Dil Bole Hadippa!

A young, super-excited fan, Anita couldn’t help sharing her review of Dil Bole Hadippa with us after she caught a sneak peek of the highly anticipated film at the Toronro International Film Festival (TIFF). Read on to find out if the movie lived up to her expectations. For all of you who have been waiting to see Dil Bole Hadippa (DBH) and Rani Mukherjee’s triumphant return, you will not be disappointed. DBH was what Ta Ra Rum Pum and Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic should have been, a light-hearted Indian-flavoured family entertainer from Yash Raj Films. It’s good to see that both Rani and YRF have returned to the formula that we all know and love. The film starts out with Veera Kaur (Rani Mukherjee), a hardcore typical Punjabi kudi who is completely obsessed with cricket. She’s so confident of her abilities that she boldly claims that she can hit six sixes in a row, even when a pro pitcher takes her up on the bet. Veera also works alongside Shanno (Rakhi Sawant) and others in a dance troupe that performs regularly. Of course, while they perform, she’s backstage playing cricket with the kids, which is extremely endearing. Enter into the story Rohan Kapoor (Shahid Kapoor) and his father Vikram Kapoor (Anupam Kher). Rohan is an accomplished cricket player in England who has lived there for many many years. His mother (Rati Agnihotri) stayed in England while Rohan’s father chose to stay in India and they have remained estranged for all of these years. Vikram somehow convinces Rohan to come to India and be by his side.  Vikram’s close childhood friend, Liyaqat Ali Khan (Dilip Tahil) is from Lahore, Pakistan.

To foster peace between the two nations, the friends have set up an annual Peace Cup where a team from Amritsar plays a team from Lahore in a cricket match. Vikram’s dream is to finally see the Indian team beat the Pakistani team, once and for all. He wants to feel proud again. That’s where Rohan comes in. Vikram asks Rohan to captain the Amritsar team and lead them to victory. When Rohan comes across Veera for the first time, her adorably bad English and her defensive patriotism catch him completely off guard. She’s most definitely like no one he’s met before. Veera finds out that the Amritsar cricket team is holding tryouts for selection. She gets extremely excited and runs off to become the town’s new batting star. Unfortunately, when she goes to the tryout, the security guards and the rest of the men in line scoff at the notion that a woman could play cricket with them. Rani is heartbroken. Rani realizes that she can dress up as a man and possibly fool the cricketers into letting her onto the team! Rani freaks out when she sees that the same foreign jerk who annoyed her, Rohan, is the captain. She stumbles and lies and tells him her name is Veer Pratap Singh. Veer succeeds in impressing Rohan and is accepted into the team. After a lot of fun-filled moments between Rohan, Veera and Veer Pratap Singh, its time for the final cricket match. Rohan’s mother comes down from England to see the match. This also allows her and Vikram to reconcile a bit. You know, it’s a Yash Raj Film, tied up loose ends and all that. The game starts off with India fielding and Pakistan batting. Rohan is an excellent bowler and the Indian team is hitting wickets left right and centre. Not to mention that Veer catches a ball before it can reach the outer field. The rest of the cricket team is rejoicing at the auspicious start that they have and the boys dog pile Veer. In the process, Rohan ends up with one of Veer’s contacts in his hand and realizes that Veer was actually Veera all along. He hands her back the contact, but the look in his eyes says it all. He’s furious.  After this point, the Indian team falls apart. They had been doing excellently, but suddenly Rohan can’t bowl at all anymore. He’s completely distracted and the batsmen take full advantage. Even Veer is unable to catch the balls while fielding. The announcers admit that, once again, India is pretty much screwed. Rohan dismisses her from the team and India starts off batting without their star batsman. The first few overs of batting are a complete mess. Rohan is basically keeping the team alive, because the rest of his team are pretty terrible at batting. Rohan’s father, who walked in on the argument Veer and Rohan had in the change rooms, knows that Veera was actually Veer. He convinces Rohan to let her back onto the team, as she is the only hope. Veer gets back on the field and the duo of Rohan and Veer get into the groove. They continue on triumphantly, closing the impossible gap between India and Pakistan. One of the Pakistan players accidentally trips Veer during a run and she ends up injuring her arm badly. The Pakistani bowlers are shocked when Veer switches over from right-handed batting to left-handed batting and is still able to bat reasonably well.
 
We are given many a dramatic moment after that (seriously how am I supposed to explain this?) and finally the Indian team wins! Not that any of us was surprised. They are all freaking ecstatic and Rohan is about to be awarded Man of the Match. Rohan announces that he was not the Man of the Match and that, really, the man of the match wasn’t a man at all! He takes off Veer’s turban, facial hair and contacts to reveal that Veer is actually Veera. People are pretty pissed off. So Veera steps up to the microphone to knock some sense into everyone. In the usual dramatic flair of Bollywood movies, we get an emotional speech about equality, ambitions, perseverance and dreams.  We are left with a very happy ending with the team lifting the trophy and Veera and Rohan reuniting. Your typical Yash Raj film, but just as satisfying as you would expect. To top it all off, we get to see an extremely hot Shahid and Rani in the video ‘Hadippa The Remix’ as the credits roll by.
 
Overall, I would definitely recommend Dil Bole Hadippa. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie that doesn’t take itself so seriously. I really liked that aspect of DBH. Plus, if you’re a Rani fan, this is most definitely the movie for you. She is beyond amazing and she is back like she’s never been before. Shahid is pretty much the most adorable thing ever and also a good reason to check out the film.