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Stirring it, Asia style

Archana Masih

The Tamasha Theatre company found a niche in British theatre with East Is East. Now, it's in the news again for Balti Kings.

It seems a strange response to an Indian play -- a matinee at that -- in Plymouth. White faces outnumbered Asian, as kebabs were skewered on stage and Billa, the master chef, gave a lesson or two on Balti cuisine.

Balti Kings is the latest presentation by the Tamasha Theatre Company, which staged the hugely successful East Is East in 1996-97. Co-founded by Sudha Bhuchar and Kristine Landon-Smith in 1989, the company focuses on Asian themes and has done nine productions since its inception.

This time, their production is set in a Birmingham restaurant kitchen and takes a quirky, but sharply observant, behind-the-scenes look at an Asian-owned Balti restaurant.

Yashin, the owner of Shakeel's restaurant, has given his sons the job of making the eatery a success. They organise a heavily advertised Balti banquet, offering 35 dishes for £5. The added spice to the great 'Curry-Oke' evening is a group of Bollywood stars --who, as luck would have it, -- fail to show up. As if that wasn't enough, the chicken biryani gets burnt and Mariam, the Bosnian Muslim cleaner, discovers she is having a child by Nadeem, the shirker in the kitchen. Though, on the surface, a comedy revolving around ordinary lives, the play effectively focuses on the lives of the kitchen staff, who seem to have remained luckless for years.

"Our plays have been a tapestry of ordinary lives. That's what Tamasha is about. It tells the story of ordinary people," says Sudha Bhuchar, joint artistic director and co-founder of the theatre group.

Bhuchar, a Punjabi, arrived in London as a teenager from east Africa and joined the Tara Arts theatre group while in school. It was not a decision driven by any lofty theatrical desires, but "because, as a young Asian, I wanted to have a voice."

Success did come her way, though, with roles in Eastenders, The Archers and Salman Rushdie's Haroun And The Sea Of Stories (Royal National Theatre).

The Tamasha story, however, began by accident somewhere else... in India. Bhuchar's old friend and graduate from the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Kristine Landon-Smith, was on a teaching assignment at the National School of Drama in New Delhi. At the end of her stint, she found herself doing an adaptation of Mulk Raj Anand's play, The Untouchables, instead of a European or Russian play. Discovering herself more comfortable with Asian themes, she formed Tamasha on her return. Bhuchar became her partner. The Untouchables became their first production.

"Tamasha showcases work with Asian influences in Britain and beyond. It largely deals with contemporary themes and will continue to evolve," says Landon-Smith. Half-Indian herself, she grew up in Australia and first went to India when she was just 17. "I've had a growing interest in India which has helped in building a close relationship with our audience," she says.

Both Bhuchar and Landon-Smith reveal that, though Tamasha has been appreciated for its work in the past, it only began to get noticed with the success of East Is East. Written by Ayub Khan-Din, the play is a comic, yet sad, story of a Pakistani immigrant, his English wife and five children.

East Is East won the Writer's Guild Award and was subsequently made into a film featuring Indian actor Om Puri. The film released in India today. Puri, nominated for his performance for BAFTA, plays the role of the rigid father who harshly forces his children to retain their Pakistani identity. The film won the Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film at the BAFTA.

Tamasha managers claim credit for nurturing it as a successful play, but say the film is quite different from its theatrical version. "It is more commercial," explains Bhuchar. "The play, on the other hand, was more subtle and reflective -- more time was given to defining each character."

Yet, there is little denying in the Tamasha camp that East Is East gave the company its first 'real' hit and, in turn, established it as a major playhouse. This was an achievement for a company that operated for its first seven years out of its founder's flat in north London. Three years ago, it moved to a proper office and will receive funding from the Arts Council until 2001. With Balti Kings in the last leg of its tour in Leeds, Tamasha is preparing to stage Ghostdancing -- a play written by Deepak Verma in the autumn.

It has also scheduled a re-run of Fourteen Songs, Two Weddings And A Funeral. Based on the Bollywood blockbuster Hum Aapke Hain Koun..!, it was first staged as a musical in 1998 and won the BBC Asia Award for Achievements in the Arts. Translated and rhyming in English, the play even featured the famous shoe sequence in the film, quite literally translated as "Just get the shoes girls, do not refuse girls!"

Marketing manager Suman Bhuchar says: "We did Fourteen Songs... in '98 and, now, the famous Andrew Lloyd Webber is thinking of doing a Hindi musical!"

There are also plans of taking Tamasha productions to India. Since its inception, the only play it has staged in India was Women Of Dust in 1993.

"We need some co-operation because we don't have the means of doing it ourselves," says general manager Kathy Bourne. "So far, we have made no headway. We are also looking at alternative commercial avenues like Bollywood."

The media department also reveals they have not received much encouragement from senior theatre personalities in India. However, with its recent success and acclaim, it can only be a matter of time before Indians in India get a slice of this Tamasha!