Dancing movies were a craze in India when cult star of Hindi Cinema Mithun Chakraborty introduced a new hip-gyrating phenomenon to the nation with his super hit film Disco Dancer. Since then, every young boy who aspires to hit the silver screen one day, rocks his body to Michael Jackson for years before he gets it all right. Be it Hrithik Roshan or Jackky Bhagnani - all of them want to be called good dancers so that they can catch the young generation. However, what is forgotten by them is that the success of Hrithik Roshan in Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai had a lot to do with his dancing abilities but equally to do with the excellent story line of the film. In this film, Fast Forward, Debutant director Zaigham Ali Syed has made brilliant efforts to present a young star cast in a different mould although he fails to improve the overall value quotient of the film for the lack of a good story line.
Fast Forward is the story of two friends - Rehan Khan and Akshay Kapoor - working together as dancing buddies. Rehan Khan has some bad memories of his past when his mother used to dance in cheap hotels and bars. He loves dancing but hates his past! When the very basis of the story appears faulty, there is little that a director can do to save the film. Zaigham selects a talented bunch of actors but he puts them in wrong situations in his film. The problem starts when Akshay Kapoor expressed his love to his sister's friend Rahan Khan. This girl loves dance like a fish loves the water but her desires have been suppressed so far by her brother. When Akshay takes this girl on an altogether new voyage, a deep bond of friendship starts to crack. Friends become sworn enemies and then starts the hate-game.
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The director fails to explain the irony of how a boy can get nightmares from his sister's dancing but not from his own. This questions remains in the minds of the viewers till the very end. As the story line itself is faulty, the director takes another path that seemed easier for him, to make both the friends meet at the end of the story. So what's the novelty in the plot? Nothing. And, the film dies its death before even taking birth.
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Zaigham must have gone through some very tough days before making his debut as a director, because some of the scenes picturised in the film are very close to the hardship an artist faces in Mumbai. Only a director who has experienced this personally can bring out such emotions from his actors which is actually a reflection from his own past and parts of which are emotionally very touching. Rehan Khan is no doubt a good-looking actor and a very good choreographer, but he needs to work further on his diction and voice modulation. Akshay Kapoor is improving day by day and he seems even more mature now than his first film Alag. Unfortunately, the female stars in the film have not much to do in the film except match the foot steps with their male counter parts.
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Music and choreography are the plus points of the film whereas both the senior artists Viond Khanna and Mahesh Manjrekar are a major let-down for the film. As a director, Zaigham shows his caliber and proves that he is going to stay on the scene for a long. Given a good script, he definitely can make a better film. Not much was expected from this non-starrer film at the box office and the film remains honest to its expectations too. The film, even though it does not have any competition from the other film released today What's Your Rashee?, will find it very hard to sail for even one week at the major exhibition centers in the country.
