It appears that Kundan Shah came up with a novel idea with tremendous potential. He then gets Tips to back up the project and manages to get a cast of Rekha, Priety Zinta, Mahima Choudhary and Arjun Rampal.
However, shock horror, somewhere during the course of shooting, Shah seemed to have forgotten the basic premise of the movie that was a widow adopting his husband’s illegimate child born out of an affair out of compulsion. What could have been a rivetting and interesting theme is relegated to the background and is probabaly given less then 30% of screen time. Instead we have to be subjected to a banal romance with some ludicrous situations that really test the intellegence of any sane viewer. Add to that a comedy track and the result is unbearable.
Kundan Shah has made some terrific films but clearly loses it this time. The basic problem is that it seems that Shah in making a commercial potboiler seems to have strung together a comedy track, about 7-8 songs, a romance, trinagle love story and from whatever little space he had left he manages to weave in the actual mother-daughter story. The pity is that a few moments of Dil Hai Tumhara do show some sparkle. The scenes where Rekha confronts Zinta about her actual identity are heartwrenching and the reconcilliation between the two is brought out very well in a finale. However, 4-5 scenes cannot save a movie and DHT is no exception.
The music has a few good tracks but is usual Nadeem Shravan stuff. More-so, the placements and picturisations leave alot to be desired.
Among performances, Priety Zinta shines in an author backed role is perhaps the only redeeming factor in this sorry enterprise. She handles her comedy scenes with flair but is truly dynamite in the emotional scenes. One does feel sorry for her being let down so badly by her director though. Rekha handles her role with ease and is also ver effective. Mahima gets limited scope to perform but is still very effective. Arjun Rampal is truly irritating in the comedy scenes and actually evokes laughter in his emotional scenes where he is as stiff as a wood. Can he please go to acting school. As for Jimmy Shergil his five scene charecterisation is so ludicrous that one cannot really blame him for sleep walking through the film.
Overall DHT is unwatchable, barring 4-5 scenes and a wonderful performance by Priety Zinta. However still these cannot save the fil for being an absolute dud. My advice catch the India-West Indies match or watch Forrest Gump for the tenth time on HBO instead oe even DDLJ for the twenty fifth.
Bottomline: Avoid!!