The storyline of Holiday goes somewhat like this.
You have a family of four -- Dr Draksh (Gulshan Grover), his wife and two young daughters -- vacationing in Goa.
The daughters are like chalk and cheese. Muskaan (Onjolee Nair) is the geek, the wallflower who never gets noticed at a party, who is low on confidence, thanks to bad grades at school and a gawky demeanour.
The sister (Nausheed Cyrusi) is flirty, giggly, giddy-headed and supposedly the good-looking one among the two.
In Goa, Muskaan is mesmerised by Dino (Dino Morea), a salsa dancer and the hotel dance instructor. Fate catapults her into his arms, when his dance partner gets pregnant and the man responsible for it dumps the poor girl.
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Muskaan steps in to save the day by borrowing money from her dad, without actually spelling out the reasons. Daddy has full faith in her and gives her the money, which is used for an abortion.
Muskaan also steps in as a replacement dancer. She fails miserably while performing on stage, and her confidence takes a battering, once again.
What happens next? Let me not spill the beans for those of you who haven't seen Dirty Dancing, the cult film which had us swooning for Patrick Swayze and getting all dreamy-eyed while listening to love songs like I've had the time of my life and Hungry eyes.
If you've already seen DD, you will experience déjà vu. The storyline and even specific scenes are direct lifts from the 1987 film.
Dino steps into Patrick Swazye's shoes. Onjolee plays the character essayed by Jennifer Grey. In fact, every character of Dirty Dancing has a counterpart in Holiday. Salsa is to Holiday what the mambo is to DD. There are certain classic dance scenes from DD that are etched into one's memory -- like when Swayze and Grey practice lifts in the water or when he needs to sensuously run his hand down her arm and she gets tickled. We see all of these in Holiday; so, no points for originality.
That leads us to the next question: Is it a good remake?
Despite its pleasant music, great dancing, picturesque backdrop and a tested storyline, Holiday lacks soul.
The characterisation is full of flaws too. Baby of DD may not be stylish, but she is an intellectual with a strong mind of her own. On the other hand, Muskaan is a gawky, under-confident, blabbering idiot, the perfect ugly duckling in waiting, which is such a cliché.
The performances are wooden, and there's a whole lot of overacting.
But the salsa is great and some scenes just take your breath away. You might want to see this film just for the dancing. But if you've already seen DD, you'll be disappointed.
