Pooja Bhatt’s Holiday is inspired by Hollywood’s all time classic romantic movie, Dirty Dancing. It’s a basic love story with a parallel track of how a young girl discovers her true beauty and inner strengths.
Holiday is directed by Pooja Bhatt, and jointly produced by her and Sujit Kumar Singh. The story has been written by Mahesh Bhatt. Dino Morea, Onjolee Nair, Nauheed Cyrusi, Kashmira Shah, Gulshan Grover and Anahita Uberoi are the central characters of the film. The movie has been set in the land of sun, sand and surf, Goa.
Dr Daksh Suri (Gulshan Grover), his wife Nandini (Anahita), and their two daughters, Samara (Nauheed) and Muskan (Onjolee) decide to go off for a vacation to Goa. When they embark on this month long vacation, none of them have any idea how their lives are going to turn around. Their daughter Samara is outgoing, likes to socialize and is an extrovert; however their daughter Muskan is an introvert and loves her solitude company.
While in Goa, Muskan meets these dance professionals who perform at the hotel she and her family are staying in. She befriends one of the lead dancers Alyssa and finds out that Alyssa is pregnant and will not be able to perform in the dance. With some encouragement from Alyssa she decides to take her place in the performance. Dance instructor Dino Morea, decides to teach her the ropes of Salsa. Hence begins her journey of finding love in the arms of her dance instructor and also discovering her potential and her self worth.
The subject of a girl finding her self esteem and confidence could have had a lot of potential, however the pace of the film is extremely slow and also the execution of the plot is just mediocre. The film tends to drag and gets boring at times, except for a few scenes.
The dance moves, salsa is an interesting and unique concept in Bollywood, it is captivating and will definitely be appreciated. The choreography by Sandeep Soparkar, Bosco and Caesar is excellent. The music done by Ranjit Barot is also calm, soothing and wonderfully refreshing. The cinematography by Anshuman Mahaley is mesmerizing; he has managed to capture the serene beauty and magic of Goa.
However, the second half of the film and the climax is entirely predictable. The writer, Mahesh Bhatt could have come up with a few more twists and turns to keep the audience interested. Pooja Bhatt’s direction is very ordinary and not very convincing, due to an under developed screenplay. The story lacks the quintessential drama of bollywood.
Dino Morea has done a fairly good job in the movie; he’s getting better with every new film. His effort and energy truly comes across in his dance moves. Onjolee Nair does not have conventional bollywood looks, nor is her acting top class. The rest of the cast performs within the limits of the script.
On the whole Holiday is a placid movie which is unable to generate enough excitement. Even die hard romantics looking for a Valentine flick may give this one a miss. It’s a time pass movie which will probably be unable to hold its own at the box-office.
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| Reviewed By: Rachel Fernandes |
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