Precious Bazaar creates a buzz

"Precious Bazaar: Love is not for Sale" is a raunchy, daring piece of work that first saw the light of day a year ago in Britain.

Now, it has been reworked by its creator, Samir Bhamra, from something that was originally quite light, into something altogether more hard-hitting and serious.

The play is set amongst the prostitutes, their pimps, and a bunch of MPs in London and, as Samir says: "It is the story of mujrawalis who live and work amidst the hustle and bustle of a thriving West London environment.

Each night, these dancers travel with their madams to various underground clubs where the girls have to please all who are willing to pay their price".

The play, described as a romance stroke action stroke dance drama, is inspired by the conventions of Bollywood and zeroes in on three couples trying to juggle work, family and their own happiness.

But, lets be honest, the main thrust of the piece is sex. As one of the stars, simply known as Zafreen and who was one of the winners of last years "Bollyidol" competition has said: "The play focuses a lot on sex, the different attitudes towards it, and the way that sex can make or break things. It is also about morals and is much more mature than it was the first time around".

Perhaps unusually, the play was originally conceived by Samir Bhamra’s wife, Leylah.

As he explained: "She wanted to do something that showed the different kind of women involved. So we have different shades of women in the play :A woman who sacrifices, a woman who loves, and a woman who is after money".

As well as starring Zafreen, the play features many of the other winners of last years "Bollyidol" competition, a competition that was the brainchild of Samir and Leylah. So why start such a competition as well as being a writer? Well one activity can feed the other. As Samir explained:

"We created "Bollyidol" simply to go into the community at the grassroots and find the stars of tomorrow. The ethos of our company, Phizzical (sic) Productions, is to foster and promote this new talent in all areas of performance". Precious Bazaar has been playing at various theatres around London and beyond this summer and, who knows, its next stop could be Shaftesbury Avenue in London’s West End. After all, why not, when it sounds far more interesting than half the stuff that gets put on there. — ANI

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