A Story musical with a Surreal secret

Dikshita Falor On a rainy evening, in a compact room, a mind was feeling rushes of nervousness as well as excitement. While getting ready, the mind reflected on questions such as, ‘Would my audience like what I present?’, ‘How long and loud would the applauses be?’, ‘Would I be recognized after this?’ Suddenly hearing its name called out, it calmed the now tense body and stepped onto the stage, into the spotlight, the room eerily silent. As she began to speak into the darkness, she found herself not speaking the words she had rehearsed for. She instead heard herself repeatedly questioning the audience, each time only louder, ‘Koi toh baajayega taali! Koi toh baajayega taali! Koi toh baajayega taali!’ (Will someone applaud now?). In those seconds, she panicked and realized that it was her soul that was on a journey in its final moments, looking for answers of a lifetime to deep buried questions. Haven’t we all found ourselves reflecting upon similar thoughts through countless nights? Haven’t we been in spots where the efforts that we’ve put in for a particular piece of work hasn’t earned enough credit or applause? Hasn’t our older self ever thought that if they had done a few things differently before, maybe, just maybe they could have received that applause instead?  Perceiving the video, my inner soul pushed me to join the artists of ‘Ek Raaz Batau Main’ and ask /questions and put forward my perspective and takeaways from the Story musical.  Just like all of us, we have amongst ourselves a storyteller and writer from Mumbai, Mehak Mirza Prabhu, with a long journey of her own, discovering the artist in her at 33; along with Mohammad Muneem a singer/songwriter from Kashmir, both asking the same questions, but this time only louder than anyone before. They created a piece together, asking many such questions to its audience. A story musical like never before "Ek Raaz Batau Main", which has been inspired by the idea of voicing out the ‘Kashmakash’ - the internal and external conflict between the artist's interpretation in correlation with the world’s perspective. The soul on a journey of one's life in the final moments of its death, thinking of all the work and asking their audience, ‘Ab toh khush ho gaaye?’ (if they are now content) with the artist's work. This piece explores different emotions an artist goes through, from creating, displaying, and living through the judgment of the audience.  According to them, there is an unspoken questioning satire running between the minds of all the artists who showcase their work, through all their vulnerabilities, asking their audience time and again, ‘Koi toh bajayega taali?’ (Will someone applaud now?). The artists let us on to a secret of life that a person should never have self-doubt as there is no right or wrong to anything we do. Along with this, there's a bitter truth expressed by the artists where they yearned to learn the art of making money to attain recognition. This piece is a synergy of like-minded artists coming together during the COVID-19 lockdown. ‘Ek Raaz Batau Main’– co-written by Mehak Mirza Prabhu and Mohammad Muneem, performed by storyteller Mehak Mirza Prabhu, composed by poet, singer and songwriter Mohammad Muneem, sound designer Vibhas Sawar from Pune’s Sound Silence Studios, produced by Half Baked Tales along with illustration and typography by Brahma Media. The beauty of all these artists coming together is that they complement one another in ways they couldn’t complete themselves. All these artists swear by the idea of storytelling. According to Mehak Mirza Prabhu, ‘Everything around you is telling a story’. Coming from the creative field myself, I have had the same tug of war of self-doubts in my mind, yet have never dared to confront and ask aloud these questions. But after viewing the video n number of times, I've come to realize that it's only our self-doubts that are holding us back in achieving our dreams. Furthermore, there is truly no right or wrong time to break away and ask the unanswered and just go ahead and lay it all out there. My consciousness has been jolted and left me pondering while I repeatedly hear and view this enthralling story musical "Ek raaz batau main" below: [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTp12Bx8Txw&t=11s[/embed] This is only the beginning of the new genre of story musicals with many more questions to be asked. About the author: Dikshita Falor is a Fluid member who is a Chennai based Fashion designer & Stylist by profession. She enjoys dabbling in all things creative and has an inherent desire to learn.