There are no two ways about this film not having Remo D’Souza written all over it. Over-the-top dialogues? Check. Flashy costumes? Check. Goosebumps inducing dance moves? Check. Street Dancer 3D has it all and you can expect much more than all these things. We even have Nora Fatehi in her sublime form displaying how good of a dancer she is. But the plot? Why is it a tough ask for the crew to have a good storyline in spite of having everything else? For all we know, this film had the potential to be another ABCD that created much furore all over the country.
To think of it, the director and the lead actors (dancers?) were looking at a comeback to regain lost glory – Varun Dhawan after the ambitious Kalank, Shraddha Kapoor after the disastrous Saaho and Remo D’Souza after the mind-numbing Race 3. While we expected a Virat Kohli-like comeback from them, all we got was a Vinod Kambli-like comeback.
The film is predominantly set in London where Sahej (Varun Dhawan as an Indian expatriate) and Inayat (Shraddha Kapoor as a Pakistani expatriate) face off to prove to themselves on who is a better dancer and boast of their country’s specialties. These two groups fight it out in studios, night clubs and on the streets of course. Prabhudeva plays Anna who owns a nightclub that screens India-Pakistan cricket matches and this where our lead actors pick up a fight. Anna notices this and explains how immigrants from the subcontinent should be united with his thick (read fake) South Indian accent. He goes on to show the hardships faced by poor immigrants in London and tries to weave in a rich-poor, Indian-Pakistani and privileged-underprivileged angle. Our gullible lead actors try to win a dance championship in London to pocket 100,000 pounds and donate it to you-know-who.
There are a few morality-infusing dialogues which are written pretty well but placed in the wrong movie. We could’ve absorbed these dialogues and the emotions attached with them seriously if we heard them in some patriotic movie (Bollywood doesn’t have a dearth for such kind of movies anyway). These dialogues sound incredibly corny. While no one goes to watch a dance film with a good storyline, this film is very juvenile and doesn’t try to be pleasant to the viewers apart from the dance sequences. The dialogues seem to be written by a 12-year old patriotic kid without any exposure to reality.
There’s nothing new to expect in this movie as it feels like a compilation of powerhouse performances by all dancers. The choreography is something that keeps you distracted from the weak storyline and (below) average performances by actors. Varun Dhawan still plays the same-old guy who hasn’t grown up and tries to pretend he has the boyish charm. Shraddha Kapoor plays a borderline arrogant dancer and it compliments well with Varun Dhawan’s overly-sentimental character. On a side note, please let me know why this film was released in the 3D format? An extremely confusing question that is.
Even though dance takes the centre stage in the film, haphazard writing makes it very disturbing to watch. In sequences where no one is dancing, we have to bear with a few fake things like- Varun Dhawan’s British accent, Shraddha Kapoor’s acting and Prabhudeva’s South Indian accent.
This film starts off with one theme and while the end credits roll, we see that it is a completely different theme altogether. There is no motive in the plot and the emotions feel very unreal. It’s quite saddening that these kinds of films would rake in moolah in the box office and good films go unnoticed. I love commercial films and believe every film has a set of audience that would enjoy the film completely. For Street Dancer 3D, I was busy analyzing the type of audience who would whole-heartedly enjoy it.
Some scenes might induce some laughter but that’s where the good part of the film ends. Even a dance enthusiast might doze off in the middle of the film because the choreography tries way too hard to induce goosebumps in the audience. For a person who loves dance ‘reality’ shows, this movie might come across as preachy in some parts. For the general audience, a good suggestion would be to skip the movie to avert from unnecessary headaches. So who can watch this movie and come out of the theatre with a smiling face?
TikTok users, maybe..!
