Clever, astute, entertaining for the aficionado and the newbie, this is likely to leave you with a smile…
By Suman Bhuchar
THIS musical theatre show, ‘Frankie Goes to Bollywood’ produced by Rifco Theatre has been touring the UK and has now arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Hall at the Southbank Centre for its London Premiere.
It’s a massive achievement to get it there and this is a joyful and fun show which can be enjoyed by all. The show is a tongue in cheek send up of the conventions of popular Hindi cinema, commonly called Bollywood, while the title of the musical is a riff on the popular 1980s band, Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
Frankie Taylorwalla (Laila Zaidi), is a young woman who has been fed a diet of Bollywood films by her mother (who we see in a twee prologue) and has now passed away.
She works as an usher with her friend Goldie (Kati Stasi), at a cinema in Milton Keynes but as she’s putting out the bins, discovers an art film director called Prem Kapoor, (Navin Kundra, the singer, in what is his first stage role) hiding from his own film premiere, epitomising the typical sensitive Indian guy who we only get to see in Hindi films.
He asks her to audition for a new film which her friend Goldy is desperate to get, however, Frankie gets the job and before you know it, she’s jetting off to Bombay/ Mumbai where we indulge in some jokes about the freshie from England doing “Namaste”, while the sophisticated Mumbaiwallahs opt to speak English (as a colonial hangover) inverting the stereotype of the desi girl abroad in Hindi films.
There is a lot in this story which satirises ‘masala’ Bollywood film industry mores and some are more obvious than others in a story concept that avid Bollywood aficionados can dissect and enjoy. It is directed by Pravesh Kumar.
There is the svelte female vamp Malika (Helen K. Wint) who arrives on stage to the sound of ‘Monica, oh my darling’ (a tune from the 1971 film, ‘Caravan‘) and the recognition moment is brilliant.
Another hilarious spoiler alert moment is when the Light bulb joke gets a makeover and it is transposed to how many Spot Boys (Runners) does it takes to change a lightbulb. Here we have one minion beckoning the next one down to him and so on until the answer is ten plus someone to bring the tea in those glass tumblers in a rack.
This story follows a typical pattern, Frankie makes her way and becomes a big Bollywood star, in an industry controlled by her male counterparts – in this case Raju King (Geet Sagar) who turns out to be a mummy’s boy and she had to sign a contract to be part of the family. (The mummy’s boy relationship is played for laughs and I am not sure it really works).
She ditches Prem but later goes to a Himalayan ashram retreat to find him. Another interesting character is Shona Chatterjee (Gigi Zahir) a camp choreographer with some very catty lines. They also double up as a TV host in a ‘Koffee with Karan’ chat show type moment.
The set design by Rebecca Bowers is proscenium arches in a Mughal architectural shape and swagged curtains, lanterns, and a platform with a lot of dancing space in front and the lighting design by Philip Gladwell has an iridescent range of coloured lighting projected onto the arch and space.
The movement direction and costumes design is by Andy Kumar – and they are all very dazzling, while the dancers perform energetic sequences (like in a Karan Johar movie). My personal favourite was the red sari worn by Frankie.
The songs and music by Niraj Chag are a blend of pop and mixed with Qawwali (some are more memorable than others and on the night www.asianculturevulture.com
saw it, the sound mix wasn’t perfect). The cast have great voices and are fine performers with a lot of energy and I enjoyed the vamp, Malika encouraging everyone to “Be less humble, Be More Rude, Be More B.I.T.C.H” – this is my favourite number and the songs and lyrics are by Tasha Taylor Johnson.
Frankie does go to Bollywood but her story arc brings her back to Milton Keynes where she decides to take charge of her own destiny and make the movies she wants!
It’s very much Pravesh’s own story and that of his brother Andy who did go to Bollywood and worked /struggled for a while in that industry and then finally they made their own film, ‘Little English‘ in UK.
It’s unfortunate that there is no show programme available for audiences to buy and learn a bit more about the director’s concept and cast biographies – (you have to go online via a QR code to get any information), and you don’t also get to know the titles of the song numbers.
It is an enjoyable night out on the razzle dazzle.
Acv rating: **** (four out of five)
All pictures: ©Rich Lakos/ArenaPAL
Listings
‘Frankie Goes to Bollywood’ by Pravesh Kumar is at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, South Bank until August 18, 2024 (performances run Wednesdays to Sundays (Evenings 7.30 matinees on
Thurs/Sat & Sun 2.30pm).
Running time 2 hours 30 mins.
Southbank Centre (Queen Elizabeth Hall), Belvedere Road London SE1 8XX
https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/performance-dance/frankie-goes-bollywood
