Precious Bazaar

Published Thursday 23 June 2005 at 11:45 by John Thaxter

Last year’s BollyIdol sessions at Watermans auditioned hundreds of would-be screen stars before choosing eight winners who were then cast in the debut run of Samir Bhamra’s staged version of a Bollywood musical.

A year on his production is revived with a larger cast of 17 actors and dancers, giving more space and style to its melodramatic story of Indian courtesans in London, and featuring lively song and dance routines mimed to fresh selections from original Bollywood soundtracks and remixes.

Standout of the show remains Zafreen, a young Bangladeshi from Southall, playing an aspirant radio reporter who goes undercover to expose a sleazy prostitution racket involving immigrant girls, while operating as an apparently respectable London school of Asian dance.

When her character joins the line-up of dancers, she puts her limber, beautifully toned physique to marvellous use, with stunning solo routines, but also giving us an engaging romantic opener with Mark Khutan as her loving but wayward husband to be.

Strong supporting performances come from Jas Bing in best Bollywood screen style, as the son of an Asian MP, who falls head over heels for Shavika Mistry’s delightful and virginal young dancer in a happy-ever-after romance, to the delight of his adoring mother, played by the glamorous Krishna Patel attired in saris and bling.

At the ‘dance school’ Aashi Jitender K struts her stuff as the madame, aided by Sarjit Sahota as her pimp, Jaimal Mistry as the Caliban-like man of all work, and Pritesh Chauhan as a suave fashion expert.