Bollywood Without the Happy Ending Though it sounds as if it should be a hoot, "Bunty Berman Presents ..." is mostly only a whimper. Watching the New Group's amiable but listless musical sendup of Indian moviemaking, which opened on Thursday night at the Acorn Theater, you can discern the reproachful outlines of the bigger, brasher and more satisfyingly outrageous show it might have been. Its premise, after all, is full of juicy potential. Imagine the glorified bad taste of the Mel Brooks musical "The Producers," crossed with the more affectionate satire of the 1952 film "Singin" in the Rain," Hollywood's giddy, innocent valentine to its younger self. Then filter that sensibility through the lens of a Bollywood camera, as interpreted by no less a writer than Ayub Khan Din, the author of the Olivier Award-winning "Rafta, Rafta ..." and one of the theater's foremost chroniclers of Anglo-Indian mores. He would also seem to be one of its chief advocates of ellipses in titles. Add to the mix Scott Elliott, the artistic director of the New Group, who did very nicely by the New York productions of Mr. Din's "East Is East" and "Rafta, Rafta ..." Sounds like a nearly foolproof recipe for a good time, doesn't it, maybe even a smash hit? But one of the immortal lessons of showbiz, whether on Broadway or in Bollywood, is that seeming surefire successes have a way of running off the rails and exploding. Remember the 2004 Broadway clunker called "Bombay Dreams"? Not that "Bunty Berman" goes down in flames. It's too tentative to be combustible; instead, it just deflates. The Bunty of the title is a financially beleaguered Bombay movie producer, trying to scrape together the money and momentum for a comeback. He is portrayed by Mr. Din, who stepped in after Erick Avari, the actor originally cast in the role, was injured during rehearsal. Such a seat-of-the-pants substitution feels appropriate to the tale of Bunty, who loses not one but two leading men before the show ends. Yet a defeated, slightly sorrowful air hangs over Mr. Din's performance, and the mood is infectious. Even the straightforward parodies of classic Hindi musical numbers, in which love usually dances with the chaperonage of a chorus line, lack the comic spark to send them soaring. And the cast members, choreographed perfunctorily by Josh Prince, never achieve the inspired madness required to put over a work featuring gangsters, narcissistic stars, cross-dressing, a papier-mâché elephant, generic show tunes (by Mr. Din and Paul Bogaev) and whatever you call the Indian equivalent of borscht belt humor (curry belt?). Hoary jokes and peppy, standard-issue melodies can be put to highly entertaining use, as was evidenced by the success of "The Producers." But they need to be sold to the audience shamelessly and stylishly. The performers here sometimes seem almost embarrassed by what they have to say and sing. This is understandable. Consider these lyrics from the first number, "Bombay Opening," in which Bunty says of his fellow citizens, "They check your caste and breeding like a prizewinning bull/Thank God I'm a Brahmin and not an untouchable." Or listen to this exchange, after one of the characters uses the word chutzpah: Chutzpah? I'm a Jew. A Jew? Gesundheit. That's the sort of dialogue for which rimshots were invented. The cast includes Sorab Wadia as an aging matinee idol, Gayton Scott as Bunty's adoring secretary, Sevan Greene as a scriptwriter with skin-deep leftist principles, Lipica Shah as a temperamental young diva and Nick Choksi as the humble tea boy who loves her. Ms. Shah and Mr. Choksi provide the most appealing number, in which their characters happily act out a scene in Hindi from a movie they saw as children. Otherwise, such pleasures as "Bunty" offers are largely visual, thanks to Derek McLane's set (augmented by some winningly silly fixtures, like that papier-mâché elephant); William Ivey Long's costumes; and Wendall K. Harrington's projections, which capture the sweet-and-tangy, pink-and-saffron palette that is unique to Indian movies. The rest of the show could use a good dose of masala, or whatever it takes to wake up a dozy production. Bunty Berman Presents ... Book and lyrics by Ayub Khan Din; music by Mr. Din and Paul Bogaev; directed by Scott Elliott; choreography by Josh Prince; sets by Derek McLane; costumes by William Ivey Long; lighting by David Lander; sound by Acme Sound Partners; projections by Wendall K. Harrington; arrangements and orchestration by Paul Bogaev and Boko Suzuki; music supervision by Mr. Bogaev; music direction by Mr. Suzuki; assistant director, Marie Masters; production supervisor, Peter R. Feuchtwanger/PRF Productions; production stage manager, Valerie A. Peterson; associate artistic director, Ian Morgan; general manager, Elisabeth Bayer. Presented by the New Group, Mr. Elliott, artistic director; Geoff Rich, executive director. At the Acorn Theater at Theater Row, 410 West 42nd Street, Clinton, (212) 239-6200, telecharge.com. Through June 1. WITH: Raja Burrows (Chandra Dass), Nick Choksi (Saleem), Ayub Khan Din (Bunty Berman), Sevan Greene (Nizwar), Lyn Philistine (Sandra De Souza/ensemble), Gayton Scott (Dolly), Lipica Shah (Shambervi), Alok Tewari (Shankar Dass) and Sorab Wadia (Raj Dhawan); and Katie Chung, Pallavi Sastry, Shoba Narayanan, Andrew Ramcharan Guilarte and Debargo Sanyal (ensemble).