--- title: "Best of the Best" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/best-of-the-best" fi1m_id: "best-of-the-best" imdb_id: "tt16478058" tmdb_id: 1514863 fi1m_score: 70 critics_score: 75 critics_reviews: 5 published: "2026-09-21" updated: "2026-10-01T06:01:35.735488+00:00" region: "AZ" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Best of the Best (2026) Directed by Lena Khan · 1h 52m · Comedy ## Identity Best of the Best - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/best-of-the-best - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** best-of-the-best - **IMDb ID:** tt16478058 - **TMDB ID:** 1514863 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16478058/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1514863 **Fi1m score: 70** · Critics 75 (early) from 5 reviews *In a sentence:* The dances would be the best thing in it if the film ever let us watch one all the way through > Lena Khan’s college dance comedy is quick, funny and well led by Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia. It also chops its own numbers to pieces and forgives its young men far too easily. Worth an evening if a dance-off sounds like one. ## Synopsis Maya (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan) and Anjali (Priyanka Kedia) are friends at an American university and the two people who matter most on its Bollywood dance team, in the season the team means to win. Maya wants to win and wants the team to dance her way; Anjali wants something of her own out of the year, and the two of them have to lead together or watch the whole thing come apart. Hasan Minhaj, who also co-writes and produces the film, and Lilly Singh are in the cast around them. The first act shows the rehearsal room, the rival teams, the young men who orbit the pair, and the first competition, staged as a dance-off, at which the friendship shows its first crack. ## Review Lena Khan’s *Best of the Best* is a college comedy built around a Bollywood dance team and the two young women who run it. There will be rehearsals, a rival, a falling-out and a final in which everything is settled by who dances best. Prashanth Venkataramanujam and Hasan Minhaj’s script does not fight that shape and is right not to. What they have made is quick, funny and likeable, with two faults that stop it being better: it cuts its dances into confetti, and it forgives its young men far more readily than its young women. It runs 112 minutes and we were glad of nearly all of them. The speed is the first pleasure. Khan does not let a scene sit a beat longer than it needs to; people talk over one another and leave rooms mid-sentence, and the film has moved on before a joke has finished landing, which is the right tempo for a campus where everyone is exhausted and nobody will admit it. The jokes come in clusters, and a few of the better ones are thrown away on the way out of a door. Ramakrishnan plays Maya as a girl who has decided how the year will go and is startled every time the year disagrees. She talks fast and her face runs a half-second ahead of her lines, so we usually know what she thinks before she has finished saying something else. Kedia’s Anjali is the quieter part, a friend who has spent years agreeing and has begun to wonder why. The film is best when the two of them are alone in a rehearsal room with no music playing, working out who is in charge. When they fall out, the script gives both of them a case, and nobody is quite in the right. Then there are the dances, which are the reason anyone is here. The choreography is inventive and the dancers can plainly do it. The film keeps not letting us watch. A number begins, the line of the team forms, and then the cutting starts: a face, a hand, a spin from the side, the crowd, back to the face, so that eight counts of movement arrive as five shots of it. We kept wanting to reach in and hold the camera still. Filmed dance depends on letting a body finish what it started, and this film does not trust its own dancers to do that. The final sequence is the exception, and it is the reason the film sends people home happy. It is held longer, staged for the whole team rather than the two leads, and built so that the story’s quarrel is settled in the steps rather than in a speech afterwards. We were grinning at it in a way we had not planned to be. It is a properly good number, and it makes the earlier chopping harder to forgive, because it proves everyone involved knew how to do it. The other fault is in the writing. The young men around Maya and Anjali behave badly in the ordinary ways, and are back in everyone’s good books by the next scene. The two women fall out over less and are made to work far longer to earn their way back. We felt a small sourness about that and it did not go away. A film this interested in what two friends owe each other might have asked the same of its boys. Minhaj gives himself a supporting turn and plays it with the ease of a man who wrote his own lines. Lilly Singh, Chaneil Kular and Ankur Rathee fill out a cast that is likeable throughout and occasionally underused. Against *Bring It On* (2000) and the first *Step Up* (2006), this sits comfortably: quicker than either, and let down by the same thing that lets nearly all of them down, a script more interested in its plot than in its dancing. See it with company, on a screen big enough for the final number to fill. You will hum something on the way home and you will not be able to say what. *Fi1m score 70, published 21 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is Best of the Best worth watching?** *Best of the Best* is worth an evening if a college dance-off comedy sounds like one, and we scored it 70. Lena Khan keeps it quick and funny, and Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia lead it well. It chops most of its dance numbers to pieces and lets its young men off too lightly, though the final sequence sends you home happy. **How long is Best of the Best, and what is it rated?** *Best of the Best* runs 1h 52m. It is a comedy film. **Where can I watch Best of the Best in Azerbaijan?** *Best of the Best* is streaming on Netflix in Azerbaijan. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How does Best of the Best compare to Strictly Ballroom?** *Best of the Best* is the quicker and more joke-dense of the two, but [*Strictly Ballroom*](https://film.one/film/strictly-ballroom) is the better dance film, because Baz Luhrmann holds his camera on a step while Lena Khan cuts hers into fragments. Choose Luhrmann if the dancing itself is the point. Choose Khan for a fast campus comedy with two good leads and one properly staged final number. **What should I watch after Best of the Best?** After *Best of the Best*, try [*Strictly Ballroom*](https://film.one/film/strictly-ballroom) (1992, Fi1m 83): Baz Luhrmann’s dance-floor comedy, where the rebellion is a new step and the camera holds it. Then [*Bend It Like Beckham*](https://film.one/film/bend-it-like-beckham) (2002, Fi1m 76): Two friends, one sport, and parents who need convincing; the warmth this film is reaching for; and [*Pitch Perfect*](https://film.one/film/pitch-perfect) (2012, Fi1m 77): The campus competition comedy this most resembles, with the rehearsals as funny as the finals. ### Reviews we read (5) - **IndieWire**, Alison Foreman (B+): The critic finds the film joyful, soul-affirming, and rhythmically satisfying, despite an ending that wraps up too conveniently. She especially praises its sparkling production design and costumes for making the campus and dance performances feel vivid and culturally specific. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/best-of-the-best-netflix-film-review-1235217597/) - **The AV Club**, Saloni Gajjar (B+): The critic praises the film as a refreshing South Asian-American coming-of-age dance drama that blends Bollywood influences with relatable college life and strong lead performances. They single out the leads' chemistry, the choreography, and the authentic cultural perspective as highlights. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/best-of-the-best-review-netflix-maitreyi-ramakrishnan-priyanka-kedia-lena-khan) - **The Guardian** (80/100, inferred): The critic finds the plot familiar from college comedies but praises the whip-fast telling, snappy dialogue and infectious energy of the direction by Lena Khan. The brilliant choreography, especially the final sequence, is singled out for making the film engaging and memorable. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/18/best-of-the-best-review-college-comedy-formula-gets-a-bollywood-makeover) - **RogerEbert.com**, Nandini Balial (45/100, inferred): The critic finds the coming-of-age dance comedy enjoyable in spots thanks to its leads and some inventive sequences but ultimately undermined by its male-written script and choppy editing of the dances. She singles out the low bar for male characters' accountability versus the struggles between the central female friends. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/best-of-the-best-netflix-movie-review-2026) - **The Wrap** (85/100, inferred): The critic finds Lena Khan’s Bollywood dance-off college comedy an exceptional, crowd-pleasing production that fills the void left by the Step Up films. The screenplay’s sharp structure, ensemble performances, and crisp choreography are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/best-of-the-best-review-netflix/) ## Details - **Director:** Lena Khan - **Director:** Lena Khan - **Writer:** Hasan Minhaj, Prashanth Venkataramanujam - **Producer:** Hasan Minhaj, Prashanth Venkataramanujam, Jonathan Eirich - **Cast:** Maitreyi Ramakrishnan as Maya; Priyanka Kedia as Anjali; Hasan Minhaj; Chaneil Kular; Ankur Rathee; Shreya Navile; Becky Alex; Nihar Duvvuri - **Runtime:** 1h 52m - **First release (Brazil):** 18 September 2026 - **Genres:** Comedy - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PuNATO-6a9U ## Where to watch in Azerbaijan - Netflix: streaming *Checked 2026-09-21.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, AZ, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, SK, TH, TR, UA, US, VN, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Bring It On* (2000): The template for the campus competition comedy, and still the sharpest about who gets the credit. - *Strictly Ballroom* (1992), Fi1m 83: Baz Luhrmann’s dance-floor comedy, where the rebellion is a new step and the camera holds it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/strictly-ballroom.md) - *Bend It Like Beckham* (2002), Fi1m 76: Two friends, one sport, and parents who need convincing; the warmth this film is reaching for. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/bend-it-like-beckham.md) - *Kuch Kuch Hota Hai* (1998): College friendship, big numbers and a proper heartache, done the Bollywood way at full length. - *Pitch Perfect* (2012), Fi1m 77: The campus competition comedy this most resembles, with the rehearsals as funny as the finals. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/pitch-perfect.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/best-of-the-best