Heartbeats | Film review - Hollywood meets Bollywood for a tepid masala

Heartbeats Krystal Ellsworth Amitash Pradhan

Tepid masala.

Striving for a fusion of Hollywood and Bollywood, dance music drama Heartbeats concocts a cross-cultural romance for an aspiring hip-hop dancer from LA and a Mumbai wedding entertainer. But the resulting masala is distinctly tepid.

Krystal Ellsworth’s Kelli is reluctantly tagging along to a wedding in India with her semi-estranged family, and Amitash Pradhan’s Aseem is the leader of the dance troupe hired for the weeklong festivities. You can guess the rest.

The dance numbers are tolerably peppy, but Step Up writer Duane Adler’s dialogue is so feeble that the tempo drops whenever the characters open their mouths.

Certificate 12A. Runtime 103 mins. Director Duane Adler

Heartbeats debuts on Sky Cinema Premiere on 9 December. Available on Digital from Icon Film Distribution.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGRA_BAyW_w

A film critic for over 25 years, Jason admits the job can occasionally be glamorous – sitting on a film festival jury in Portugal; hanging out with Baz Luhrmann at the Chateau Marmont; chatting with Sigourney Weaver about The Archers – but he mostly spends his time in darkened rooms watching films. He’s also written theatre and opera reviews, two guide books on Rome, and competed in a race for Yachting World, whose great wheeze it was to send a seasick film critic to write about his time on the ocean waves. But Jason is happiest on dry land with a classic screwball comedy or Hitchcock thriller.