Bombay Dreams on Broadway

Originally uploaded by lools.

Lush. Extravagant. Melodramatic. Spectacular. Bollywood on Broadway. These are the words and phrases that came to my mind while I watched the hit-musical, Bombay Dreams, last night. The show is an Andrew Lloyd-Weber production with music by A.R.Rahman.

This was my first experience seeing a Broadway show so I was understandably excited. I have to admit that it took me a while to get into the show though. The first few songs were not that great and it takes a little getting used to the loudness and garishness of it all. Once I let go of my expectations though, I started enjoying the show and appreciating all the amazing efforts that went into creating it.

The stortyline is pretty straightforward - a typical rags to riches story. General themes covered are the spoils of success, true love, loyalty to family, never forgetting one's roots etc. The most thrilling part of the 3 hours for me was the water scene, which is usually the steamiest part of any Bollywood film. During a song-dance sequence with Ayesha Dharkar at her sizzling best, the stage suddenly turns into a beautiful water fountain that rises to quite a height and thouroughly drenches the dance troupe and even some folks in the audience! The whole manner in which this water scene was pulled off was terrific.

All in all, I was impressed by the superb performance by Manu Narayan (hero), the excellent production qualities of the show and just the whole extravaganze of it all.

A must see for sure!

http://www.bombaydreams.com