Tom Alter spoke to Iknoor Kaur about his part in the recently staged musical Kl Saigal
It was not until Tom Alter played a part in the Hindi musical Kl Saigal by Pierrot’s Troupe, that he realised his admiration and respect for the legendary actor-singer. “I didn’t know that much about him. Now that I have seen his entire life’s struggle as an artiste, I admire him and love his music,” he said.
Alter played the role of Buzurgwaar in the musical who narrates the story of Saigal’s life. The musical was staged at the Sri Ram Centre recently. The play directed by Sayeed Alam looked at the life story of the singer and actor. It saw Saigal as Sita ji in Jammu, a salesman in Delhi, struggler in Calcutta and a superstar in Bombay. Yashraj Malik, a look-alike of Saigal played the lead. Alter feels that Alam’s never-ending quest to know and transmit Hindustan’s history led to the play. He explained, “Alam enjoys getting into this stream. Thus he has looked at him in an artistic, social and political way. Saigal’s personality is explored as a human being, a child, a man with a deep sense of music.”
Alter shared an anecdote. “At the end of the play, Durga, Saigal’s niece, reads from the Geeta as Saigal breathes his last breath. At one of the Delhi performances, the real Durga was there. She came up on stage after the show with her daughter and I was moved to tears.” Alter found his part challenging. He said, “It was challenging to not play a character, but a person and to tell the story in such a way that is fascinates, but does not dominate the play.”
Theatre has evolved a lot through the years and this was also visible in this play which had a very simple set. Alter feels that this change in theatre is for the better. “It has changed for the better in the past ten years, at least as far as content is concerned and Alam’s plays are a perfect example of this,” he added.