This article contains spoilers for “Best of the Best” (2026)
“Best of the Best” is a Bollywood-American comedy about lifelong best friends Anjali (Priyanka Kedia) and Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) who join Agni, a competitive Bollywood dance team, during their freshman year of college.
As an Indian myself, I was very excited to watch a new Bollywood-American movie, but it unfortunately didn’t satisfy my expectations.
Take the first seven minutes, for example.
“Boys throwing themselves at you like you’re the last flight out of Kabul,” Maya says.
This comment is extremely distasteful, not to mention inappropriate and rude. This rocky start left a sour taste in my mouth, and the rest of the movie couldn’t seem to fix it.
The performances, however, were pretty good. The remixes that blend Bollywood and non-Bollywood songs were way better than expected. As an Indian kid born and raised in America, it was enjoyable to watch.
On the other hand, the scene between Harry, the only white guy in Agni, and the white guy on their rival team was definitely a painful watch.
It’s difficult to watch two white men call each other “gora”, a term that Indians call non-Indian white people. Sure, they were attempting to present Harry and the other male dance members as deeply integrated and knowledgeable about Indian culture , but arguing in Hindi shouldn’t have made the cut.
Additionally, the way Ronak, the dance team leader, hurled insults at Maya throughout the movie was terrible, and he should have done more than apologize with two text messages. In fact, the way almost everyone treated Maya in the movie was entirely undeserved.
If the movie truly wanted to frame Ramakrishnan in the “ugly but smart” narrative, they shouldn’t have cast a conventionally attractive woman in the role, because I was starstruck by her beauty the entire movie.
Speaking of the shaming Maya was enduring due to her looks, the date auction scene, meant to fundraise for their dance team, was honestly creepy and I silently cheered for Maya when she attempted pointing that out.
Seeing a man in the crowd lower his bidding sign while Maya was doing her mini speech was degrading to her character. Though Maya’s budding love interest Arjun (Chaneil Kular) saves the day, bidding $1,000 for Maya. Still, it definitely didn’t make the scene any less weird.
Maya and Anjali’s friendship is at the center of the movie, but it provides a frustrating narrative as they get into a lot of fights and misunderstandings in this short film, clearly not understanding how to be good friends to each other.
In addition, the inconsistencies in this movie are hard to ignore. For example, we never see Maya study, yet she still aces all her classes.
Although this film was a bumpy ride, it managed to have a somewhat smooth landing. It ends with a beautiful dance performance followed by a sweet moment between Maya and Anjali that creates a satisfying ending to a frustrating story.
I enjoyed seeing Bollywood culture blended with an American-style movie, even if some scenes were difficult to watch. Despite its flaws, the movie was entertaining enough to make the experience worthwhile.
