appropriate advancement of the story through selective songs and dance from all over India. It had a live band of several singers and a live percussion ensemble on tabla and drums with string accompaniments of sitar, guitar, violin. The colourful costumes reflected the diversity which is found in the mysterious land called India - where East meets West with the Indian village, belle falling in love with an American of Indian descent, and all the trials and tribulations that follow with love conquering all in the end.
It combined a variety of songs from old traditional folk songs from the North and as well as traditional songs from the South alongside well-loved Bollywood songs from the movies to advance the storyline. The props were majestic and bordering on the ubiquitous with the appearance of a typical Indian truck and the three wheeled auto-rickshaw - “the Rolls Royce of the poor”. The narrator, Rahul Vohra, led the audience on a merry go around of love, song, and dance interspersed with a humorous look at the Canadian state of affairs with references to the “gravy train on the political scene” and the infamous Maple Leafs whom Canadians love to death despite not having won the Stanley Cup for over for decades! He requested the audience to interact teaching a few dance steps for them to follow along on cue from the artists.
All in all, it was beautifully executed and a real pleasure to take in during the auspicious time of Diwali and Eid. Let us wish Bharati success on its European tour and hope to see more such productions in the T-dot.
Bharati was performed to spell bound audiences at the magnificent Sony Centre for the Performing Arts, from October 26 - November 6, 2011.
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