Street Dancer 3D Movie Review: Is A Whole Lot Of Fun

Street Dancer  3D

Starring Prabhudheva,  Varun Dhawan, Shradha  Kapoor, Aparshakti

Directed  by Remo d’Souza

Rating: **** ½(4 and a half stars)

Impressively, Prabhudheva gets  top billing in this  zany political parable  about how India and Pakistan van beat the  Gora Log, a.k.a the  First World, if we  only  stop bickering about cricket and politics.Prabhu remains one helluva of hellraiser  on  the dance  floor. By the time  he gets down to doing  his own Muqabla song in  a trance dance, this time choreographed  by director Remo d’Souza ,he  becomes the sole  of  the  film, and I  do mean SOLE. That’s the magic  of  the dancing feet that this film so exuberantly  and abundantly celebrates.

Remo d’Souza’s earlier dance film ABCD2 with Varun and Shradha felt  a little like  a pretext for dance.  Street Dancer  feels more  prone to tell a  story, to use(to parphrase  a  line of dialogue  from the  film) dance to express rather than  impress.

Like the feet of  a natural-born   street dancer, the plot and  characters  of  this  film move in mysterious ways. For starters  the  film’s  protagonist Sehaj(Varun Dhawan ,energetic to the  core ( though a wee overdone in his zest  to be  the  best)  is a bit  of  an arrogant  jerk.Sahej thinks no end of himself and  loses no chance in using  people to his own advantage.

It is  a welcome  to change to meet a mainstream  hero who is not  a perfect 10. The  flaws add a  furious flow  when Varun gets on the floor , with  or without his two  dancing partners Shradha   Kapoor and Nora Fatehi. The latter is  definitely a better dance . Nora  is more heart. Shradha is more  about an Urmila Matondkar kind  of  dancing skill. Conscious and marionette –like in  making  the  right moves.

 Indeed the  film’s choreography is  a wonder to behold. Remo has made a concerted effort  to  give us moves that we’ve never seen before. Every dancer  in  the  foreground  or back, gora or colour  is skilled and supple, fiercely committed to  getting the steps  right.

Some of Remo’s peripheral dancers are  also good actors, Watch Raghav Juyal in his  confrontation with his  friend Sahej after he has gone bad.Juyal outdoes Dhawan.

The  first-half has its  engaging  bits,like the Indian and Pakistani dancers  battling over cricket in aLondon pub,throwing donoughts  instead of nuke bombs  at  one another.These sequences are constructed on  the  pyramid of song and dance.It’s the  post-midpoint portion that comes  alive as Remo in a swoop of swirling colours and twirling feet, brings in   the  theme of illegal immigration  in London.

Aparshakti Khurrana as  a deportable delinquent from Punjab wandering hungry and  helpless  through London,  brings  such a deep despair  to his part,  you  want to shake him out of his  misery, remind him that this  is a  fun film, not to be taken  seriously.

The cast largely gets into the  tongue-in-cheek  groove. Dhawan builds his bratty-to-responsible character  with an endearing  vigour. The  best sequence  of Street Dancer has Varun Dhawan perform a dance  of agonizing  self-flagellation where he  dances  with  his  disabled  brother.

Sheer magic! Not all   of  this film can afford  to  experiment with truth. But whenever it sets his heart on a  higher plane  than its mind,   the  film soars, the  body shakes to a quivering rhythm. This Republic weekend give yourself break,  as dance  becomes  an expression  of thoughts buried  too deep for discussion.