Watching the very well-intended Rocket Gang I thought of all those wonderful children across the country who enter into dance reality shows, only to be forgotten once the show is over. The five children in Rocket Gang are natural-born scene stealers. Even if no silly story had been woven around their dancing talents, I would have sat in rapt attention watching their stealthy dance moves.
Not only are they far better dancers than their adult counterparts, they are also quite often better actors too, deriving more fun from the oddball plot than the grownups who frequently look intimidated by the sheer ludicrousness of the material that they are supposed to make sense of.
I can just hear director Bosco Martis telling the cast, “Okay guys, so you five adults are supposed to become visible alter egos of the five kids who have died and become ghosts before their dream of winning a dance competition comes true. Now, off you go.”
Not much to go on when the narrative is frequently fuelled by fatuousness. But wait. Hang on. At least the omnipresent foolishness is self-actualized. The director knows he is making a film about five kids who need to complete their earthly desire before heading towards heaven. At the door, they will meet Ranbir Kapoor in a charming dance cameo, but that’s much later. Before that, there are some smashingly choreographed dance numbers where I could see the adult actors trying desperately to match steps with their juvenile counterparts.
It is a very endearing sight: five sporting actors(none of them major stars, not even Aditya Seal who certainly deserves success) playing alter egos to five bona fide dancing superstars whom we don’t recognize as mavericks of dancing because they come they go and the dance reality show goes on.
It is a very saddening thought. Hats off to Bosco Martis for bringing to the forefront five of the best juvenile dancing talents I’ve seen: Tejas Verma, Dipali Borkar, Siddhant Sharma, Jayshree Gogoi and Aadvik Mongia should take a bow, and not a collective one; each one of these children is blessed with a unique talent.
I wish the film was only about them. Strip away the dreary plot about a road accident and, little ghosts with dancing feet and you have a solid punch-packed rhythm-driven dance fest blessed with zest, like Remo D’Souza’s ABCD, the only other likeable Bollywood dance film since the era of Bhagwan Dada ended.
Rocket Gang has a vigorous energy and frenetic flavour to its vivacious narrative rhythm. One of the side attractions of a dance film is to watch real choreographers come and go. Sure enough, we get Farah Khan, Ahmed Khan, Terence Lewis, etc in winsome cameos. We also get some exacted commentary on workplace harassment where the adult cast uses its new ghost friends to teach the harassers a lesson.
It’s the kids who hold the key to this film’s agreeable nature. Jayshree Gogai a Super Dancer 3 finalist, Dipali Borkar India’s Best Dramebaaz winner, Tejas Varma Super Dancer 3 finalist, Siddhant Sharma Dance Deewane contestant and especially Aadvik Mongia, Dance Deewane 1 finalist….remember, we are watching you.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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