A rhythmic delight

With his suave and exuberant demeanor oozing oodles of charm and beguilingly enviable dance moves, Mudassar  Khan has been immensely successful in not only capturing the hearts of his lady fans but also the imagination of the budding dancers in general. The pioneer of the phrase Chik Chik Boom Fire which was heard after each soulful performance in the fourth season of Dance India Dance has a string of Bollywood projects coming his way.

Chatting with him on the occasion of DID’s fifth season’s launch we were stunned by his contrary views “Though I am on the path of success, I am not successful yet. There is a lot that I have to learn and contribute towards dance. I want to effect change in people’s life through the medium of dance, without doing that my success would be incomplete,” he said.

The choreographer who practically lives, breathes and eats dance had a very humble beginning. He talks about how the world of dance embroiled him in its tight hold saying, “My family always had money issues and my native place in lucknow didn’t have the right environment for me to learn dance so I moved to Mumbai. The first time I performed at one of my family gatherings I was laughed at. That’s when I decided that I had to learn how to dance well. I joined a dance academy in Mumbai because I realised one cannot succeed without formal training.”

The roller coaster ride that his life had been before the year 2010 was tempered by one major event; he tells us how he met Salman Khan, his virtual ladder of success. “There was a promotion activity of Wanted in a mall and several teams were competing for the best dance performance. Salman Khan and Prabhu Deva had declared that the team which won would get a chance to work with them. I went with my team (Sharpshooters) because I adore and respect Prabhu Deva. luckily, our team won and I was offered Hamka Peeni Hai song. There has been no looking back since then.”

From the very beginning Mudassar harboured strong aspirations to become a choreographer. Back when he was a kid he had no clue what the significance of the word choreographer was, “When I was young I wanted to become a dance teacher. At the age of around 15 I could be seen teaching the kids of my street dance sequences that I created,” shared Mudassar.

Before the opportunity of choreographing Hamka Peeni Hai Peeni Hai came like a breeze into his life shaking away all his earlier predicaments, he had his modest dance academy where he taught dance in two batches— one for the kids called Fire Dancers and the other for the adults called Sharpshooters. “After coming to Mumbai, even before joining the dance academy I used to take part in dance competitions staged by the Ganpati mandali during the festival.

When people finally started noticing my performance and appreciating it that is when I drudged up money to pay the dance academy fees” Although he has associated himself with highly noticeable projects like Dabangg, and Bodyguard amongst many other ambitious films, his name became the subject of household intrigue only when he metamorphosed from a choreographer into a judge of one of the most coveted and eagerly watched shows—DID. “This platform has not only enriched viewer’s dance vocabulary with concepts like locking and popping, lyrical hip hop, kalaripayattu, slo-mo and aerial but changed the way dance is perceived in India. It has been an honour to judge performances on a platform like DID. I am looking forward to being a part of the fifth season as well.”