Story:
When Lopa (Rytasha Rathore) chances upon Ishaani (Mekhola Bose) on stage performing a barely-known dance form called ‘Waacking’, she sees in her the opportunity to realise her dream of being a talent manager to an all-women dance troupe. Lopa firmly believes that all creative artists need a brilliant business mind to help them succeed. After convincing Ishaani with the help of her neighbour-friend Maanik (Achintya Bose), the trio scouts for more dancers and recruits LP (Anasua Chowdhry), Michke (Priyam Saha), Tess (Chrisann Pereira), and Anumita (Ruby Shah) to their dance group. The rest of the series revolves around how this group of six girls overcomes odds and hurdles, financial crisis, and a judgemental society, among other odds and hurdles in their journey to make it big as the country’s first all-women waack group.
Review:
Created and directed by Sooni Taraporevala, Waack Girls has an interesting premise and, for the most parts, impressive protagonists, treading familiar beats on the territory of a classic underdog tale. So much so, that at several junctures throughout the series, it seems as if the makers are merely checking all the boxes that fit the template, and they succeed in doing so too, but at the cost of compromising with lending emotional depth to the narrative. Even though the show revolves around the six girls who form the waack (or whack) dancing group, there’s very little time that has been invested in etching out well-rounded character arcs for each of them. Except for Lopa and Ishaani, who have a comparatively meatier part, writers Iyanah Bativala and Ronny Sen along with Taraporevala, barely scratch the surface when it comes to giving convincing backstories to the other girls. This is surprising since the series has a total of nine episodes, which each clocking in about 30-minutes. Instead of including some repetitive instances, the series would have benefitted immensely had it given more time to flesh out the characters of each of the six girls. Just when you become a little invested in their predictable journey, the series ends on a cliffhanger leaving you high and dry.
Except for Lopa and Ishaani’s characters, we’re never told why the other ladies are the way they are. For example, in one of the scenes we get to know that LP, who is struggling to make ends meet as a budding fashion designer in Kolkata, is actually a princess from Guwahati. Okay, interesting! But we never get to know why she doesn’t want to take help from her family, or the reason behind her trying to make it in a city like Kolkata on her own. Similarly, Anumita is introduced as a gymnast in training, whose family’s hopes rest on her, but her heart enjoys dancing more than acrobatics. So she ends up leaving her training and her family to make it on her own. Fine. But we never get an insight into her equation with her family members, or their circumstances to understand why it’s important for her family to see her succeed in gymnastics. Michke’s character is reduced to a fat-girl stereotype, with an overbearing mother and an understanding but mostly uninvolved father. Tess is stuck with her addicted-to-gambling mother Abby (Lillete Dubey). There seems little effort in bringing these one-line descriptions of the characters to screen, so when Taraporevala tries to make you feel for them going through an emotional turmoil, it just doesn’t hit you where it should.
However, the six women who’ve been cast to lead the series do their best and try to uplift their one-note character descriptions with their able performances. Soumitra Sen’s granddaughter Mekhola Bose gets a solid part as the leader of the pack as well as a brilliant mathematics student. She portrays different shades of passion, and vulnerability, fighting against all odds, taking care of her ailing grandfather who’s battling dementia. She particularly shines in the sequences where she’s waacking to perfection. Along with Yoonji Lee, Mekhola has also skillfully choreographed the dance sequences in the series that are clearly a highlight. She struggles a bit in a couple of emotional scenes but it is easily passable considering this is only her second project as an actor after Netflix’s Yeh Ballet (2020) – which was also helmed by Taraporevala.
Rytasha Rathore plays her part well as Lopa – a “proud member of the queer community”. She is convincing in her altercations with her disapproving parents and the portions where we see her hustling to gather gigs and funds for the troupe. In a couple of instances in the first two episodes she can be seen trying too hard, but she picks up the tonality of her character and slips into its skin as the series progresses. Anasua Chowdhury does a decent job as LP. So do Chrisann Pereira as Tess and Ruby Shah as Anumita. They show immense potential but sadly don’t get enough meat on paper to bite into their characters. Priyam Saha is a breath of fresh air as Michke with her easy-going and carefree attitude, in a typical character.
Veteran Bengali actor Barun Chanda is simply adorable as Ishaani’s Daadu who’s a former legendary theatre artist and Lillete Dubey does complete justice to her part of a gambling-addicted mother. A scene where Chanda and Dubey are seen quoting Shakespeare to each other in a conversation is quite heartwarming. Late Nitesh Pandey as Lopa’s strict and belligerent builder father is apt and makes the most of an under-written part. A talent like Ira Dubey is completely wasted in the role of a boutique manager. Achintya Bose is quite likeable as the friendly neighbour Maanik.
Igor Kropotov’s cinematography beautifully captures the essence of the city of joy, navigating its narrow by-lanes and iconic hot-spots. However, we feel that he falters when it comes to effectively capturing the fluid hand movements in the dance set pieces. In several shots one could see the movements going out of the frame which becomes quite jarring. Theia Tekchandaney’s costumes deserve applauds for adding a vibrant and distinct touch to the personality of each of the characters.
Verdict:
Waack Girls tries to tick all the boxes off the template of an underdog story but ends up compromising on the emotional quotient in doing so. However, it is saved by impressive performances of the six women leading the series and it does deserve credits for bringing a lesser-known dance form to the spotlight. It won’t harm you to give it a shot.
Waack Girls
Watch on: Amazon Prime Video
Director: Sooni Taraporevala
Writers: Sooni Taraporevala, Iyanah Bativala, and Ronny Sen
Cast: Rytasha Rathore, Mekhola Bose, Priyam Saha, Chrisann Pereira, Anasua Choudhry, Ruby Shah
Rating: 2.5 stars
