Ken Ghosh’s dance-drama takes no chance in experimenting with storytelling style and ends up being an extended version of the music videos that he used to direct before making feature films.
Chance Pe Dance is stuff legendary Bollywood biographies are made of. Sameer Behl (Shahid Kapoor) comes to Bombay with Bollywood dreams, struggles through the day as a courier boy and keeps failing in auditions for advertisements. More stereotypes are stuffed in as he refuses to take help from his dad in Delhi (Parikshit Sahni almost repeating his Idiot act), is thrown out from his rented flat by the landlord (Kurush Deboo still unable to surpass his Parsi performance) and comes away with his calculative companion (Vikas Bhalla making his comeback).
Soon Sameer is signed as the male lead in a film and friend Tina (Genelia D’Souza) is selected as the choreographer on the same project. The characterizations kinda remind of Naach ; Ram Gopal Varma’s film on dance, if you have heard of it by any chance. Both homeless and jobless now, Sameer sleeps in his car (yes, he could afford one after doing one lungi ad) and works as a dance teacher in a school. Regardless of the references it derives from Jack Black’s The School of Rock , the film fails to rock till the end credits roll.
Subsequently Sameer loses his film and is disillusioned. Tina encourages him to participate in a television talent-hunt show, the winner of which will win the same role that Sameer was to play. In his screen-test, Sameer dedicates his monologue to his mother in the same mould with which most Miss India participants mouth their monotonous thanksgiving speech.
The film starts on a promising note with smoothly synchronized opening credits but by its sixth scene you sense where it’s heading. The screenplay by Ken Ghosh and Nupur Asthana is conventional to the core, has predictable plot-points and lacks any dramatic graph. Kiran Kotrial’s dialogues lack depth and additional writing help by Manu Rishi ( Oye Lucky Lucky Oye ) doesn’t add any value to the narrative. Ken Ghosh’s direction lacks as much conviction as his writing and it’s easy to comprehend how he hurries and fabricates the storytelling in the second half.
The story had enough scope to be humourous but the treatment is lame and laughable. Sameer’s training and team-building sessions with the school kids is rushed through a transition song and does not contribute to the central plot in any way. Though Shahid and Genelia make a cute couple on screen, their chemistry is concocted at the same dull and dreary speed with which Genelia rides her two-wheeler in those two hilarious scenes of the film. Sadly by the time she picks up pace in the climax, it’s a bit too late.
For a dance-driven film like this, the music should have been catchy beyond comparison. Though Adnan Sami and Pritam’s tunes don’t disappoint, it isn’t mind-blowing material. Choreography is a clearly the highlight of the film. Dance directors Ahmed Khan and international artist Marty Kudelka give challenging steps to Shahid Kapoor that he performs with effortless grace, panache and attitude. But too much of song-n-dance is detrimental to the film’s flow.
Finally the entire burden of carrying off this film lands on Shahid Kapoor’s shoulders and his chiseled flashboard abs prove of no help in this respect. He dances fabulously and acts convincingly but isn’t able to salvage the sinking ship. Genelia D’Souza is delightful and appealing. The kids try too hard to be cute. Zian Khan esp. has lost his childish charm.
Sadly, scripts are written for reality shows today but there is no real good scripting involved in feature films. So in times when dance talent-hunt shows on television promise more drama and entertainment, you find no good reason why to give this dance a chance.
