Bollywood is the world's biggest and most successful film industry - and Asian comedy is pretty cool at the moment. But with a few exceptions, Asian theatre hasn't enjoyed the same widespread popularity. The Reduced Indian Film Company is trying to do something about that with a production that gives you three art forms for the price of one. Whether you think this is a bargain or too much of a good thing will depend on your taste for spoof. As the writers Nina Wadia and Pravesh Kumar say in the programme notes to this show, the aim is both to embrace Bollywood and put a whoopee cushion under it.
It is, in fact, a pretty sizeable whoopee cushion, as Ajay, the hero, sets out to avenge the death of his police-inspector father, who died at the hands of the fiendish - and very camp - master criminal, Pinky. Ajay is also on a mission to find his identical twin brother, Vijay. Along the way the intricate plot involves the hero's doting mother, a football playing courtesan, the neighbour's ugly daughter (with a heart of gold) and, of course, the discovery of true love. It is not so much Bollywood as sillywood. It is loud, brash and frenetic, and fun in small doses, but long before the end it made me want to lie down very quietly in a darkened room.
In part this is because of the unevenness of the execution. The film and comedy components are much more assured than the theatre, which has some pretty clumsy stagecraft, and which too frequently appears to be just a convenient vehicle for the gags. The script feels like a few good jokes in search of a narrative and a real structure, and the actors haven't always learned the difference between having fun themselves and ensuring that the audience has fun.
The evening is saved by its sheer good humour, the lively songs, some wit (there is a running gag on a really blatant piece of product placement) and the film component - a lush love story featuring a hunky little Cupid. But it seems to be missing the point when the best thing about going to the theatre is watching a movie.
· Until April 20. Box office: 020-8237 1111.
