Mon coeur vous appartient

HDAPH could have been a much better film had the so-called comedy scenes been toned down, reduced, or deleted all together. At times, they were so tedious that I was tempted to fast forward the DVD. I was starting to feel that the director, writers, and producers were reluctant to approach a serious topic without infusing it with massive overdoses of nonsensical nonsense. If not, then the only reason for the comedy was to pad the film to make it longer. This is about the 3rd Indian movie that I have seen recently where the comedy sequences brought the primary story line to a screeching halt and seriously eroded the impact of the film on the viewer. I would have changed my vote from a 6 to an 8 had the comedy been deleted and the rest of the story fleshed out in greater detail.

As for the rest of the story, I liked all the performances although Sonali Bendre was a little much at times. I am also constantly amazed over how Anil Kapoor's character in this film and most of his movies is easily able to beat up one or two dozen bad guys without having any idea how he became so skilled. He just does not fit the role of a Sunny Deol.

The songs and locations were good although somewhat out of place but that is OK and significantly more palatable than feeble attempts at comedy.

The film is severely awful and is demeaning to rape victims. On the surface, it may be a daring film about rape but if you dig beneath the surface, what lies is a not-so-positive message about rape. Aishwarya the rape victim is shown to be a helpless victim who cannot cope all because she is a WOMAN. She needs a MAN to help her. When the society makes jibes about her and throws comments at her, she does not stand up for herself. It is all left to Anil Kapoor to do all the talking while Aishwarya does all the crying.

The director (Satish Kaushik) went down the wrong path by portraying a rape victim as weak and submissive. What would have been more effective is portraying a strong woman who rebels against her enemies in a courageous way. The director is famous for being chauvinistic. His films are usually full of weak women but he tries to hide them in controversial roles. He needs to learn that just because the role is controversial, it does not mean that the character herself is strong.

The most degrading scene in the film is when Aishwarya 'cleans' herself after just being raped. She does it to please her father who thinks that she is now dirty. Though it is commendable that Shah shows the stigma against rape victims in such a stark light, what he does not show us is whether Ash's father was wrong for making his daughter do such a thing. Thus we are left with a confusing message about rape.

The comedy too is not needed in a strong subject film like this. Even more so, the comedy is simply not funny. Ash is wooden in her role while Anil Kapoor does nothing but shout. The music is mediocre except for the title track, which is beautifully picturised (the only bright point of this film). Sonali Bendre's role is disappointing and pointless. Overall, what could have been a great movie to remember ends up being an awful mish-mash that will give some viewers severe indigestion.

The story started with a simple happy family of Avinash (Anil Kapoor) and Preeti (Aishwarya Rai) having a family outing with their two kids. On the next scene, we saw that Preeti was hated by her own father. As the curiosity of the audience started to increase, the story unfolds itself when the film showed flashback for the audience to know the real story of Preeti and Avinash. Both have a dark secret that they tried to hide.

The story coped about the stigma in India on rape victims. It was clearly illustrated in the film that a rape victim will be shunned by her own family and society. She would be doomed to be unmarried for life since her father would be ashamed to consider her as 'perished goods'. An astounding performance by the lead especially Aishwarya Rai as Preeti, the rape victim. I would suggest this story to anyone who wanted to see the taboo breaking on rape victim in India.

Satish Kaushik after the hit HUM AAPKE DIL MEIN REHTE HAI which showed Indians as holy and foreign people as bad he returns with a better HAMARA DIL AAPKE PAAS HAI again with Anil the film also has Aishwarya Rai with whom Anil worked in TAAL(1999) before

The film deals with the story of aftermath of rape faced in women and how she can live a normal life later

The film starts off well and Anil's outburst is brilliantly handled only the film gets too melodramatic at places but yet the dramatic scenes are well handled

the comedy however fails badly and looks like a stage play where comedy is forced in and the comedy is crude

The scenes between Anil and Aish are well handled but there are too many songs and action scenes some which are too much and the film drags in the second half

Direction by Satish Kaushik is good Music is good

Anil Kapoor acts brilliantly in the role and he shows his maturity as an actor Aishwarya too acts very well here, proving if given a good chance and directed well she can act Sonali jumps around too much and annoys Puru Raaj Kumar is okay Mukesh Rishi annoys, Satish Kaushik is funny Anupam Kher, Jaspal Bhatti and the entire bhasti waale irritate Johny is funny in his role Anang Desai and Smita Jaikar are typecast

This movie should be rated a lot higher. From the AMAZING acting from Anil Kapoor and ARB, it was quite the ride. The story was almost perfect, was just stretched out a bit. Highly recommend this to everyone.