Maine Dil Tujhko Diya Review {2/5} & Review Rating
The film industry has one more performer to look forward to ? Sohail Khan. Though his debut film as an actor, MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA, is not without its share of flaws, the youngster has it in him to deliver the goods.
Scripted-directed by Sohail Khan himself, G.S. Entertainment's MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA is a mishmash of innumerable love stories witnessed in the past.
Mr. Verma (Kabir Bedi) is a tycoon, who has single-handedly brought up his two daughters with utmost care and protection. Though his love towards both remains undivided, he is overprotective of his elder daughter Ayesha (Sameera Reddy) due to her shy nature.
Ayesha is exposed to the fast-paced Mumbai life on her first day of college where she meets Ajay (Sohail Khan). Ajay and Ayesha are drawn to each other, but their fondness for each other comes under the watchful eye of Chopra (Dalip Tahil), a conniving business associate of Verma, who wants his son to marry Ayesha.
Chopra takes no time in cautioning Verma and paints a poor and negative picture of Ajay. Verma gets convinced further when, at a function, he unknowingly gets into an altercation with Ajay, with both being unaware of each other's identity.
Meanwhile, without Verma's knowledge, Chopra calls upon the widely notorious Bhaijaan (Sanjay Dutt) to rough Ajay up and thereby warn him to keep away from Ayesha. Bhaijaan, who is given a wrong impression of Ajay, heads to the college but is mistakenly hit by Ajay.
This angers Bhaijaan but due to the commencement of Ramzan month, he is unable to retaliate. Now Bhaijaan takes the task of setting Ajay straight upon himself, but can do so only after Chand Mubarak, which marks the end of the Ramzan period.
Not wanting to waste more time, Chopra instigates Bhaijaan's ambitious henchmen Chotte (Sarfaraz Khan) and Munna (Rajpal Yadav) to take immediate action, promising the former enormous wealth which would help in realizing his secret desire to overthrow Bhaijaan.
As a result, without Bhaijaan's knowledge, Ajay is mercilessly and brutally roughed up and thrown out of the city limits, warned to stay away from Verma's daughter. With the strong belief that Verma is instrumental in getting him beaten up, Ajay challenges Verma that he will get married to Ayesha in 24 hours.
Verma gets taken aback and promises that he will use all his power, even at the cost of losing his empire, to prevent Ajay from even coming close to his daughter. Also, he decides to get his daughter married within the next 24 hours to Chopra's son.
From the script point of view, MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA offers no novelty whatsoever. A story of two lovers who face parental opposition, this eagerly anticipated flick flounders in the story department.
Actually, the story hardly moves in the first half. The boy meets girl scenes and the college campus portions, barring a few scenes, hardly excite. In short, the first half is too average to mesmerise the audience interest.
Sanjay Dutt's entry at the interval point brings in the much-needed thrill. And although the second half moves on a predictable path, it must be said to Sohail's credit that the narrative is so fast-paced and stylish that the viewer overlooks the flaws.
Although Sohail is handicapped by a weak script, yet a couple of sequences remain etched in your memory even after the show concludes. The rugby match, the clash between Sohail and Rajpal Yadav in the college campus and the interval point ? Sanju's introduction ? can easily be singled out.
In the post-interval portions, the sequence when Sohail throws a challenge at Kabir Bedi and the climax are riveting as well.
But there's no denying that an original script was the need of the hour. Sohail, who's credited with the screenplay, has relied heavily on the age-old formula and the clich?stuff to narrate the love story and that's his major shortcoming. On the technical front, the film is quite well shot.
The action scenes (Amin Gani) are brilliant and will be loved by the viewers. Daboo Malik's music is a major asset. The love story is complimented by a lilting score and at least three numbers can be singled out ? the title track, 'Kuch Bhi Nahin Kuch Nahin Hai' and 'Thoda Sa Pyar Hua Hain'. The picturisation of the latter is spellbinding.
MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA works as a showreel to showcase the talent of Sohail as an actor. He looks dashing, conveys a lot through eyes, dances very well and is superb in stunts. His physique also contributes in enhancing his personality. However, he needs to go easy on his dialogue delivery and improve his diction. Nevertheless, a confident debut!
Sameera Reddy is plain mediocre. She needs to polish her acting skills, work on her facial expressions and improve diction. Sanjay Dutt excels in a role that comes to life with his presence. The audience is bound to cheer every time he appears.
Kabir Bedi is adequate. Dalip Tahil is as usual. Neeraj Vora, Rajpal Yadav, Raja and Sarfaraz Khan enact their parts well.
On the whole, MAINE DIL TUJHKO DIYA has an oft-repeated storyline as its biggest drawback, but wonderful music, vibrant action, aggressive promotion and of course, the curiosity to see Salman Khan's younger brother as an actor, as the USPs. At the box-office, the film, which holds more appeal for the youth, will settle down in the average category.
