’50 Years of Bollywood’ – Musical extravaganza with Ash King and Jonita Gandhi

November 20 2015

Top music show to descend on London for one night only and we find out from its creator what inspired her to make such a song and dance about it…

By Suman Bhuchar

IF YOU ENJOY Bollywood movies and music and fancy a good night out with the family than look no further than Absolute Bollywood live’s “50 Years of Bollywood“, a new stage production at the Eventim Apollo Hammersmith on Sunday (November 22).

It’s the brainchild of Jaya Jethwani, managing director/choreographer and enthusiast extraordinaire of the dance company, Absolute Bollywood and her friend, popular British playback singer, Ash King.

www.asianculturevulture.com caught up with her in the run up to the big night and she explained what drew her to putting on this event.

Ash King

“Ash and I just wanted to do something different,” she said.

“I’ve been going to concerts since I was young and I love Bollywood. I’ve been to so many shows and see many amazing singers doing a lot of their own stuff but I haven’t really seen performers sing a variety of other people’s songs, except at weddings.”

Basically, the idea was to get two incredible singers together, King and the female vocalist, Jonita Gandhi, and then select a range of songs that represented the evolution of Bollywood music from the 1960s to the present day and present them live on stage, calling it the “50 Years of Bollywood”.

However, realising that songs alone might not be enough – it’s no singalong – Jethwani decided to compile it all in a mini-musical complete with song and dance numbers and featuring 25 dancers from the Absolute Bollywood stable (who recently did a number at the DDLJ 20 Year celebration at the BFI).

Jonita Gandhi

She and King have written a classic Bollywood tale that people will be able to relate to, and she shared the plot outline with www.asianculturevulture.com

“It’s a boy being told by his parents ‘if you don’t find your own bride, we’re going to find you someone’, and so he goes on a search to find someone himself. Obviously, he wants to fall in love, rather than have an arranged marriage, so he meets different girls along the way; but he’s like how do I find a girl that is traditional yet fun and understands his love for dance?”

She explains that the boy comes across many potential girls, and in the end, as in the best traditions of any Hindi film – “he’s going to find his bride and there’s going to be a wedding!”

Absolute Bollywood Dancers

Audiences will be entertained by many super hit songs that are iconic in the story of the Bollywood music.
There will be familiar numbers like “Dum Maro Dum”, from the classic, “Hare Rama Hare Krishna” or “Laila Ho Laila” from “Qurbani” and other very familiar favourites.

The choreography for the show will be done by Rumana Chowdury, an actress and choreographer, while Ash King and Jonita Gandhi will be the singers acting as narrators for the plot.

Both these talented singers have a tremendous range from jazz and Arabic right through to Bollywood.

Pictures: Ash King – Omkar Jagdale Photography; Jonita Gandhi – Arvind Saxena Photography

Listing

• ’50 Years of Bollywood’ Sunday, November 22, 7pm – Eventim Apollo, 45 Queen Caroline Street, London W6 9QH
  More info and tickets: http://www.eventimapollo.com/events/detail/50-years-of-bollywood