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Things are not looking good for poor plain Muskan. If having
to spend her life in the shadow of her more beautiful sister
Samara wasn't bad enough, she discovers that she has failed
her exams and feels that she is a failure in the eyes of her
extraordinarily successful father, Dr Daksh Suri. With her
mother Nandini completing the set, the family head off to
Goa for a month long holiday. When Muskan meets Dino, a salsa
dancer her life changes forever. In a twist of fate Muskan
stands in for Dino's girlfriend when she has an abortion.
It's a long hot summer and Muskan discovers that she is about
to have the time of her life...
Bollywood
has a long tradition of remaking other people's movies, a
tradition that Hollywood has now taken to heart with their
endless naff remakes of Asian films. However, what was going
through the mind of Pooja Bhatt, in her second directorial
attempt, when she decided that a remake of Dirty Dancing
was just what we were all waiting for is beyond me. Not that
the film isn't a competent piece of work, but neither is it
going to set the screen alight. Which is strange, as Bhatt
is no stranger to either acting or producing films; Holiday
is the ninth film for which she has fulfilled the role of
producer, and the thriller Paap (2003), her first outing
as a director, was critically well received. Maybe she has
the Sofia Coppola curse, great first film, and blandish second.
The
film adds little to the original apart from moving the location;
Muskan is still portrayed as an ugly duckling waiting for
her chance to find something to make her shine. When she does,
what she lacks in acting ability is more than made up for
in her deft display of dancing skill.
The
other actors do their bit, but like Dirty Dancing they
are really only there to react to Muskan. The father patiently
waits to give his approval, the mother yearns for her child
to have the hope of a better life and the sister, who in good
fairy-tale mode starts off as the attractive but nasty one
before her sister saves her from a fate worse than death,
at which point the whole family are reconciled and everybody's
happy.
A
nice deviation from the norm is Ranjit Barot's score for the
songs, which accompany the dance routines. Breaking from the
usual tradition of music in Indian cinema, Barot uses a much
more contemporary Jazz Salsa fusion which complements the
well staged choreography and cinematography, if anything makes
this film worth watching it would be the dance numbers.
Ultimately,
like its predecessor, Holiday's only real reason for
existence is to watch well staged dance routines wrapped around
a paper-thin plot, a coming of age film for those who like
their romances candy coated.
The
disc comes with English subtitles and the ability to go straight
to the songs, as far as I could tell the disc only comes in
stereo, where at least a 5.1 should be expected in a film
of this age. There are no extras which once again lets the
film down.
So,
a credible film but most probably not one you'd watch more
than once.
Charles
Packer
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