Britain’s Got Bhangra charts the development of Bhangra music from the 1980’s to the present day. Telling the story of a young Indian community trying to make a voice for themselves within the new western world they found themselves. The story is focused around Twinkle, played by Shin, a young man who moves to the ‘gold lined streets of London’ to make money with the aim of giving his wife a good life. He is a talented singer but in his naivety signs his music across to Shindie, played by Sophiya Haque, a self obsessed ‘entrepreneur’.

Pravesh Kumar’s production is an excellent introduction to bhangra music for those who are new to it. It pulled in a full house of both English and Punjabi speakers. The cast sing and act in both English and Punjabi, at first it feels a little difficult to take in, but then you just relax and go along with the story, the choreography and expression of the cast are more than enough to make you understand what is going on. The storyline is basic but this works with everything else that is happening on stage, communication through music and dance is the main aim of this show and a more complicated plot would get in the way of the spectacle and tongue in cheek humour.

The casting was exceptional, each cast member stood out individually no matter how big or small the part. I loved the performances of Rina Fatania who opens the show with a unique version of twinkle twinkle little star. Rakesh Bourny plays the part of DJ lovely in an annoying yet lovable naïve way with some great moves, he is thoroughly entertaining. Sophiya Haques portrayal of Shin’s nemesis was fantastic, and her beautiful, unique voice is showcased in the opening number to the second half. Arun Blair-Mangat who plays Twinkle’s illegitimate love child, Jason, has a stunningly pure voice, you could listen to it all night. Of course, probably unsurprisingly my highlight was Shin, his voice is indescribable, he has beautiful tones, sings each song with a passion and technical brilliance, an all round spectacular performer.

The cast worked together incredibly well, the quality of the singing was consistently exceptional. If you close your eyes you would believe you were listening to a large chorus, in fact there were only 11 of them, regularly shifting between characters.

The music by Sumeet Chopra is fabulously addictive making you want to dance and foot tap at every given opportunity both during and after the show. It sets the pace of the performance meaning you barely notice any scene changes through the excitement of the music. The band under the musical direction of Mark Collins should be given a special mention as they never stopped playing. It was great to see them on stage too during the recording sessions.

Andy Kumar’s choreography is second to none. He manages to create a spectacular scene in what seems at times like limited space. Equally as impressive and adding to the spectacle of the show are the colourful costumes, designed by Andy and Laura Stanfield.

The set designed by Simon Lima Holdsworth was wonderful on arrival to the theatre I felt like I was in for something special from the outset, when in England the set consisted of a street lined with shops and it was inside the shutters that the band sat. The lighting design by Douglas Kurt worked hand in hand with the set and creatively managed to quickly transform the mood of the story.

An all round passionate, energetic and humorous performance which could not fail to send each audience member away with a song in their heart, a smile on their face and a love for bhangra music.

The basic story of Britain’s Got Bhangra is [take a deep breath and follow along with me here]: Twinkle, the lead character, moves from India to England with hopes of sending for his wife when he earns enough money. He gets a job with his new found friend Rocky and they discover a mutual love of singing. Twinkle goes to temple and the Priest likes his singing voice so much, he asks him to sing at a wedding. Twinkle and Rocky sing at the wedding where the groom runs off with a guest and the bride is distraught. A year later, Twinkle runs into the jilted bride and she persuades him and Rocky to record some music. She then becomes their manager. Following? Good.

We then see, through Twinkle and Rocky’s journey how Bhangra progresses through the 80s into 1997. They are the darlings of the Bhangra scene in the UK, touring around the country, celebrated wherever they go. Twinkle, however, has let fame get to his head somewhat and has become a drunk. He even sleeps with a groupie (very rock n’ roll). Rocky is sick of Twinkle’s behaviour and informs him that he plans to move back to India and get married. When he tells Shindie, their manager, she is equally unimpressed. The thuggish brother of the groupie Twinkle slept with comes looking for him and Shinde, out of spite, points him in the direction of Rocky and well, bad things happen.

Twinkle spirals into a depression, doesn’t show up for gigs. Meanwhile, Bhangra is changing and a younger crowd who are remixing the sound have taken over. In the second act we see Twinkle struggle to get his life together as repercussions from his stardom, particularly that groupie encounter, come back to haunt him.

I’ll be honest, there were moments in the show that were complete corn on the cob, covered in cheese. But heck, I’m a known lover of a cheesy musical. There is obviously a lot of Punjabi/Urdu used throughout and at times, I felt I couldn’t really connect. At certain points, a joke is made of this when Twinkle sings to his wife and half way through, stops and says ‘this isn’t working, let’s try it in English.’

The cast are fantastic and truly look like they’re having a blast. Twinkle (played by Shin) has a superb voice. Cast member Rina Fatania who plays an Auntie is wasted in the chorus – someone get this woman her own show! She got huge laughs whenever she was on – absolutely perfect comic timing.

The show builds to a climax and the ending will knock your socks off, knit you a new pair and knock them off again. A full on Bhangra number complete with Bollywood-style routine, amazing set and awesome costumes? Well, I don’t mind if I do. The audience went absolutely mental at the end. Talk about high energy.

This is a great show, with some wonderfully comical moments and a fantastic soundtrack that young and old alike will enjoy. Showing at the Playhouse til July 17th, I suggest you get your sari on, get down there and have yourself a good time.

The cast are fantastic and truly look like they’re having a blast. Twinkle (played by Surrinder Singh Parwana (Shin) has a superb voice.

- Submitted by BangsandaBun

View the article here: http://theculturevulture.co.uk/blog/?p=6974

BOOK NOW FOR TWO NIGHTS ONLY!

WEDNESDAY 21ST AND THURSDAY 22ND JULY 2010 @ THE WEST WING, SLOUGH FROM 7.30pm

RIFCO ARTS NEW WORKING DEVELOPMENT DANCE DRAMA:

‘BREAK DA FLOORBOARDS!’

Come and support Slough’s dancing stars of the future in Rifco Arts development dance drama ‘Break Da Floorboads!’ Rifco Arts in association with Creative Academy are developing an urban bhangra dance performance showing at the West Wing Arts Centre, Stoke Road, SLOUGH, SL2 5AY for two nights only.

So come and support Slough’s performers of the future on the 21st and 22nd July 2010 at the West Wing. Performance starts at 7.30pm on both nights.

Tickets cost £5 and FREE for Students and under 16s

All tickets need to be booked via the Rifco Arts office on 01753 570 700, free tickets for students and under 16s still need to be booked through the Rifco Arts office to reserve your seat.

A valid NUS card or proof of age needs to be provided on collecting free tickets.

Book your tickets now before they sell out!!

‘Chak De Phatte!’

The Indian subcontinent seems to loom large in my reviewer’s mind right now after last week’s expedition to the North Wall for Correspondence. Tonight we are back at the Playhouse for Rifco Arts’ superb Britain’s Got Bhangra.

We meet our hero, Twinkle, as he is about to make the great leap from India to Britain to strike it big in the 1970s. He has the immigrant blues though, and needs to deal with success, money and his love back in the motherland. What is striking about the production is its unfussy use of, and clear love for, the musical form.

To explain: new musicals commonly fall into the trap of putting their subject material before the story. It would have been easy for Britain’s Got Bhangra to be a dull meditation on the immigrant experience with ciphers for characters. Instead, from the very first note we understand that we are safely in the land of the musical where the lead follows his dream to be a bhangra star, we have a fairy godmother, a brothers/family motif, Sophiya Haque’s cracking Yoko Ono-esque bad girl chewing up the set and happy ending just around the corner. We are at such a stage with new British musicals that it feels odd that so few get the basics right and offer their audience such a riotous night out.

The score is fleet and exciting, shifting between bhangra, funk, rap and musical fare. As it turns out, Bhangra is perfectly suited to life inside a musical. The pace never drops below the frenetic with simple staging and fluent direction. The chorus are very funny and all the leads sing beautifully as they inhabit their characters. Special praise to Natasha Lewis andArun Blair-Mangat for their adept handling of the slower tunes.

Britain’s Got Bhangra is comparable to that first blast of hot air when stepping out of the airport on holiday. By the 2nd encore the thing had gathered so much energy that they could have kept us dancing all night. Bloody bloody wonderful.

- Josh Tomalin

The review can be seen here: http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8831276078278&title=Britain’s+Got+Bhangra+(Tour+-+Oxford)&ref=D

BRITAIN’S GOT BHANGRA OFFICIAL MERCHANDISE!

Hoodies  £15

Male  &  Female T-Shirts  £8

Bags  £5

Available in sizes S, M, L and XL.
Please add £1.99 for p+p
Contact us on 01753570700 or email us at info@rifcoarts.com.

Rifco Arts have really pulled something special from the bag with this production. I know the communication team were recently seeking help with publicity in and around the Warwick Arts Centre. Now, having seen the show, I really think they have something to shout from the rooftops about.

Where do I begin with this? This is totally unique in regard to anything I have experienced in theatre to date. It is an education, an exciting, funny, yet poignant journey through British Bhangra history. This is the finest example of a collaboration of many talents; the music and the singing and dancing, all aspects of theatre work in particular the writing of this wonderful theme and the quality of the directing. The set design is superb.

The concept has been three years in the making. The Asian cast has been expertly sourced and have come together to give wide appeal. There are many theatrical devices that have fused in this work, but it is the music and the songs and the wholehearted performance of this facet in particular that really makes this tick – well it is a musical I hear you say, best be assured then that it is one of the highest calibre.

I had not realised, somewhat naively, that Britain has had Bhangra for the past 30 years. Lyrics often suit best the Punjabi language rather than the English, so has not received the exposure that it perhaps should have. Yet the energy and rhythm captivates and would appeal to anyone with an ear for musical influences of a wider range. British Bhangra has grown and moved with the times. I am sure if it resonated in our British lives we would be all the more enriched and uplifted. This music as it stands today is totally ‘Made in Britain’ and we would not be forsaking identity if we opened up to it. At present we continue to listen to mainstream banality that has a schmaltzy connection with TV talent shows and as we all know this is having a dampening affect on the popular music in this country. Presentations such as this go some way to restoring faith in our creative industries.

I can keep piling on praise for the production forever. I am aware I could fill in more gaps about the story itself, but this is a UK tour underway now and bums should be on every seat – and for all the right reasons! For the ultimate in cultural and artistic experience and where satisfaction is guaranteed I urge that you take some quality time-out and go see this.

View the article here: http://www.remotegoat.co.uk/review_view.php?uid=5354

Big-hearted: Rifco Arts’s Britain’s Got Bhangra is full of energy

Theatre Review Britain’s Got Bhangra

Fusion Triumph is at Number 1

British theatre and Indian music have fused to increasingly fruitful effect over the years, from savvy independent companies to the 2002 Andrew Lloyd Webber-produced extravaganza Bombay Dreams. Britain’s Got Bhangra is the latest production from British Asian collective Rifco Arts and it feels like a benchmark: a timely, big-hearted celebration of a British pop-culture scene that stems from folk roots and incorporates everything from synth-pop to hip hop.

The story might start out in rural Punjab – where romantic lead Twinkle (bhangra vocalist Shin, who made his name in 1980s outfit Desi Culture Shock) woos his bride Jussi (Natasha Lewis) – but it swiftly relocates to late-1970s Southall, as

Twinkle sets out to make his fortune, sweetly oblivious to the era’s racial tension (‘I’ve just got here and already I have to go back?’). As the years pass, Twinkle’s musical talents are seized upon by fierce businesswoman/diva Shindie (a wonderful Sophiya Haque) and bhangra music becomes top of the pops – or it would be, if its massive sales qualified for the mainstream charts.

The fantastically appealing multitasking ensemble summon the energy of a much bigger cast, delivering Bollywood choreographer Andy Kumar’s dance moves and Sumeet Chopra’s vivacious dhol-driven score with gusto; Rina Fatania particularly impresses as the feisty spirit of Twinkle’s beloved matriarch Bibiji.

This production has the same West End crossover potential as an earlier Stratford East triumph, The Big Life, but it really should be relished right now, at this brilliant London institution. As the show proudly points out, Britain’s Got Bhangra – and it has had for 30 years. Here’s to many decades more.

Arwa Haider

View the article here: http://e-edition.metro.co.uk/2010/05/06/?p=42

There is a wonderful ensemble cast at work here, led by Shin as Twinkle, the boy from the Punjab who travels Southall in search of his fortune. Shin has a strong voice as well as an emotional attachment to the music – he was a founding member of one of the leading bhangra bands in the UK, DCS – that lends credibility to this less than perfect hero. Every hero needs his nemesis and Twinkle’s is Southall impresario Shinde, played by Sophiya Haque. A woman thwarted in love, Shinde is a godsend of a role to play and Haque fulfils the brief exquisitely. Supporting roles such as Jussi played by Natasha Lewis, the excellent Arun Blair-Mangat as Jason and Sunil Pramanik as the musician Rocky flesh out the emotional content, while Rakesh Boury, Rina Fatania and the rest of the ensemble fill the stage with an array of colourful, comic characters.

Judicious editing could shave 15 minutes off the running time, but this would be nit-picking, as Pravesh Kumar’s direction ensures the pace never falters. Stratford East is an ideal venue for this show, but judging purely by the enjoyment factor, there is absolutely no reason why it couldn’t triumph in the West End after its tour.

To see this review, click here: http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/28040/britains-got-bhangra

Genuinely new musicals are so rare these days that I rushed to the premiere of this celebration of bhangra: a form that, deriving from Punjabi dance, has now been fused with rap, reggae and much else to achieve chart success. Even if the book needs some tweaking, Sumeet Chopra’s score is a delight that brings the audience to its feet and introduces a new sound into the stale world of the British musical.

Conceived, written and directed by Pravesh Kumar, the show follows the fortunes of Indian immigrant Twinkle in the changing Britain of the past 30 years. Starting out as a Southall bus driver in the chill Thatcherite era, Twinkle soon turns into a little star with his singing at local weddings. He and his musical mate Rocky are snapped up by a producer, Mrs Shindie, who realises that bhangra means big bucks. But Twinkle’s fortunes fade as Rocky dies, he is ripped off by his producer and his songs remixed by a loutish DJ. This being a musical, however, everything has a happy, fairytale ending.

More could have been made of the shifting British backdrop, and the second half, in which a teenage boy comes in search of his missing father, has a derivative feel. But the score, ranging from traditional bhangra to Bollywood and hip-hop, is dance-based, energising and mercifully free of the soulful wailing of so much western pop. It is also smartly executed and vividly performed by the on-stage band, making use of the dhol drums (while lifting you out of them). The lean and wiry Shin, a longtime bhangra star, shines as Twinkle, and there is strong support from Sophiya Haque as the ruthless Shindie, and from Rina Fatania as Twinkle’s mum. Not for the first time, Stratford East has given the British musical the kind of blood transfusion it urgently needs.

Until 16 May. Box office: 020-8534 0310. Then touring.

To see this review, click here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2010/apr/29/britains-got-bhangra-review

As it turns out, my ignorance was certainly not bliss. Based on this musical journey through the history of British bhangra, I’ve missed out.

Infectious, heartfelt, colourful and full of energy – this is music that is impossible not to enjoy.

Britain’s Got Bhangra was the perfect vehicle to showcase it to newcomers and send fans on a reminiscing journey of re-discovery.

Twinkle (played by real-life bhangra star Shin) was the orphan boy who left India for England in the late-1970s, only to find the ‘golden’ streets he’d dreamed of were simply filled with puddles from the rain.

He found his niche through music and the burgeoning sounds of bhangra.

Soon his local community was won over and it wasn’t long before his band was touring Britain and enjoying the riches of success – riches that inevitably wouldn’t last.

If I was to be churlish (which I am), I’d suggest the story was largely predictable, the acting occasionally hammy and it felt a little like a panto.

But you’d need a heart of stone to walk away from Britain’s Got Bhangra without a smile and practising your dance moves long into the night.

The quality of songs, some in Punjabi and some in English, was consistently brilliant, with Shin an absolute revelation in his stage debut. It felt like a labour of love for him and that passion for the music really came across.

The show was funny and satirical, the costumes were marvellous, the choreography inventive. I loved the cameos from an Indian radio reporter, DJ and Twinkle’s mum – played by the fabulous Rina Fatania.

The show’s on until May 16 – don’t miss out on this joyful celebration of musical genre that deserves its place in the mainstream.

The review can be viewed here: http://www.docklands24.co.uk/content/docklands/news/story.aspx?brand=Docklands&category=news&tBrand=docklands&tCategory=znews&itemid=WeED29%20Apr%202010%2010:54:30:960