Film Review: ''Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein''

MISS ASIA-PACIFIC Diya Mirza comes across as stunningly beautiful on the silver screen. Chiselled features -- aquiline nose, round cheeks, slender lips, pointed chin, luminous eyes, luxuriant eyelashes. She is stunningly good. Until, she speaks. Then she is stunningly flat. There is placidity to her voice, which far from being becoming is actually quite disconcerting. Whether she smiles or sighs, she looks just the same. Whether she makes a candid proclamation of love or lets out a scream of hatred, she remains stolid. Call it consistency of expression if you will but here is a debutante who does not go beyond looking great and feeling good.

She is pleasant to look at but not quite voluptuous enough in the way Hindi film audience want their heroines to be. It seems she just does not let herself go, preferring to keep a bit in the reserve all the time.

Cast opposite R. Madhavan here -- also making his Hindi film debut in ``Rehnaa Hai Terre Dil Mein'', which opened at cinema halls this past week -- whose malleability of face will take him far, she comes second best.

In her interviews in the run-up to the release of the film, which is a remake of Tamil film, ``Minnale'', she has been quoted as saying that patience is one of her virtues.

Seeing her `placid' performance here she will have plenty of opportunity to exercise it as she tries to make a home for herself in the heart of the cinegoers.

But she can take heart. Lesser girls have gone on to greater things in Bollywood. She is better than many beginners.

As for Madhavan, well, here is a man who should give our current chocolate cream heroes a run for their cherry. He has nuances, which engage the viewer's attention long after the fleeting camera has moved on to other things. In his first foray in Hindi films, he comes up with a charged performance, bringing to his character -- of a mischievous, albeit desperate lover -- street combustibility. His raw energy is enthusing and his Hindi not quite flawed in the way other South Indian heroes have articulated their dialogue in the past.

Now on to ``Rehnaa Hai....''. Well, it is the nth story of a young man besotted with the girl he eyes for the first time on a rainy night on a public road under the shadows of dim lights. But the man is -- predictably -- tongue-tied when it comes to expressing his feelings for the girl. She flies in and out of every frame. A falling dupatta here, a shining earring there. In between there are smiles, which make infinity easier to fathom. And our man is truly besotted. But there is a problem. The girl is beautiful alright but also betrothed. How he goes about winning over his lady love -- if at all -- is what ``Rehnaa Hai....''is all about. Nice, neat, naughty fun.

The film, with a pleasant music score by Harris Jayaraj, opened without much by way of advance booking. But it is not a bad bargain at the end of a long day. There are parts where you would actually enjoy the courting game between a game hero and a gorgeous heroine. Fine one-liners, good gestures. But then a part does not a whole make.

And the problem with director Gautam Menon's film is that the part is not identifiable with the whole. ``Rehnaa Hai....''may not be ``Dil Chahta Hai'', but it is not something your sweetheart will complain about if you saunter across to one of the cinema halls playing this latest musical lover story from the assembly line cinema of Bollywood.

ZIYAUS SALAM

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