3.5 Stars (out of 4)

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New York choreographer Dia (Madhuri Dixit) returns to India to rescue her hometown’s cultural heritage by staging a musical. The story is predictably heartwarming, as Dia’s determination gradually wins over the town that once shunned her, but the plot is just a pretext for Dixit’s superb dancing. Fans of dance-centric films like Strictly Ballroom or Footloose will be spellbound, especially by the epic musical performance the characters stage at the end of Aaja Nachle.

No Rating (violence); 145 minutes

This review originally appeared in The Naperville Sun on December 7, 2007