For new readers or those needing a refresher course, our current standings are:
1. Dance Off!! (1): Big B vs. Shashilicious. Winner: Amitabh.
2. Dance Off!! (2): Naseer vs. Om. Winner: Naseer.
Hence, Amitabh Bachchan and Naseeruddin Shah will be facing off in the semi-finals. We at the PPCC are most pleased of this, we've already noted before how they are like the dual patriarchs of Hindi cinema: the Patriarch of Bollywood and the Patriarch of the Parallel New Wave. Like the yin and the yang. Like the Roman Catholic Pope and the Eastern Orthodox Pope. Like... OK, we can't think of anymore. Anyway, yes. Woohoo! We already have a song picked out, and it's going to be freakin' PERFECT, and, OMG, readership, you will not be able to accuse us of giving a biased competition, because this song is seriously daaaa bomb and an excellent method of comparison.
A small note for concerned Shashi lovers: As you know, the PPCC's beloved darling is Shashi Kapoor. He, however, justifiably and fairly lost the first Dance Off. While we are sorry for this, we cannot deny that Shashi was about as graceful as an elephant when it came to dancing. He was charming, fo' sho', but we could detect no rhyme nor reason to his flailing arms and legs. And while we, of course, love this gracelessness and embrace it as part of the Shashi Package, many of you expressed dismay at his early disqualification from the runnings. We've considered several solutions: ignoring your comments, putting Shashi in some special category of Second Best Actor, running a separate contest geared to make Shashi win (such as a smile contest, or a crying contest, or a charm contest), and so forth. We've decided to do this: whoever makes it to the final cyan-colored star, whoever is judged Best Dancer, will face Shashi again, but you must pick the song and leave it in the comments. Whichever song gets most recommended, we run. If no song gets more than 1 vote, we exercise the dictatorship and pick our favorite. If no song is even suggested, Shashi remains disqualified.
Today's contest: Abhishek Bachchan vs. Shah Rukh Khan.
The difficulty in today's contest is that Abhishek, like Shashi, has never been known for his dancing skills, whereas SRK always tries so hard. Pitting SRK's Chaiyya Chaiyya or Dhoom Tana against anything pretty much decimates its chances. Similarly, it's just hard to find a good, meaty Abhishek number. We initially thought, in an effort of balance, of comparing Rock and Roll Soniya (wherein SRK has a bad leg) with Mitwa (wherein SRK has a few moments of boogying) from Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna - but that's too much of a handicap (OMG pun not intended!) for the Baby B and, plus, no one seems to like KANK except us.
But lo, we saw Jhoom Barabar Jhoom the other day and found Abhishek's dancing charming and engaging, for once! So there you are.
Baby B: He may not be flexible, but he can be ironic!
Though he arguably dances more in Jhoom Barabar Jhoom's title song, we get distracted from the cuteness that is Bobby Deol, and so we're using Ticket to Hollywood instead. (Though, given that the JBJ title song is an actual dance-off, we recommend watching it as well.) One of the few purely Abhishek item numbers we've ever seen, marvel at how he stays in character: his sloppy kicks during the refrain, his silly mugging, his slightly trampy quality. This is not graceful dancing, but pure, slightly vulgar fun. Shabash.
SRK: Ya love 'im or ya hate 'im
This is actually the PPCC's favorite SRK song ever. We have a very soft spot for 1990s, proto-SRK SRK, and songs like this and the title song from Ram Jaane have remained our favorites for a long time. And we've never even seen the films (Duplicate, Ram Jaane), though it's only a matter of time.
This is a good comparison to the above as well, since, like Ticket to Hollywood, there's a lot of physical comedy and mugging in Mere Mehboob. The choreography also seems a lot more interesting (all that hip-shaking, that shimmying!), though admittedly not as interestingly filmed.
The PPCC Choice: Jury's still out!
PPCC Readership, it's up to YOU to decide whose butt boogies more: Abhishek's or Shah Rukh's. Vote in the poll on the side!
6 comments:
As you know I lack the SRK gene; but if he ever comes close to appealing to me, it's when he's dancing. To my mind it's the one thing he does right, the one time that all the slick, practiced smarmosaur maneuvers actually work.
Abhishek, appeals to me most of the time, unless he is stare-acting like in *Umrao Jaan*, where he showed all the range and expressiveness of a plank.
But this is not a "who would you rather watch in a movie" poll; it's "who would you rather watch dance," and so - surprise! - SRK gets my vote.
SRK, is not the best dancer in the world , but he so much better than Abhishek.
Babby-B, like his dad, dosen't have the dancing gene in the family. Maybe one days Abhishek's children will hopefully get some of there mom's (Aish) dance moves.
Have to go with SRK. I think he's a wonderful dancer.
Maybe you could do a special brother edition of the dance-off pitting Shashi and Shammi although I don't see how he could win that one either...
This round of the poll was a topic of much discussion among the early arrivals at the European meetup. And somehow I intuited your choice, as just yesterday, without having seen your post, I was enumerating the virtues of "Ticket to Hollywood." It really is one of Abhibaby's finest. He and the song suit each other, and as you say he is completely in character.
However, most of the time, I'd definitely rather see SRK dance. Pretty much no contest. So if we were choosing based ONLY on these clips, I'd say Abhishek, but even I cannot ignore the body of evidence, so I say SRK.
I haven't had any caffeine yet today, but I'm v intrigued by the new and somewhat byzantine method of reShashification of your plan. I think I can count on Filmi Geek and Kaddele to help find a good selection for you. Huzzah!
im a die-hard srk fan, so im naturally inclined to love him, but in recent years iv developed quite a soft spot for baby b aswell.
still, howevr, my vote goes for shahrukh. not cuz i think hes cuter, but cuz i genuinely think he ahs more rhythm and more importantly, more charisma, as a dancer. watch the songs "satrangi re" "chaiyya chaiyya" "banno ki saheli", to name afew tht dnt really do him justice, but r jst my favs, and ull c hes actually quite a talent.
Oh PPCC! I can't believe you haven't seen Duplicate... get it now!!!
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