Reviews

Attended this screening last minute at the Hot Docs Film Festival and so glad I did.

This is a must watch documentary to see the father-daughter dance program at a prison in DC. Witness the unraveling emotions before, during & after the dance and how such a night was a life changing moment for inmates experiencing a glimpse of fatherhood for a moment in time. The effects of incarceration is sentimentally portrayed through families dealing with visitation limitations and the diminishing intimacy daughters have with their fathers behind bars as they progress through childhood.

This dance program being implemented in prisons across America has been proven to drastically reduce reincarnation rates of inmates and this emotional documentary shows why.

Right from the start, you can easily tell the amount of lazy writing and fan service to expect throughout the film.

Breakout dances every 15 minutes (more than typical Bollywood films) and the worst part is they don't even make sense. From exchanging of dialogue to a sudden burst of hundreds of people dancing where the protagonist is at the centre stage for no apparent reason. At least musicals are backed by somewhat decent plot and a reason for the dance break, while not being unconvincingly lip synced.

As for lazy writing, it seems like the writers didn't consider the world around them. There are so many unrealistic scenarios throughout the movie, the main characters act like they are the only people in the city and everything else is just in place to serve their "love story". Characters take a whole 180 on their beliefs based on a few seconds of talking with someone, feels like this was written by a teenager with surface level understanding of the human psyche, not knowing that people don't just switch sides in a snap.

The biggest problem are the fans in India that want this kind of nonsense, producers will gladly cater to this audience as it brings in money. Fans will not change, beliefs and taste will not change, and neither will Bollywood. Such a shame.