Cinema Live opened its doors to audiences at the Arts Council auditorium in Karachi at an interesting time in the country`s history. While a video of a young girl being flogged by the Taliban in Swat flashed all over television screens repeatedly, her peers in the urban South danced their hearts out in the name of romantic notions of freedom, and love against all odds.

The best thing about Cinema Live was the novelty of the idea. A dance production inspired by the genre most Pakistanis enjoy Bollywood-inspired thumkas, romance and drama; all performed to the beat of — by and large — Bollywood musical scores. The dances were a mix of Bollywood, hip hop and salsa.

The brain behind the production was Hasan Rizvi, brother of singer/actress Komal Rizvi. Hasan leads BodyBeat Dance Studio, a popular dance-exercise class of sorts offered at one of Karachi`s upscale health studios. He has also choreographed for award shows, television serials and fashion events.

For an hour-and-a-half, Hasan`s troupe delivered an upbeat performance. The show lived up to its promise of Bollywood-inspired entertainment, hardly surprising then was the story line boy (played by Hasan) returns from the West to his village, falls in love with a dreamy-eyed village girl (Maya Khan), who is engaged to a man chosen by her family and who wishes to contain and cage her spirit. Unable to resist, the two fall in love, but since their love seems destined never to realise, the broken-hearted lad returns to the West where he soon meets a sexy new lady love (Wafa Sayeed). Despite this, our hero is unable to forget his love, and it seems so is our heroine for she soon decides to defy the norms and leave everything behind for her true love. The new lady in the hero`s life now stands between the two lovers. As with all Bollywood flicks, the problems sort themselves out by the end and the lovers reunite.

Maya Khan gave a stellar performance. The role she was cast in played beautifully on her strength as a graceful dancer. She also displayed great command over her expressions, delighting the audience with her portrayal of the playful village girl.

There were a few other outstanding dancers, such as Alina Najam. The petite beauty gave one strong performance after another, always mesmerising the audience with her energy. Another great dancer was Aqib Awan, though one wishes his superb dancing skills had been brought to the fore front and exhibited more.

Also worth mentioning were the quick costumes changes which re-energised each scene. Each sequence featured hip new costumes, always well thought out, adding jazz to the performance.

Despite the fact that the troupe managed to keep up an upbeat and energetic performance throughout, there were a few glaring weaknesses such as the lack of coordination between dancers in some of the sequences. Given the Bollywood theme of the performance, this flaw combined with ungraceful entries and exits of the dancers made the show at times reminiscent of amateurish dances at big budget mehndis.The screenplay was in need of serious tweaking. The transition from one mood to another was often not smooth. One emotion gave way to the next rather too abruptly at many junctions.

One also feels that better choices could have been made with the casting of some roles. The second female lead, Wafa Sayeed, is a pouty beauty with a face that deserves to be on stage, but with dancing skills that don`t quite match. During dance sequences she was overshadowed by the rhythmic skills of some of the supporting dancers. Scenes that required more serious acting from her drew giggles from the crowd.

All in all, Cinema Live was enjoyable, but not quite the seamless and unforgettable affair one had anticipated.