Chance Pe Dance -an example of positioning gone awfully wrong!!!!

If there is one word that could aptly describe the latest venture of UTV movies, it would be confused. Since his last  unsuccessful attempt , Ken Ghosh has tried to redeem himself through his latest venture wherein he attempts to communicate the trials and tribulations that come with the making of a star in Bollywood.The story involves two central characters Sameer,played by a fit and hunky Shahid Kapoor and Tina ,played by the saucy Genelia Dsouza. Sameer is a struggling wannabe star who spends three years of his life attending auditions and ends up on a chance meeting with Tina , a choreographer during one of his innumerable stints.Inspite of his failures, a series of coincidental meetings and an opportunity to become a dance master in school prancing around with a bunch of teeny weeny bunch of children sets the stage for romance to blossom,that provides strength for the protagonist to rule the world and become the star that he always dreamed off.In almost a jarring note, the movie shoots of with an introductory song and music video that has the lead characters mouthing some ridculous lines that almost seem to suggest that the script of the movie and its intentions are as childish and naive as the five rupees trumpet that is sold on low profile fairs held on the city municipality grounds. The team has got it wrong on almost every structural quintessential of a movie that is a part of syllabi in dramatics and acting. After having produced many movies, the least one would expect from a team such as this  is  a good cast and an appropriate positioning. If Chance Pe Dance aims to tell the story of a struggle, then Shahid Kapur does not look one bit the struggler that the audience is sold into believing. While reality has time and again demonstrated the plight of newcomers in bollywood, leading a measily existence , Ken refuses to give in and offers Shahid a range of designer wear to fit himself in. Fair that his dad, played by the talented Parikshit Sahni, owns a textile shop, does not mean,he has all the money in the world to let this guy splurge on designer shirts,which is justified by a character onscreen that attributes the affordability to the pirated market.However, that doesnt prove to be convincing. The room is rather neat and well done for a struggler and by Mumbai standards, its something that single working professionals would generally live in.

Here a guy earns Rs.5000 a month through his part time courier job, mouths tounge twisters like Kachha Papad Pucca Papad to get his emotions right and is almost carefree when his dad questions his absence from home for three years. Genelia, as his friend and love interest clearly is not expected to emote on the living conditions of the character until communicated by a certain brother who gets to know of his deplorable condition, by virtue of Shahid taking up the role of a dance teacher. Through the entire sitting, there is not one moment wherein people are drawn to sympathize with Shahid. The movie portrays the lead character as comical and the love interest as a sidekick that suddenly realizes her love and quits her job because Shahid wasnt given a chance to act.  Ridiculous Maximus.Oh and there are plenty of such moments. Digest this, our man sneaks into the school bathroom everyday and lives out of a car at some point in this two hour advertisement and ogles at lunch boxes everyday, until the kids team up to part with their lunch. Are we watching a movie or is this a rough cut for a UNICEF  and HDFC life insurance ad campaign,we wonder.Further, everyone in the movie seems to be well to do and easily agreeable.Consider this, the hero in question is given a dialogue to audition for and he makes up for his forgetfulness by talking of his childhood  experiences which fetches a huge round of applause from a certain Mohnish Behl, who is an absolute misfit in the role of a successful director. Among all the follies, the one that tops the list however, is the untimely arrival of  Sameer to the grand finale of the movie competition and cajoling the director to give him a chance after a ten minute speech on identifying talent that finally ends up with a demonstration of dancing capabilities. If only gaining a role was as simple, India may have well been a factory of actors and would have done well in outsourcing acting talent instead of software coding. The music department by Adnan Sami  is a mess and does not have a single score that stays after the movie .With all due respect, he is best left  directed by the baton of experienced music composers who are clearly aware of the difference between composing music for a movie and a private album.

Eventually, there is nothing that the movie offers except for some spark of chemistry between Genelia and Shahid that comes across as the only respite in a movie that is as confused, complicated,archiac as the audience that has been sucked into this quicksand of a movie.
For all its attempt to roll a Luck by Chance and a Jaane Tu Ya Jaane Na into one, and the misery thereafter, I go with  2.5 of 5 for this dance that made one and all trip on the floor by chance.
Signing Off...
Eashwar