Even with all the considerable resources of color and choreography that Bollywood customarily brings to bear on its productions, "ABCD: Any Body Can Dance" has no more depth, maturity or sophistication than its American dance- film counterparts like "Step Up" and its sequel "Step Up 2: The Streets." And it's a lot more cloying and lengthy to boot.
Prabhu Deva stars as a mopey dance instructor - who can be a bit of a drama queen when things don't go his way - who takes on the task of whipping a group of high-spirited but decidedly undisciplined youngsters from the "ghetto" (which looks only a shade less affluent than Beverly Hills) into a presentable troupe in time to compete on an amateur TV dance program.
It's all pretty much paint-by-numbers as Vishnu (Deva) takes his charges through their various stages of readiness, with teeth-rotting cutesiness and thumb-sucking childishness the order of the day. The dancing's okay, I guess, but, I seriously think it's time for Bollywood to grow up a little and stop pandering to this apparent need on the part of its audience for emotional primitivism all the time. As one character, in a rare moment of honest self-reflection, says about the entertainment industry in India, "Mediocrity is king." Truer words were never spoken.
Prabhu Deva stars as a mopey dance instructor - who can be a bit of a drama queen when things don't go his way - who takes on the task of whipping a group of high-spirited but decidedly undisciplined youngsters from the "ghetto" (which looks only a shade less affluent than Beverly Hills) into a presentable troupe in time to compete on an amateur TV dance program.
It's all pretty much paint-by-numbers as Vishnu (Deva) takes his charges through their various stages of readiness, with teeth-rotting cutesiness and thumb-sucking childishness the order of the day. The dancing's okay, I guess, but, I seriously think it's time for Bollywood to grow up a little and stop pandering to this apparent need on the part of its audience for emotional primitivism all the time. As one character, in a rare moment of honest self-reflection, says about the entertainment industry in India, "Mediocrity is king." Truer words were never spoken.