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EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: * Rani Mukerji starrer "Dil Bole Hadippa" has won the Readers' Choice Award for Best Film of 2009 by Germany's Ishq magazine. Read More Watch
out for cricketer Rani in `Dil Bole Hadippa!` (IANS Preview) After starring in back-to-back duds
like Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic and Saawariya and doing a
few cameos in the last two years, Bengali beauty Rani Mukerji returns to the big
screen in a new avatar in Dil Bole Hadippa!. Releasing Friday, the
film will see the actress playing a man too! Produced and distributed by Yash Raj Films (YRF), the
romantic comedy is the directorial debut of Anurag Singh, who has been an
associate director for five films with filmmaker Rakesh Roshan and with Sanjay
Gadhvi for Dhooom 2.
Somewhere down the line in this mish-mash of Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi,
Chak De and what have you, Shahid Kapoor, looking as intense as a
man who has just discovered he has acute molar ache, scowls at Rani and says,
You should be an actress in films.
Actress she is. And a highly competent one. Rani has worked really hard on
getting the Sardar-ji`s act together. At times she`s quite funny and poignant.
But her attempts go waste in a film that seems to move in a rudderless stupor.
Rani is sorely let down in her made-to-order vehicle by a script that`s as phony
and pasted-on as the moustache she pastes on to infiltrate the all-boy`s cricket
team helmed by a Britain-returned dude from a broken family.
Shahid`s dad Anupam Kher lives in Amritsar, while his mom, Poonam Dhillon, lives
in London.
Backgrounds are not very high in the list of this messy and annoying mishmash
about cross-dressing and sporting spirit. While Shahid`s character we know is
from a broken home, only god and the scripwriter know where Rani`s character
Veera/Veer comes from.
While Hillary Swank, as a girl dressed as a guy, got the Oscar for Boys
Don`t Cry, Rani misses her award-winning turn by a wide margin, thanks to
a script that meanders like a bumbling bumblebee which doesn`t know whom to
sting.
The story of the spirited girl`s sprint into a men`s game and into the coach`s
heart lacks bite and humour. The dialogues are ultra-pedestrian, some of the
exchanges between the rustic Rani and the posh Shahid shamelessly taken from
Jab We Met.
What were the makers of this film thinking? Not much, as we can easily see in
the slithering progression of the material and dismaying lack of motivation.
After the interval, the wobbly narration just collapses in a tired heap, with
scenes in a nautanki featuring Rakhi Sawant plunging to the bottom-most rung of
mediocrity.
The climactic cricket match between India and Pakistan is as exciting as
watching Kaminey with the soundtrack turned off. In Dil Bole
Hadippa!, the soundtrack is so loud it drowns any finer point that the
narration may possess.
Don`t waste your time looking for silver linings in this dreadful cricket film.
Someone said cricket is a game played by 12 fools and watched by 12,000 fools.
No we know what he meantMORE reviews
Dil Bole Hadippa Movie News
'Dil Bole Hadippa' wins German magazine award
Dil Bole Hadippa Synopsis
The movie also marks the entry of Shahid Kapoor into the YRF camp. He is paired
opposite Rani.
The film tells the story of Veera (Rani), a fire-cracker of a girl who lives in
a small village but dreams of playing cricket in the big league. Rohan (Shahid)
is an accomplished captain of a county cricket team in England and returns to
India to captain his father`s cricket team, which has been losing consecutively
since the last eight years.
In a village where girls don`t play cricket, Veera has to wear a turban and
beard to disguise herself as a man to fulfil her dreams. Her brilliance on the
field earns her rave points and an entry into Rohan`s team.
There is something which the film says very subtly because preachy films
can be really boring. `Dil Bole Hadippa!; is very entertaining and in the end,
it just leaves you with a thought, Shahid had said.
The 31-year-old actress also hit the gym in vengeance for her toned look in the
movie.
Rani is very committed towards her body and her dedication has resulted in
mind-blowing results. She is looking outstanding, celebrity trainer
Satyadev `Satya` Chaurasia had told IANS.
Debutant director Anurag Singh says the film has been shot entirely in villages.
There is no trace of any city or skyscrapers in it. We did all our
shooting in villages outside Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Amritsar over 80
days, he said.
Asked why he chose Rani and Shahid for the lead role, he said: I wanted to
bring in a pair which had never worked together before. There is some sort of
freshness about Rani and Shahid working together. There was instant chemistry
between the two, he added.
The film has had its share of controversies too. Initially, the title of the
film was Hadippa but the rights to the same had been bought by
filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali who refused to part with it on YRFs request. The
movie title was then announced to be Dil Bole Hadippa!
Then the Punjabi Cultural And Heritage Board showed displeasure over Rani`s
character in the film donning a patka instead of a pagdi, since an adult Sikh
normally wears a pagdi and not a patka.
The Sikh community also raised objection regarding the use of a patka sign in
place of a dot on letter `I` in the movie title ...Hadippa.
Apparently, this is YRF`s second film on a sport after their hockey-centric 2007
hit Chak De! India. Also starring Anupam Kher and Dalip Tahil along
with item girls Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra, the movie premiered at the
ongoing Toronto International Film Festival.