By Surendra Bhatia
Shammi Kapoor was the best dancer of his generation, and though Shashi Kapoor and Jeetendra were good, they weren’t a patch on the original stylised master whose steps simply couldn’t be copied; sometimes, while watching him on screen, it feels as if Shammi Kapoor himself didn’t know what he had done… then there were Mithun Chakraborty and Rishi Kapoor, who were more than adequate as dancers. Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan too could set the screen on fire though Salman did it through his own style of dancing. But when Hrithik Roshan did his jig, eyeballs popped. Everyone – including Shammi Kapoor and the others mentioned above – looked like amateur goats dancing while Hrithik was the veritable peacock, the real cock of the walk. Once he started moving to a fast number, eyes didn’t stray from Hrithik even if the heroine beside him in the song was in a bikini.
Then along came Shahid Kapoor, with a dancing style that was incredible. He was like a baby when he made his debut but when he danced, there was no question of not taking him seriously. He sparkled on screen in dance sequences, and audiences wanted to know more about him solely because of his dancing skills, which made him a star in quick time. Now, of course, there is the dancer-gymnast, Tiger Shroff, who would never be short of work in the film industry as long as his dancing skills don’t desert him.
Bollywood is nothing if it is not about song-dance. Yes, currently, the emphasis has shifted decisively to story content instead of music content but even now, the business of a hit film would be much less if it didn’t boast of good music. However, the focus on dancing is no longer the same. An item number gets the hero-heroine to dance but it’s not the same as having five-six dancing numbers picturised on Sridevi-Jeetendra in the olden days. At best, today, it’s a one-off dance number, and then it all shifts to the story.
The worst aspect about this is that audiences hardly ever now get to see guys like Hrithik and Shahid dancing in their films. The stars seem to have shifted their focus to acting, making it seem as if dancing is a skill not required by them anymore. In fact, audiences probably see these two ace stars dancing more at awards functions than on screen. It’s really a pity because both – Hrithik and Shahid – owe much of their stardom to their dancing skills, which audiences see less and less of these days.
Of course, there are a whole lot of other young actors who come in and shake their booties on songs in desperate bids to get noticed. Some of them might be good too but none, possibly, in the class of Hrithik or Shahid (save Tiger Shroff). These two stand heads and shoulders above the rest but they just don’t anymore give their audiences what they would like to see. In fact, a musical with Hrithik and another with Shahid, both starring with appropriate female partners, would be the hottest ticket in Bollywood. If it is to be made, it had better be done fast because Hrithik is getting old and Shahid seems so anxious to lose his baby face with the kind of films he does nowadays. Perhaps, it requires a director like Karan Johar to launch such a musical. He’s the one director who knows the importance of booty-shake as an important quotient of stardom. The dances he gave newcomers like Rani Mukerji, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan and Sidharth Malhotra were the stuff that made those films evergreen (for their song-dances, at least) and made stars out of the younger lot. Maybe, it’s time for Bollywood to explore its roots in song-dance, and please do it well, for, the whole world would love to watch.
