I won! I won! I won! I’ve never won anything before! Now, before you start calling me your best friend because you’re thinking I have just won the lottery, I am sorry to disappoint you. I won tickets to a show I had wanted to go to for ages. Kanika Kapoor, Shalmali Kholgade and Harshdeep Kaur. All different voices but one clear thing in common. Women! and how! One, my hero, Kanika for reasons I know! She is as stunning as her eyes and her voice. Her baby doll, desi look, and her lovely ho gay yaar was too good, and it was live! Shalmali was fun. She was doing her first concert in London, hence her interact with the audience was amazing! She was dancing with us, hugging audience members, everything. But, liking traditions, Harshdeep stole the show for me. Her amazing voice was second to none. With the start of Ik Onkar, as I had suspected, goosebumps took over my arms. That chill you get when you are in an electric environment as she finished, I actually felt like I was being welcomed into heaven.
Blessings delivered, we were in for a jam packed soulful evening. The sirens were delivering our favourites. Harshdeep’s renditions of Kabira (Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani) and Samjhawan (Humpty Sharma Ki Dulhania) had so much class.
There was a surprise addition to the evening after the interval (and after we changed seats for the third time to get a better view, which I am getting much better at!) The MD of the Palm Beach Casino (a sponsor of the evening) coming on stage with two stunning singers, his guitar and some soul. Turns out he sings! But as they say ‘kebab mein haddi’, the audience were eagerly awaiting baby doll. Some shouting ‘get off the stage’ and ‘bring on Kanika on’ was quite embarrassing. Well done to them for continuing and smiling. Unforgiving as the crowd was, I actually liked it. It reminded me of Bryan Adams. Any other gig and they would have received the appreciation they deserved.
Stunning venue of the Royal Festival Hall, great views of the River Thames, and the singing lift in the Southbank Centre (which has its own Twitter handle!!!) The higher the floor, the higher the pitch. Floor 6 was very, very high. Any more floors and I think only dogs would have been able to hear it! An amazing evening.
I left not believing my luck that I had won the chance to be there! Thank you Poonam Joshi, UK Asian and the FB group of all groups, ILU (by invitation only!)
The next morning I woke up to what I can only call a ‘teetotal hangover’. Once my ‘mein kahan hoon, mein kaun hu?’ moment was over, and later that evening I watched one of my favourite British Comedians, Sanjeev Bhaksar of Goodness Gracious Me fame (innit!) take us through the History of Indian Cinema, and what a documentary it was! Every interviewee that came on screen and I was like ‘woah!’ I mean interviewing Sharmila Tagore is not something we see everyday on the BBC. Thank you for showing a series celebrating different parts of India. One of India’s strengths is of course its evergreen film industry. Sanjeev Bhaskar takes us from the famous silent film Raja Harishchandra of 1913, directed by Dadasaheb Phalke, known as India’s first full-length film, right through to game changer films like 3 Idiots and Baahubali.
One constant theme throughout the documentary the use of song in Indian films, and the constant response was ’emotion’. Around the time films were developing through the fifties, through the Raj Kapoor era, as Bhaskar explains, songs had simple lyrics of a nationalist pride in the wake of the republic was a ‘way of capturing the public’s imagination’. Cue the song from ‘Mera Juta Hai Japani’. I sang along, because it made smile. It brought a sense of pride, even though I was born in Harrow. See, emotion!
Bhaskar takes us then to Mother India. A film that really is indescribable. Nargis plays the moral example of the perfect sanskari woman, a wife, a mother. Probably one of the longest films I have ever sat through but will never complain about.
I then see Asha Bhosle. Cue her statistics. She started her career in 1947! The year of India’s Independence. Not only was India free, but Ashaji’s voice was free to rule the industry for the next 60 years. She has the most recorded voice in history. She has recorded over 12,000 songs. STATS or what!
One of the highlights of this documentary was Sanjeev Bhaskar speaking to Aamir Khan. What a guy! An actor whose films have amazing messages to take away. Lagaan is one of the best films ever, not just because of the story and songs, but of course the cricket! He explains why songs are important in Indian films. Music and song helps you sharpen an emotion says Aamir. Cue scene from Lagaan with a cloud signalling hope for the villagers who haven’t seen rain for two years. Aamir argues the sharpening of emotion is because of the song when the whole village starts singing and dancing.
Focus on Aamir’s films shifts to 3 Idiots – one of the cleverest films I have ever seen. Kareena Kapoor said it worked because the story was simple. The rest of the documentary speaks about the increased use of CGI. There are films like Baahubali which will blow your mind with its computer graphics. But for me, the woah factor was there in the final scene of 3 Idiots when ‘Racho’ revealed he was actually Phunsuk Waghru. It was one of the cleverest things ever! Sanjeev Bhaskar said, and I agreed, it didn’t need any excess that Bollywood has.
With song, comes dance, and with India and dance, comes my favourite Shiamak. Shiamak, whose academy I was part of for a little while. Someone who redefined dance and amalgamated Indo-Contemporary steps to create his style, the Shiamak style. It’s a difficult style to learn, but on stage in front of you is the most stunning dance form you could ever see. I have said it, and will continue to say it until it happens, it belongs on the West End stage.
Overall, amazing documentary. It made me feel proud I was a Bollywood fan. A great statistic that made me think ‘wow’ was that the footfall for Indian cinema is 3 billion admissions a year. So that’s literally like half the world’s population.
Bollywood. It’s unique, it’s colourful, it’s emotional, it’s simple, it’s cleaver. It’s everything, and it’s Indian.
Overall, not a bad weekend for appreciating an industry that celebrated its centenary a couple of years ago, I am sure that generations to come will continue to love it’s individuality for many more.
Puja Teli 
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