Go for it if you are a die-hard fan of SRK

Ugly Betty gets married only to teach philandering husband a lesson or two after turning into a beautiful swan with much needed help from a soft hearted - high-strung diva. Yeh story jaisi koi nahin? You’re Wrong.

Tej Dhanraj/ Donsai (Fardeen Khan) is a philandering billionaire bachelor against the very institution of marriage. He faces a major setback when in a will left by his dead father says that he would have to marry a certain Samarpreet Kaur (Ishita Sharma) from Punjab in the next 15 days or the 5 billion bank balance will be credited to the Trinidad and Tobago fisheries. He hatches a plan of marrying the innocent Punjabi girl, flying off without her leaving her monthly instalments in return. She then decides to come to Trinidad to meet high strung supermodel Shimmer (Sushmita Sen) who transforms the ugly duckling into a beautiful swan to teach him a lesson.

Other than shooting at Trinidad and Tobago, Dulha Mil Gaya has nothing much to boast about. A film that took many years to see the light of day should have released 5 years ago in order to appeal to the masses. Considering the fact that they chose to shoot in such a beautiful location, the tacky sets leave a bad taste in your mouth. Also the whole Dilwale Dulhaniya esque Punjab setting is a mediocre approach to the Yash Chopra trademark.

The film picks up with Shah Rukh Khan making his entry in the second half as a major welcome relief. He breathes life into the slow paced, dull setting as the madly in love Pawan Raj Gandhi, PRG and is probably the only highlight of the film after Sushmita Sen. The role of Shimmer was tailor made to suit Sush, Mudassar seems to have envisioned his rumoured lady love as the part of the high strung but soft-hearted diva who takes Ishita under her wing. She looks simply gorgeous and is the show-stealer indeed. Her diva-like nuances along with her scenes with Ishita in the plane are the highlights of the film.

However it’s the hotch potch of a screenplay and unwitty dialogues along with bad direction that take away the charm from Dulha Mil Gaya. Ishita Sharma is aptly cast as the sweet, innocent Samarpreet Kaur and the girl definitely has potential. Fardeen Khan needs to lose some serious weight and let go off the thought of him being naturally suave and sophisticated as his dad, he’s simply not. Mohit Chadda needs to tone himself down and what actually was Tara Sharma doing in the movie in the first place, is what I still don’t understand.

The underlying message that Dulha Mil Gaya gives out is when somebody loves the other with all their might, they are never reciprocated with the same type of emotion. Mudassar felt that would connect with couples today but I just felt he was simply narrating his own love story.

The debutant director has a long way to go in terms of filmmaking and a couple of more years with script writing. The background score is a migraine and the music is nothing to talk about with Akela Dil being the only memorable number. The scenes on the cruise reminded me of the kiddish VFX in Jab We Met. Heck, you’d even spot the green screen if you stare hard. The film will work in single screens only because of SRK's presence, it’s difficult for it to stay put in multiplexes.

I’d be an Idiot if I tag Dulha Mil Gaya as a one time watch, then again I’d just go and watch 3 Idiots again and revel in my idiocy there.

Samiya Shakir/Hill Road Media