Choreographer-turned-director Remo Dsouza turns Street Dancer into a humdrum India-Pakistan war
A still from Street Dancer 3
Street Dancer 3D
U/A: Drama
Director: Remo D'Souza
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor
Rating: 
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Given that I had enjoyed watching the first two instalments of the ABCD series (2013 and 2015), I walked into Street Dancer 3D expecting something more than just fabulously-staged dance sequences. Remo Dsouza's franchise has long been touted as India's answer to the Step Up series. Sadly, the third part also follows the latter editions of the Hollywood franchise in being all about dance, without much of a storyline to bank on.
Choreographer-turned-director Dsouza turns this film into a humdrum India-Pakistan war. Arch rivals Sehej (Varun Dhawan) and Inayat (Shraddha Kapoor) are captains of their respective dance troupes — Street Dancers and Rule Breakers. They passionately support their respective countries, India and Pakistan, with a shameless reference to the significantly exploited angle of cricket also getting screen time. They have a continual desire to outdo the other in the world's biggest dance battle, Ground Zero. The rivalry, however, is forgotten when they learn of one another's empathetic attitude towards those immigrants of the other's country, who have neither food to eat, nor homes to stay in.
Lending their fine skills to the 10-song soundtrack, choreographers Rahul Shetty and Kruti Mahesh create a set-piece that can be marvelled at. There are several jaw-dropping moments, but with the sequences being barely separated by any story, this dance film seems to have been killed by too much dance. One can hardly separate one act from the other, and hence fails to recall truly striking and memorable choreography.
Prabhudheva is of course the exception here. Even in the rehashed version of Muqabala, he has you nostalgic for the '90s.
Watch the trailer of Varun Dhawan, Shraddha Kapoor starrer Street Dancer 3D here
The story by Farhad Samji is the big let-down. The proceedings are hobbled by writing that leaves nothing to one's imagination. The 3D effect is also gimmicky.
The dancers — Salman Yusuff Khan, Dharmesh Yelande, Punit Pathak, Raghav Juyal, Prabhudeva and Nora Fatehi — appropriately steal the limelight here, pulling off the task at hand earnestly. The lead actors, Dhawan and Kapoor try, but are reduced to merely delivering motivational speeches.
At one point in the film, Inayat says: "We dance to express; you dance to impress." The film, however, neither expresses nor impresses. It seems like an extended version of a dance reality show Dsouza is judging on TV. This one's made for dance aficionados. If you're one, catch it; else there's enough to pick from at cinema halls this weekend.
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