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'Holiday' Timepass

By Aparajita Ghosh
Film critic, ApunKaChoice.Com

Pooja Bhatt’s second directorial attempt ‘Holiday’ offers nothing more than time-pass entertainment.

If you happen to have seen the 1987 Hollywood hit ‘Dirty Dancing’ (starring Patrick Swayze and Jennifer Grey), you would grin through many scenes in ‘Holiday’ while noticing their non-coincidental resemblance to the ones in ‘Dirty Dancing’.

‘Holiday’

tells the story of a simple, low-on-confidence girl who finds her self-esteem and identity through dancing.

The film introduces newcomer Onjolee Nair, who is a trained dancer.

Dr. Daksh (Gulshan Grover) comes to Goa for holiday with his family consisting of wife (Anahita Uberoi) and two daughters – Muskaan (Onjolee) and Samara (Nauheed Cyrusi).

Muskaan has been an under-achiever in life. She has nondescript looks, introvert personality and a meek demeanor.

On the other hand, her sister Samara is good-looking, extrovert, verbose and open-minded when it comes to falling into fast relationships.

Whiling away her time in Goa, Muskaan comes across a group of Salsa dancers led by Dino (Dino Morea), a dance instructor and performer.

A window of opportunity opens for Muskaan after Dino’s dance partner Alyssa (Kashmira Shah) gets pregnant. The man who fathered the child has now dumped Alyssa and has moved on to the next girl, who happens to be none other than Samara.

Muskaan offers to help Alyssa by providing money for aborting the child. She also gets a chance to become Dino’s dance companion. For a girl whose confidence is low and whose sense of self worth almost zilch, it is nothing short of a challenge to learn and perform Salsa onstage.

This is where Muskaan begins to find her identity and gradually discover one thing she can be extremely good at. And in the process she also discovers love.

Although Pooja Bhatt deserves credit for attempting to tell a different story, the film’s central theme – the transformation of an under-achiever into a girl who learns to take on challenges – lacks the energy that was required to make the story click.

The songs undoubtedly have melodious tunes (by Ranjit Barot) and the dance choreography is breathtaking at places. Even the camera-work (Anshuman Mahaley) is topnotch.

Dino Morea shows better acting skills and throws in a few surprises with his agility on the dance floor.

Onjolee Nair doesn’t have much of an acting talent, but she sure is nimble-footed. Her dance numbers Tu Hain Bhatakta Jugnu Koi and Aashiyaan, in the climax, are a delight to watch.

One more thing, the chemistry between Dino and Onjolee lacks the romantic spark.

In a nutshell, ‘Holiday’ doesn’t have the spirit that rivets you to the screen. The movie has a simplistic story and a predictable conclusion. How this conclusion comes about is where Pooja Bhatt could have scored by showing a moving transition of what could be described as an ugly duckling into a beautiful swan.

But Alas! The movie simply ends up as a time-pass entertainer.

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