Munna Michael movie review & film summary (2017)

But soon enough, Munna Michael gets banned from local Mumbai dance clubs, and moves to New Delhi. While there, Munna Michael's story turns into a lumpy action-comedy: he tries to teach gangster Mahindar (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) how to dance. But Mahindar only wants to dance so he can impress night-club dancer Dolly (Nidhhi Agerwal), who immediately becomes the object of Munna Michael's affection. He then tries to helpt Dolly realize her dream of winning the top prize on "Dancing Star," a "So You Think You Can Dance"-style competition show. Which brings us back to Munna Michael, a character who hides his dancing career from his sick father (Anupam Shyam), a former Jackson-inspired dancer.

At this point, Munna Michael stops being the lead of his own film, and starts looking like a cliche-dispensing Swiss army knife. How many masters can one man serve? He's proud, and independent, like his idol, so his inability to dance out in the open automatically hobbles the film's plot. Munna Michael's also a foil for Mahindar, and his earnest quest to win Dolly's affection, which is sometimes annoying since Mahindar is simultaneously depicted as a clueless nebbish, and a raging brute. And then there's Dolly's story, a largely uninspired "putting on a show"-style musical that only comes alive when Munna Michael and his crew of back-up dancers hit the dance floor.

Thankfully, the film's set pieces are a treat. At this point, "Munna Michael" stops being held back by inconsistent characterizations, and cuts loose with derivative but viscerally satisfying musical numbers. Munna Michael's style is a mix of break-dancing spins and jumps and Jackson-style joint-bending, limb-twirling, gravity-defying showmanship. When Munna Michael hits the dance-floor, viewers can enjoy Shroff do his thing thanks to the use of wide-angle lenses, lavish sets, and talented back-up dancers. These are moments where logic, as we know it, stops being important, and back-up dancers materialize out of nowhere. Not even a bullet can stop Munna Michael: he leaps, jumps, and pirouettes his way around in an infectiously joyous way. You've probably seen dancers that are at least this good before on "So You Think You Can Dance," and Shroff is admittedly not the most charismatic Bollywood leading man. But Shroff does well within the limited range of his character's "Tony Manero: show-stopper" style.

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