One of my early memories of an actor playing a musician on stage is of Rishi Kapoor wielding a guitar in the movie Karz. The image is distinct: The cherubic hero making a valiant effort to sync his fingers with the guitar melody ringing through the playback track. Soon enough, of course, he ditches the axe to warble his way through the reincarnation song in full filmi mode. While phillum stars in India have long simulated musicians on screen, their Western counterparts have been flirting with the stage as real-life music makers for some time now. One of the longest-running off-screen acts has to be the Bacon Brothers, composed of Kevin Bacon and his sibling Michael. The brothers’ middle-of-the-road indie/Americana sound is well crafted and ably performed and has been active on the touring circuit for years.
(This story appears in the July-Aug 2014 issue of ForbesLife India. To visit our Archives, click here.)