One may not need any more reminders of Hindi cinema’s current nauseating fixation with hyper-nationalism, but the trailer for Street Dancer 3D dropped today and there’s not much once can do about it. Choreographer-turned-director Remo D’Souza has made a third installment of the genre Hindi cinema calls its own version of the Step Up films. After two films about the clash of social classes with dance thrown in, our director has gotten bored and moved on to the brand new idea of pitting India & Pakistan. But with dance, of course.
The trailer is an unusual hodge-podge of warring dance troupes. Shraddha Kapoor shows up with extra soorma and not enough dialogues, while Varun Dhawan tries hard to mask his Bandra accent for lines like, ‘Meri beeji humesha kehti hai…‘. Not nearly as endearing as Shah Rukh Khan in DDLJ. The franchise also stipulates that Prabhudeva stop directing misogyny, and incorrectly lip-sync to some random Hindi dialogues.
However, the most disturbing aspect of the Street Dancer 3D are the remixes in the trailer. It’s understandable that the film is produced by Bhushan Kumar’s T-Series, and not expecting a remix in this film is like expecting an Ashutosh Gowariker to direct a two-hour film. But wait, they’ve not only desecrated Rahman’s iconic Muqabla song, they have even gone so far to remix Pandit Bhimsen Joshi’s Mile Sur Mera Tumhara.
The song meant to showcase India’s stellar unity-in-diversity featuring some of our greatest singers coming together, will now serve as a tune for Varun Dhawan & Shraddha Kapoor’s acrobatic flips. Few things can be more disturbing, even in Bollywood. In spite of its overwhelmingly patronising message of communal harmony, it’s visible that Street Dancer 3D is up to no good. All it wants to do is inject a #trending topic into a franchise film for Rs 100 crore.
Watch the trailer of Street Dancer 3D:
