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The Underdog's Smooth Moves- Dance Movies Knock on Bollywod's Doors
A couple of years back, Bollywood saw an innovation, albeit mediocrely produced, in ABCD, a dance based film. Directed by Prabhudeva, the film introduced the concept of hip hop dancing, and used dance as a vehicle of victory for youth that grows up in Mumbai's slums- a classic underdog tale.
Dance based films, as legacy, have been underdog stories here and in the West. Look at the Step Up films, or Mithun's Disco Dancer and Sudha Chandran's 'Nache Mayuri'.
Now there are two more exciting films waiting in the wings. One, is the forthcoming MAD or Mad About Dance, an underdog tale with racism as an argument and loads of dance at its core. Amrit Maghera, the ex Lakme face and dancer from the UK, elaborates,
"It does have a racial slur angle which I think, could be interpreted to any life circumstance when someone has shown any kind of prejudice against you and you achieving your dreams......I guess dancing has definitely helped me battle a lot of difficulties and has always been my outlet. For me, dance is a form of expression and always has been right from when I was a child, whether it was happiness or anger or any emotion I was feeling at the time, sometimes consciously and also unconsciously. One thing remains constant, that I feel freer while and after I've danced."
But the project that has driven a lot of curiosity, is ABCD 2- because it features upcoming stars Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor. This time, the underdogs travel to Los Angeles for the film's shoot. ABCD 2, directed by Remo D Souza, will feature mixed styles of hip hop, jazz, samba and plenty of others, a first of it's kind for Hindi cinema. The film has roped in skilled dancers who are not movie stars to add meat to it's moves.
"ABCD 2 is my rehab, I just love preparing and rehearsing for it, although it takes time," Said Varun Dhawan.
Dance films, conventionally, struggle to make it big in Bollywood- MAD has been waiting for a release for nearly 2 years. Will these post modernist dance forms have any impact in changing perceptions for such films? Or will a star always be a pre requisite to their success and acceptance?
That's a question that only audiences can answer.
