Imagine Sylvester Stallone, Matt Damon, Demi Moore and Gwynneth Paltrow coming to a concert hall near you to perform some of their biggest scenes from the movies.
Well, if you are a fan of Hindi films, that’s pretty much what happened Saturday night at the UIC Pavilion where top Indian film stars Shahrukh Khan, Ashkay Kumar, Juhi Chawla and Kajol Mukherjee, billed as the Awesome Foursome, came to sing, dance and ham it up for an estimated 11,000 fans.
Dressed in hipster club clothes, suits and vibrant saris, the all-ages mostly South Asian crowd came from across the Midwest to catch a glimpse of their cinema idols with whom most of them keep up through videos and imported films from India’s film capital, Bombay–also known as Bollywood.
In India, unlike in the United States, film musicals haven’t died. On the contrary, they account for the biggest genre in India’s movie industry, which is the largest in the world. At Saturday night’s show, fans roared for the handsome energetic stars, but just as much for the first strains of their favorite Bollywood songs.
Backed mostly by canned music and vocals, the actors performed a grand show that relied less on singing talent–95 percent of the time, they lip-synched–than pure visual spectacle. Hindi films are famous for elaborate Busby Berkeley-esque dance scenes and this stage version, which is touring 13 North American cities, didn’t disappoint.
With each new song, the performers emerged in another fabulous costume–often with several sheddable layers–and were flanked by another troupe of elastic dancers whose stunning East meets hip-hop choreography could put Michael Jackson to shame.
While newcomer Kajol bounded around to her “Neend Churayi Meri” from the film “Ishq” in red overalls and a baseball cap, film queen Juhi emerged in a brilliant white-sequined midriff top and pants to perform a spellbinding mix of Indian classical dance with plenty of modern fly-girl moves.
Studly Ashkay Kumar (a black belt in martial arts) sent squeals through the crowd as he strutted and danced shirtless while performing hits from his 1997 film “Aflatoon.” But the unquestionable king of the evening was romantic/comedic leading man Shahrukh Khan. He delivered the goods on song-and-dance numbers from runaway hits “Dil Se” and “Yes Boss.”
