subject: Chance Pe Dance Movie Review [print this page] Ken Ghoshs dance-drama takes no chance in experimenting with storytelling style and ends up being an extended version of the music videos that he used to direct before making feature films.
Chance Pe Dance is stuff legendary Bollywood biographies are made of. Sameer Behl (Shahid Kapoor) comes to Bombay with Bollywood dreams, struggles through the day as a courier boy and keeps failing in auditions for advertisements. More stereotypes are stuffed in as he refuses to take help from his dad in Delhi (Parikshit Sahni almost repeating his Idiot act), is thrown out from his rented flat by the landlord (Kurush Deboo still unable to surpass his Parsi performance) and comes away with his calculative companion (Vikas Bhalla making his comeback).
The movie has Shahid Kapoor and Genelia D Souza playing the lead roles, with Mohnish Bhel also playing an important part in the movie. However, the movie fails to create a connection with the audience.
The story of CPD is quite common and very predictable. However, it is a realistic film about strugglers. Shahid plays the role of Sameer aka Sam, a struggling actor who is finding it hard to make ends meet in Mumbai. He juggles various jobs while waiting to get a much needed break in movies. In his struggle for existence he meets Tina (Genelia DSouza) who is a choreographer.
Theres very little between these two scenes that would make you want to sit through CPD. The comedy seems forced, the emotions unreal (and the kinds seen in a number of other such films) and the script trite.
Theres a sub-plot, which entertains you for a while, but which is sadly sidelined for some reason. In stead, you have to bear with another tale of an out-of-towner making it in the big, bad entertainment world of Mumbai.
After three years of struggling, Sam finally lands the lead role in a dance-based film. But even as the film takes a while to roll, Sam is thrown out of his house by his landlord and has no money to afford even a decent meal.
He rehearses dance on the giant Mumbai wooden floors Jennifer Lopez may have practiced on before. Govinda, Hrithik Roshan, Shiamak Davar, he says, are the legends of his field. His tiny apartment from the inside may well be the shanty of big-city America. When we werent looking, and he had hardly dough for breakfast, the hero also packed in for himself the 8-pack abs.
He does the multiple rounds of film auditions. The journey, and its conclusion, is predictably known. The music should take care of the rest. It doesnt.
Songs dont take the motionless picture forward. This is not a musical. The filmmaker here is merely a director of music videos, and there is one after half a dozen others: Back straight. Attitude. Feel the music. Sure.
The film starts on a promising note with smoothly synchronized opening credits but by its sixth scene you sense where its heading. The screenplay by Ken Ghosh and Nupur Asthana is conventional to the core, has predictable plot-points and lacks any dramatic graph. Kiran Kotrials dialogues lack depth and additional writing help by Manu Rishi ( Oye Lucky Lucky Oye ) doesnt add any value to the narrative. Ken Ghoshs direction lacks as much conviction as his writing and its easy to comprehend how he hurries and fabricates the storytelling in the second half.
The story had enough scope to be humourous but the treatment is lame and laughable. Sameers training and team-building sessions with the school kids is rushed through a transition song and does not contribute to the central plot in any way. Though Shahid and Genelia make a cute couple on screen, their chemistry is concocted at the same dull and dreary speed with which Genelia rides her two-wheeler in those two hilarious scenes of the film. Sadly by the time she picks up pace in the climax, its a bit too late.
Sadly, thats too much to ask for. The dance competition that the kids participate in is hurriedly wrapped up they obviously win and then the film is once again about Sam striking gold as an actor.
The only area where the makers seem to have put in any effort is the execution of the dance sequences, and even if a few of them are entertaining, they dont do much for the film otherwise. They have been picturised well although one song where Shahid and Genelia are shown to tower over Mumbais buildings looks like a 90s music video and Shahid brings the dances alive with his moves.
The songs, however, are not the kinds you would remember later. The sole exception is Pump It Up, in the climax, but youre so fed up with CPD by then that you dont really care.
Shahid gives an uneven performance, ranging from very good to hammy (especially when hes supposed to do comedy). Post-Kaminey, you see the actor in a new light and he looks a lot more confident and sure of what hes doing onscreen.
by: srk
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