Best of the Best (2026) Review: Lena Khan's Dance Comedy

Maya (Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Kedia) have been inseparable since freshman orientation, and their shared obsession with Bollywood-fusion dance has carried them through everything since. When a campus-wide competition opens doors to a national stage, the pair assembles a team of misfits and overachievers, only to discover that the very qualities that make them great partners - trust, familiarity, unspoken understanding - become liabilities when the stakes climb. Hasan Minhaj and Chaneil Kular appear in supporting roles that complicate the duo's path, while Ankur Rathee, Shreya Navile, Becky Alex, and Nihar Duvvuri round out a cast that keeps the ensemble scenes lively. The plot beats are familiar, but Khan keeps the pacing brisk and the emotional payoffs earned.

The smartest decision "Best of the Best" makes is refusing to treat dance as decoration. The routines are staged with real cinematic energy, cut to rhythms that let you feel the impact of every landing and the tension in every formation change. Cinematography here is doing narrative work: when the camera tightens on a trembling hand or a missed cue, we understand the cost without a single line of dialogue explaining it. Khan, who has shown a knack for balancing humor with cultural specificity, keeps the comedy rooted in character rather than caricature. The jokes land because they come from who these people are, not from what they look like.

Ramakrishnan continues to prove she is one of the most watchable performers of her generation, shifting between deadpan wit and genuine vulnerability without a seam. Kedia matches her beat for beat, and their chemistry carries the film through its weaker stretches. Minhaj brings a jolt of unpredictable energy whenever he appears, though the script does not always give him enough to do. The supporting cast is game, but a few subplots - particularly a romantic detour involving Rathee's character - feel like they wandered in from a different, lesser movie.

Where the film falters is in its final act, which reaches for a grand emotional resolution that the earlier, looser scenes did not quite set up. The stakes grow, but the intimacy shrinks; we get more spectacle and less of the small, telling moments that made the first hour sing. A tighter edit and one more scene of quiet between Maya and Anjali could have elevated a very good comedy into a great one. Still, the flaws are the kind that come from trying something ambitious, and "Best of the Best" is ambitious in all the right ways.

Pros

• Ramakrishnan and Kedia deliver magnetic, emotionally honest performances
• Dance sequences are edited and shot with genuine cinematic flair
• Humor stays character-driven, never punching down
• Strong sense of place and culture without over-explaining either

Cons

• Final act favors spectacle over the intimacy that made the setup work
• A romantic subplot feels underdeveloped and distracts from the core friendship
• Some supporting cast members are underused

"Best of the Best" is a warm, funny, and surprisingly moving look at what it costs to chase excellence alongside the person who knows you best. It is not flawless, and its third act loses some of the intimacy that made the opening so charming, but the performances and the dance sequences are worth the ticket. With a TMDb rating of 8/10, audiences seem to agree. Watch it for the choreography; stay for the friendship.