Dil To Pagal Hai Review

Yash Chopra has competition (Aditya Chopra) and he isn?t exactly upto it. This venture of his is a thorough let-down, and is nothing but a recycled, glossy version of a story told countless times. All the gloss doesn?t serve to hide the shallowness of the script.

Shah Rukh plays Rahul (have the writers run out of names for him?), a happy-go-lucky stage director. He doesn?t believe in commitments, and neither does he respond to the subtle overtures of Nisha (Karishma Kapoor), the leading lady of his troupe. Pooja (Madhuri Dixit) has some fuddy-duddy notions of love. She believes that God has fixed her match, like those of everyone else. So, when her childhood friend, Ajay (Akshay Kumar), confesses his love for her, she gives her consent reluctantly. This is before she meets Rahul.

Nisha sustains a fracture during one of the rehearsals, and is ruled out for a considerable period. Pooja comes into the troupe as her replacement, for she happens to be a good dancer. Rahul and Pooja fall in love. The rest of the movie is spent sorting out the relationships between the foursome (Ajay included).

The sets of the film are so dapper and snazzy that they give the film an unreal look. The vegetable market where Rahul and Pooja meet is impossible to find in India. The film appears completely divorced from reality in what is otherwise a fairly plausible script ? notwithstanding the fact that it is so hackneyed. The screenplay in the second half is especially awry.

The songs were a big hit even before the film released, and have been suitably picturised. The song Le gayi, le gayi kicks off the film in style, and the rest of the film gets lost in that very style. The performances are nothing out of the ordinary, as Shah Rukh and Maduri have played such characters a number of times. Karishma sports a new look, and is the only one who has something new to offer in the way of performance.

By Yash Chopra?s standards, this film does not warrant any kudos.