My recent trip to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe rekindled my love for theatre and arts.  One play in particular gripped my attention.  It centred on Bollywood, and the theme of the play reminded me of the problems we try and hide within the British Asian community.

“It Ain’t All Bollywood” is a theatrical play written by Pravesh Kumar. The plot focuses on ‘Kiran’, a woman who uses Bollywood as a form of escapism to hide herself from the inner psychological fears of having an obsessive compulsive disorder. The domineering mother confronts Kiran on a regular basis without trying to understand any of her problems, making it even more difficult for Kiran to cope.

Whilst watching Kiran on-stage, I remembered my own experience which wasn’t that far removed from hers. My coping mechanism for any type of bad news was with humour and laughter. So when I was told that I possibly had a case of dyslexia, I couldn’t compress the feeling. It was only when I began telling my close friends that my care-free attitude began to change. They started behaving differently towards me, making it out as if I had some sort of debilitating illness.

When the film Taare Zameen Par (2008) was released in the UK, it made me consider things through a different perspective. The film tells the story of a teacher (Aamir Khan) identifying dyslexia in an eight year-old, Ishaan (Darsheel Safary), who not only suffers as a result of it in his academic life, but in everyday tasks too.

I decided to take the matter in to my own hands and referred myself to a specialist - which to my benefit, helped ease my worries. I didn’t need to take a test. Rather than dyslexia, it seemed I just wasn’t motivated to learn: I was suffering from SLD, the Student-Lifestyle Disorder (Ok, I made that one up).

“It Ain’t All Bollywood” has its moments of clichés, metaphor’s and cultural references that reflect upon the ideas of escapism while keeping it within the realms of melodrama and comedy. The play intertwines laughter and sorrow, reflecting on the two worlds of fantasy and reality, while also highlighting the need to understand some of the health issues within the community.

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed and/or sign-up to our mailing list for updates.

(10 votes. Average: 2.2 out of 5)