DenelPlex

For those theatre-goers who have not heard of the Broadway play Bombay Dreams, I recommend you see it. It is a unique glimpse into Indian culture and the Indian movie industry known as Bollywood (comparable to the American Hollywood). The play follows a slum boy from Bombay in a typical “rags-to-riches” story as he rises to greatness and becomes a Bollywood star. If the story doesn’t impress you, though, the music and dancing will. Typical of the Bollywood movie style, Bombay Dreams is full of energetic music and extravagant, highly coreographed dance numbers. One number even includes a water fountain. The music has a foreign sound to it, but its quality is par with most Broadway plays.

Although Bombay Dreams tries to be deep and meaningful, it is the fun and wild parts of the play that make it enjoyable. The story serves more as a catalyst, an excuse to break out into song. Despite the amazing music and dancing, there are some morally sketchy points in the play that slightly damper the enjoyment (things such as revealing costumes and cross-dressing men). Also, even though the play was fun, it failed overall to impress me as “amazing.” This was mostly because of the story. From the beginning of the play, Indian cultural references distance the average American audience from immersing themselves in the story because the audience is too busy trying to understand why something just happened. In a play about India, regrettably, a certain level of cultural misunderstanding is bound to exist. However, this is a surmountable obstacle that will not hinder the overall enjoyment of the play.

The main problem with the story is that it is typical and contrived (and these are words that the play calls itself, poking fun at typical Bollywood scripts). There is nothing fresh or particularly charming about the plot. There are funny moments and romantic ones and the characters are charming, but nothing stands out as moving and memorable. As mentioned earlier, the strength of the play is the music and dancing. Those two aspects make up for any other weakness. If you don’t see the play, you could gain plenty of enjoyment just from the soundtrack or a music video.

Out of five stars, I give Bombay Dreams

*** 1/2