Tips, Kundan Shah and Preity Zinta – the combination worked earlier on a progressive theme in KYA KEHNA. The results were extremely heartening.

And now the team comes together yet again in DIL HAI TUMHAARA – a film that is sure to pull your heart strings. The outcome is overwhelming!

Tips Films' DIL HAI TUMHAARA, directed by Kundan Shah, tells the story of a woman and her two daughters.

It tells the story of an influential widow Sarita-ji (Rekha), who has everything – wealth, power, political acumen and two lovely daughters, Shalu (Preity Zinta) and Nimmi (Mahima Chaudhary).

It tells the story of two sisters who are dramatically different from each other, yet totally devoted to each other. While Shalu is spirited and full of mischief, Nimmi is feminine and gentle.

Shalu makes friends wherever she goes and nobody is immune to her spontaneous vivacity. Yet, for Sarita-ji, this lovely child is a thorn embedded in her heart. She smothers the quiet Nimmi with her love, while ignoring and undermining poor Shalu.
 

Enter Dev (Arjun Rampal), the sophisticated Harvard-returned son of a business tycoon (Alok Nath), who comes to close down the factory that is the lifeline of the local people and ends up becoming their saviour.

There's Samir (Jimmy Shergil), an ace ventriloquist, who can express his feelings only through his craft. And when he finally finds his voice, he discovers it's too late.

DIL HAI TUMHAARA is about a vivacious girl who has two wonderful men vying for her love, while all she yearns for is her mother's love.

This is not the first time that we have witnessed a theme on such relationships. Two men (Arjun, Jimmy) falling in love with the same girl (Preity) have been witnessed umpteen times in the past. Ditto for two sisters (Mahima, Preity) falling for the same guy (Arjun). But what makes DIL HAI TUMHAARA different is the way the age-old plot has been handled.

The initial reels set the ball rolling. After establishing the plot and the main characters, the story then diversifies to the two sisters (Mahima, Preity), the men (Arjun, Jimmy) in their lives, the factory issue, the villains…
 

It is only towards the interval point that the story actually picks up from where it began. If light moments (a few interesting, a couple of them mind-numbing!) dominate the first half, the second half tilts towards drama and emotions. And the drama is maintained right till the finale.

Director Kundan Shah is an uncomplicated story-teller. The plot is simple and so is the technique while executing the scenes. But a couple of dramatic sequences are exemplary. Notable among them being when Rekha confronts Preity and reveals the murky past. Or, for that matter, when Preity reveals the reality to Alok Nath in the pre-climax. Even the culmination of the love story is just right and well treated.

The treatment succeeds in making your heart reach out for the protagonist and that's where the director scores. The sensitivity with which Shah has handled the sensitive mother-daughter relationship deserves full marks.

But as the co-writer (he shares the credits with Rajkumar Santoshi), he should've avoided concentrating too much on the factory issue in the first half. Even the villain's track (Govind Namdev) seems totally unwarranted.

Nadeem-Shravan's music is among the USPs of this enterprise. The film has soulful music that is sure to remain etched in your memory for a long, long time. 'Mohabbat', 'Kasam Khha Ke Kaho', 'Dil Laga Liya' and the title track are the pick of the lot.
 

The film has some of the most talented names in the business and it is Preity Zinta, in an author-backed role, who steals the show with a sterling performance. Her scenes with Rekha (second half) and Alok Nath (pre-climax) are simply outstanding. Here's a performance that is sure to win accolades from the junta and critics whole-heartedly.

Rekha is simply outstanding in a role that seems tailormade for her. Mahima Chaudhary is excellent, delivering the right expressions. Her expressive eyes convey a lot in the 'Dil Laga Liya' number.
 

Arjun Rampal doesn't get much scope in an enterprise that's dominated by women, but he does leave an impression whenever he comes on screen. Jimmy Shergill gets less footage, but does reasonably well. Alok Nath is first-rate. Govind Namdev, Anjan Srivastava and Vivek Shauq support well.

On the whole, DIL HAI TUMHAARA has dollops of emotions to make the viewers shed buckets of tears and enough merits to make the distributors laugh all the way to the bank. Excellent music, an impressive face-value and fantastic promotion by Tips should result in the film winning the dil of cinegoers.