Tips Films Dil Hai Tumhaara is an emotional tale of an illegitimate child. Unaware that she (Preity Zinta) is the step-daughter of her mother (Rekha), she realises, however, right in her childhood that her mother loves her sister (Mahima Chaudhry) more than her. The emotional bond between the two sisters is, nevertheless, very strong. As luck would have it, both fall in love with the same handsome boy (Arjun Rampal). The boy reciprocates the love of the illegitimate daughter, but the sister (Mahima) thinks, he is in love with her (Mahima). The mother thinks that her step-daughter is trying to wean away her daughter`s love from her. She is unaware that the boy does not love her biological daughter.

Seeing her daughter`s chances of marriage getting jeopardised, the mother reveals all - that her husband had fathered the other girl and how, after the death of her husband and his paramour, she had raised the orphan as her own child. She accuses her of trying to ruin her daughter`s life just as her mother had ruined her own life.

Distraught, the illegitimate daughter decides to move out of the path of her sister whom she genuinely loves. She even pleads with the boy to forget her and marry her sister instead. Not just this, when the truth about her identity threatens to break the marriage of her sister, she even confronts the boy`s family members and begs of them to not cancel the impending marriage only because of her illegitimate status.This emotionally moves the mother who realises that her husband`s illegitimate daughter is actually a golden-hearted girl. Finally, the sister also gets to know the truth and unites her golden-hearted step-sister with her boyfriend while herself refusing to become the bride.

The story (Rajkumar Santoshi) is very emotional but the screenplay (Rajkumar Santoshi and Kundan Shah) does not do full justice to its potential. Had the scenes showing the mother firing the step-daughter in the first half been more heart-wrenching, not just the emotional impact but also the base of the film would`ve been stronger. As it happens, the mother fires her step-daughter but not without reason. The sentiments would`ve been more touching if she had insulted Preity for absolutely no fault of hers. This is a major drawback of the film.

The first half has several light moments which are entertaining. Despite a lot of laughter before interval, the feeling the audience gets up with at interval-point is that of having seen a frivolous story. The drama picks up a bit post-interval but the real emotions start once the mother decides to bare her heart out and tell her step-daughter of her real identity.From then on, right till the climax, there are scenes which make the audience weep.The climax is quite tame, comparatively. Dialogue (Subrat Sinha) are very well-written - the light ones serve to create the right mood while the emotional ones definitely add to the drama.

Preity Zinta shines in an author-backed role and acts with admirable ease. Mahima Chaudhry has the lesser role but she too is brilliant. Rekha, as their mother, lives her role and emotes beautifully. Arjun Rampal looks handsome and does fairly well. Jimmy Shergill is very average. Alok Nath is alright in the limited scope he gets. Govind Namdev leaves a mark with his acting. Anjan Srivastava is effective. Gajraj Rao is also very good. Vivek Shauq and Dilip Joshi have been wasted. Sachin Khedekar does well in a brief role. Natasha Sinha, Achyut Potdar and child artistes Raveena Taurani, Karishma Lalwani, Shreya Chawla, Raj Bhatia and Tanvi lend good support.

Kundan Shah`s direction is good. His handling of the emotional scenes, especially, deserves special mention. But one wishes, he`d taken care of the aforementioned weaknesses of the screenplay. He could have also paid more attention to the studio scenes; Jimmy Shergill`s house on a studio set looks quite ridiculous, more so because it`s a film with fairly good production and technical values.

Music (Nadeem Shravan) is very melodious. `Mohabbat dil ka sukun`, the title track, `Dil laga liya` and `Chhaya hai jo dil pe` are the best songs. `Kasam kha ke kaho` and `O Saaybaa` are also tuneful. Song picturisations could`ve been much better. Camerawork (Jehangir Chowdhury) is of a good standard. Sham Kaushal`s action is functional. On the whole, Dil Hai Tumhaara has excellent emotions and family appeal to make the audience cry and, therefore, distributors smile.