Dubai: Hugely successful musical ‘Beyond Bollywood’ is all set to play daily at Global Village till the end of its 22nd season.
The acclaimed musical drama will play at Main Cultural Stage of Global Village, playing the story that explores the tussle between the East and the West, tradition and modernity, for young urban Indians, but what we see is mostly a fairy tale.
‘Beyond Bollywood’ is a Munich to Mumbai epic, and arrives in the UAE after several hit performances in Europe, Asia and Africa.
It has played 60 houseful shows in London’s West End, 14 performances in Algeria, 19 across Europe and 50 performances in India before arriving for the first time in the region exclusively at Global Village.
Enormously popular on social media, the show already has three million social media impressions, more than 10,000 Facebook likes and 300,000 tweets and re-tweets.
The show is performed with 30 of the best Bollywood performers glittering with more than 1,500 piece of jewelleries and accessories and more than 500 costumes changed over 25 minutes of the finest Bollywood performances and melodies.
The show’s story revolves around Shaily Shergill played by Ana Ilmi, who leaves behind her home in Munich, Germany, to a journey to Mumbai, India, in the hope of fulfilling her mother’s dying wish, to revive her family’s failing theatre.
There, she rekindles her roots and sets about the seemingly insurmountable task ahead of her. Having rediscovered the richness of Indian tradition, Shaily returns to Munich, where she and the hero, Raghav played by Mohit Mathur, acquire an old theatre.
They create a new musical that hymns Indian tradition while teasing us with western-influenced numbers. The show is performed with great style to the charming music of Salim and Sulaiman Merchant with the costumes providing a glittering kaleidoscope.
Stories in Bollywood epics are accompanied with the riot of dance, music and colour — all of which are plentiful in this show conceived by several big Bollywood names.
‘Beyond Bollywood’ is a celebration of different traditional dances including the Garba from Gujarat and the Bhangra from Punjab, and other folk dance forms including Bihu, Kathak, Lezim, and Kalbelia.
The musical is written, choreographed and directed by Rajeev Goswami, who has been both a pop star and choreographer, while the book which it is based on is by Irfan Siddiqui, one of India’s most famous lyricists who has a string of Bollywood film credits.
“I’m extremely proud of ‘Beyond Bollywood.’ It is an interesting blend of different folk music and dance performances for which India is popular. Nobody has attempted anything like ‘Beyond Bollywood’ before and we are elated to achieve such global success and be the final live show at Season 22 of Global Village,” said Rajeev Goswami.
Global Village continues to offer unique shopping experiences, cultural performances, entertainment events and surprises every day until April 7, and is open from 4pm to midnight from Saturday to Wednesday and from 4pm to 1am on Thursdays, Fridays and public holidays. On Mondays, it is dedicated to families and women only.
