Come Fall in Love: The DDLJ Musical – Opera House, Manchester

Opening to a packed press night audience , this iconic Bollywood love story movie from 1995 is translated to the  musical stage with a sparkling , brand new score of 18 songs from Nell Benjamin (Mean Girls) capturing the authentic bhangra beats and style and rhythms of the culture and breathing new life and reimagining this Bollywood blockbuster, musically. The music was a highlight and although new musicals never usually leave me with an ear worm ,  Act One’s Twice as Good’ and Act Two’s ‘ Desi Kudi’ definitely hit the sweet spot. 

Aditya Chopra has adapted the famous movie Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and it is spectacular costumes with energy, playfulness, humour and a vibrant and talented cast who ooze charm and charisma.   The story is of British born, second generation Indian, Simran (Jena Pandya) who has graduated with a first from Oxford but after a summer winding up her life in Britain is returning to India for an arranged marriage to her father’s business partner . At the end of Uni, her best friend Cookie (Millie O’Connell) brings her new boyfriend to Ben (Amonik Melaco) along to gate crash their girl trip, interrailing adventures across Europe… but… he brings party, rich boy Rog ( Ashley Day) enter the love interest and the love problem.  After missing a train and being stranded, they spend a night together  in a hotel in Switzerland where they find connection but not of the seedy sort. Simran now has doubts and aches about tradition and duty over love and choice and free will.    They part at the end of the holiday and Simran resumes her life plan.  Act two is Rog trying to persuade Simran’s father to choose him for  his daughter against a backdrop of Indian culture and challenges and adversity leaving all characters going through a transformative journey.  I won’t spoil the plot for the audience who haven’t seen it. What ensues is fun and exuberant and full of colour and joy. 

Shruti Merchant’s choreography is  stunning and mesmerising, so authentic and catchy, it made you want to join in  . Some playful contemporary additions to a few of the numbers but everything seemed genuine and fit. The  ‘Hot and Independent and Hot’ was stunning and truly defined East meets West. The finale number including all that Kum Kum powder in ‘Holi Hai’  was stunning  and would make the stoniest of hearts melt. The score and lyrics by  Vishal Dadlani and Sheykhar Ravjiani’s truly captured the narrative of the story from duets and solos and company numbers whilst still managing to keep to the genre . David Beckham’s sound design was stunning, I didn’t miss a word . I will definitely be giving the cast recording a second listen when it comes out. The singing and the musical direction of Benjamin Holder was a triumph of style and execution. Costuming by a whole host of credited persons in the programme was sublime throughout, the audience gasped on the first reveal. Sumptuous is the word I would choose.

Act one is set in London with a very clever use of gauze to project pigeons… it had me foxed for a couple of minutes. The train leaving on a track small scale and the truck was very clever with the use of some projections. The hotel room in Bern was grand and sumptuous enough to suggest expensive. But it was ‘Home’ in India and the mustard fields which left the lasting impressions of place and time. The interior of Simran’s home was beautiful and just enough to mirror the climate, the size, the space, the colour…. and compliment the costume plot. It felt like the transition from Kansas to Oz in the Wizard of Oz.  Quite beautiful and tangible to the senses. Full credit to the entire production team of Shruti Venkatraman, who will be adapting this to venues across the UK as it starts its UK tour after finishing in Manchester.

Jena Pandya and Ashley Day as the leads were charismatic. sweet and completely suited to their roles with great physical chemistry and voices and commanded each scene. The  commandeering and stereo typed Indian parents (Harveen Mann-Neary and Irvine Iqbal) provided the pathos and most of the humour with some acerbic one liners  as Lajjo and Baldev.  Kinshuk Sen’s Kuljeet arrived with a bang and really gave good value as the threat of the piece but gets his head turned by Rog’s mum Minky (Kara Lane) who effortlessly romped through their scenes with an infectious tongue in cheek style half a step away from parody.  Every other  cast member plays their part brilliantly and breathes life and energy into this well loved and well known story whilst bringing something new, fresh, organic into a different time where heritage and identify and rights and voice have a different place at the table from when the story was first written.

It was a thoroughly enjoyable night at the theatre ending in a standing ovation by the celebrious audience (many of whom seemed to be connected to the production like an extended Indian family). Come Fall in Love  left me with a face aching from smiling and chatting about it all the way home.

Come Fall In Love is the latest ‘Manchester Gets it First’ productions and runs until 21st June, https://www.atgtickets.com/venues/opera-house-manchester/

Reviewer: Kathryn Gorton

Reviewed: 4th June 2025

North West End UK Rating: