The Neighbour from Mumbai goes to Christchurch

Staff Reporter – 

Colours, costumes, music and dance will all be a part of a Mumbai entertainment show scheduled to be held next weekend in Christchurch.

‘Meri Padosan PK,’ a musical adaptation of the runaway hit Hindi film ‘Padosan’ will be staged at Aurora Theatre for Performing Arts (located at the Corner of Greers Road and Memorial Avenue, Burnside) at 530 pm on April 23.

While ‘Padosan,’ released in 1968 was a copy of the Tamil box-office smasher ‘Adutha Veetu Penn’ (Next-door Girl) released in 1960, the forthcoming programme promises fun.

‘Meri Padosan PK’ is a production of ‘Bollywood Dreams NZ,’ a local company that boasts of 45- member crew with youngsters aged between five and 25 years.

They will don 300 kgs of silk, satin and sequins transformed into 250 costumes.

Shawn Thomas of Bollywood Dreams NZ hopes that like ‘Padosan,’ which brought renewed fame for singer-actor-composer Kishore Kumar, his musical will become talk of the town.

First Run

Stating that ‘Meri Padosan PK’ would mark the first stage musical adaption outside India, he was confident that his production would play an important role for the Indian community in Christchurch.

“We are recapturing the old golden era of Bollywood and keeping it alive through the younger generations and helping children understand their culture. Many of them, especially girls, would not have had this opportunity to perform on stage and be part of a dance company. It is great to see them singing and dancing to the classics with which their parents grew up,” he said.

He said that proceeds of the show will be donated to ‘Hagar NZ,’ an organisation dedicated to rehabilitate the hapless women and children in Afghanistan, Cambodia and Vietnam.