A game of hearts

Shahid Kapur and Rani Mukherjee team up in Dil Bole Hadippa.

Dil Bole Hadippa
Cast: Rani Mukherjee, Shahid Kapur, Rakhi Sawant, Sherlyn Chopra, Anupam Kher, Dalip Tahil
Director: Anurag Singh
Rating: TBA

If there's a producer who should be credited for promoting Punjabi culture through Bollywood, then it has to be Yash Chopra. Now, his son Aditya Chopra carries the tradition forward under the Yash Raj Films banner with Dil Bole Hadippa. The movie combines two of India's main obsessions Bollywood and cricket!

The plot

Veera Kaur (Mukherjee) is a lively girl from a small village in Punjab who works for a local theatre group. Her dream, however, is to play cricket in the big league, with hopes of rubbing shoulders with top cricketers like Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni. Rohan (Kapur), the captain of an English county team, returns home so that he can lead his father's cricket team to a victory, which has eluded them for the past eight years. Since girls in the village aren't allowed to play the game, Veera disguises herself as a man Veer Pratap Singh and finds a place in Rohan's team. Here begins the roller coaster ride of the twin lives of Veera and Veer.

Turning hot

Dil Bole Hadippa marks the return of the talented Mukherjee after almost a one-year hiatus and she does so with a new toned look. In fact, Yash Raj Films is known to revamp their leading women's looks, turning them into glamour dolls. "I'm playing a cricketer in Dil Bole Hadippa and I had to tone my body in order to look athletic. It would've been odd if I looked a bit heavy and so I had to work on my body. I did yoga and weight training to achieve the new look," reveals Mukherjee.

As Veera, Mukherjee had to look naïve and beautiful, but as Veer, she had to look like a man. "Actually we modelled the looks of Veer based on Harbhajan Singh (Indian cricketer) as he is the only Sikh in the Indian national team. I have interacted with Sachin Tendulkar and asked him to watch my film since I'm depicted as his fan."

Limited to Yash Raj Films

Mukherjee's fans want to see more of her on-screen but she's been taking a long break, with occasional appearances in the media for reports on her personal life. So what keeps her away from the big screen? "If I'm not seen more often in films, it's simply because I don't come across any challenging roles. In fact, given an option I would love to do multiple films simultaneously but I need to get good roles."

Surprisingly in the last few years, Mukherjee has primarily stuck with Yash Raj Films. "Yash Raj Films offers me different roles that challenges me as an actress. The fact that I have done so many films with them probably makes them have faith in me as an actress and I'm more than comfortable doing their films. There is no use signing films with other banners, just to prove a point," reasons Mukherjee.

More appeal

This is the first time Mukherjee is teaming up with the younger Kapur. And it's interesting to hear what the actress had to say about her co-star. "There was nothing awkward between us despite me being older than him. In fact, I should say that I am impressed with his hard work and sincerity."

Besides Mukherjee and Kapur form a unique on-screen couple, the other high point in Dil Bole Hadippa is the presence of reality TV queen Rakhi Sawant and Sherlyn Chopra, who is the unofficial queen of wallpapers.

Music composer Pritam adds to the film's youthful appeal with his pulsating Punjabi-based tracks. Hopefully, it will dance its way to the box office.