Frankie never wanted to be a star, and after a chance encounter with a director, she finds herself transported to the ruthless world of Bollywood.
As she climbs the sparkling staircase of stardom, Frankie must confront what she is willing to do for fame and fortune. Can she stay in the Bollywood family and still be true to herself?
Which came first, the title or the concept?
It doesn’t matter – it was a title waiting to have something attached to it and that something is a fun, colourful production, telling a Disney fairytale of one woman’s dream coming true, then quickly, and predictably, turning into a nightmare.
Let’s bring another colourful (in this case, pink) comparison in – it’s Bollywood Barbie.
It’s one woman’s fight against the patriarchy.
Plucked out of the pictures, where she par-works, par-dreams about being in the Bollywood films playing out, British Indian, Frankie, (a strong performance from (Laila Zaidi), meets her unbeknownst ‘Prince’ (Navin Kundra) a writer/director who inadvertently makes her a star – but spoiler! It’s not all it’s cracked upto be.
Now about this particular fairytale is that our protagonist doesn’t necessarily need to end up with ‘the prince’ to give her her happy ending.
Top points.
Along the way we meet some pop-out comedy characters, giving us ‘extra’ and some laughs along the way.
Shakil Hussain plays the ageing King of Bollywood, Raju King, in fact. One scene, reminiscent of Tony Angelno in one Only Fools and Horses, delighted the audience in particular – keep an eye on at magnificent head of hair…
Gigi Zahir is our camp as a window choreographer, restaurant owner and anything else he can fit on his social bios, Shona Chatterji, the embodiment of fabulous, stealing scenes everywhere he goes.
We have Katie Stasi as Goldy Singh, Frankie’s cousin, mate, in work and life, and whose dream to audition for Bollywood is left stuck in the gutter as a result, we are left to assume, of not conforming to the ‘conventional aesthetic’.
The fifth principal character is that of Malika (Helen K Wint), the crowned ‘Queen of Bollywood’, soon to be dethroned by the arrival of the younger Frankie, and a cautionary tale of how fleeting fame can be, equal to your shelf life as part of the restrictive and male-dominated world of the nepotistic Bollywood ‘family’ (as depicted in this production, certainly). A commanding performance which I felt shined beyond the relative size of her role.
I wouldn’t say Frankie Goes to Bollywood goes deep, but rather gives a light touch to issues raised. But like a lot of musicals, it meets its brief to add some dance, music, eye-catchingly glam costuming and pretty colours to your life for the evening.
And who doesn’t need a bit of that?
Oh and erm I ended up not shoe-horning these in earlier, so without further ado…Relax and watch as two tribes (man and woman) go to war as the latter finds that the power of love and happiness lies within.
(Come on, throw me a bone here, it’s been a long week).
Frankie goes to Bollywood is at HOME MCR until Saturday 25 May. Click here for details and to book.
A Rifco Theatre Company, HOME and Watford Palace Theatre production.
Concept and Book by Pravesh Kumar
Songs and Music by Niraj Chag
Songs and Lyrics by Tasha Taylor Johnson
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