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at 09:47:22 pm on October 7, 2006
Seeming that Aaditya Datt’s ‘Aashiq Banaya Aapne’ didn’t rock my world, I wasn’t expecting too much from his next venture. ‘Dil Diya Hai’ is a love story with a backdrop of sexual exploitation. The film is set in a red light, ‘up market’ brothel kind of place, which we are told is the outskirts of London. But I could’ve sworn that it was the same film set they used in last year’s ‘Kalyug’! Kunal (Ashmit Patel-in his most wooden role to date) runs the brothel. He is fed up with foreign girls and wants ”brown skin”! We are shown that he’s not much of a nice guy, as he chases a girl who tries to escape, and kills her. But not before kissing her forcefully and ripping her clothes off…. I still have no idea what that scene was all about!
Saahil (Emraan Hasmi) works at a travel agency in the U.K, but our ‘hero’ is shown looking disturbed and depressed most of the time, as his mother is ill in hospital. He assigns his job of taking Neha (newcomer Geeta Basra) and her family for a tour of the U.K, to his clumsy work colleague, who messes up Geeta’s holiday plans, so Saahil has to rectify the mistake by being at Geeta’s beck and call day and night. All’s well, until the doctors ask Saahil to raise 40k for his mothers operation, as the N.H.S wont cover for it… (I didn’t know they did that in the U.K but I guess you learn something new everyday!) He tries his hand at gambling and to borrow the money, but fails miserably. As if Saahil doesn’t have enough worries of his own, Geeta manages to miss her train to Scotland, so Saahil has the Herculean task of reuniting her with her family in Scotland by car. Along this road trip, Geeta falls head over heels in love with our hero. But only after puking all over his car after eating a stale sandwich! Geeta’s dreams of love are interrupted with sudden bouts of sickness (the sandwich, not pregnancy!) and the couple manage to befriend and stay at some random strangers house, who likes to entertain guest with his instruments (a cameo by Mithun).
As if that would happen! The twist in the tale comes about when Saahil, in his desperation for money, sells Geeta at the brothel. The film falls flat straight after this point. Mainly because Saahil realises he has fallen in love with her, after selling her! And Kunal realises he’s fallen in love with Neha and wants to marry her, because…..er..that’s still a mystery considering he treats women as a piece of meat and refers to them as F***** B****’s (yes, he actually uses the ‘F’ word, shame shame! But what is impressive is how he manages to say it with moving his lips!!) The rest of the film is not even worth going into. What could have been a half decent thriller, turns out to be a forced love story, which is neither her nor there. Ashmit doesn’t perform well. His character having a sudden change of heart doesn’t help much either. Geeta Basra shows confidence and doesn’t do badly considering it’s her first movie..
But it is Emraan Hashmi who plays his part with utmost conviction. I say this not being a Hashmi fan myself, but you do see the sincerity reflected in his performance. He does exceptionally well in the initial scenes where he is shown to be very distressed and deep in thought. Himesh Reshamiya gives an ok score, with a couple of hummable numbers, especially ‘jabse ankh’, ‘mile ho tum’ and the title track. Monty, who gave the background score for Aaditya’s earlier film, lifts the film in a couple of scenes, but is capable of doing better!
