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You can’t beat this Thriller

This is it The showman is back.

For a non-fanatic like me, stepping into a cinema theatre for a second show to watch the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, rehearse to create mass hysteria, was a weird and wonderful experience.

It doesn’t take long to realize that watching the man who sang and performed until he could not sing and perform any more is a rare treat.

Flashbulbs pop like frantic fireflies on a summer evening as Jackson smashes the sound barriers not losing his hold even for a minute.

Just call my name and I’ll be there… the moonwalker promises amidst applause by orchestra team. He leaps higher, spins longer showing his brilliant dancing skills, his ability to turn and jump and control and coordinate.

“Why isn’t he doing moonwalk, the backslide,” Moses, a tenth class boy from N.S.M. Public School nudges his mother. The bloke is fascinated by the dance technique (moonwalk) that presents the illusion of the dancer being pulled backwards while attempting to walk forward.

“He is still an amazingly slick performer, effortlessly flailing limbs with a hypnotic ease,” observes the mother Beulah, a lecturer in Maris Stella College.

What about sunshine, what about rain, what about all the things, that you said we were to gain… MJ breaks into the famous Earth song that depicts all things surreal in the beginning only to culminate in a man-made destruction-spree. His voice gets thousand times more shrill, penetrating and hysterical to render Just beat it from Thriller.

The pop icon renders the ultimate dose of ecstasy with I just can’t stop loving you from Bad. Watching the ‘moonwalker’ sing, stomp and stagger for a perspiring 90 minutes gives an understanding of the psyche of his huge fan following that showed a fanatical loyalty to the icon and why security guards at his shows fought a nip-and tuck battle to keep MJ out of the clutches of frenzied mob.

The best part of This Is It is that it gives a peek into moments where the pop sensation is refining musical and dance elements with the troupe members. We get to see a lot of him off stage, as a person and not the performer, the efforts and energy he invested, the grand plans he had in mind for his final big shows in London’s 02 Arena. “This is your moment to shine,” he tells the young lady strumming the guitar, asking her to change the scale and hit higher notes.

This Is It is a record of Jackson’s rehearsals for his planned 50-day London shows that were to run from July 2009 to March 2010. The documentary sort of reveals a surprisingly fit and happy Jackson running through his moves with the band, his dancers and choreographer Kenny Ortega, who is also the director.

As realization dawns that one never loses raw ability, grown from a God-given talent, you barely feel any different from his staunch supporters who worship him and refuse to believe he is gone.

Navrang theatre is screening four shows daily and Inox is running one show every day.

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