Sabyn Javeri Jillani reviews a new British Asian play that’s making waves in London

This is the first of a series of British Council sponsored articles to be published in Dawn Images- Pakistan's premier entertainment weekly. These articles written by a UK based Pakistani writer depict the culture, creativity and diversity of the UK and are a result of a partnership initiative of British Council Pakistan and daily Dawn

Strictly Dandia, the latest West End offering by British Asian Theatre Company, Tamasha, is a desi attempt at achieving what Strictly Ballroom set out to do. While Baz Luhrmann’s movie ventured into the insular world of ballroom dancing and exposed the ardour and intensity that lurked behind the mouldy exterior, Strictly Dandia attempts at uncovering the passion and prejudice behind the closed world of Navratri.

Navratri is a nine-day Hindu celebration leading up to the festival of Diwali. It’s a significant social occasion amongst the Gujarati community, mainly because it’s a time when young women can choose a husband, or more commonly, the families of young people can push them towards the partner they have chosen for them. In the new, multicultural Britain, Navratri is the matchmaker equivalent to e-dating! A Bollywood style inter-caste dance competition is held with the winners crowned as Diwali King and Queen. Tradition has it that couples which dance together during this festival end up as partners for life.

The play opens with young members of the Gujarati community preening and practising their step to attract the right mate and parents plotting marriage alliances with higher castes. The setting is a Leisure centre off the North Circular road in North London-an area infamous for its dense Asian population. The atmosphere is taut as the younger generation dances to the sexually charged rhythms of garba and dandia while the parents look on, secure in the knowledge that their culture will be preserved.

It takes the introduction of two Muslim boys, Raza (Paul Tilley) and Jaz (Don Klass) to reveal the prejudices of the community. Preethi, a high caste Gujarati girl has a casual flirty relationship with Raza, mostly restricted to central London. Curious to see how his girl lives, Raza shows up uninvited at the Navratri rehearsals. Whilst Raza just wants a slice of Bollywood in action he ends up as Preethi’s dance partner. Aware of her community’s prejudice towards ‘outsiders’, a scared and embarrassed Preethi introduces Raza as Raj-a Hindu Punjabi.

From here on the fun begins, as the community not only reveals its bias towards other religions but also towards other castes within their own community. While Raza is blinded by love and answers readily to Raj, his friend Jaz is most upset at being turned into a ‘saucy HP’ (Hindu Punjabi). Many funky dances later, Raza’s secret is revealed, when he gets into an altercation with an annoyingly over-competitive couple from Tooting, South London. From Dirty Dancing and Saturday Night Fever we take a dramatic turn towards Romeo and Juliet as Preethi’s family turns on her in knee jerk defense. As Raza and Preethi’s romance threaten to break the very thread that binds her culture together, the prejudices that bind us when it comes to protecting our cultural identity are exposed unapologetically. Lines like ‘You (Muslims) are after our girls and keep yours locked up at home’ and ‘Any girl that goes out with a Muslim needs her head examined’ bring out the deep-rooted bias Asians still carry within their hearts.

Hindu girls are allowed more independence then Sikh or Muslim girls but even now, most whether by choice or by force, marry within caste, race and class. While Strictly Dandia must be applauded to bring this important issue to mainstream theatre, the play also reinforces stereotypes. When faced with the decision to choose, Preethi voices her fear about Gujarati girls who date Pakistani boys only to be dumped for virgins from the old country. For the imperceptive, this nails in the view that Muslim boys play around only to get married to untouched village belles. The assumption that all Muslim boys are fair skinned and handsome, out to floor Hindu girls again sounds a bit ambitious. But while generalisation of all Gujarati men as shrewd businessmen and all Muslim boys as good-looking Casanovas might ring untrue, it’s not damaging.

Debasing other ethnic minorities however, is not funny. There’s a line where Preethi’s mother consoles her saying that if Preethi had confided in her she would have allowed a Muslim in the rehearsals. ‘We allow Black people!’ she generously acclaims. In the programme note, we are told about the pride, wealth and increasing self belief of the Gujarati community that they are the most worthy and least troublesome immigrants to come to Britain after the second world war’ and again as ‘Gujarati Hindus are profoundly more English than Caribbeans ever were’. Yet these ‘very open and very English Hindu’s’ who claim to welcome the world, have bouncers at their festivities to keep the ‘Slims’ out. ‘Slims’ is derogatory slang for Muslims as is Gujjus for Gujaratis.

Co-writer Suddha Bucher, who wrote the play after intense research, justifies this as necessary in portraying the deep-rooted prejudices of both communities towards each other. Besides the Indian Hindu-Pakistani Muslim love dilemma, the show also glosses themes like arranged marriages, religious identity and the clash between traditional and modern worldviews. There are sub-plots about caste, fathers wanting their sons to continue in the family business of corner shops, busy husbands using their work to cover up their infidelities, bored housewives stuck in loveless marriages, girls wanting to make their own choices and modern British Asians romanticising their past in East Africa. Distracting as it may seem, co writers Sudha Buchar and Kristine Landon-Smith manage to squeeze it all in- by stretching the play over two hours and a quarter!

The play is not strictly a musical but the dance routines give it the feel of a modern dance play. Shri’s music is terrific toe tapping stuff. The costumes are luscious and the set, though nowhere near Bombay Dreams, is catchy. The cast, do an average job of acting the little white socks of an inventive script, while moving to the funky steps of choreographer Liam Steel.

Looking at the dances, one may praise Tamasha's attempt to update dandia and bhangra, to disco and salsa beats. A mishmash of fuzzy references from West End Story, Dirty Dancing and Saturday Night's Fever, mixed with Bharatnatyam, Garba and Bollywood dancing, it attempts to infuse Western boogie with Eastern Naach. Dance. Dance, conventional and iconoclastic is centre stage in this production!

With its catchy music and grooves, Strictly Dandia will find its audience amongst those who want to enjoy the musical side and are not too fussed about being immersed into the true depths of Asian ritual culture and the prejudices that boil under its surface. Though not an insight into culture, it does touch some important issues of honour, racism and cross-cultural love- things which most people would say-‘Never happen in good Asian families!’