Netflix’s ‘Best of the Best’ dances beyond romance to celebrate female friendship

It’s your typical Netflix dance-drama — but not so typical, because it replaces the standard boy-meets-girl romance with the fierce bond of female friendship.

Best of the Best is a coming-of-age film that depicts Indian-American college friendship and sisterhood with a good dose of warmth.

Two best friends, Maya and Anjali (Maitreyi Ramakrishnan and Priyanka Kedia), join UCLA as freshmen. Maya — known to many as “drone strike girl” — is reeling from becoming a viral meme after a drone malfunction during her dance performance.

They both leap into the competitive, cutthroat world of collegiate Bollywood-fusion dance. There, Anjali wants to be the female lead alongside Ronak, the heartthrob captain of UCLA Agni, while her best friend and co-freshman Maya wants to completely remake the choreography and lead the stage herself. They’re all competitive and passionate about dance.