‘Be Happy’ Is a Formulaic Drag, But Inayat & Abhishek Score
Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
This could’ve been a breezy-fun dance movie about a father-daughter duo fighting and bonding over the daughter’s ambition to become a dancing star by participating in a reality TV competition for kids. Instead, it turns into a formulaic ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’ for dancers, without the memorable songs and romance.
Directed by Remo D’Souza, ‘Be Happy’ is powered by Inayat Sharma as protagonist Dhara, a cute little firecracker with terrible grades at school, who must convince her cynical widower dad Shiv (Abhishek Bachchan) to move to Mumbai, so that she can fulfill her dream of dancing on India’s biggest dance reality show. Actor Nassar plays Dhara’s banker grandfather, who is her biggest cheerleader, while Nora Fatehi plays Maggie, Dhara’s inspiration and dance trainer. And in a contrived sub-plot, Maggie also becomes Shiv’s potential romantic interest.
Inayat Sharma is adorable and energetically entertaining as Dhara; however, her character’s dialogues feel too mature for a preteen girl. It seems like you could replace her with a college-going character, and the script wouldn’t need much adjustment. The writers should have focused more on making Dhara’s character convincing as a child, rather than relying on pop-culture jokes that aren’t even funny. For instance, when Dhara struggles to convince her dad, Shiv, to let her participate in a dance competition, she angrily quips that Thanos probably has a bigger heart. But, seriously – Thanos literally sacrificed his daughter for power. Besides, shouldn’t a Gen Alpha kid like her be making references to Demon Slayer or Spy X Family instead?
Abhishek Bachchan’s character, Shiv, is portrayed with a more realistic approach. His concerns about his daughter’s fascination with dancing over focusing on her studies are highly relatable. Like many Indian parents, Shiv wants Dhara to prioritize academics, achieve excellent grades, and view dancing as a hobby rather than a serious pursuit. He is flat out mean to dancer Maggie in their first encounter since she encourages Dhara to come to Mumbai. Now, Nora Fatehi (she plays Maggie) is a fabulous dancer, there’s no doubt about that, but her acting skills continue to be questionable and there’s little improvement in her delivery since ‘Madgaon Express’.
After the first 30 minutes, Be Happy begins to heavily focus on dancing. While much of the choreography is impressive, it soon becomes repetitive and monotonous. Dhara’s musical portions feel less about dancing and more about cartwheels and aerobics. Sanchit Chanana, who plays Prem, another child dancer training under Maggie, stands out in his brief dance sequences, which feature elements like breakdancing, locking, and popping. The reality TV section is done convincingly, given that the director has extensive experience working in that world. However, the rest of the story falls apart in the second-half.
Instead of stretching this dance-drama to over two hours, the creators should have made a crisp 90-minute film focused on a dad and daughter living their best life after moving to Mumbai, and Be Happy could have been so much more entertaining. Instead, the movie tries to be an inspirational tear-jerker, that becomes hard to watch toward the end and might induce tears of regret in some viewers. But brownie points to Inayat Sharma and Abhishek Bachchan for putting their best foot forward.
Rating: 2 on 5 stars. ‘Be Happy’ is on Prime Video.
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