Ready for a tale of love, lust and bravery, all set to the tablas of Indian kathak? Inspired by the ancient story of a legendary courtesan in love with a 16th century Mughal prince, Anarkali the Musical tells an age-old love story through the classical Indian dance style across two performances at NIDA's Parade Theatres.
Kathak is a Northern Indian style of dance which weaves stories through graceful, rhythmic food movements, where ankles are adorned with small bells, or ghungroo, for harmonised sound. The musical, put on by the Ruchi Sanghi Dance Company, takes its lead from the 1960 Hindi film, Mughal-e-Azam, a classic of Indian cinema. In Anarkali, a troupe of 80 dancers aer set to don over 300 costumes and dance across lush sets designed to evoke the Mughal era. Composer Abhijit Dan has crafted an original score for the musical, drawing on a diversity of Indian musical traditions, including classical, Sufi, Thumri, Ghazal and folk music.