Admittedly, I knew nothing about Waack dancing before the stellar Sooni Taraporewala’s engrossing series on Amazon. The nine episodes, crisply edited with reams of ravishing repartees , simply jump at us with their verve and vivacity.
Although Ms Taraporewala follows the underdog’s movie manuel to a T, there is something immensely dewy and inviting as the young ladies, all incipient maestros on the dance floor, combine their passion for dance with a gritty survival instinct.
And the majestic crumbling relics of Kolkata! Ooof! The City Of Dreams has never looked dreamier. Cinematographer Igor Kropotov stalks the streets and crumbling havelis of Kolkata with the reverent eagerness of a tourist who has decided to stay back.This is Kolkata like never before.
The series opens with the camera cruising curiously through a crumbling haveli as we hear the sounds of Donna Summer’s stupendous track ‘MacArthur Park’ in the distance: “MacArthur’s Park is melting in the dark/All the sweet, green icing flowing down/Someone left the cake out in the rain/I don’t think that I can take it/’Cause it took so long to bake it And I’ll never have that recipe again.”
The aching nostalgia of Donna Summer’s song runs through the series as it reclaims those rhythms and moods which we have no time for anymore . As the six girls and their feisty manager (a lesbian, not that it matters) Lopa (Rytasha Rathore) wade bravely through a blizzard of prejudice to finally, sigh, triumph against all odds, as they say.
It is not in its cliched storytelling that Waack Girls emerges triumphant. It is in the way Ms Tarapore frames the gallery of go-getting girls, particularly Ishaani, that the series throbs with vitality.
As Ishaani, Mekhola Bose is a revelation. That voice, that face, those dance moves…what is Flimistan waiting for?!
The other youngsters too are all first-rate. But it is veteran Bengali actor Barun Chanda who steals the show as Ishaani’s theatrical Daadu. Chanda brings the same playful grandeur to the narrative that Chhaya Devi did in Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Alaap, or Zohra Sehgal in Sanjay Bhansali’s Saawariya.
Admittedly, the storytelling suffers from the Curse Of Excessive Footage. Better editing would have added extra chutzpah . Never mind! It is easy to miss the luscious layering in the storytelling in Waack Girls. Even if you just want to watch a show with feline dance moves, go right ahead with this one.
