Jagga Jasoos Is A Full On Broadway Styled Musical
In a delectable deviation from the norm Anurag Basu’s Jagga Jasoos does away with the spoken dialogues.
Everything in the film is expressed in song-form.
Says director Anurag Basu, “Yes, Jagga Jasoos is a full-on musical. Yes, everything in the film is said in a musical form.”
There were rumours initially that the musical format had been scrapped.
But Anurag denies any such change of plans. “We never deviated from that format,although people including you, wrote that we had changed our mind and were making the film in a different format. ”
Why didn’t he correct the misconceptions floating around regarding his unique film?
“I never bothered to correct the errors being spread about Jagga Jasoos. Why should I? I was too busy trying to make the film that I wanted to. Also, I feel there is no point in explaining what your film is about. Let it be seen . It will speak for itself.”
So how difficult was it making a Broadway-styled musical in Hindi?
Anurag surmises, “I wouldn’t say it’s a Broadway-styled musical. It is far more Indian in tone and treatment.”
As for the difficulties in tackling the novel format of storytelling Anurag shrugs,”It wasn’t difficult for me to do the musical format on screen. I’ve done the format in theatre. So it was only a matter of translocating the format.”
Anurag gives his music composer Pritam Chakraborty credit for the musical ampleness of Jagga Jasoos. ” My long-term musical collaborator Pritam is the real power behind Jagga Jasoos. He has given me all the songs and music that I wanted. Without Pritamda Jagga Jasoos wouldn’t have been possible.”