Zangoora, Zangoora, ZanGOOORA!

Do you think of Bollywood when you think of India? Oh man… you should, cause it’s how they do it here in India and its fabulous!

My hosts and I ventured out one evening to experience it for ourselves(Mike was still traveling with H). We left the kids with a sitter and jumped on the metro to go to another city very near New Delhi.

We were headed here:

Oh yeah!

We didn’t quite know what to expect, so it would be safe to say that this show far surpassed our expectations!

It was a Bollywood style musical in all it’s glory including a rather (okay, VERY) impressive LCD set, confetti falling from the ceiling, lots of things and people flying through the air, a convincing levitation illusion and it snowed on us, too! The ‘snowflakes’ even felt cold landing on our faces.

Impressive. Seriously.

I think you could use the word ‘spastic’ to describe the style of dance. But they make it look good, real good. The spastic dancing caused both my friend and I to have the same thought about what a good workout those dancers were getting… they were burning some SERIOUS calories!

One thing we didn’t expect was an actual storyline. We thought it was more of a song and dance show and we were wrong. There was much plot and drama and all of it was in Hindi. Oops! We didn’t have a clue what anyone was saying or singing about.

So the entire first act was spent playing telephone. Our friend’s colleague was sitting at the end of the row. He would explain the current scene to my host, including needless details like “The girl appeared as if on a terrace” (Thanks very much, but that is one thing we can actually understand just by watching!) He would then lean over and give his wife a condensed version. Then she would lean over and relay the message to me. Whew!

This game of telephone was comical, but helpful! We tracked along with all the intrigue.

During intermission we learned that you can rent a radio transmitted translator-thingy for a couple hundred rupees (four bucks). Needless to say, we understood the second act much better and probably aggravated our seat-neighbors much less, too.

Thanks Bryant fam… what a treat! I liked the Bollywood style before, but now I love it!

Zangoora, Zangoora, ZanGOOORA!

If you're lucky, maybe it'll start showing in a theater near YOU!