Before we go any further, I must confess that I am no expert in the genre of Bollywood movie. In fact, I’ve never seen one in its entirety. Also I have never had the opportunity to experience the production of Andrew Lloyd Webber AR Rahman 2002 ‘Bombay Dreams’ either. I, like many others in the Western world, has a fondness for anglicised (or even Hollywoodised) offerings as ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ ‘The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel’ and ‘The Hundred-foot Journey,’ but definitely had a curiosity to experiment something more authentic. But I recognize that the culture of South Asia have been underrepresented in the West End, in general, however, it did not seem to be an awakened interest in exploring issues of India on stage recently. The National Theatre production of Katherine Boo of ‘Behind the Beautiful Forevers, “adapted for the stage by David Hare, Trafalgar Transformed’ East is East ‘written and performed by Ayub Khan-Din alongside Jane Horrocks, and the next musical adaptation Gurinder Chadha of “Bend It Like Beckham” are all bringing Asian culture in the British mainstream. And you can not get much more conventional than the London Palladium. This landmark, however, is both an incredible opportunity and drop Beyond Bollywood.
Starting with the positives, and perhaps state the obvious, it seems clear that most of the budget of the show went on the exquisite costumes, designed by Jennifer Lucien. It looks like someone opened a huge bag of Skittles luxury, who burst on stage with vibrant colors and a myriad of glittering pieces of jewelry. To borrow the slogan of the confectionery for a second, the main objective of production could be that every member of the unique audience ‘knows the Rainbow “, and certainly do. Each musical number has an impressive change wardrobe and also with a huge set of 25, I can only imagine the chaos between racks that are going on between scene changes. I can not fault this young troop of dancers. Each gives the place, the domain of the fascinating choreography Rajeev Goswami to perfection.
Mr. Goswami also serves as writer and director production, and unfortunately this is where the Bollywood dream becomes a nightmare of Bollywood. The plot is so paper-thin that sometimes feels like you’re watching a bad soap opera, whose characters just all happen to be Indian. It is also predictable and occasionally incoherent. Appearances by the main character Shaily is now deceased mother, spinning around in a white sari in a cloud of dry ice, only took the audience to snigger, I’m sure it was not the desired effect. Towards the end of the second act, we are also invited to a performance of Bollywood classic “It’s Raining Men” by seven young Indian men in hot pants and high heels, to get some cheap laughs from the audience. Even Nicole Scherzinger get a backup credit track as young trendy dance to The Pussycat Dolls and AR Rahman ‘Jai Ho “. Perhaps unfairly, for someone like me, showing a curiosity of Bollywood, once you have seen thirty minutes of the talented ensemble lip-synching to the music of Bollywood, which has seen enough. True purists will surely see more than two hours of it.
The lack of serial production – the entire show using a video screen in the back – left the scene of the Palladium feel very large and very empty during scenes in which three or four characters are only without the massive set . I feel that the production would have benefited greatly from a much more intimate setting. I do believe sorts like this, should be given the opportunity to perform on the biggest stages (and that was the intention of Lloyd Webber ‘Bombay Dreams’), but the London Palladium engulfs sadly Beyond Bollywood and magnifies their values low production (in addition to the wonderful costumes).
