In the 1990s when Bollywood was still a dirty word, Indipop was not, and A.R. Rahman was an oddity that people weren’t sure quite what to make of, Ken Ghosh was king. Back then music video channels would actually bother to credit a video’s director at the start and end of a song (Hey, better yet, they actually played music back then. No, really!) and it was only a matter of time before you’d notice that every second music video — and especially the good ones — all had the same name attached to them.
For what now seems like a short few years between the rise of Indipop in the early 90s and its eventual succumbing to a herd of kitsch movie song remix albums, Ken Ghosh brought a real sense of energy, and fun to Indian pop culture. His videos were never highbrow, high-concept art, but humorous, endearing little nuggets that bore plenty of repeat viewing. It was a tiny industry with a handful of artists, and yet, it didn’t seem to get stale until after his work was lost in the glut of bhangra and item songs that followed.
It took a while for Ghosh to make the inevitable shift to movie direction, and his 2003 debut Ishq Vishk was a similarly frothy, easygoing high school romance straight out of Archie comics, but delivered with the same simple charm that Ghosh had brought to his videos. His second film Fida was bigger and bolder, but the less said about it the better.
And now Ghosh and the leading man of all his films, Shahid Kapur, is back, with Chance Pe Dance.
Chance Pe Dance may present itself as the journey of a young struggling actor in the big bad world of Bollywood, but don’t let the similarities between this and last year’s Luck By Chance fool you: Ken Ghosh’s film is more Bollywood than Bollywood exposé.
It’s hard not to draw comparisons though. In this film too we are presented with a young out-of-towner with stars in his eyes and dreams of making it big in Mumbai. But while Luck By Chance took that idea and turned it into a warts-and-all look at the manipulations & egos of the Bollywood system, Chance Pe Dance turns itself into a celebration of… a work ethic?
Yes, you heard me right. The plot skips along here and there with little regard for conventional structure; one minute it’s about rising stars, the next it’s a School of Rock-esque kid fest, and then there’s Reality TV, competition angle. But the thread that ties it all together is Shahid Kapur’s character, Sameer Behl, a struggler like hundreds of others, but while he gets hurt at being rejected and overlooked by the powers that be, he soldiers on. At no point does he rue his fate as the greatest talent the world has yet to discover (which, as I recall, nearly every character in Luck By Chance did at some point — even the successful ones); and when he does break down it’s a bit of reassurance and direction he seeks, not an elevator ride to the top floor of life.
It’s a strange, subtle, and welcome change from the norm. Sameer Behl understands that the universe doesn’t revolve around him, that success is as much about sticking to it and just, well, dancing when you have a chance, as it is some twist of fate and the magnetism of your talent. In that sense, it’s actually a bit more realistic than Luck By Chance — there are no villains here, no eerily sinister renditions of Karan Johar and Shah Rukh Khan welcoming up-and-comers into the fold, no bitter starlets crying about their Art.
If all of this sounds a bit too earnest, then you’re right. I did say the film is quite old school Bollywood, and it works in Chance Pe Dance’s favour. People do break into song at the drop of a hat, and parents do disapprove of their children’s glamorous ambitions only to encourage them tearfully later. It’s all par for the course, and while it’s not smartly written or very inventive, Chance Pe Dance is an entertaining movie. It’s an endearing movie. Why, it’s positively Kenghoshian.
And its easygoing Ken Ghosh-fueled charm is exactly what allows one to overlook its raft of problems. It’s haphazardly plotted and structured. The lighting is often lovely, but the camerawork and editing is almost always not-quite-right. The songs are bad or unmemorable, and the climactic dance routine set to the hilarious Phallic Anthem ‘Pump it Up!’ is — to drive an already overdone metaphor home — a bit limp. Shahid Kapur is a gifted dancer, and an effortless actor now, and he’s as solid and reliable as ever. Genelia D’Souza, on the other hand, is unpolished and odd and very, very un-filmi — and I like that!
There’s so many things fundamentally wrong and broken with Chance Pe Dance, but I find myself ignoring or accepting all of them. Because it’s fun to see a twenty-storey high Shahid Kapur dance around Mumbai streets, even if the effects work is a bit spotty. It’s fun when Genelia asks, “You want to be my fraaaand?” with exactly the kind of non-filmi delivery that makes sure the joke sails over most people’s heads. Even the straightest man in the world will at least be entertained by the repeated episodes of Shahidporn we are treated to, because even shirtless and pop-and-locking to jarring tunes, he’s somehow more likable than his more famous contemporaries.
Chance Pe Dance went through problems that many movies do not have to face. Halfway through filming they replaced their lead actress (Jiah Khan) with another and re-shot a good deal, and maybe the film is not exactly what the makers had in mind when starting out. But by being simple, straightforward, and yes, even being filmi, it manages to do the one thing that more artistically-minded — or commercially-minded — films do not: it makes you like it.
It’s a 1990s Ken Ghosh music video. And that was never a bad thing.
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Ohhhh. I wish you hadn’t reminded me about Ishq Vishk, which I found so very very blah. But of course I don’t know diddly about 90s Indian pop videos (and very little about other media from that era), so I can happily accept there is charm to this (and IV) that doesn’t quite resonate or jive for me. The idea of an endearing film with characters who aren’t self-centered, though, reads like a dream! And looking at the work that goes into success - great idea.
Are you at all of the mind that there have been enough movies about movies/moviedom recently, or do you feel that there is room for more, as long as they take slightly different approaches?
I also give you mad vahs for the turns of phrase “phallic anthem,” “shahidporn,” and “shirtless and pop-and-locking.” It’s going to take some awkward forcing of ideas or surrounding words for me to create opportunities to use them myself, but use them I shall.
Pretty off-topic question to finish: I did a double-take when you mentioned School of Rock and now can’t stop thinking about what would happen if Bollywood took on that film (brilliance, quite possibly) OR what would happen if Jack Black showed up in Mumbai….
January 15th, 2010 at 7:36 amSHAHIDPR0N! sold.
January 15th, 2010 at 12:38 pmHi Beth,
Thanks for reading and leaving a nice, long comment (I love long comments!)
Re: Ishk Vishk
The movie was designed to be a bit blah, I suppose. It was basically Archie goes Bollywood, and considering how highly the comics are regarded in my generation’s childhood, it was a wonder nobody had attempted it so cleanly and simply before. My regard for it may also have something to do with Amrita Rao, whose Ab Ke Baras is one of the most spectacularly camp films made by anyone anywhere)
(Oh, and I linked to a couple of 90s Ken Ghosh vids in a long stream of consciousness Youtube crawl on twitter last night, that ended with the notion of Kareena & Saif remaking Aasman se Aaya Farishta only with Saif on the waterski. Ah, 5:30 am, you strange muse.)
Re: Bollywood movies about Bollywood
A couple of weeks ago after seeing the Chance Pe Dance trailer I tweeted to much the same effect. There’s an editorial in there somewhere, what with this, LBC, and things like Rocket Singh etc that are decidedly not Bollywood as we know it. It’s become a bit of a crutch of late for movie-makers to justify putting in Bollywood tropes by passing it off as happening on films-within-films, or as pithy commentary on life imitating art. It was funny or clever for a while, but mostly I think it’s run its course.
CPD is fairly devoid of the Bollywood commentary cliches (I thought it would just be a retread of LBC) which is one of the reasons it worked for me. Is there more room to explore? Yes, but I think Bollywood is pretty well covered. The periphery (Bhojpuri films, B Movies, ‘crossover’ films, and even the 90s Indipop explosion) is ripe for a long, hard or funny look still.
Re: Shahidporn
Thank you! I try to generally avoid making up words else I’ll just end up sounding like a Khalid Mohammad review/free verse poem, but I will admit to being particularly proud of Kenghoshian. (And Hindi films are full of Phallic Anthems. You will have no trouble finding uses for that one.)
Re:School of Rock
A Jack Black movie in India would ROCK! The problem with Bollywood doing it is that they’ll usually choose annoying child actors. It might work as some kind of strange off-shoot of the Rock On! universe, though. Or even as a proper sequel to School of Rock, with Black’s character stranded in India and having to work his way out by teaching.
Or if Shah Rukh Khan is involved. He might be able to pull it off.
But Jack Black. In Bombay. Hopefully running around the streets in a camp Shiva costume at some point. Yessssssssssss.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:04 pmShahidporn is quite entertaining. I only wish they’d provide some Geneliaporn too. Come on, it’s the 21st century and all.
January 15th, 2010 at 1:06 pmWow, I’m really clogging up your…um…airwaves these last 24 hours. Sorry about that!
Archie comics. Yeah. Those never appealed to me despite their ubiquity at US grocery store checkout racks. “Spectacularly camp,” though…hmmm. I did mean to work my way through some of those songs, especially if they involve waterskis. I’m just so ignorant of the 90s stuff before about 1997, but every time I try something, I think “Yes, this is why I avoid-yaar these.”
That’s an interesting theory - if Bolly is fading, a refugre for it is films about films! Hmmm. I didn’t even see Shortkut, despite my love for Akshaye Khanna. I also like your distinction between Bollywood cliches and Bollywood COMMENTARY cliches. One of those is a much more emotionally satisfying pool….
Free verse reviews=bad. New words that evoke richly or sum up a complicated concept=good. E.g. Shahidporn: “For debate: Dil Bole Haddipa is YRF getting its kink our with cross-dressing Rani, booty-shaking Rakhee, and cleavage-thrusting Shahidporn.” Re: Phallic Anthems: ALL of Rock On? Yes, say I!
I was just thinking that Jack Black could have undercut some of the tear-jerking in Taare Zameen Par. Maybe the safer way is to bring SRK to a Hollywood kid film - the sequel to School of Rock, as you say, and they write a rock opera or something. Jack Black might be just the right edginess needed for mainstream US audiences to deal with the charisma-sugar-supernova that is SRK….
January 15th, 2010 at 7:52 pmI am very happy with clogged airwaves, thank you.
Archie comics loom large in the collective middle class conscience of my generation and the ones before. We all grow up reading it thanks to healthy circulation of double digests among used book sellers and neighbourhood libraries. It eventually gets supplanted by, er, harder stuff (Superman, Mills & Boons, or even Nagraj), but it leaves and impression, and its DNA can be seen in everything from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai to things as new as Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na.
On the subject of Shortkut, it is muddled and disappointing enough to not warrant a speedy addition to the watch now list. Or even the ‘maybe some day’ list.
If you publish your Shahidporn example as on the blog verbatim, I will heart you muchly.
Why yes, Rock On! is a Phallic Anthem cornucopia. Since camp Farhan seems to have cornered the market on man-child stories (even Don is basically an indulgent man-child romp without the angsty growing up bits) I would expect nothing less. It has a song called Sindbad the Sailor, for cryin’ out loud! And Joe/Arjun can strum his guitar but can’t save his life (WHOA SUBTEXT). And KD loses his twin pronged drumstick-and-also-double-hoo-ha-shaped beard when he is emasculated and has to ‘grow up’ to join the family business (WHOA SUBTEXT). And Farhan gives up the guitar and replaces it with another phallic activity, smoking (WHOA SUBTEXT). I don’t know what subtext is attached to Luke Kenny, except that Anu Malik blows him a kiss (WHOA SUBTEXT).
All this shouldn’t be taken as some kind of condemnation of camp Farhan. I love his movies like they were my own children. Except Luck By Chance, which is more like an annoying, whiny nephew.
A lot of things would undercut TZP’s flaws. I still love the first half, and I understand the second half’s polemic-happy lecturebaazi inasmuch as Indians need a good talking to, but I still think it does the cinematic qualities of it harm. And SRK in a Hollywood film? It might work, but I unfortunately see it going the Jackie Chan route, only with a slightly bigger sex-symbol angle to it. Or worse, the dramatic-powerhouse-turned-action-sidekick Chow Yun Fat route.
The only way SRK will take over mainstream American eyeballs right now is if Farhan and him turn the Don sequel into some kind of truly international thriller, which has a slim chance of actually happening.
January 17th, 2010 at 11:37 pmArchie was the kind of thing that many of us had lying around but I don’t really remember anybody reading or paying any attention to. Huh. I will have to poll people. And wouldn’t you know it, I have been re-reading Zadie Smith’s White Teeth and now wonder if she named the Archie character in part due to those….. I wonder if someone (ahem) should do a post on the influence of Archie comics in Hindi films with tons of embedded clips. I wonder with my unfamiliarity with them is part of why I just did not get the appeal of Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na AT ALL.
I’m not sure I heard anyone say anything appealing about Shortkut. I’ve seen enough horrible movies just for the sake of Akshaye Khanna (Kudrat, Hungama) that I may have finally learned my lesson.
Re: Shahidporn: DONE! I will even correct the typos!
It pains me to think of Farhan films as man-child-y but now that you say it, I cannot argue with it. I even used the terms “man-children” and “phallic symbols” in my review, actually. As for Sinbad, the title made me think of Styx sailing away. I’ve got nothing against whimsically-named characters in rock songs when the Beatles et al do it, but it did not seem to suit the era here. And what’s a rock movie doing nodding towards Anu Malik anyway, unless he is a trope of most decidedly non-rock (not that I want to argue about what “rock” means, because I really don’t)? Shrug. For me, Rock On is the black sheep third cousin I’m locking up somewhere “special” along with Bertha and the others.
I loved TZP once in the theater but will probably never watch it again, as objective distance from the experience of watching it grows.
Please know that I in no way think the world NEEDS to see SRK in a Hollywood movie or that either US/western audiences or SRK/Hindi cinema/Indian cinema would be vastly improved from the experience. They might be, but I don’t think that’s automatic or necessarily desirable. (It seems like a lot of people have a ton of angst regarding and like to wring their hands over why Bolly needs Holly or why western audiences really must some day wake up and understand how great Bollywood is. I say, if they want to, fine; if they don’t, then that is also fine as long as they are not judgmental, dismissive, or stereotype-wielding about it.) (ANYWAY.) If SRK someday decides he really wants to make a Hollywood film and if some studios in LA decide to try to find the most appropriate vehicle for such a journey, bearing in mind what his skills are AND how much of his charisma-ball self can be showcased in a popular US film of typical length and depth, I think it’s going to have to be a musical. I think that’s what we Americans would understand best of the kinds of things he does well. Let the man dance, for god’s sake! And couch him in an environment that we already expect dancing and arm-flinging in! I am not saying that those are the only things he can/should do. But he’s really good at them. Either that or, as you say, give us Don. I was party to a Don viewing for a Bollywood newbie. He liked it okay. His ten-year-old son, however, LOVED IT. I also think Swades could work because of the modern global society commonality of leaving the place you’re from and trying to figure out what that means and how it shapes you subsequently.
Stopping now! Promise!
January 18th, 2010 at 12:55 amI’m here via Beth and I have to say that I am thrilled to read your review. I had much the same take on this and the ‘whiny, annoying little nephew’ of Luck By Chance.
http://filmigirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/chance-pe-dance-straight-from-heart.html
Regarding Rock On!!, as a former rocker who has had to hang up my guitar to get a 9-to-5 job, I identified a lot with the characters in spite of the gender gap. But then rock music is still a very macho genre and I’m certainly living the woman-child lifestyle, so who knows…
And, Beth, I read Archie comics and still occasionally pick up an issue at the grocery store.
I just have that camp gene, I suppose…
January 18th, 2010 at 1:59 amThis is just to say - I’m here via Beth too and very excited to find you. Always so happy to find stimulating writing about Indian movies in particular. More later, am supposed to be doing an entirely other thing!!
January 18th, 2010 at 8:11 amI think I’d prefer it if the audience did the crossing over rather than the stars. SRK works best in his element, as do most other non-Hollywood types. There is always potential for a great movie when several actors from different countries come together, but those kind of films are few and far between.
January 18th, 2010 at 2:21 pmWelcome Filmi Girl and Virginia! Glad to have more people in on the conversation!
January 18th, 2010 at 2:34 pmThe audience will cross/broaden when and as they want to, don’t you think? The real question is what would move various segments to do so (and how will they choose?). Even if they could be nudged/pushed, I am pretty opposed to that strategy. As with many things in life, it’s about access to options and the mental space/energy to consider them and make the choices that feel right. Which is where nutters like us come in when we’re feeling evangelist. When people ask me what Hindi films they might like to try, I am mooooore than happy to provide big lists and context for my suggestions, but I’m not about to try to march around saying “You haven’t lived until you’ve seen an SRK film, and if you don’t think you want to, you’re a giant fool!” because it’s neither respectful nor true. (Which of course no one here is saying, but it seems to be an attitude that creeps up sometimes in conversations about the world’s large film cultures and how people invested in one respond to others.)
January 19th, 2010 at 4:26 am