BY DR. MALA CHAKRAVORTY*
Best of the Best is an American comedy dance film directed by Lena Khan from a screenplay written by Hasan Minhaj and Prashanth Venkataramanujam. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia play childhood friends Maya and Anjali, freshmen at UCLA, who join the University’s Bollywood-fusion dance team and participate in a national dance competition. Becoming part of this team, individually and together, throwing all kinds of challenges their way, helps the girls prove their self-worth and figure out what is truly important as they take their first steps into adulthood.
Logically, this movie should not have resonated with me at all! I know less than nothing about college dance competitions. Also, the entire cast (and I suspect most of the crew) are about four decades younger than I am. I was intrigued as I am a bit of a Bollywood aficionado and have a weakness for cross-cultural representations in popular culture, particularly those that reflect hyphenated identities rooted in a diaspora. The movie also interested me because I have enjoyed Hasan Minhaj’s political and social comedy routines over the past years. I also wanted to see what kind of projects Maitreyi Ramakrishnan would take on after Never Have I Ever, a show I really liked. I did not want her to disappear into insignificant supporting roles the way Sarita Chowdhury (Mississippi Masala) or Parminder Nagra (Bend It Like Beckham) did after groundbreaking debuts.
I was not disappointed .
Best of the Best turned out to be an engaging and entertaining movie that celebrates the diversity of the South Asian diaspora. In a real world fraught with social inequities, intolerance, fear and bigotry, we are presented with a Utopian vision – a multitude of ethnicities, religions, races, letting go of mistrust and bias, finding strength in unity and co-existing in harmony. It may not be a very realistic vision, but for a couple of hours we live vicariously through Maya and Anjali’s travails and believe we can achieve anything we set our minds to as long as we do it together!
The narrative uses the familiar tropes of teenage romcoms and effectively combines them with those of sports movies about underdogs beating all odds to reach the top. The themes are universal and common to young people of all cultures. What makes the movie unique is the representation of South Asians, a significant minority group mostly denied cultural representation in mainstream Western media.
After years of seeing the occasional brown best friend imparting advice and support to the lead characters, the stereotypical comic nerd, the super-smart but socially inept techie, the bearded and turbaned extremist, it is refreshing to see an entire cast of young South Asians populating the campuses and dorms, clubs and arenas where the action takes place.
Interestingly, the older generation does not feature in the movie at all except peripherally. Only one parent and one teacher are granted any kind of screen presence. The derision and biases the two protagonists have to deal with, growing up ‘different,’ are contained at a subliminal level. We don’t hear the exaggerated Indian accent, nor do we see the visual cues of being different. Cultural references are seamlessly integrated into the narrative.
The filmmakers keep the plot simple and perhaps intentionally, somewhat predictable. The focus stays on the two young women who need to prove themselves to be worthy of leading the dance team and experience some personal challenges caused by petty jealousies and hidden resentments. Eventually, they regain their trust, forgive and forget, and emerge victorious with each other’s support!
A familiar story, well-known tropes, a predictable plotline, this movie could have been a snooze! However, there are many factors that make it an engaging entertainer. On the top of the list are great performances by Maitreyi and Priyanka, who present the viewer with two sides of the same coin, one arrogant and imaginative, the other diffident and unwilling to take risks. Maitreyi becomes the headstrong Maya who hides her vulnerabilities by exuding confidence with a devil-may-care attitude. Priyanka, making her debut, gives a nuanced performance that brings out Anjali’s insecurities that make her a people-pleaser afraid to speak her mind. The girls are ably supported by a delightful supporting cast who populate this world, comprising loyal friends, conniving competitors, mean girls, potential love interests plus the sole Caucasian member of the dance team who is more ‘desi’ than anyone else! The supporting cast also includes Hasan Minhaj in a cameo as a teacher imparting advice and support as an older and wiser voice of experience!
A tight script and sharp dialogue add to the strength of the film. As a movie dedicated to Bollywood dance, there are several fantastic dance numbers that I believe the cast performed themselves after going through rigorous training. Cinematography, production design and costume design work in tandem with the choreography team to create the magical world of performance, keeping the tonality of Bollywood fantasy intact. The musical score is in keeping with the demands of the story, a fusion of old Hindi film songs and various genres of contemporary Western music. The highlight score is a new song composed by A. R. Rahman that the grand finale dance number is choreographed to with much pomp and pageantry. Personally, I enjoyed the dance numbers and the sense of nostalgia they evoked, but after a while they reminded me of MTV music videos and were interrupting the narrative flow rather than being an integral part of the story.
In conclusion, Best of the Best is a feel-good entertainer much like movies out of Bollywood used to be. It touches upon, but does not delve deeply into the complexities and existential angst that are an endemic part of growing up within a diaspora. It is clearly an ode to childhood memories and growing up in a multicultural community. It leaves you with a sense of hope that no matter what challenges you face, if you value life-long relationships, if you communicate, if you let go of petty differences and stay united, things will fall into place and the next generation will be alright.
I will recommend the movie with the disclaimer that it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I am not sure many people of my generation would be interested in a dance movie populated by 20-somethings! But I am certain young men and women from the South Asian diaspora everywhere in the world can relate to Maya and Anjali’s journey. If the reluctant viewers are willing to invest a little time, the experience may help them understand what these kids go through and help them handle a crisis arising out of intergenerational and intercultural miscommunication. Best of the Best does not aim to change the world, but it does encourage viewers to display a little more tolerance, a little less mistrust, to provide an extended hand of support, a shoulder of comfort, that will definitely make this divided world a better place to live in.
Best of the Best premiered on Netflix on September 18 and is now streaming worldwide.
* Mala Chakravorty has a Ph.D. in American Women’s fiction from I.I.T. Delhi, and Master’s degrees in English and American Studies from Delhi University and Smith College, Massachusetts. She has worked in the School of Women’s Studies, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, and Women’s Studies Program at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu. She switched from academics to Information Technology in 1999.
