Best of the Best: A Feel-Good Bollywood Dance Movie With Heart

Best of the Best is Pitch Perfect meets Step Up, but in the world of Bollywood dance. Never Have I Ever star Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia star as best friends Maya and Anjali who couldn’t be more different despite their shared passion for dance. Together, they join UCLA’s Bollywood fusion dance team and are thrust into the high-stakes world of collegiate competition.

Kedia’s Anjali is the kinder and more easygoing of the two, but she struggles academically. She wants to use her time in college to reinvent herself while figuring out how to step outside her shell. Meanwhile, Ramakrishnan delivers one of her strongest performances as Maya. She is outspoken, intelligent, and fiercely ambitious, but has spent much of her life feeling like she has to work twice as hard to compete with Anjali’s “pretty privilege.” It’s very relatable and gives Ramakrishnan the more compelling storyline to work with.

You immediately see the differences between them, even in their Hindi dance dream sequences. Anjali is focused on her hopes of finding romance with UCLA dance team leader Ronak (Ankur Rathee), while Maya is determined to take center stage and finally shed her “Drone Strike Girl” reputation. Their friendship is tested throughout the film, sometimes in ways that make you question how they could possibly stay friends, but their bond ultimately powers through. At the heart of that relationship is the complicated reality of growing up alongside someone who has qualities you both admire and sometimes envy.

And, of course, the dancing is a huge highlight. Best of the Best pays close attention to the costumes, choreography, and fusion of different dance styles. Much like Pitch Perfect, the UCLA team has found a formula that works, while Maya wants to blow everything out of the water and take their performances to the next level.

The romance is another bright spot, particularly Maya and Arjun (Chaneil Kular). He’s the kind of love interest who sees her for exactly who she is, making their relationship feel genuinely sweet.

At its heart, Best of the Best is about taking risks, finding your confidence, and, most importantly, the enduring strength of sisterhood. It’s refreshing to see South Asian girls lead a big, feel-good dance movie in all their funny, romantic, messy, and flawed ways. With a strong cast, high-energy performances, and cultural celebration, Best of the Best is exactly the kind of movie audiences can root for.

Best of the Best is streaming on Netflix.