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Business rating: 0.5 star
Cast: Seema Biswas, Vineeth, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi, Raj Zutshi, Archana Gupta, Yuvika Chaudhary.
What’s Good: Hardly anything.
What’s Bad: The absence of an interesting story or screenplay; shoddy editing; bad dubbing.
Verdict: Queens! Destiny Of Dance has no future at the ticket windows.
Loo break: Anytime, any number of times!
Watch or Not? At your own risk.
Miraj Entertainment Ltd.’s Queens! Destiny Of Dance is about how the jealousy of a hijra (eunuch) gradually creates problems in the community.
Guru Amma (Seema Biswas) presides over a community of hijras inside a huge palace, with love and severity in equal measure. The apple of her eye is the talented Mukta (Vineeth) who is the best dancer among them and also the potential next leader of the community. Mukta adores Guru Amma with all her heart, to the point of worshipping her. One day, a beautiful young girl (Archana Gupta) turns up at their door without any explanation. Awed by her beauty, Amma takes the mysterious girl under her wings and names her Nandini.
Soon, Nandini becomes the centre of attraction for the other eunuchs and for Amma as well, thereby sidelining Mukta. Mukta’s jealousy soon turns to paranoia about Nandini and she (Mukta) leaves the community after threatening Amma. But Mukta soon realises that she will never be taken back into her house or the community of eunuchs. Determined to set things right, Mukta returns to Amma and the community, but behaves kindly towards Nandini this time around.
Who is Nandini? Where has she come from? Is Mukta right in being suspicious about Nandini? Is Amma being unfair to Mukta for a reason? Does Amma know something about Nandini that the others don’t? The climax reveals the rest.
Story and Screenplay – Queens! Destiny Of Dance Review
If you expected David Atkins’ story and screenplay to give an insider view into the world of transgenders in India, you are sadly mistaken. David’s story is bland and has no connection with the fact that it deals with the community of eunuchs. Characters turn from loving in one scene to red-eyed furious in the other without any plausible explanation. Even the back story of the characters is vague. The characters break into spontaneous lectures on ‘how difficult it is to be a transgender in India’ and you know that these scenes have been inserted just for the sake of mustering sympathy. There is also an international dance meet of transgenders in the film, included for absolutely no rhyme or reason.
Star Performances – Queens! Destiny Of Dance Review
Seema Biswas is very good as the strict, albeit loving, head of the hijra community. Vineeth would have carried off his role well if he did not have to throw angry/crazy fits in every other scene. Laxmi Narayan Tripathi and Raj Zutshi are okay in their small roles. Archana Gupta has nothing much to do except flutter her eyelashes and smile coyly.
Direction, Music & Editing – Queens! Destiny Of Dance Review
David Atkins’ direction is bad. There are a couple of songs, but they don’t add much value to the film. Anurag Ware’s music is average. Lyrics (by Asif Ali Beg, Maya Govind, Nida Fazli and Yogesh Gaud) are ordinary. Cinematography by Srinivas Ramaiah barely passes muster. Chaitanya Tanna’s editing is sloppy. Except for Seema Biswas’ voice, the voices of most of the characters are out of sync and have been badly dubbed.
The Last Word
On the whole, Queens! Destiny Of Dance is an uninteresting fare. It will fail miserably at the box-office.
