Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Disney's Beauty and the Beast

Mumbai peeps why are you finding yourself bewildered over this quite an unusual sounding story title from yours truly? It's been over a month since the marketing team of Disney started seeping through your attention to eventually translate into motivating you into buying some time for yourself and your family while giving it a dekko.

It's the first one ever for India and even if you might have heard countless eulogies from all of your NRI friends and relatives about the great Lion King but you still haven't been able to find your way to New York's Broadway or London's West End to experience the sheer extravaganza of "The Show" you should find yourself lucky enough to be presented with this opportunity to soak in some sheer audio visual treat for all of your senses.

Let me confess that I had built quite high expectations from the show as I was desperately counting on the hours and minutes leading up to the show time. From the moment I sat in the dome @ NSCI, Worli and the famous baritone voice started the prologue of this 130 minutes long delight while the story's canvass unfolded itself I knew that I am in for a real good time.

Having a vernacular background it was a serious ask for me to truly appreciate as to what was going on since it was a true blue musical and as such its narrative had to be mostly relying on all of its characters talking in a heavy tone while dancing all the time. The fact that I didn't ever read this popular Disney story made my life further complicated. But after those initial uneasy moments the show's enormity took over and I would simply glide through the smooth transitions of stage effects. Slowly the story also began to sink in as the amazingly talented Indian artistes started making it look like it was their home territory by birth!

For the uninitiated, Disney’s Beauty and the Beast is the classic story of Belle, a young woman in a provincial town, and the Beast, who is really a young prince trapped in a spell placed by an enchantress. If the Beast can learn to love and be loved, the curse will end and he will be transformed to his former self. But time is running out. If the Beast does not learn his lesson soon, he and his household will be doomed for all eternity.

Since getting launched in 1994 this show has been a very highly successful one for Disney and till date it has been played for the audience of 28 countries. In India Disney made a tactical change by hiring the local talent for the entire star cast and oh boy! All of them have proved themselves to be the hidden gems with their truly world class performances. Over 100 local exhibitioners just lay opened an outlet to show their brilliance which I am sure would go a long way in changing the common perceptions (read insecurities) about such a beautiful genre of magnifique all round experience.

The sets which incidentally gave an impression of abundance could put even Sanjay Leela Bhansali to shame. Such was their grandiose scale coupled with simply uncompromising production values that to keep both the eyes open without even letting them blink didn't seem to be a challenge. The lighting effect has to be seen to believe.

So what are you thinking yet? Open that BookMyShow app and just book it for one of the 10 shows to be staged between today and 1st Nov. The base tickets of Rs. 1000 have already been sold out for all of them but you could still find few seats in the 2000 category which also I am sure after getting the word out (yesterday or today) would be picked up in a mad rush. It also establishes that the 'other' SRK i.e., Siddhartha Roy Kapur sure knows where his money and faith should go into reaping rich dividends later on. He has left no stone unturned into making way for the unparalleled production values for the show. If you don't get a ticket of denomination 2000 also don't forget to calculate how much notional savings you could make in the recent Billion Dollar sale shopping. You would be instantly motivated to shirk away any miserly thoughts as trust you me, every penny spent on this pioneering show is worth the expense. Just don't think too much!

Cheers
Ritesh
(C) Rits Original @ Scorpiofury.blogspot.com