Directed by Kathir, the cast comprises of Kunal, Sonali Bendre, Nasser, Jhonny Lever, Chinni Jayanth, and Anupam Kher.
The film startsout with protagonist, Raja [Kunal] who hails from a poor family, comesto Mumbai to do his MBA course at the Ramchandra University. Along theway, he gets into an Cyber-Cafe(Note: Film was released during theintroduction of the internet-age) where he chats up with Roja. A coupleof songs and whatnots later, the story takes a twist filled withtearjerkers, paariwaar and whatnot.
While the songs rendered byMaestro Mozart A.R Rahman are absolutely brilliant [Ae Nazaneen SunoNa, Chand Aaya Hai and Dola Dola are my favories] the dubbing is reallypoor. For about the first 30 minutes into the movie, the actors aresynched well in Hindi while the majority of the film is dubbed.
Apparently there are 2 causes to blame. Kathir and the Hindidistributors. Kathir for instance had actor Kunal in Leonardo di Capriohairstyle talk in badly dubbed dialogues while the "synched" dialogueshad his "Jack" hair gone. The dubbed portions are courtesy of Tamil hit, "Kaadhalar Dhinam." In fact, you can expect this much for the dubbed "Sivaji" hitting the North states pretty soon.
Back to DHDM, the actors who actually speak hindi are Anupam Kher, Jhonny Lever, Kunal(Non-Titanic, "Jack" hair) and Nasser(ONLY INSAWAR GAYEE SONG). The rest of them, Chinni Jayanth, Sonali, aredubbed. That aside, the story took a steady start but got plunged intothe pit of contrivance and somehow takes the Yash Chopra route in terms of presentation. No masala fights, just commericial songs. Oh and the dubbed tracks fromthe Tamil original were reshot in Hindi(except in instances in thebeginning of "Roja Roja" where Kunal’s dubbed line "Mere Roja" doesn’tmatch the tamil https://lyrics.)
Acting wise, Nasser is the highlightof the show. Be it his noble intentions of admitting Kathir to thecollege or his poor-house background. Kunal is adequate, but thetear-jearker stuff didn’t get me as misty as TAARE ZAMEEN PAR did.Also, his body language is irritating and repetitive.[read: his walkingstyle.] Sonali sleptwalk through her role. Chinni Jayanth is apt whileJohnny Lever tickles your funny bones to an extent. Anupam Kher isexcellent. The camera and visuals are excellent.
Dil Hi Dil Mein is flawed but it’s a timepass if you can ignore the dubbing and go for Rahman’s Best Score till date.
Rating: *