Best of the Best review: Netflix dramedy channels Bollywood love, but misses the beat
Directed by Lena Khan and starring Priyanka Kedia, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Ankur Rathee in the lead, this over-the-top, coming-of-age story centred around a Bollywood dance competition feels predictable.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia in Best of the Best.
Even as Bollywood struggles on home turf, its songs and steps have found a home elsewhere — or so Netflix's new coming-of-age series Best of the Best would have us believe. Director Lena Khan's musical dramedy sets the stage where competitive Bollywood dance becomes a rite of passage for Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia), whose friendship is tested as they learn and unlearn who they were and what they've become.
Like all ‘typical American desis’, Maya and Anjali are obsessed with Bollywood dance — though one isn't quite sure that's still the case with Gen Z and the diaspora abroad. After their Bharatanatyam-meets-Baazigar dance number at the high school talent show ends up being a forgettably disastrous affair, they're now newly minted freshmen at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). But their reputation as ‘the girls who bombed’ precedes them there. They are hailed as ‘Drone Strikes’, a barb directed more at Maya than Anjali.
Been there, seen that
The school has a Bollywood dance club; as the Indian diaspora grows, they carry the country's favourite export — Hindi films and music — with them. The South Asia Students Association comes with its own dance group and students belting out iconic Shah Rukh Khan numbers, with a little throwback ode to Dil To Pagal Hai’s (1997) famous dance-off between Karisma Kapoor and Madhuri Dixit.
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So Maya cajoles Anjali to try out for the national annual competition Agni. A grilling audition to a fusion of Bollywood hits and techno overseen by the hunky Ronak (Ankur Rathee), who is obsessed with winning the competition — but really, with beating his ex from the rival team.
Maya and Anjali have hopefully redeemed themselves by making the cut and erasing the memory of school. As Ronak says, Bollywood is all about being extra and being extra is about being human, even as Maya finds the theme ‘Bollywood Shaadi’ to be too predictable.
From here the plot gets as predictable as a Bollywood film. The overconfident and unapologetic Maya, who explodes into a spectacle on and off stage, tends to rub people the wrong way. The quiet and compliant Anjali, dealing with an overbearing mother and unsure about everything, is more amiable — making her perfect even when in her eyes she is imperfect. She catches the eye of Ronak. The distinction between the two friends becomes apparent when Anjali is chosen as the lead and not Maya.
Hard not to think back to the Tina-Anjali (Rani Mukherjee and Kajol) and Pooja-Nisha (Madhuri and Karisma Kapoor) parallels from the ‘90s Shah Rukh hits, Kuch Hota Hai and Dil Toh Pagal Hai.
The cracks in the friendship come to the fore as relationships old and new are tested in full Bollywood style — the drama of heartbreak, revenge, betrayal and love, with popular Hindi film hits being belted out as the troupe perform on stage.
Removed from reality?
One recurring issue: watching desi actors play out these moments in English doesn't always land naturally. The performances feel a shade removed from how these exchanges would actually play out. Within that, Priyanka Kedia is the standout, playing Anjali with real ease. Ankur Rathee is fine, if fairly typical, as Ronak. Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, though, appears to have not quite shaken off her Devi persona from the popular series, Never Have I Ever.
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Written by Hasan Minhaj and his "Patriot Act" co-writer Prashanth Venkataramanujam, Best of the Best is a predictable, over-the-top coming-of-age comedy which sadly doesn't put a spring in the audience’s step. More than anything, it feels out of touch with the lives of the Gen Z diaspora of Indian origin.
