Review of Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega

Introduction

Heavily inspired by the Priyadarshan film Chandraleka (1999), and the American film While You Were Sleeping (1997), Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega aims to be a complete timepass entertainer.

From the glossy and colourful credit sequence Salman Khan is seen singing a Tapori style song in Goa, which is actually filmed in Mauritius (?). Now you understand what kind of film we are dealing with. Inconsistencies and overly melodrama, which are made up of camera shots going side to side with violins and drums playing aloud. I don`t normally mind this (if I did how would I love Indian movies) but what I do mind is how the director undermines us, the audiences.

Signs of fanatical art direction by Sharmistha Roy are seen via her set designs. With bright colours and cheaply glossiness added to the sets, it gave me an impression that too much escapism was created for the film and made the subject seemed a little off key. Special effects were not bad, while cinematography by W.B. Rao still showed his wonderful notion of capturing cinematic frames. Farah Khan`s choreography was still as good as ever and added more emphasis on Anu Malik`s poor and copied songs. Performances ranged from fare to embarrassing, although Priety Zinta displays a heart warming role for her character.

EROS Multimedia has now brought this movie onto DVD for the second time, with extra features that will benefit some viewers.

Video

This DVD has kept the original intentions of the director as it has been framed according to the original aspect ratio of 2.45:1. A bonus point of this DVD is that it has been anamorphically transferred. However the picture quality is rather questionable when I look closer at the disc.

The DVD has been encoded on a dual layer disc eliminating problems mostly related to the encoding of the film onto DVD. Quibbles like compression artefacts, grain, and other elements of encoded distortion are not apparent. Also problems like wear and tear are kept to a minimum and only appeared in less then a few shots, in the forms of little dust spots. Don`t worry as they won`t be distractible to viewing. The slightest bit of shimmering and moiré effects were visible in just a handful of shots.

The one major problem this DVD had is that of its softness, which really affects viewing. A sense of blurs are constant throughout the duration of the picture, and at times hinders picture information. The star credit scenes, which has the special effects of super imposed lettering around the environment, is an example of softness that affects viewing. Picture detail could have been more so revealed if the encoders increased the sharpness of the overall frame a little more.

Colours added cinematic definition, which were similar to the glossiness seen by the loud art direction and environment the film had when I viewed it on the big screen. There were no signs of any colour distortion which helped the bright and vivid colours come to life. Blacks details and shadow were fairly solid at parts, thought they tended to be slightly weak during night scenes. This made some aspects of what was happening harder to understand. Chapter 11, which shows a car accident during the night, is an example of what I mean. Contrast levels are well defined.

Audio

The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack had its moments, with its active front surround. However the back surround channels seemed too monoic, making the whole experience sound more like Dolby Surround rather then Dolby 5.1. Still the dialogues are clear and warm, while the sound effects heard on the front channels are audible and ferocious helping the overly dramatic score come into power, without sounding too harsh.

It would have been nice if the back channels added a 360 degree soundfield to the overall sound on the DVD, as it was presented like so during its theatrical run.

Features

Supplements are okay and contained mostly EPK (Electronic Press Kit) Items. With a run of the mill making of feature, lasting around 20 mins. Other bonuses included a one minute song promo, and two karaoke tracks from the film.

The karaoke feature, which has two songs `Piya Piya` & `Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega`, was impressive and will help
budding singers with their vocal chords. My little five year old cousin was singing the song `Piya Piya` and she really had fun. Obviously this feature will attract similar treatment from a wide range of audiences. The music was very much like the original track except there was no vocal chords, as if it was a isolated music track. A welcomed feature that will be popular. There is even a separate guide track to help you along with the singing. Also the Hindi lyrics are written in English characters so you can read them as you sing along.

Menus were thematic in design and were easy to navigate over. But the quality of the still used was questionable.

Also included is a very attractive booklet which contains Hindi written lyrics of all the songs from the film.

A mention should go to the English Subtitles used for the main feature, which was very well laid out font and grammar wise.

Conclusion

The DVD does have a fare standard of quality. The colours are well defined, and there are moments of good imaging. Also the warm innovated use of supplements in terms of the karaoke feature, subtitles and the usual EPK items, will please some viewers. Yet the softness of the overall picture information, and weak 5.1 sound make this DVD hit the average.