Iconic musical Mamma Mia gets desi adaptation

Titled ‘Mamma Mia! Again’, the new play directed by Ritu R Chandra, is a delightful tale of a bride-to-be searching for her father, creating an amusing mess along the way. “It is a story of four women who live life on their own terms. They make their own choices sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but more importantly they are the ones controlling their lives. This is what I feel, women across the world should do,” says Chandra. 

The all-women play is part of a fundraising event, orgainsed by Azad Foundation and Sakha Consulting Wings, which seeks to promote the ‘Women on Wheels’ programme to  empower disadvantaged women to become professional drivers. The initiative, which was first featured on television show ‘ Satyamev Jayate ’, provides training in vehicle driving to women, and offers them employment as chauffeurs, thereby making them economically independent. “I strongly support Azad Foundation and their ‘Women on Wheels’ program. I do believe women should have equal opportunities as men. They need to come out of the kitchen and do many other things,” says Chandra. 

According to her, creativity cannot be held back due to lack of money, and that her adaptation perhaps cost one-tenth of the original, is not a matter of concern for her. With a tag-line ‘Where there is a wheel, there is a way’, the director said, her play was differently structured, with a beautiful audio-visual running in the background.