April 07, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 18, 1428

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ISLAMABAD, April 6: Director Shah Sharabeel turned his ‘Bombay Dreams’ musical on its preview night into a bad dream for many by taking a jab at Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry for demolishing his dream Mini Golf Club by ruling against it.

“I went to invite the CJ to the opening night of Bombay Dreams and told him that what he was undergoing was retribution for the injustice he did to me,” said Mr Sharabeel, leaving the audience stunned.

Nonetheless, the director known for his theatre performances added, he wished Justice Chaudhry well.

“I prayed that justice be done to him,” he said.

His words marred the preview of the ‘Bombay Dreams’ on Wednesday night which was promised to bring joy to people.

Rather than offering refined culture and entertainment, he looked playing a sordid political drama for the undoing of the February 2006 judgment of the Supreme Court that cancelled a lease that the Capital Development Authority (CDA) had awarded to Shah Sharabeel for developing a mini golf club in a city park.

“If it is illegal to convert the five-acre public park into a commercial venture then McDonalds in Fatima Jinnah Park and Monal restaurant at Peer Sohawa, which is inside Margalla National Park, should also be shut down,” he said.

He claimed that in an hour-long meeting with him President Musharraf agreed that he had been wronged. “The president offered a bigger piece of land anywhere else to build my golf club but did not assure justice,” he said.

He asked everyone in the audience to write to the acting CJ, to review and reverse the earlier decision.

Shah Sharabeel may have breathed anew into the art of theatre but the opening words left a bad taste in the mouth of many. As he started recalling his meeting with Iftikhar Chaudhry, a murmur broke out in the packed hall.

“It was totally unnecessary,” said Munazza a member of the audience.

“It was a highly provocative and ludicrous introduction by the director,” Shahida said and Sabi added, “he used the occasion to gain sympathy for his future business ventures”.

Director of hit stage plays like ‘Phantom of the Opera’, ‘Dally in the Dark’ and ‘Moulin Rouge’ that forced audiences to the edge of their seats and amazed them with intensity and glamour, Sharabeel’s ‘Bombay Dreams’ may not be hailed as one of his greatest.

However, complaints of “flaws” in direction and “disjointed story” from the audience, the young artists showed their talent, charisma and comic skills in acting. The performers with great diligence and pleasure transported the audience to the delightful world of theatrical fantasy.

All the magic of the ethereal yet frenzied dance sequences, lavish costumes, all the hip music and laughter of the ‘Bombay Dreams’ was nothing but a treasured performance.

The stage was set, as the name suggested, in Bombay, and started off with the slums of the city, where simple poor people lived happily.

Akaash was a young and ambitious tour guide who was raised by his mother in the slums and fantasised about becoming a Bollywood movie star. The story unravelled as two Sikhs, Honey and Money Singh, announced that they would take over the slums to build elite apartments. To the despair of all the slum-folk, a young lawyer, Vikram, played by Zahid Ahmed, arrived along with his fiancee Priya, played by Sundas Rehman and offered to save the slums.

Priya, happened to be related to Bollywood, and offered Akaash a chance. The play then took audience to Bollywood, where he experienced a side of Bombay that he had never seen.