What Is the Story About?
Netflix’s latest Bollywood acquisition “Haseen Dillruba” is a murder mystery and suspense drama, wrapped in small-town ethos.
Rani (Taapsee Pannu) is a free-spirited Delhi woman who loves reading Hindi crime novels. She wishes for a husband who will sweep her off her feet with his roguish charm. Instead, she’s saddled with the prim, proper and prudish small-town Rishu (Vikrant Massey). The entry of Rishu’s cousin Neel (Harshvardhan Rane) in Rani’s life lights a fire within her, and she indulges in a passionate hook-up with him. So when Rishu is murdered, she ends up as prime suspect in the eyes of Inspector Kishor (Aditya Srivastava). Is Rani an innocent victim of a conspiracy? Or is she a shrewd murderer?
Haseen Dillruba is produced by Aanand L. Rai and Himanshu Sharma, under their banner Colour Yellow Productions; Bhushan Kumar and Krishan Kumar, under their banner T-Series; and Eros International. It is written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Vinil Mathew.
Performances?
Vikrant Massey is easily the best part of Haseen Dillruba. His blow-hot-blow-cold avatar is something we’ve never seen before. Massey is blessed with the fluid ability to convey every emotion – love, anger, simmering rage, heartbreak – in tightly leashed tones, without ever having to resort to over-the-top histrionics; and he uses it to good effect here.
Taapsee Pannu is a disappointment. We can stick our neck out to say that Haseen Dillruba is her worst performance in recent years. Maybe it’s her poorly-etched out character—or the poorly written screenplay—that makes her turn as Rani incredibly unconvincing. Harshvardhan Rane’s Neel is insanely beefy, good-looking and capable of charming the knickers off every woman from sixteen to sixty. His performance is also spot on, despite the extremely underdeveloped character he’s been handed.
As Inspector Kishor, Aditya Srivastava slips back into his CID avatar with a vengeance. It is a character he can portray even in his sleep. A special mention for Yamini Das, who plays Rishu’s mother Lata. She is simply adorable as the disgruntled mother-in-law. Hers is also the one character that evokes some humour in an otherwise drab tale.
Analysis
Haseen Dillruba suffers due to a weak script, clunky dialogue and utterly uninteresting premise. It is a classic case of a place for everything but nothing in its place. Its plot can be best described as a faulty firecracker—shiny and alluring in the box, but goes “fussss” when put to the test. The dialogues are all style and no substance. Writer Kanika Dhillon has tried to infuse the essence of literature of a bygone era into the dialogues; but sadly, they fall flat most times and fail to make much of an impact.
The characters are poorly written, and are devoid of any gravitas. Rani is a barely likeable character—it is hard to believe what drives her to do the things she does. Vikrant Massey’s Rishu lacks credence, despite Massey’s refined acting chops. Neel’s grey-shaded character is still believable amongst the rest of the shabbily fleshed-out parts.
Besides the aforementioned glaring shortcomings in Haseen Dillruba, the movie also makes absurd errors in continuity. Neel addresses Rishu’s mother as “Buaji”, and then, inexplicably, starts addressing her as “Mausiji”, all in the space of a few seconds of runtime. Though an extremely minor error, it gives a feeling of tackiness to the storytelling of Haseen Dillruba.
The first half of the film is dull, drab and boring. It seems like an eighties’ film at this juncture. The story picks up somewhat in the second half, but just about. The big suspense reveal in the climax of the film is good, though not overly so. Truth be told, we were able to decipher the mystery early on – around the midway mark of Haseen Dillruba.
What we find most surprising is that a progressive screenwriter like Kanika Dhillon falls prey to resorting to regressive tropes to take the story forward – for instance, according to Haseen Dillruba, a woman can win the heart of her husband only if she cooks and cleans for him, hands him his wallet as he leaves for work, and so on. We expected better, Ms Dhillon.
Haseen Dillruba is a movie that seems too ambitious for its own good. It plods along on the hope that maybe, just maybe, you will fall for Taapsee Pannu and Harshvardhan Rane’s considerable charms, and ignore the plot and screenplay, or the lack thereof; the shoddy production values; and the sloppy filmmaking. But alas, it turns out to be an exercise in vain.
Music and Other Departments?
Amit Trivedi’s music is good — not the best of his repertoire by a long shot, but engaging, nevertheless. The “Phisal ja tu” number is the best of the lot. Amar Mangrulkar’s background score does its job to an extent. It is not too great, but not annoying either. Shweta Venkat Mathew’s editing leaves a lot to be desired. It is inconsistent throughout, but most prominently in the first half. Shot transitions are erratic – shots move on to the next scene abruptly, and in a way that niggles. Jayakrishna Gummadi’s cinematography does nothing to enhance the story. It fails to capture the quaintness of small-town living, nor the essence of the place.
Highlights?
Vikrant Massey’s performance
Drawbacks?
Weak plot and screenplay Poorly etched out characters Shoddy editing Average production values
Did I Enjoy It?
I found it strictly average
Will You Recommend It?
Watch just for the heck of it, as a one-time watch
Haseen Dillruba Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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