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Put on your dancing shoes

The surprise success of Any Body Can Dance gets gyrations back into the movie business — with a bang

Dancing days are here again — going by the surprise success of the modestly-budgeted Any Body Can Dance: ABCD. Promoted as India’s first 3-D dance film, it spotlights Prabhu Deva as an underprivileged boogie man who triumphs over his haughty, well-heeled opponents at a high-stakes dance competition.

Despite its predictable storyline, which has shades of Hollywood’s Step Up series, on its opening day the dance-marathon, directed by Remo D’Souza, toted cushier ticket sales than the far more extensively publicised heist thriller Special 26.

Instantly, Remo became hot property in the trade, with the announcement that a corporate film 
company has inked a deal with him for two more dance-centric films. D’Souza, an amiable choreographer, has risen from the ranks, starting out as he did as one of the back-up, chorus line dancers in Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela, 18 years ago.

Piquantly, Prabhu Deva who wasn’t ever accepted in the Bollywood firmament as an actor, is in an ultra-comfort zone now. Rejected as Kajol’s co-star in Sapnay (1997), the Chennai-based dance wizard has moved to Mumbai. A logical step that, since the action-plus-slapstick films directed by him with Salman Khan (Wanted) and Akshay 
Kumar (Rowdy Rathore) have been top crowd pleasers.

Indeed, an increasing number of 
choreographers have been striving to multi-task in recent years. Fed up of just executing the splashy dance set pieces, they have been moving to the next level, albeit with inconsistent success. For 
instance, India’s most famous dance 
specialist, Saroj Khan, had a script ready to direct, but when its heroine, Priyanka Chopra, dropped out at the last hour, the project was shelved. After a rip-roaring controversy, matters cooled down and the choreographer returned to masterminding the kind of typical Bollywood moves she has been associated with, like Dhak dhak (Beta) and Choli Ke Peechhe Kya Hai (Khalnayak).

What are typical Bollywood moves, you might ask. They are a no-holds-barred fusion of Western and Indian moves — disco, kathak, the twist, lambada, salsa, you name it — which has become a genre in itself. Of late, the show-town fusion has also become the staple of reality dance shows on television, in which the contestants range from minor celebrities to pre-teen children. In fact, the free form Bollywood dance style — never mind the excessive pelvic thrusts and hip quakes — is not to be sneezed at anymore. It has been accepted as an art form of India’s eclectic popular culture.

Quite clearly, this was understood by dance director Farah Khan, daughter of Kamran, the confectioner of B-grade act-ion dramas in the 1950s. Since her parents were estranged, Farah was brought up in financially stressed circumstances. Inspired by the cabaret numbers of yesteryear’s Helen, she was hooked.

Kicking off as a choreographer, Farah became the arch-rival of Saroj Khan, often snagging top awards away. Steadily, she veered towards film direction and is rated the most successful woman 
director of Bollywood cinema once she knocked out Shah Rukh Khan hits like Main Hoon Na and Om Shanti Om.

Third time, however, she wasn’t as lucky with Tees Maar Khan. She has now opted to stay away from choreography, unless it’s for the films of her close friends like Karan Johar, Salman Khan and her brother Sajid Khan. A mother of triplets, she divides her time between looking after the kids, featuring as a juror on reality shows and getting set for her next Shah Rukh Khan extravaganza titled Happy New Year. Incidentally, last year she was coaxed into acting as the heroine of the unconventional comedy Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi. Since her 
performance didn’t exactly draw rave notices, she has announced that she will never attempt acting again, with the 
proviso “but you never know”.

The burly Ganesh Acharya who often pops up in the dances he choreographs, chose to direct films, one of a serious nature (Swamy) and the other a situational comedy (Money Hai Toh Honey Hai). Neither made an impact. No wonder, he’s the first to admit that choreography is his core competence, underscored by the nationwide popularity of his Chikni Chameli dance in Agneepath.

Unarguably then, dances have retu-rned as a key ingredient of the Mumbai-produced entertainers. For a while, they were used sparingly or entirely done away with — since it was felt that they obstructed the smooth flow of the narrative. Now Prabhu Deva’s extraordinary footwork in ABCD has affirmed that there’s nothing like an expert shake-rattle-and-roll for a fun time at the movies.