Look, shiny things! Dil Bole Hadippa.

It's one of those movies.

Now, listen. Save anything directed by Siddharth Anand, I like YRF's recent string of releases. Let's put that on the table right now. I realize a lot of people disagree with me, hating Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, despising Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic, finding Aaja Naachle a tired film. I know I'm one of the handful of people who actually bothered rewatching Tashan. So to say this doesn't colour my opinion of this movie would be a blatant lie. (Oh and please, if you are one of those YRF haters, please save your tirades for your own blog, not the comment section of mine.)

Dil Bole Hadippa is one of those movies that YRF haters rejoice in finding, because it has all the things that people critisize the production house of being.

It's fluff with no hard edges that features an idealized Punjab (and an idealized, extremely patriotic view of India). It's colourful picturizations and goofy comedy, it's filmi references thrown in for a good measure, it's a film with a message that isn't necessarily delivered in the most delicate of ways. It's a film that entertains, but it's not a film that can afford being thought through, analyzed and picked apart.

And I quite like it.

Our hero is an NRI (of course) who arrives to Punjab to help his father out by coaching the cricket team that goes up against a Pakistani team every year in a friendly match. Rohan (Shahid Kapoor) is all roll-eyes and reluctant to stay. Meanwhile, a vivacious Punjabi girl Veera (ever-so-lovely Rani Mukherjee) dreams of cricket and nothing but cricket. Being conviniently a worker at a drama company, she decides to get into the team Rohan coaches, even if it means dressing up as a guy - and thus, Veera turns into Veer.

So despite the twenty billion plotholes, impossibilities, improbabilities and the fact the movie can't quite decide whether it wants to be a romantic entertainer or a cricket film, there's something about the film that simply entertains. Maybe it's Rani - while her comedic skills as Veer aren't pitch-perfect, they work good all the same and as Veera she's stunning and extremely lovable. Shahid's not given much to work with, but he does good with what he is given, and the chemistry between them works as well. (And as a fangirl note? Those arms should've had their own billing. Seriously.)

The soundtrack is sufficiently peppy and bhangra-influenced - not amazing, not incredibly original but you know, nice. Also, this is probably the second film where Rakhi Sawant actually works (the other one is Main Hoon Na, of course).

I am disappointed they didn't play around with the crossdressing aspect of the story more. There is so much potential if you take this route, and they didn't seem to even want to squeeze anything particularly new and exciting out of it.

So yeah, listen. I realize this is no DDLJ, nor is it CDI. But not all good films have to be great, they just have to have that something that keeps you wanting to go back. And I think this film has enough of that something, whether it be the songs, Rani's performance, the love story or Shahid('s arms ..sorry, I don't know where that came from).

Sometimes that's all I need.