Bring On the Bollywood at was reviewed at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, and continues touring until 26 August.
Star rating: three stars ★ ★ ★ ✩ ✩
Sorry, nobody loves a good curry more but Bring On the Bollywood isn’t spicy enough for my taste – more korma than madras, you could say.
Fair enough, the costumes are gorgeous, Richard Evans’ set quite a creation, and the dancing exciting if repetitive on occasions.
Sadly, they are not matched by a sparkling script (although a pocket of the Rose’s audience of 400 laughed at every groaning joke), a memorable song or an outstanding piece of acting. But it’s still a pleasant night out.
Mention of korma makes it appropriate to mention the show’s most excruciating pun: “Did you hear about the man who fell into the curry powder – he went into a korma.” Ho-ho! But “All these Brits, coming here, taking our jobs” did earn a wry smile.
We had to wait to the end of Act I for a moment of drama, but I can’t tell you about that without spoiling it for the other nine towns hosting the tour before the end of August.
The star of the show is debutante Nisha Aaliya, a Miss England semi-finalist who won the part of Dr Katrina Pawar by chance, having gone to audition for a job as a choreographic assistant and being talked into switching focus to an acting role.
Worldly Katrina has lived in the UK for 14 years, but must go back to India for the wedding of her supposedly dim brother Lucky, and is so nervous about flying she’s on her third glass of bubbly before the plane leaves the ground.
She starts up a conversation with fellow traveller Ronny (Robby Khela, good singer/songwriter recently involved in Bollywood versions of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night and Cymbeline) which leads to romance and big trouble.
They even get close to an Act I kiss before being interrupted, something that wouldn’t have been countenanced in the many decades when Bollywood kissing was forbidden. Censors still exert a tight grip, but the times they are a-changin’ bit by bit.
When she arrives at her parents’ rather rundown country pile, she finds a mother, Lalita (the elegant and amusing Sakuntala Ramanee), dreaming of a London or New York lifestyle rather than the boring existence she has to endure with her ex-military-man husband (Rohit Gokani).
The other main player is Yanick Ghanty as Amit, a Bollywood director and bit of a wide boy brought along by Ronny. He falls for the family’s innocent ward and niece Rekha (the eye-catching Sophie Kandola) who is about to marry Lucky (Anthony Sahota) and is not too thrilled at the prospect.
Avita Jay is fine as Ronny’’s uninvited and estranged wife Kangna, and the team of choreographers (Dr Leena Patel, Sonia Sabri and Subhash Viman) deserve a name check for their often-electrifying ensemble routines.
‘Prem Leela’, ‘Lag Ja Gale’ and ‘Got Your Cure’ (which has a Sondheim feel to it) are the pick of the 14 songs.
Writer-director Samir Bhamra’s inspiration for this gentle romantic comedy was a dinner party discussion as to why the fourth and fifth generations of British Asians loved Bollywood – a word coined by a journalist in the 1970s, the B representing Hindi film industry capital Bombay (now Mumbai) – when they couldn’t speak or understand any of the Asian languages.
The answer they have come up with is the universality of the genre with Britain the largest consumer of Indian cinema. There are more movie lovers in India than anywhere else in the world with well over three billion tickets sold annually.
This often charming addition to their theatre portfolio will inform a whole new audience of the Bollywood experience, but it needs to pick up speed and a stronger, more cutting-edge storyline.
Finally, a thumbs-up for the informative programme which even translates the songs, mainly in Hindi, while the dialogue remains chiefly in English (Hindi and English are India’s two official languages, useful trivia if you’re a pub quiz addict) as well as giving a detailed A to Z of Bollywood’s history.
Jeremy Chapman
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