What a letdown!!! I simply refuse to believe that this flick is directed by the same man who bought us 'Bombay', 'Roja', 'Anjali' and so forth.
But to give the man his due credit the idea behind the move is great. 'Dil Se..' revolves around an All India news reporter, Amar Verma (Shah Rukh Khan) in search of a terrorist story within northern territory who instead falls in love with a cold and lifeless terrorist - Meghna (Manisha Koirala).
When she refuses to give in to his charms and disappears without a trace Amar returns home and is soon engaged to bubbly Preeti (Preity Zinta). All's well that ends well you say...? Well not quite. Meghna returns and seeks refuge within Amar's household who willingly obliges unknown to the fact that Meghna along with her terrorist buddies plans to wreak havoc at the Independance Day celebrations. In the process Amar ends up getting framed and soon discovers the truth about Meghna and sets about to stop her at any cost.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned earlier this movie is an extremely big disappointment. A case of too many great chefs spoiling the broth perhaps? The script is in one word shoddy - for example you can't understand why Amar's character does the things he does for Meghna, when it's obvious that his so called 'love' is nothing beyond infatuation. Added to which, some scenes just seem to be there in the movie to display the artistes acting abilities - take Manisha's flash back scenes which, though relevant, appear at the wrong point in the story and seem rushed. And off course lets not forget the hopelessly melodramatic ending in which the two main protagonists explode and prove their love to one another.
Off course 'Dil Se..' does have it's redeeming factors in the form of newcomer Preity Zinta who oozes confidence and enthusiasm, even in an abbreviated role. Manisha Koirala is good but her etchy characterisation doesn't allow her to rise above the flawed script. Shah Rukh Khan is as energetic as ever and is simply fabulous in the chase and interrogation scenes. A.R. Rahman's music and Santosh Sivan's cinematography are also top notch but at the end of it all one is left feeling that if the film had been made a bit more 'Dimaag Se' it would have captivated the audience to some extent....oh well you can't win 'em all I guess...
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