Dil Bole Hadippa!

Language : Hindi
Banner : Yash Raj Films
Director : Anurag Singh
Producer : Aditya Chopra
Cinematography : Sudeep Chatterjee
Story : Aparajita
Screenplay : Aparajita
Dialogue : Aparajita
Lyrics : Jaideep Sahni
Music : Pritam Chakraborty
Release : 2009 September 18
Starring : Shahid Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Poonam Dhillon, Anupam Kher, Dalip Tahil, Rakhi Sawant, Sherlyn Chopra, Vrajesh Hirjee, Rati Agnihotri

Aditya Chopra produces again, this time taking bankable stars Shahid Kapoor and Rani Mukherjee. 'Dil Bole Hadippa' is another spin-off off of the (reliable?) often-repeated formula : rebellious girl dresses up as boy to attain goal in patriarchal society, and everyone else, it turns out has buttons instead of eyes, because they can't see through that very thin disguise.

So, Veera Kaur (Rani's character), puts on a turban and a beard and becomes 'Veer Pratap Singh' so that she can play cricket. Now, you might wonder about the need to turn manly to play this sport, because from what I can recall, India does have it's own women's Cricket Team. But, aha, and betcha never thought of this, she hails from a village where girls don't play cricket! So, yeah, OK - that explains it, everything falls into place now, the logic, the storyline, the sudden demand for beards as girls all around the country in old-fashioned villages such as this one, rush to turn themselves into scrawny Sardars.

'Veer Pratap Singh' because of his skill on the field earns himself a place on Rohan's (Shahid Kapoor) team. Thus you have the lead pair, on the same team, and in close proximity. I know it's kind of hard to guess where the story goes from there, but I'll get soppy and give you a hint : Love is in the air (quite like the Swine flu).

This film stars Shahid who's been having quite a good run this year, what with 'Kaminey' being the fantastic film it is. And more power to him - a star who can act, dance, oozes affability and that 'good boy' charm, he quite deserves it. Rani who appears on the silver screen after quite a while, and after many gruelling Yoga sessions we are told, looks thinner and fitter. There is also Rakhi Sawant, Anupam Kher, Dalip Tahil and Sherlyn Chopra.

Now because it is a Yash Raj production I expect this film to be at the very least a family entertainer, which means relatively clean, colorful and full of energetic songs. The official website is here but be wary, because although nicely done, it uses Flash, takes a humongous time to load and makes my PC's CPU buzz like a swarm of bees.

'Dil Bole Hadippa' is directed by Anurag Singh. Singh was associate director on films like Dhoom 2, Koyla and Karan Arjun. As full-fledged director, he director 'Raqeeb' before this. DBH has music by Pritam

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