Sep 25, 2009 03:55 PM
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(Updated Sep 25, 2009 04:01 PM)
Post-Lagaan, there has been multitude of films on cricket out of which only two succeeded-JannatandIqbal. The rest of the badly executed cricket films failed. ‘Dil Bole Hadippa!’ falls in between the two categories. The film in interesting and has its share of wonderful moments. But the film lacked depth and the director and screenwriter could have worked wonders with the kind of script they had in their hand. Thus, ‘Dil Bole Hadippa!’ is just a one-time watch.
The story of the movie: Veera (Rani Mukherjee) is a charming and bubbly girl who lives in a small town in Punjab. She is a great cricketer and is passionate about the sport. Every year,Aman Cup is held between India and Pakistan during the independence day of these countries and Indian team had lost the match 8 times in a row. Frustrated, the owner of the Indian team, Vikram Kapoor (Anupam Kher)calls his son Rohan (Shahid Kapoor), an accomplished county player to be the captain of his team. Rohan gets rid of the existing team which he felt wasn’t upto the mark and holds a selection. Veera wishes to be a part of the team but knowing that women won’t be allowed in the team, she disguises herself as a Sikh guy and goes for the selection. She tells her name as Veer Pratap Singh and gets selected in the team. To find out what happens next, watch the film.
The beginning of ‘Dil Bole Hadippa!’ is fabulous and sets the mood of the film. However, the film gets into the flawed mode with the entry of Anupam Kher and Dalip Tahil. Both of them are shown as childhood buddies who got separated after the Partition. But both of them looked too young to be born 10 years before the Partition!
Notwithstanding such goofs, the film maintains its pace and doesn’t get slow or dragging or melodramatic at a single point. There is lots of things happening throughout the film and although the film gets predictable, it stills manages to engross. If the screenwriters and the directors were more careful, the film could have been flawless product. The biggest glitch of the film is Veera turns into Veer and succeeds in looking like a guy but doesn’t alter her feminine voice, thus giving a clear giveaway that Veer is a girl in disguise. Still, no one gets a slightest hint about it and this is slightly hard to digest. This may result in a comparison with Shahrukh Khan’s double act in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. However, in RNBDJ, SRK had not guised himself as a member of the opposite sex and had wonderfully changed the tone of his voice, appearance, mannerisms etc in such a way that when Anushka Sharma failed to recognize him, it looked believable to a great extent.
Coming back to ‘Dil Bole Hadippa!’, the romantic track between Shahid and Rani was refreshing. The final cricket match was nail-biting although we all knew what will be its outcome. Rani’s dialogue in the climax was well executed and the film ends with a good message.
‘Dil Bole Hadippa!’ belongs completely to Rani Mukherjee. The film rests on her shoulders and she does a stupendous job. Even as Veer, she was mind-blowing, notwithstanding her voice. It was funny to see Shahid making Veer do the exercises. Watch out for the scene where Veer is daydreaming on the cricket ground! In short, it was just incredible on the part of Rani. Let’s hope she gets more meaningful roles. She deserves to stay in Bollywood.
Shahid Kapoor, as usual, was perfect as the tough captain. And he has an important role to play in the film and doesn’t have lesser screen presence, as mentioned in many reviews. He shines in the scene where he tells Veer about his feelings forVeera. In fact, both Shahid and Rani were at their best in this particular scene.
Anupam Kher and Dalip Tahil were consistent. Sherlyn Chopra is a good actor and will be taken seriously, provided she stops exposing. Rakhi Sawant, Poonam Dhillon, Vrajesh Hirjee and Vallabh Vyas didn’t have much to do in the film. Shonali Nagrani looked charming.
Pritam’s music wasn’t in complete form but nevertheless, gives couple of good songs. Hadippa, its remix version and Ishq Hi Hai Rab were the best songs. Julius Packiam’s background score was fantastic! Several scenes turned exciting, thanks to the energetic background score. Same goes for the brilliant cinematography by acclaimed cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee.
Jaya-Aparajita wrote the story, screenplay and dialogues. The screenplay was perfect in some scenes but could have been better. Dialogues were excellent.
Anurag Singh, the director of the film, overall did a good job but he failed to treat some scenes exceptionally which was really needed. Overall, it was a great directorial debut. There’s another director by the same name who had made Raqeeb, starring Rahul Khanna, Tanushree Dutta, Sharman Joshi and Jimmy Shergill. Coincidentally, it also starredSherlyn Chopra!
Some of the best scenes of the film:
The first scene
The Aman Cup held in India
Rohan and Veera’s first meeting
Veera denied entry for the selection
Veer and Rohan meeting for the ‘first time’
The intermission point
Rohan asking Veer about Veera
Rohan and Veera’s date
The final 30 minutes
On the whole, ‘Dil Bole Hadippa!’ is a good film with a message. The film could have been outstanding if the writers had taken care of the flaws. Rani performs wonderfully and it’s a must watch for all her fans!
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