BY JYOTHSNA HEGDE

No bones about it, Dil Bole Hadippa(DBH) is a quintessential Yash Raj movie. That means we have the lush green fields of Punjab, bright color clothes and trucks, the red convertible, folks slurping lassi and if that does not remind you that this movie belongs to the Yash Raj banner, debutante director Anurag Singh has posters of previous Yash Raj movies such as Aaja Nachle and Dhoom pasted over the colorful truck that shows up at regular intervals. Yes, the movie is quite self-indulgent and repetitive in that sense and so the story looses its soul in trying to get its props in place. 

Loosely based on “She’s the Man”, DBH tracks the story of Veera Kaur (Rani Mukherjee) who masquerades as her own brother Veer Pratap Singh to participate in the Aman Cup, a cricket match between Indian and Pakistani teams across the Wagah border. The Indian Team owned by Anupam Kher had been loosing consistently to the Pakistani Team owned by his friend Dalip Tahil. So Anupam Kher manges to get his London based cricketer son Rohan (Shahid Kapoor) to India under the pretext of a heart attack. Rohan is initially reluctant but eventually gives in and agrees to coach and head the Indian team. Veera manages to get selected to the team as Veer. And then predictably Rohan falls for Veera and ultimately the secret is revealed. 

Rani pours her heart and soul into her character and looks stunning. She does transform into the cutest Punjabi you’ve ever seen. But all of her spirited performance seems almost wasted in the movie. Too many clichés, and even some of the dialogues seem very familiar especially when Rani describes Shahid as “angry young man”, you immediately think of “Jab We Met”. It is one thing to use the same props for the Punjabi feel, but reusing dialogues from another movie that incidentally also stars Shahid..that’s a no-no. Shahid acts with restraint and does his part well. Shahid and Rani look good together. 

Anurag Singh establishes Rani’s love for cricket well with her definition of ABCD where A stands for All rounder, B for batsman, C for catch and D for dreams. However he fails to tell us enough about her background except that she works for a nautanki company called the Jigri Yaar Dance Company, quite tacky. Rani as Veera gets to pour her heart out in her final speech about why did she have to change her gender to gain equal opportunity? Anurag almost defies this philosophy by having Rakhi Sawant and Sheryn Chopra prance around in skimpily clad clothes. Poonam Dhillon as Shahid’s mother has so little to do, that you wonder why she was even part of the story. 

The shots of Punjab are captured well, but feels too familiar to strike a chord. The movie has an inspiring story to tell, but lacks originality in its treatment. Most movies with sports background often have a predictable end, so a sincere and tactful handle is required to make the tale more stimulating. Adding romance to the mix requires a certain balance because the romance track tends to sometimes take over the sports track or vice versa. Although Rani and Shahid share a sweet screen presence, the songs (Music by Pritam) serve as a hindrance to the flow of the narrative. It must be said that some of the songs are catchy but placed rather randomly. Yes, there are some sweet moments and Rani looks fabulous, but ultimately Dil Bole Hadippa seems like a concoction of different Hindi movies and oh so familiar dialogues. Guess familiarity does breed contempt after all. Sorry Rani, wish you better luck next time.