It becomes a tough task for the reviewer when the movie itself has no real aspiration to be an interesting one. Street Dancer 3D, the new Remo D’Souza dance movie is pretty much what we all sort of expected. Back to back dance sequences with a story that is extremely cheesy and superficial. If you are aware of this and don’t mind watching a movie just to see some dance moves, then don’t waste your time reading any review for this 146 minutes long version of DID.
So the story is set in London. Sahej, an Indian with roots from Punjab has set up a dance studio for his gang named Street Dancers. There is a Pakistani rival gang named Rule Breakers headed by Inayat. There was always a rift between the two and at one point both Sahej and Inayat decided to participate in a competition named Ground Zero and they both actually had different intentions. What happens in Ground Zero is basically the story of Street Dancer 3D.
From Step Up series to our Desi ABCD movies, the template is the same. You will have two gangs showing off their dancing skills and there will be a competition in the end where our hero gang will lift the championship. And here Remo D’Souza is pretty much doing the same and for a change, he uses this India-Pakistan hate along with refugee crisis as the backdrop. But that again is a very peripheral layer of the story which after a point fades out and it becomes that routine dance movie. And I found this Ground Zero championship really funny. You can be in one team from the prelims to the semi-final and on final, you can become a member of the opponent team and nobody has a problem with that. The semi-final drama is a different level of logic demolition.
Varun Dhawan is in that Student of the Year kid mode here and it takes away all the grace from the performance. He is supposed to be a selfish apathetic character in a major portion of this movie and his portrayal felt so caricaturish. Shraddha Kapoor as Inayat was fine as she never really tried to increase the attitude quotient beyond a level. Prabhu Deva plays the usual veteran dancer with life experience and it was nice to see him shake his legs along with the cast. Nora Fatehi, Dharmesh, Punit Pathak, Salman Yusuff Khan, Raghav Juyal, etc are there as various dancers. Aparshakti Khurana as the struggling Dhol player Amrinder was really good in my opinion.
The idea here is to package this movie with a lot of dance sequences that will sort of make the audience forget about the weak story of the movie. The movie begins with a flashback dance performance, then there is a dual between the two gangs, then there is an introduction of another gang and at almost every five minutes we have a dance performance. Just when I thought there will be a break from that, Remo decides to include a tribute to the dance king of the country Prabhu Deva with a solo performance. A 46-year-old man performing with such flexibility and grace is a sight to behold. To be honest, when I saw him perform like that, I felt so bad that we just couldn’t create a unique and compelling script that can utilize a talent powerhouse like Mr. Prabhu Deva. Farhad Samji’s dialogues only enhance the cheesiness of the movie. The cinematography by Vijay Kumar Arora does the purpose of making everything look super glossy like an ad film. The music by Sachin Jigar fits the mood of the movie. Remo D’Souza occasionally remembers about the 3D format and splashes water on the viewers.
If your desperation to watch dance on the big screen is similar to that of people who watched Race 3 multiple times just to see Salman Khan, then I would definitely say Street Dancer 3D is a movie you might find enjoyable. Watching 5 episodes of DID is a much better option considering the time and money you will be spending to watch this movie.
Watching 5 episodes of DID is a much better option considering the time and money you will be spending to watch this movie.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
