Bharati

I had the opportunity to catch a live show right here in Paris... and it was a Bollywood show at that. It was a Bollywood musical called "Bharati" featuring an all-Indian cast at a huge auditorium here. The French turned up in thousands to watch and appreciate a show with songs they couldn't identify with. However, the narration was in French and by that Swades uncle (Rahul Vora - who comes as Mohan Bhargava's friend). And he speaks awesome French. Wiki-ing him later revealed that he holds a Master's degree in French. So no wonder. The story is quite cliché in the Bollywood scheme of things. NRI Boy meets village belle. Falls head over heels in love. Dad is strict. Of course there's another contender. But true love prevails. All this told with hit Bollywood numbers amongst which are Silsila ye chahat (Devdas), Bole choodiyan (K3G), Maiya maiya (Guru) and a couple of regional Tamil/Telugu hits as well. The singing was excellent and dancing outstanding. You can read more about the show here -http://www.bharatitheshow.com/music.php. It was excellent overall and what made it more enjoyable was the whole atmosphere. The French people absolutely loved everything. They were very appreciative, applauded like crazy, followed dance steps and even gave a standing ovation. And the girl who played Bharati, Bhavna Pani deserves a special mention. She was mindblowing. The fact that the people around us enjoyed it so much made it easy for us to enjoy it as well. You can catch a few videos on Youtube if you are intrigued. In all, it seemed like a very civilized way to spend an evening in Paris.

Mamma Mia!

It was my first ever Broadway musical and I thought it was tooo expensive at $80 each. That is, till I saw the show. I was a little reluctant to go in the beginning but am I glad I went or what.. It was incredible to say the least. And anyone who has any preconceived notions that one had to know all the songs before they went for the show, I have to strongly emphasize that as far as this one was concerned, that isn't true! It was extremely engaging, the performances absolutely stupendous and mannn, they can sing!!

The show with the intermission was just over 2 hours and 30 minutes comprising 22 hits from ABBA's collection. The songs were so tastefully placed with relevance to the story and everything gelled dramatically well. What amazed me most among many things were the performers themselves. Not only was their singing out of this world, they all look nice and danced great and acted brilliantly.. Bundles of talent! The lead performer, actress-singer-dancer Mary Jayne Raleigh was nothing short of brilliant. The story was simple and choreography seamlessly wove over 30 performers at the same time into a fantabulous fusion of music, color, costumes and performances... What I loved most was how these people were saying these dialogues and all of a sudden broke into songs and it wasn't the least bit odd. It wasn't odd when the other unrelated 20 people popped onto stage to dance and melted away towards the end of the song leaving the stage intact as before they'd entered. It was sort of analogous to a flashback in movies.. only that here its all happening in front of your eyes. The last part was my favorite. The encores, the curtain calls, the applauses... It felt entirely exhilarating at the end of the show and I was sure I could watch it all over again immediately if I could.

We had great seats for the price that we paid (Thanks Sandy for booking the tickets) and I enjoyed it enormously. Here's the official site for the musical: http://www.mamma-mia.com/default.asp and I must urge each one of you to definitely go and see for yourself what I am talking about. No wonder this one's a global smash hit...