Waack Girls, that captures the moods of Kolkata beautifully, follows an oft-used template. So there’s not much novelty to look for in the plot, but the actors are excellent, applauds Deepa Gahlot.
After Yeh Ballet, the unusual story of two underprivileged Mumbai teens pursuing ballet, a dance form alien to their lives, Sooni Taraporevala returns to direct another film, Waack Girls, with dance as its backdrop.
This time, it’s waacking, which is mostly unheard of in India.
The explanation is provided by the lead, Ishani (Mekhola Bose). The dance called waacking of punking emerged from the gay clubs in Los Angeles in the 1970s. Ishani discovers videos, and teaches herself the dance that incorporates elements of jazz, gymnastics and fashion.
It took many decades for waacking to come out of the underground to the mainstream, even in the West.
Ishani lives in a decrepit Kolkata mansion with her sinking-into-dementia grandfather Subroto Mitra (Barun Chanda), a former theatre star, and struggles to pay for its upkeep and their day-to-day needs.
She goes to college and has a part-time job in a boutique.
Encouraged by a neighbour and friend, Manik (Achintya Bose), she takes part in a talent contest and is practically booed off stage.
The only one stunned by her performance is Lopa (Rytasha Rathore), who says she always had a dream of managing an indie group.
This makes one suspect Iyanah Batiwala’s script (with Taraporevala and Ronny Sen) was transplanted from America to India — which Indian kid grows up dreaming to be a talent manager? Also, the rudeness of some of the other girls who join up later, towards their parents, is not all that common here.
Hounded by Lopa, Ishani agrees to form a Waack Dance group and they audition dancers to join up.
After the usual round of funny dances, they pick some.
When the girls find that there is no money coming in right away, and Lopa’s lofty pronouncements of future fame are premature, most of them walk out.
Lopa comes from a rich family, but has been cut off financially by her builder father (Nitesh Pandey) because she is gay.
The girls who remain include LP (Anusua Chowdhury), an aspiring fashion designer, who refuses help from her royal family; Tess (Chrisann Pereira) dealing with a gambling addicted mother (Lillete Dubey), Anumita (Ruby Sah), a gymnast-in-training, whose working class parents have pinned their hopes on her and Michke (Priyam Saha), the fat girl stereotype, always piling her plate, not expected from Taraporevala.
Predictably, the girls bicker and have different levels of commitment.
They are brought together by an incident at a wedding, when their waacking dance moves — windmilling the arms over the head and posing — are not appreciated by the guests.
It ends in a brawl and social media notoriety in the many family WhatsApp groups.
Then, the never-say-die Lopa decides they must shoot a music video and make it viral, which comes with its own set of problems.
When there is a big mansion and greedy uncles, inevitably, there are attempts, instigated by Lopa’s father, to evict Ishani and her Dadu from their home. (Why are the sons of a Shakespearean actor unable to speak proper English?)
The series, that captures the moods of Kolkata beautifully (shot by Igor Kropotov), follows an oft-used template. So there’s not much novelty to look for in the plot, but the actors are excellent.
The young women are energetic in their dancing and bring out the emotional turmoil each character is going through.
The seniors, Barun Chanda and Lillete Dubey, are marvellous. When they reminisce about the good old days, the viewer can feel the change in the world outside, that has left them behind.
There is an element of cultural appropriation here but then more widely popular forms like hip hop and break dancing have reached out to other countries.
Waack Girls could have been set in any city but perhaps Kolkata was picked because of the different visual quality it offers and it is also more conservative than, say, Mumbai.
Waack Girls streams on Amazon Prime Video.
Waack Girls Review Rediff Rating:
