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.