The Big Fat Indian Wedding Just Got More Entertaining

Despite the fact that Indian theatre has a rich history, the Broadway style of musical play is something that has not been explored much and months after filmmaker Feroz Abbas Khan created ripples with his musical play Mughal-E-Azam, Wizcraft International Entertainment Pvt Ltd is here with Balle Balle, a humorous take on Indian weddings and the comedy of errors that arise during such extravagant events.

The play revolves around Canadian pop singer Swag Kapoor (Hriday Gattani), who decides to let his mom (Jamila Khan), grandma (Medha Paranjpe) and aunt Honey (Tanu Vidyarthi) find an Indian bride for him after a break-up. The three women promptly finalise Nisha (Garima Yajnik), who is in love with jugaadu wedding planner Nikhil (Hitesh Malukani), who incidentally had tried to get the family to approve Nisha’s sister Isha (Kamakshi Rai) for Swag as Nisha cannot marry Nikhil unless her sister Isha gets married.

On landing in India, Swag falls for Isha and when the couples realize what has happened, they decide to join forces to avert the wedding, despite being afraid of Dilawar Singh, the stern father of Nisha and Isha, who believes in honour of the family and is rumoured to solve problems with violence. If that was not all, Honey has lost her heart to Dilawar’s crusty brother Colonel (Retd) Deep Singh (Yuvraj Singh Bajwa) and Swag’s gay manager Joe (Gaurav Amlani) is making eyes at Nikhil’s assistant Ronak (Jay Bhattacharya). The subsequent comedy of errors and hilarious consequences that arise as a result of these errors, is what ‘Balle Balle’ is all about.

At the outset, let me share that the performances are quite admirable, even though they are quite over the top at times. Everyone from the lead actors to the other characters have done a masterful job and the fact that they also had to sing live while performing and dancing, has filled me with awe about their talents.

Another thing that stands out about ‘Balle Balle’ is the technical aspect. Be it Punit Pathak’s choreography or costumes designed by Malvika Bajaj and Suvarna Dey or the lights by Beckett Tundatil or the graphics by Anirbandeep Dutta , the musical play scores on every level and ensures a wholesome entertainment for the entire family. Watching the play is like being a guest at a crazy Punjabi wedding and the feeling is quite exhilarating, to say the least. Director Viraf Sarkari deserves kudos for his immaculate direction and stage play.

If you love Bollywood songs, ‘Balle Balle’ will be like buffet full of your favourite dishes! There is a Bollywood song for every occasion and the two-hour spectacle features 48 talented stars singing 25 iconic Bollywood songs live as they simultaneously entertain the audiences with their phenomenal performances, dazzling costumes, breathtaking visuals and sizzling choreography.

My only complaint about the musical play is that most of it is in English, which somewhat takes away the ‘desi flavour’ that would have worked wonders for the play, which is set against the backdrop of an Indian wedding.However, all said and done, ‘Balle Balle’ is a crazy, entertaining and exhilarating fare and if you have never seen a musical play before, you must watch this musical masterpiece.

This musical play is being staged at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Bandra West.