Relive Ali Baba's magic again

“What maketh a thief?” is a question asked by Taher Ali Baig in his upcoming theatre production, Ali Baba 40 Chor, to be staged over the weekend at the Hyderabad Golf Club. Based on the original tale from The Arabian Nights, the story gets a quirky and modern twist, all thanks to director Taher. The production’s 20-member core team slogged for around two months to get their characters, the slang and their costumes in place to suit the plot’s antiquated setting.

Elaborating on the twists and turns in the story, Taher shares, “In the original story, the hero was Ali Baba who stole valuables from the dacoits. But we wanted to show the story from the point of view of the dacoits’ leader, Umar Sultan Sheikh. How hard he worked to get all the treasure in place and how sad he became once he found out about the robbery is the focus of the play.”

So is that the only twist in the story? “Not at all! That’s only the beginning! I have introduced supernatural elements too. In the original tale, Ali Baba’s brother Qasim dies, but I have brought him back as a ghost. That’s not all; Ali Baba’s mother Mum Baba has a flirtatious relationship with the Sultan of the dacoits.”
Interestingly, apart from the characters, the presentation of the play has also been improvised for the plot twists. The inclusion of technology and multiple backdrops have been used to portray several places on a single stage.

For Snigdha Bawa, who plays the role of Shehzadi and Neha Dhar playing Mum Baba, working with Taher again was an in incredible experience. “Working with him is such an experience! One gets to don roles which are not even remotely close to the real you. Like I am playing Ali Baba’s mother who flirts with Umar Sultan Sheikh (played by Varun Gyanchandani). For me it was not difficult to get into the role as I knew Varun from earlier productions and we got the chemistry right. But yes, if it wasn’t for Varun, it would have been a challenge to enact this part opposite a new actor. But then again, we actors are all about challenging ourselves with various kinds of roles,” states Neha Dhar.

And just like the script and its characters, the music for the production has also been taken up a notch by music incharge Nikhil Hireckr. He says, “Every sequence has elaborate music and I had to take care of the music for all of the characters and situations in the play.”