Bollywood Dreams in London
habshi
AP [ MONDAY, JUNE 17, 2002 4:02:30 PM ]
MUMBAI: The boss of Bollywood music hopes audiences in London's West
End will soon be gyrating to a new beat.
A R Rahman composed the tunes for Bombay Dreams, a $ 6 mn show
produced by Andrew Lloyd Webber that Rahman hopes will help give
Indian showbiz a wider international profile.
"It's very exciting. This will be an exposure of the big industry that
exists in India, of the films we make, of life in India," said Rahman,
who has written soundtracks for more than 50 movies. "This musical is
a culmination of all this," the 35-year-old Rahman said by telephone
from London.
It remains to be seen how West End theatergoers will react to some of
the Bollywood staples featured in Bombay Dreams.
Lloyd Webber and Rahman have included a fight and a 'wet dance'. "You
must have women in wet saris for anything connected to Bollywood and
this is a total Bollywood number - very cheesy, very corny," said
choreographer Farah Khan in Mumbai.
The risk remains that a Bollywood theme may attract Asians only and
Westerners will stay away. Dire predictions about the musical's fate
have already appeared in Indian newspapers.
"Webber's dream theme may fade away," warned The Times of India.
Lloyd Webber acknowledged challenges in selling the musical on the
West End, but he thinks Rahman is worth betting on.
"I know he is very famous (in India), but in England he means nothing
at all," Lloyd Webber told The Times of India. "But he is probably one
of the most exciting composers around and the musical has got to be
able to embrace that."
Rahman is already setting his sights beyond London _ he wants to see
the musical play in New York, too.
"It has potential," Rahman said. "It depends on how it does in the
West End, then it can go to Broadway and will go to Toronto."
Hoping to give Bombay Dreams its best shot, choreographer Khan has
been juggling her Bollywood commitments carefully. She's now spending
most of her time in London ahead of opening night on June 19.
One of the top challenges is doing the musical in English.
"It's a big question mark how the songs will sound in English and if
this does well, it will be an opening for future Indian musicals
abroad," Rahman said.
The dancing is another issue. The cast of 40, largely British, has had
to adapt to Bollywood style.
"They are used to jazz dancing, kicks, pirouette, splits. But I've had
to teach them Bollywood dancing, which is upfront," Khan said. "A more
rounded movement."
But practice seems to be paying off.
"They are finally getting a hang of the style and having a ball," said
Khan, who has choreographed dances for more than 30 Hindi movies.
Ornate costumes, melodramatic dialogue, an overdose of songs coupled
with a wealthy female lead who overcomes family opposition to marry
the poor hero, or vice versa, is the standard plot for many of the 800
Bollywood movies produced every year.
The plot is straight out of an Indian movie script, with the daughter
of a rich Bollywood producer falling in love with a boy from a Bombay
slum, who wants to make it big in the movies. Appropriate enough, as
some of Bollywood's best try to make their mark in the West End.
Habshi
wesern manly ones .
Habshi
they tried to make it too western and toned down the dresses and the
music
excerpts
telegraph.co.uk
Denise van Outen, the television presenter, stole some of the
composer's thunder. She arrived wearing a borrowed Ł500,000 diamond
necklace and a white lace mini dress by Scott Henshaw (who designed
Jodie Kidd's little-to-the-imagination dress for the recent Spider-Man
premiere) decorated with revealing scenes from the Kama Sutra.(photo
bbc.co.uk)
"The Kama Sutra! She's gone bonkers," remarked one astonished friend.
Lady Lloyd Webber, the composer's wife and a keen horsewoman,
considered a triumphal march to the Apollo, Victoria, on elephant
back. "But I found that there was nowhere in Victoria to stable an
elephant," she said. "Not even the Royal Mews."
She made do with a sequinned corset and skirt, made in Bombay by
Manish Malhotra, which arrived fashionably late, two days before the
premiere.
Other guests invited included a rich mix of East and West; Liza
Minelli, Jerry Hall, Mel B, Laksmi Mittal, the steel billionaire and
Labour Party donor in the doghouse when Tony Blair helped him to buy a
mill in Romania, the former Indian Miss World Diana Hayden, Bob
Geldof, the musician Talvin Singh, Sir Michael Caine and his Indian
wife Shakira, and Shah Rukh Khan, the Tom Cruise of Bollywood.
For the party, guests were taken to the Pacha nightclub nearby,
decorated with swathes of embroidered Indian fabrics and
jasmine-scented roses, and fed Indian food from street market barrows.
The musical is a lavish spectacle inspired by Bollywood films,
complete with waterfalls, "wet sari" and wedding scenes
independnt.co.uk
What is a surprise is the meagre, empty look of the stage. Most of the
time the action takes place on the bottom quarter of the proscenium,
while the rest is simply blank or filled with a huge movie poster. The
dances are repetitious, the hip-shaking, head-waggling movements
quickly losing their novelty, and never enlarging character or
furthering plot. Indian costumes can knock your eye out when you walk
down any Bombay street, but Mark Thompson's saris look as if they
climbed out of the bargain bin.
Habshi
UK critics give Bombay Dreams a thumbs up
REUTERS [ THURSDAY, JUNE 20, 2002 5:13:28 PM ]
LONDON: British critics gave theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber's
latest musical adventure, an extravagant version of Bollywood love
story Bombay Dreams, a qualified thumbs up on Thursday after its
London premier.
Hinting at possible blockbuster status around the corner, the Daily
Express described the lavish show, which received a standing ovation
from a star-studded audience, as the "best film-world musical since
Sunset Boulevard".
"Great fun, great costumes and a refreshing change from every other
West End show," wrote reviewer Robert Gore-Langton.
Many admired the show, which tells the tale of a boy from the slums
who dreams of becoming a Bollywood star and falls in love with the
daughter of a movie mogul, for challenging the dominance of
Anglo-American musicals -- even if it didn't hit all the right notes.
"It's a bold, inventive shot at something new that misses the target,"
London's Evening Standard concluded.
But the Daily Mirror found that after a faltering start, the love
story managed to weave its infectious magic. "You can't help being
seduced by its energetic charm... There can be no doubt that the
wonder of the East has worked its charm on the West End," the paper
said.
The critical approval should come as a welcome relief to Lloyd Webber,
the man behind worldwide hits such as "Cats" and "Phantom of the
Opera" who has taken arguably the biggest gamble of his theatre career
with the previously untried formula.
In the role of producer this time, he has provided the motivation and
the money for the musical, written by the highly successful Indian
composer A.R. Rahman who is idolised at home but is hardly a household
name outside the subcontinent.
Bombay Dreams, which has cost 4.5 million pounds ($6.71 million) to
stage, has taken just two million pounds in advance bookings compared
to the 10 million taken for the recent adaptation of children's film
classic Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.
"We are all keeping our fingers crossed," he told reporters before
first performance, which needs to capture the imagination of Britain's
Asian community as well as the mainstream theatre-going market, to
emerge as a blockbuster.
But coming swift on the heels of unlikely film success Bend It Like
Beckham, a feel-good movie about a young Sikh girl in London whose
parents disapprove of her dreams of becoming a football star, The Sun
is in no doubt that Britain is "in the grip of an Indian summer".
"Bolly Good Show" ran one headline in the mass circulation tabloid.
Only the conservative Daily Telegraph struck a reserved note, saying
that "although there was much to admire... there is much more that
disappoints".
Habshi
too closely lest blindness strikes .
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/showbiz/newsid_2053000/2053167.stm
Shishir Yerramilli
> Its Bombay dreams
>
Good god man!Maybe you should start up your own ng ,if you feel the
need to create a thread devoted to your postings!
habshi
Bombay Dreams
3 stars
Apollo Victoria, London
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4444551,00.html
Michael Billington
Yet much the best bits of Bombay Dreams, and of AR Rahman's score,
come when the stage is given over to just such a choreographed fiesta.
The highlight is a post-interval number, Chaiyya Chaiyya, when the
stage explodes with thrilling percussive music and a cascade of
pink-turbaned dancers expertly drilled by Anthony van Laast and Farah
Khan.
In short Bombay Dreams is at its best when it sticks close to the
formula it derides. In the first half there is a typically rousing
Rahman number, Shakalaka Baby, staged against a studio set of a
rose-red palace replete with dancing fountains: absurd but strangely
beautiful. And at the end the hero routs the heavy villain with a
martial expertise worthy of Bruce Lee. All this is fun: what is harder
to take is the notion of the Bombay back streets filled with happy
dancing slum dwellers.
But if the show's best effects are at odds with its liberal aims, it
offers constant optical pleasures. Steven Pimlott's production wittily
acknowledges the baroque cinematic environment of the Apollo Victoria,
and Mark Thompson's designs are a delight.
Raza Jaffrey and Preeya Kalidas as the romantic leads also have charm
and sex appeal, but the acting honours are stolen by such familiar
British-Asian performers as Raad Rawi as
Habshi
too western and no match for what can be seen in most Bollywood movies
and AR Rahman doesnt know how to compose northern indian music at all
.
bbc.co.uk
By Jackie Finlay
BBC News Online entertainment editor
Billed as a riot of colour, energy and larger-than-life characters,
Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams is a tempting proposition on
the current West End scene.
A vast existing Bollywood fan base and the growing media fascination
with Bollywood mean its timing could not be bettered.
And Lord Lloyd-Webber's name on the project, combined with the
long-overdue chance of a new type of musical, should all combine to
bring in the crowds, whatever the reviews...for a while.
But anyone expecting a Bollywood-style extravaganza from the new
musical will be disappointed.
The Bollywood numbers are worth going to see the show for
The plot does concern itself with the Bollywood industry, and serves
as the platform for a couple of superb numbers.
Rapturous
Shakalaka Baby, featuring the obligatory wet sari dance, and Chaiyya
Chaiyya, sung in Hindi with voices distorted to mimic a Bollywood
soundtrack, stand out as joyous highlights of the show.
Judging by the rapturous reception, they were just what the (very
mixed) audience wanted to see.
But the show has pretensions to an intelligent look at Bombay reality
- pitting "masala" Bollywood films against the higher brow arthouse
film-makers, the plight of slum-dwellers and women with a bit of the
mafia thrown in.
All that and the obligatory twists and turns of a plot that involves
thwarted love, grisly murders, political comment and the path to
self-fulfilment for the two romantic leads, and you have one hell of a
melting-pot.
The surprising spice in the dish is the character of Sweetie, the
eunuch - eunuchs are common in India but not often represented in the
West, let alone the West End.
But here Sweetie, played by Raj Ghatak, is a major supporting role.
Some critics feel the attempt to mould it into one cohesive whole has
failed, but as ever when dealing with images of India - the country,
the literature - to think that is to miss the point.
The show is not perfect, but as an attempt to express all the
contradictions and craziness of Bombay/Mumbai, it manages very well.
Crusade
Ubiquitous actress and writer Meera Syal, best known for Goodness
Gracious Me, The Kumars at No 42, and her two novels including Anita
and Me, wrote the book, and her personality and attitudes are stamped
all over it.
Comments on the perception of women in India, from beauty contests to
wife-burning, pepper the scenes while, in a lighter vein, the comic
relief TV presenter is a copy of her own creation Smeeta Smitten.
Her one-woman crusade to broaden popular understanding about British
Indian and Indian culture seems to have made this hybrid show what it
is.
There are a few points where the show slips up badly. The opening
scene in the Bombay slums, a chance to introduce the serious part of
the plot, ends up presenting the slum-dwellers like something out of
Annie.
Pugnacious
And it has not been brave enough in expecting its audience to be
sophisticated enough to take full-on Bollywood, or Indian, culture.
Dancers occasionally wear overly-sexual Western dance outfits, with
too many of AR Rahman's tunes opting to entertain a Western ear. The
Lloyd-Webber influence from the wings, perhaps.
The pugnacious plot climax is probably the best piece of stage writing
in the show, as Hollywood is debunked and Bollywood rules OK (with the
must-have Syal sprinkling of reality, musical-style).
But the Bollywood joy and energy seen in the big numbers do not
permeate the show, which is an opportunity missed.
Bombay Dreams isn't a cinematic experience, and it isn't to be
compared with traditional West End or Broadway musicals, although it
borrows happily from both.
But anything that tries to be novel in the West End and even succeeds
half-way is a good thing - so that really is just as well.
Habshi
'Exciting! Thrilling! Breathtaking!'
(Filed: 29/06/2002)
A vibrant new exhibition of macho heroes and swooning beauties tells
the brash and colourful story of Indian cinema. Miranda Carter reports
It is striking, but perhaps not surprising, that it is the look of
Bollywood, rather than the films themselves, that seems to fascinate
Western audiences. It's apparent in Selfridges' recent month of
Bollywood style, in the look of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams,
and in the V&A's tantalising, bite-sized new exhibition, Cinema India:
the Art of Bollywood.
Schlocky: a poster of action star Amitabh Bachchan
In the course of its 70 years as the centre of Indian filmmaking,
Bollywood's style has become so ubiquitous in Indian life that it has
come to be the country's mass visual culture. To Westerners it seems
exotically bombastic, garish, escapist, and highly emotive. Its
pervasiveness is apparent in the work of contemporary artists, Indian
and Western, and the V&A show includes some of these, including the
first viewing in Britain of Turner Prize nominee Catherine Yass's
vibrant photographs of contemporary film stars and Bombay's Art Deco
cinemas.
At the heart of the exhibition is the V&A's own collection of Indian
film posters and illustrated promotional booklets, which date back to
the Thirties and Forties. It was begun, rather perspicaciously, by Sir
Roy Strong in 1986, at a time when virtually no one was interested in
Indian film ephemera, not even Indians (the first auction of Indian
film memorabilia took place this April). Alongside these run a series
of lavish song-and-dance routines from classic Indian popular films,
paired with a series of appetite-whetting trailers. "Exciting!
Thrilling! Breathtaking!" screams the one for the 1975 action
blockbuster Sholay, in big red letters. If you can get there today or
tomorrow, you'll see artists from one of Bombay's leading hoardings
painters creating a 20ft work in the gallery.
Posters occupy a particular niche in Indian cinema art. It is no
accident that theatre designer Mark Thompson has made liberal use of
them in his sets for Bombay Dreams. One poster from the early Fifties,
Raj Kapoor's romantic hit Barsaat, which showed the hero holding a
fainting woman in one arm and a violin in the other, became so famous
that it was adopted as the RK Studios logo. Since the Fifties, poster
art has evolved a visual shorthand which needs no words: the stars,
the visual cues of action, romance and stock characters, are so
recognisable they require no explanation. Very different from
Hollywood posters, where the stars' lawyers argue about whose name
goes first.
They are also a primer for the look of Indian film, reflecting
changing influences and fashions - and the constant shadow of American
film, from whose popular art they have liberally borrowed. The V&A
collection has a few examples of gorgeous Art Deco poster and booklet
designs from the Thirties and Forties, when progress and modernisation
were watchwords and films such as Dr Madhurika, or Modern Wife and
Modern Youth were all the rage.
Like much Western influence, Art Deco went abruptly out of style with
Independence in 1947. The show features posters for films such as the
1948 Shaheed (Martyr) and Raj Kapoor's social comment films of the
early Fifties, which have an almost deliberately unsophisticated,
un-Western style and a Gandhi cap atop every head.
In the Fifties, the Indian film poster came of age; it got bigger,
bolder, more dramatic, just as the industry evolved into what it has
largely remained since, with its star system, stock characters, music
and dance, melodrama and spectacle.
The posters of the time usually featured portraits of the stars, and
in these curator Divia Patel sees the influence of the popular cheap
prints of paintings by the late-19th-century painter Ravi Varma. In
his trademark style - 19th-century Western realism with a dash of a
European romanticism - Varma painted famous Hindu myths in lush Indian
landscapes, and even lusher images of Hindu deities in the form of
round-figured, long-tressed Indian ladies. He turned, to paraphrase
one critic, goddesses into real women and real women into goddesses.
The ravishing female film stars on the posters, in huge full-face or
profile portraits, bear his imprint. It is no accident that Indian
film fans talk about exchanging darshan when they see their favourite
film stars - darshan is the visual exchange between a worshipper and
the image of a Hindu deity.
A whole wall of the exhibition shows how another Bombay school
graduate, Diwalker Karekare, reinvented the poster in the Seventies.
He overpainted montages of stills - the star's face inevitably at the
centre - in a thick, almost crude, impasto of oranges, reds and blues,
to create a torrid, macho look which became synonymous with the
violent action movies of the Seventies and their hugely popular
anti-hero star Amitabh Bachchan.
Karekare made a particular point of emphasising Bachchan's trademarks
- his hooded, tortured gaze, his sulky mouth and rebellious
hip-thrusting posture. The exhibition also features Catherine Yass's
new portrait of Bachchan, whose career has recently been resurrected
by his appointment as question-master on the Indian version of Who
Wants To Be a Millionaire?
There is a certain poignancy underlying Cinema India because the
styles it celebrates are on the way out. Since the Nineties, painted
posters have given way to computer-generated designs using
photographs, and Indian audiences are increasingly scorning the
old-fashioned Indian styles, which are dismissed as filmi (cheap and
trashy), and demanding slick, American-influenced, youth-orientated
stories, just as formulaic as the old ones, of course - but
insistently "international".
'Cinema India: the Art of Bollywood' is at the V&A until Oct 6 (020
7492 2000).
COMPRASUR
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