MISSING SOME MOVES
Director Sooni Taraporevala opens Yeh Ballet by gliding from the magnificent Mannat to the muddy shores of the Worli Koliwada in one sweeping shot. A bunch of slum kids are dancing, surrounded by drying fish and dwarfed by high-rises. Yeh Ballet, based on an incredible true story, has class conflict at its core. The two young protagonists live in the slums, which sit in the shadows of the soaring Mumbai skyline.
They find an outlet in ballet, an art form largely the domain of the wealthy. Yet Asif and Nishu have the gift. And so they find themselves under the tutelage of a temperamental teacher, Saul Aaron (Julian Sands), an outcast in both his home country of Israel, and his chosen home, the US.
After this, it all gets a bit vague. Saul, as a Jew, understands bigotry; the boys, as boys, worry that ballet might be considered effeminate. And it never really goes anywhere from there.
It’s the Indian characters — like Jim Sarbh’s artistic director, another in the long line of smarmy men that Sarbh has played wonderfully — who are keenly aware of the intricacies of Indian class divisions and add richness to the tale.
Sadly, even these twists stop dead as the film just swats away every obstacle between the boys and their dream of taking to the world stage.
It doesn’t help that the dance sequences are edited to such short bursts that you feel distanced from the characters rather than immersed in the thing they love. Simply put, there’s not enough plot, not enough dance. Yeh Ballet is too simplistic to be satisfying.