'Best Of The Best' Movie Ending Explained And Summary: Does UCLA Agni Win The Competition?

Best Of The Best is going to be in Netflix’s history books, because what do you mean they allowed South Asians to make a film entirely about a purely South Asian experience? Like, this is a film that nobody else will understand; it is solely for the diaspora, and that is fantastic (and us sitting here in India wishing that was us too). The film follows two besties, Maya and Anjali, who end up in the same college and course after growing up together. Anjali is raised by a mother who wants her to be independent and focus on doing well in college so she doesn’t have to depend on anybody because her mum raised her alone with a lot of backlash from society, making her seem like a villain (valid mama). Maya, on the other hand, is a full scholarship kid who seems to breathe computer science and not worry about classwork at all. But what may look like a clear seesaw has more going on to balance things out. With that said, let’s get into the ending of Best Of The Best, and see if Maya and Anjali remain friends or not.

Spoiler Alert

How Does Maya Get Lead Again?

The film begins with Maya being the friend who wants to participate in collegiate dance competitions because she’s competitive and deeply passionate about dance. Anjali, on the other hand, is more eager to try something new during college. But Maya has had a traumatic experience with the drones earlier, during her final performance in school, so she doesn’t want to take that leap until Anjali tells her it’ll be fun. They’re both good performers, but Maya is clearly more into it than Anjali is, though the latter oozes charisma that Maya can’t match. So though Maya gets more votes to be chosen as lead, Ronak, along with Deepica and Dimple, both of whom clearly liked Anjali more, decide to change one vote and make Anjali the lead. Maya overhears this conversation but doesn’t say anything about it because she wants to be happy for Anjali, and she keeps quiet until Anjali makes it seem like Maya’s jealous of her, which is why she didn’t do her computer quiz. Maya had genuinely forgotten, and no matter what, she wouldn’t want her friend to flunk out of college.

This is not to say what Maya said was okay. She did out Anjali’s academic probation to the whole internet, which is quite an embarrassment, but she also called her talentless in the same breath. But anyway, Anjali decides to quit after learning about what happened with Maya, and starts to focus on academics instead. She successfully gets out of probation, but also decides to quit computer science because it was never what she wanted to do. It was what she saw Maya pick, and she simply followed suit. The truth is, Anjali is also a bit insecure, not because other people compared her to Maya, but because she feels she’s not as good as Maya. On the other hand, Maya gets compared to Anjali so much that she doesn’t even feel like she’s being wronged when the gang chooses her as lead over Maya. But all of these feelings come out in the open after they make it into the finals of the competition. But by this time, Maya quits, because what’s the point of being in a group that doesn’t even like you. Plus, she did make things worse by pointing out everyone’s flaws, which no one likes.

What Brings Anjali and Maya Back Together?

It’s when they’re about to do their final stage performance that Maya and Anjali make up after revealing everything. Both girls had clearly kept a lot of emotions pent up, but when they had a falling out, they had a lot of reflection to do. If they were going to stay mad, they wouldn’t have both returned to the club. Both Maya and Anjali have accepted their own fault at this point. Maya apologizes for saying those hurtful things to Anjali, and the latter apologizes for not seeing that her friend was hurting. She’d been hurting for so many years. Ultimately, they hold hands before the performance, and Maya asks if they’re besties again. Anjali tells her that they’re not, because they’ve always been sisters. It’s quite adorable. So, ultimately, it’s dance that brings them back together, tighter than ever. This is even more evident in the performance they put on for their audience too.

How Does The Team Win The Competition? 

In Best Of The Best’s ending, Anjali and Maya are both the leads of UCLA Agni because, apparently, they’re the only two people who can pick up a routine that fast. This is a bit sus to me, considering how controlling Ronak has been through the whole film, but we’ll ignore it because it’s an excellent decision. Maya’s concept is simple; you can’t steal something from us that is inherently ours. When the UCLA Agni team go for their first competition, Maya doesn’t like the concept of a Bollywood wedding. Not because it’s tacky or too grand, but because it’s stereotypical and boring. Instead, Maya wants to pick something that is so unique to them that no one can even try to steal it. Essentially, she wants to talk about the love the two best friends share, not just for each other, but for dance too. This applies to all the members of the group. She integrates this concept with the Kohinoor, a diamond that was stolen from us by the British. In the performance, they don’t want to steal it back; in fact, they destroy it and split it into hundreds of pieces so they can all get a piece. Our value lies within us, not in some material object stolen from us.

In the middle of the performance, the power goes off, but I can’t help but feel like the whole thing was planned out, with how the group caught on so easily. Maya does some quick thinking and does a routine with Anjali that they did back in school. She redeems herself, because she doesn’t get hit by a drone this time around, and she manages the whole performance without victimising herself or forcing everyone to feel like they’re not good enough. Of course, the performance is excellent, with everyone getting to shine like the diamonds they’re presenting. Finally, the film ends with the two best friends doing the one thing they’ve been wanting to do since the movie started: going to Taco Bell for their fav meal to end a happy day. Maya and Arjun get together (she’s unafraid of PDA now); Ronak and Anjali will probably see more of each other too, right? We can imagine this isn’t the end of it for these guys, though Ronak will be graduating. That’s okay though; it leaves room for another handsome hunk, eh? Really, it’s not that important, because the romances are a side, while the friendship is the main dish. It doesn’t matter if Arjun and Ronak are in the picture or not, because now Maya and Anjali will be more understanding of each other till the end of time. Ultimately, we get a happy ending, with both best friends truly getting what they want. Anjali’s mum showed up for the show too, making her feel loved (thanks to Maya, of course), and Maya got to do what she loves the most with her best friend. Oh, and that A.R. Rahman’s song was killer. 

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