Any Body Can Dance 2 (19 Jun 2015)

Cast: Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Lauren Gottlieb, Punit Pathak, Dharmesh Yelande, Raghav Juyal, Sushant, Allu Arjun, Karthik, Prachi Shah, Pooja Batra, Will Roberts, Manmeet Singh, Tisca Chopra

Cameo Appearance: Navjot Singh Siddhu, Kapil Sharma, Remo D’Souza, Terrance Lewis, Ganesh Acharya

Director: Remo D’Souza   Story: Remo D’Souza   Screenplay: Tusha Hiranandani   Music: Sachin-Jigar

Casting: Mukesh Chhabra (lead casting)   Cinematography: Vijay Arora   Choreography: Remo D’Souza

Duration: 154 minutes

‘Any Body Can Dance 2’ is the sequel of ‘ABCD - Any Body Can Dance’ (2011), woven around the same concept, i.e. the dancing underdogs getting the much deserved recognition at the end. While it is claimed to be based upon the real life story of Suresh Mukund and Vernon Montero of ‘Fictious Group’, a suburban Mumbai dance group, which, to everyone's astonishment, carved a niche for itself in the ‘2012 World Hip Hop Championship Finals’, it is actually a sumptuous platter of world class dancing, presented by Remo D’Souza, dance guru turned director, on a much bigger and better stroked canvas, than his earlier two films (F.A.L.T.U, ABCD).

Suresh aka Suru (Varun Dhawan), a Nala Sopara (Mumbai suburb) lad, along with Vinny (Shraddha Kapoor) and other dancing enthusiasts, keeps together, ‘Mumbai Stunners’, a dancing group, which performs amazingly, but garners lot of shame in the TV reality show, ‘Hum Kisise Kum Nahin’. All the three judges rebuke them for copying their entire piece from an acclaimed Philippino dancing group. This results in – personal shame of mammoth proportions, voluntary exit of more than half of the group members, and non-ending comments and condemnations from members of their respective families, as well as, people that they come across during their day jobs.

Suru is broken by such an experience, and is in dire need to gain back his lost pride. Only question is, he neither knows the way to go about it, nor knows anyone who will support them in the given circumstances. Vishnu (Prabhu Deva) is a yesteryear dancing diva, who currently leads a dormant and drunkard life. Both of them collide in the lounge bar, wherein Suru works as a waiter and Vishnu visits as a client. An impromptu and super sleek dancing jig by Vishnu, gives Suru the idea of convincing him to prepare their group for the international hip-hop dance competition in Las Vegas, as winning this mother of all competitions will be instantly instrumental in giving them back their lost pride. And so, starts the long series of efforts to - convince the comically reluctant Vishnu, add the required number of able members to the group, and practice and practice. Throughout the entire melodrama, Vinny is Suru’s constant support, who believes in him unconditionally.

One thing (read problems, like – Vinny meeting injury and being unable to perform for semi-finals, Vishnu eloping with group’s money in Las Vegas etc.) leads to another, and ultimately Suru and group’s sacrifice, determination and extreme hard work, enables them to enter the aforesaid Las Vegas competition, wherein they enter as ‘India Stunners’, and also manage to reach the finals! Thereafter, the movie is about high tension energy, grand showmanship and the ultimate climax.

No doubt, this is the best Bollywood dance flick till date. Professional dance styles and performances, which are a big time craze amongst the current youth (like – hip-hop, locking & popping, pyramid formations etc.), keep on bombarding the screen one after another. In fact this dance parade starts with the starting rolling credits. In spite of being many in number, neither quality nor innovation is lost in any of the performances. Story line is kind of expected and its implementation is average. As an audience, you do wonder - why Suru and group did the foolhardy of copying, in spite of being so efficient? Or, why Vishnu Sir needed a TV broadcast to come back with the dance competition fees money? And, why the objective of winning the international dance competition turned from being a personal need to get back the lost pride, to the need, to shine India in the international arena? But these glitches appear passable in front of mammoth dance performances by Vishnu, Suru, Vinny, Dharmesh, Vinod, Raghu, Raju, Olive and others. It goes without saying, that all the performers also display a super fit and agile body.

The movie has ten songs. ‘Bezubaan phir se’ and ‘Sun saathiya’ are pretty soulful. As per requirement, background music successfully generates the required tension and energy. Casting is apt and cinematography is good. It is wise of the makers to use the harbor area for dance practicing scenes (which are galore), instead of any cramped and unkempt hall. With the right camera angles, scenic sea and ship background, a nice grunge look has been created, which appears soothing to the eyes. It’s a 3D movie and it’s 3D effects are best till date, in any Indian movie. In fact it’s even better than many Hollywood flicks! At times it resembles the finesse of ‘X-Men: Days Of Future Past’!

Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor have acted well and danced in tandem with the professional dancers. This is no mean feat. While Varun displays a fine balance of passion and pain, Shraddha has an expressive face, and emotes very well, even in the dance sequences. With this movie, they will definitely garner a firmer spot in the hearts of the youth. Prabhu Deva is the undisputed dance diva of India and his opening number in the movie is simply amazing. The way he moves his noodle legs needs to be seen to be believed. Lauren Gottlieb appears midway, but while performing, she simply eats up the dancing space. In the semi-final performance, she performs a lift with stretched legs which needs special mention. Even in such a difficult lift, her grace, posture and confidence are intact. Punit Pathak, Dharmesh Yelande, Raghav Juyal, Sushant, Allu Arjun, Karthik are reality TV’s dancing sensations who have danced as per expectation. The former two were also present in ‘ABCD’, and they appear considerably senior in their dance and ease in front of the camera. In fact Punit has well played his deaf and dumb character. Dharmesh makes amazing eye contact with camera (like a la Govinda) while dancing. Rest of the cast has also performed well.

Last but not the least, the movie establishes two facts – the power of reality TV and the power of social media. It is the golden era of talent display and it’s no more necessary to be a celebrity to get both good and bad coverage. If you have a single dancing bone in your body, or, if you even enjoy a single dancing bone in another’s body, do watch the movie.

Dil Dhadakne Do (5 Jun 2015)

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Shefali Shah, Ranveer Singh, Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Parmeet Sethi, Rahul Bose, Zarina Wahab, Ridhima Sud, Vikrant Massey

Director: Zoya Akhtar   Story & Screenplay: Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti   Dialogue: Farhan Akhtar

Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy   Cinematography: Carlos Catalan   Casting: Nandini Shrikent

Duration: 170 minutes

For unperturbed existence, a society requires steadiness, which requires discipline, which gives birth to a list of dos and don’ts, which become unnecessary rigid and complex with time, as people start misusing them to suit their personal objectives and/or hide their personal shortcomings. Resultantly, these so called social rules and diktats give way to a perturbed society, which functions like a robot i.e. without any heart. Life becomes all about never ending materialistic gains, small time personal goals and jazzy & fake public appearances, whereas, it should be about strong and giving relationships, unconditional personal freedom and eternal true love. This is what the movie urges via both it’s screenplay and title ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’, meaning to say that the society needs to switch from the dead beat robot mode to the heart beating human mode.

Kamal Mehra (Anil Kapoor), a Delhi based business magnate, decides to celebrate his 30^th wedding anniversary with full grandeur, on a cruise ship to Greece and Turkey, along with his family, friends and business associates. And thus, the luxury ship is boarded by him, his wife Neelam (Shefali Shah), son Kabir (Ranveer Singh), daughter Ayesha (Priyanka Chopra), her husband (Rahul Bose) and mother-in-law (Zarina Wahab). They are accompanied by - Kamal’s younger brother’s family, Kamal’s company manager, Neelam’s full-of-gossip girlfriends and others.

As expected, all host appearances are fake and they gradually unravel. Beneath the champagne glasses, lavish buffets and content Mehras, lie – a bankrupt Kamal, who pops pills even to digest the cruise’s lavish bills, a lonely and on-the-edge Neelam, a trapped in unhappy marriage Ayesha and a confused Kabir, who is highly expected to, but has zero interest and ability to take up his father’s business!

Sood (Parmeet Sethi) and family were earlier uninvited, as they happen to be family foes with one of Mehra’s existing guests on the cruise. But if Sood’s left-at-the-altar daughter (Ridhima Sud) gets engaged with Kabir, then Sood will not think twice before investing in Mehra’s sinking company, thereby making it profitable. What better way than a cruise to let the two kids meet and gel? Keeping this in mind, the last minute invitations were sent to the Soods.

However, Sood’s daughter ends up falling in love with the aforesaid family foes’s son (Vikrant Massey)! Kabir, the supposedly trump-card son ends up falling in love with Farah Ali (Anushka Shetty), the lead dancer of a dance group on the cruise! Kamal’s company manager’s son, Sunny Gill (Farhan Akhtar) joins them midway, and he turns out to be Ayesha’s ex-flame (re-kindled)!

In short, gradually things get topsy turvey for conservative and upper class Kamal and Neelam Mehra, whose prime objective in life is to appear prosperous and well settled in the eyes of the society. The movie gradually unfolds myriad confusions, confrontations and eventually right actions.

‘Dil Dhadakne Do’ is a wisely made movie, depicting the problems and dilemmas of the Indian upper class, with the backdrop of a cruise liner and a comical approach. This saves the film from being corny and boring. Ugly lines of frustration are well hidden by well toned bodies, designer wear and smart dialogues.

It’s an effective satire on – gender bias, social ridicules in the name of culture, and, use of children as business deal bait. Like – post marriage, Ayesha sold her jewels to start an online portal ‘Musafir’, and turned it into a successful mega operation. But still she is discouraged from doing business talks at the food table by her mother-in-law. Her husband feels elated that he has ‘allowed’ her to do her own business. Her father is dismissive about her achievement. Rather, he waits for the day when she will make him a grandfather; the Mehra couple blast their children for seeking/supporting divorce. They term them uncultured, while Kamal Mehra’s infidelity trips in the garb of business trips are quite an open secret, and his wife still chooses to stay with him, simply because she has nowhere else to go; and, Kabir is pressurized to get a scene going with Sood’s daughter, so as to revive the family business.

By now it’s well established that, the Zoya-Reema duo’s cinematic offering is sure to be heartfelt, original and well crafted, very much like a la Aamir Khan, who also happens to have lent his voice to the narrator of the movie, Pluto Mehra, the pet dog. They duo were pretty good with their last and second film (Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara), but they are brilliant with their current and third endeavor. While the former could only touch base with the upper class metro youth, the latter touches the Indian pulse. Zoya Akhtar, the director  captures the settings and emotion of upper class urban India, like Anurag Kashyap does the same with rustic rural India (Gangs Of Wasseypur). Also, she well handles the presence of multi star and supporting cast.

This is one of the best roles essayed by Anil Kapoor till date. He lives and breathes the role of a super rich business class Punjabi family patriarch. His appearance, dialogue delivery, pauses, and reactions are just perfect. The scene in which he stands up for his daughter and catches Rahul Bose by the neck, requires years of acting and passion for acting. Shefali Shah has matched him very well. Be it anger, frustration, or curt wife-type responses, she is bang-on in all the scenes. A steely scene between Priyanka and herself, enacted at a ‘hamam’ (Turkish bathhouse), is again a difficult one to crack. In the movie, Priyanka has the best defined character. In most of the scenes, she is required to play the submissive one, and she has played that well. It’s a welcome change from the usual robust and hero like Priyanka. Ranveer Singh is very natural and brings most of the comic relief. His pun filled soliloquy after a vomit scene is a treat to watch. Priyanka and Ranveer look very natural as brother and sister. Anushka Sharma has an extended cameo. Out of the three songs, she performs cabaret-cum-ballet dance on one, an impromptu jig on another, and shines in both. In fact in the former number, her body language, kind of reminds you of Catherine Zeta-Jones in ‘Chicago’ (2002). It’s a difficult dance that requires lot of speed and abundant grace, and she has managed to strike the right balance. Rahul Bose has a small role. For a change, he has also attempted quite opposite of what he has played till date i.e. the middle class submissive metro guy. Here, his character is rich, rigid and conservative. Almost everyone has looked well and acted well. Costume Designing is quite in tune with the characterizations. Casting is also apt. There is striking feature resemblance between Shefali & Priyanka and Anil & Ranveer. Cinematography is also good. There are lot of aerial angles, which well capture the Mediterranean sea region and charming Turkish locales.

Last but not the least, it’s an almost three hour long movie, and you don’t feel bored for a single minute. This really calls for a round of champagne.