World's Best
It’s fascinating to see that Disney’s best movies are relegated to Disney+ and barely marketed on the internet, whilst their “biggest” (and worst) productions have a tentpole theatrical release and are extensively marketed. Case in point: no one saw last March’s Chang Can Dunk, and yet the ones that did know how great and energetic of a coming-of-age story it is. Everyone saw The Little Mermaid, and most have a few nice things to say. It seems that World’s Best will suffer the same fate as Chang Can Dunk, which is unfortunate, because it deserves to be seen by everyone.
The film is a terrifically performed and written coming-of-age tale focusing on Prem Patel (Manny Magnus), a youth math genius, who discovers that his late father, Suresh (Utkarsh Ambudkar), was a rapping legend dubbed the “World’s Best Emcee.” As his best friend, Jerome (Max Malas), distances himself from Prem to hang out with the school bullies, Prem believes he can show the world that he’s more than just a “math kid” by following in his father’s footsteps and become the next “World’s Best Emcee.”
It’s a classic coming-of-age tale done a thousand times already: Prem doesn’t know who his father is, so he “gets” to know him through random appearances from Suresh, who helps him figure out his own groove and become a respected rapper in his school, and gain more confidence as he struggles with his academic and musical path. The film isn’t a full-on musical, but each dance number is directed with flashy style by Roshan Sethi (cinematographer Sing Howe Yam also does a great job at capturing the visual energy of a hip-hop track), who has a great sense of rhythm as he stages elaborate numbers through amazingly catchy original songs.
At its best, World’s Best is a celebration of hip hop’s greatest hits, frequently calling back the music of Skee-Lo, Doug E. Fresh (who appears as the Mathlympics’ Celebrity Judge), and even sprinkles of MF DOOM when Suresh teaches Prem about the art of rhymes and letting everything flow. Sethi and writers Jamie King and Ambudkar perfectly understand what makes a good hip-hop tune memorable and the logic behind each rhyme that makes each good hip-hop song feel universal. There’s a great sense of pace in each song, and the perfectly choreographed moves from Magnus and Ambudkar are great accompaniments to the film’s energy and flow.
Ambudkar and Magnus have great chemistry together. Suresh isn’t a one-note “force ghost” father figure character (*coughsBillyLoomisInScream2022coughs*) as one could believe, but adds lots of depth to Prem’s journey from where audiences meet him at the beginning to where he ends up with a more fully-formed arc, having learned what it means to be “the world’s best,” no matter which direction Prem wants to set his life in. Yes, it’s a plot that has been done so many times before, but Sethi livens up the material by creating an emotionally investing father/son relationship, where the son directly learns from the world’s best on how to become someone greater than he ever imagined.
Prem’s relationship with his mother (Punam Patel) is also well-handled, albeit slightly undercooked. As great as Punam Patel is in the role of Priya, she doesn’t get a lot of screentime to craft a loving and nurturing relationship with his son. Still, she does get to participate in the movie’s greatest framing device: telling a story through a flashback. At the same time, Prem consistently interjects to add details or clarify what her mother is telling him. These flashbacks happen twice in the movie and are two of its most pivotal scenes, where Prem learns about who Suresh is and what he meant to two of his closest people. Sethi never overuses his gimmicks –– he knows when to use them effectively and never over-stylizes the product.
That’s why there aren’t a lot of rap scenes, but just the right amount to engage the viewers and for them to be a part of Prem’s emotional journey. World’s Best isn’t a pure “rap” movie, but a brilliant coming-of-age tale that uses rap as a device to “awaken” Prem from his stasis as a “math kid” to a better version of himself as he learns to grow and accept his more creative side than his academic one. Beyond the relationship with his mother, Prem’s friendships are also a bit underdeveloped, but the actors all have fun being a part of the movie. The “talent show” bit is hilarious, and the bullies eventually get what they deserve. That’s always a satisfying moment in coming-of-age cinema.
And World’s Best is an ultimately satisfying coming-of-age movie that checks all of the boxes and more, delivering an emotionally investing and aesthetically engaging story with two fully-developed characters at its core. It’s a shame that Disney hasn’t given it the marketing campaign it deserves in order to have every eyeball tuning into this gem of a movie on Disney+. World’s Best deserves the success it should have, because it’s a film made with so much love in every ounce of the frame. If Disney can make more movies like these and not shameless cash-grab remakes, the theatrical landscape would be much better.