Dil Bole Hadippa

Colorful clothes, lush green fields, chatterbox female, handsome male...welcome to the world of Yash Raj Films. Dil Bole Hadippa is a through and through Yash Chopra movie..right from the dialogues to the locations, everything is quintessentially Yash Chopra.

The film is about Veera (Rani Mukherjee), a small town Punjabi girl, for whom cricket is more than just a sport; it's her biggest passion, the reason she's alive. To say that she is an excellent player would be an understatement. Nobody in her little town has had the privilege of getting her out. She has just one dream: to play for India, and open with Sachin.

The film is also about Vikramjit (Anupam Kher), who lives a lonely life in Punjab,albeit nursing a dream. He has a friend in Lahore, Liyaqat (Dilip Tahil). On the eve of Independence Day every year they play a cricket match, called the Aman Cup. For several years now Liyaqat had been winning, and Vikramjit wants to win the cup very badly indeed.

Enter Rohan (Shahid Kapoor), his son. A fantastic all rounder himself, and the captain of an English County team, he lives in England with his mom Yamini (Poonam Dhillon). His dad asks for his help, and Rohan gets down to coaching the team of useless players.

Considering that Veera is a girl, she is not allowed to be a part of the team. So, she dresses herself up as a man, Veer Pratap Singh, and gains entry into the team. While cricket practice is in full swing, love is blossoming on the sidelines. Rohan falls for Veera, not knowing that she is posing as Veer. 

A slight distraction appears in the form of a skimpily clad Sonia (Sherlyn Chopra), Vikram's friend's daughter, with designs on Rohan. 

The D-day arrives: the match! Obviously the Indian team wins...Veera's identity is revealed and she becomes the star.

If you think the script sounds familiar, you're not wrong. Dil Bole Hadippa is "She's the man" in spirit. The difference is that the latter was about football, and the girl did seem to be able to play well, unlike Rani who is clearly not a cricket player.

Rani did lose a lot of weight for the film, but still looks much older than Shahid. She plays a Punjabi gal in the movie, and even though she is otherwise a good actor, her accent and diciton are very un-Punjabi like. Her clothes are colorful (thanks to Mike Stringer) though some outfits were definitely over the top.

 

If the female protagonist is a Punjabi it is obligatory that her English will be bad and that she will be loud. When will Bollywood film makers wake up to the fact that the audience has had enough of these stereotypical characters?

The under dressed Sherlyn Chopra and Rakhi Sawant exist only to show a lot of skin, considering that Rani is fully clothed.

Shahid has done a good job. With sky high expectations after Kaminey, he's managed to pull this one off well. His clothes look fab...hats off to the dress designer.

Except for "bhangda bistar" (humorous lyrics, good video), the rest of the songs are just average. They have a rustic touch, but they all sound the same!  

The film's climax, though is obvious, is as bad as it gets.

 

If you're a Punjabi you'll want to beat up the film maker for dishing out such an insipid film. But the sight of jalebi with rabdi and a tall glass of lassi in the movie might perk you up a bit!