‘Merchants of Bollywood’, which opened at the Regal Theatre this week, is a surprisingly fun and rewarding entertainment experience.
The show features a cast of over thirty performers who sing and dance in a two hour extravaganza that effectively recreates the Bollywood film experience. Now don’t misunderstand what we’re saying here – it really does accurately recreate the Bollywood film experience, the story is laboured, predictable, totally over the top and full of emotional and dramatic deliveries. The dramatic scenes are very melodramatic. If you’ve never seen a Bollywood film, you’d question what you were watching, but when you remember that this is a musical about Bollywood – it’s totally forgivable.
The dance and singing numbers are spectacular. The cast is energetic, athletic and move in tightly choreographed sequences that are performed to perfection. The song and dance numbers are what this show is really about, and they are stunning. The costumes through the show are colourful and eye catching, there are so many costumes changes that we lost count well before the interval.
The story is a simple one, Ayesha Merchant (Carol Futardo) leaves her family and very handsome suitor Uday (Sushant Pujari) to head to Bollywood to make her fame and fortune, her grand father Shntilal Merchant (Joy Fernandes) does not approve, even though he himself made his fame and fortune as a choreographer in Bombay. Romi Jaspal play the role of narrator and many other characters along the way.
The show’s highlights include an amazing staged musical number set inside moving cars, and some great comical high-jinks as it explained how the Bollywood film making system works.
Some of the depictions of queer characters are very outdated and feed on very outdated stereotypes. The character of a film director was really entrenched in the style of John Inman or Kenneth Williams, and this was a disappointment.
By the time this show reaches it disco meets Bollywood crescendo, you can’t help but we whisked away by the performers enthusiasm, excitement and energy.   Â
‘Merchants of Bollywood’ is playing at The Regal Theatre in Subiaco until Friday November 1, tickets are available from Ticketek.Â
Graeme Watson
