Biopics in Bollywood are often made on the lives of historic and contemporary cult figures and have never faded as a fad. Remo D’Souza, with his first sequel directorial venture - “ABCD2,” tells the real life story of Suresh and his troupe from Fictitious Dance Academy (Mumbai, India) who went on to win the Hip-Hop dance championship in Las Vegas all the way from the backstreets of a Mumbai suburb. The real Suresh also stars in the film but his character in the film is played by Varun Dhawan. The movie also features Shraddha Kapoor, who was praised by the filmmakers to be an extraordinary dance performer. Prabhu Deva returns from the original “ABCD” as Vishnu Sir.
“ABCD2” too is a 3D dance film like its predecessor but with stunning international locales, foot-tapping music, and is Disney India’s first local franchise. Besides a feature film, the concept of “ABCD” is to be presented across a television show, a game and branded merchandise. There has been a lot of discussion around the soundtrack of the film which has provided the base for the spectacular choreography.
As part of an exclusive one-to-one with “Asian Voice,” the composer duo Sachin-Jigar revealed that they spent about a year immersing themselves in the sounds and tunes to come up with existing tracks. Two songs- ‘Sun Saathiya’ (a contemporary ballet) and ‘Bezubaan Phir Se’ have been taken from the original film. According to them, “Bezubaan signifies the theme and message of the film beautifully” and it has been revamped instrumentally to discover its more powerful version. The dance sequences in the film span across various genres and the compositions are a fusion and are lyric-driven.
Sachin-Jigar had set a benchmark for all dance based films in India with “ABCD” and are now raising their own bar with “ABCD2.” Their personal journey as composers is nothing short of incredible and echoes the same sentiment as the movie. As they recall, “We were continuing our journey as music arrangers and Pritam Sir (noted Bollywood composer) sat us down and told us to take a plunge as composers. That, truly, was the biggest ‘second chance’ at life that we got”. Incidentally, the film’s tagline reads- “Life is all about a second chance”. Their own flight to fame was quite a depiction of the same.
One of the soundtracks to look forward to is the ‘Ganpati’ song in which the duo claims to have completely reinvented themselves. They have a message for all budding composers and choreographers in Bollywood - “This is the time. The reference points are new. There is a bold breed of directors. The audience is more receptive than ever before. Bollywood is not about making music for yourself or being happy about playing some chords, it is almost like playing a character in the film”.
With such inspired performances, inventive soundtrack and astonishing choreography, this film is sure to move the audiences and reiterate the old adage of ‘following your heart’. ABCD 2 releases internationally on 19th June 2015 via UTV Motion Pictures.
