Street Dancer 3 : Movie Review

(Starring : Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor, Prabhu Deva, Directed by Remo D’Souza)

First thing first. I have never been a fan of the ABCD franchise. In fact I’ve not seen both the earlier films of the franchise. In television too, I avoid dance reality shows. This is simply because dances now shifted gears from fluid to friction. Orchestrated choreographs, added with some mundane special effects and circus-like stunts have reduced genuine dancers to caricatures. Alas !!!

Street Dancer 3D (ABCD 3), the third of the instalment, has a wafer thin plot that could have been squeezed into an one hour reality show. Varun Dhavan (Sehaj) and Shraddha Kapoor (Inayat) play rival dancers of two groups from opposite sides of the border who are always at tug of war with each other. When a reality dance completion – Ground Zero – comes their way, they break their differences for a common goal forms the crux of the story.

The dance numbers of the film are, no doubt, slick, colourful, energetic and sometimes awe-inspiring, but then, that’s it. Frequently, they appear out of nowhere and are interchangeable. The sub-plot in the film is un-necessarily added to improve the emotional quotient of the film, but sadly, that’s the undoing on the part of the director.

The decision to release the film in 3D makes no sense at all, except for characters throwing all that comes in their way, like donuts, water, hats and all the props. At 150 minutes, the film is excruciatingly long and painful.  The only high points I found in the entire length of the film was the young audiences whistling and enjoying every bit of the movie, and the rehearse of “Muqabla” song by Prabhu Deva. Rest of the characters ham like it’s their last day in acting.

Street Dancer 3 is a painful journey of sorts that made me wriggle with pain in my seat many a times. It is agonising, and is strictly for dance junkies. I’m going with one and a half for the film. Sway out of its way if you are not of that type.

Movie Reviewed by Dr. Sambit Begray