What Is the Story About?
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, a sequel to the 2021 noir Hasseen Dillruba follows Rani and Rishabh living their separate lives with covered identities post Neel’s murder. They meet behind the scenes while desperately attempting to flee the country in order to live their happily ever-after. However, their seemingly distant rosy dream gets cut short when Neel’s uncle ‘Montu’, a police officer enters the scene to re-investigate Neel’s murder.
Will Montu uncover the mystery behind Neel’s murder?Will Rishabh surrender? Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba opens a Pandora’s box with more lies, deceptions, twists and turns.
Performances?
Despite not getting a meaty character to perform, Vikrant Massey remains the most delicious element of Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. Unlike its predecessor, there aren’t acting moments exclusively written for him in the sequel, but Massey carves what is his effectively.
Taapsee Pannu gets to play the titular version once again getting to do maximum onscreen and hits the nail once again. Her chemistry with both Vikrant and Sunny Kaushal needs special mention.
Sunny Kaushal fits the bill of a well mannered and soft guy who’s madly in love, but quite fiddles trying to match Rani and Rishu’s freak. Someone like Rajkummar Rao in a role like that would have made up for most of the film’s visible flaws.
Jimmy Shergill‘s addition should have changed the film’s path for good, but sadly a poorly fleshed character arc ruins the potential big-time. If there is a third part in the making, his character deserves much more than simply delivering expositive dialogues.
Analysis
Written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Jayprad Desai, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba is a sequel to the 2021 noir thriller Hasseen Dillruba which emerged as one of Netflix India’s most watched originals of the year.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba much like its predecessor follows a back and forth narration intertwining the past and present. The film opens to a panic stricken Rani running to the police station. As she informs the cops about her husband’s attempts to kill her, the narration takes a flashback.
Months after Neel’s and Rishabh’s presumed deaths, Rani lives the life of a widow in Agra after cutting herself off from hers and Rishabh’s families. On the other hand Rishu takes up a different identity and teaches at a tuition centre. The crazily-in-love couple continue to meet each other behind the scenes hoping to elope the country together. Communicating through Dinesh Pandit’s novel dialogues, they hatch plans to leave for Thailand.
A dramatic turn of events put Rani under UP police’s radar again forcing her to an edge. This is when Neel’s uncle – Officer Montu turns up to re-investigate the case and complicates the mix for the couple. Enter Abhimanyu, a medical compounder who meets Rani and falls in love with her. What follows next is a series of fable-like twists and turns, some interesting and some very very predictable.
Unlike Hasseen Dillruba, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba has lesser characters and therefore, lesser conflicts. The characters don’t toy the grey anymore and are quite straightforward with their motives. It’s more like a snake and ladder game between four characters – Rani, Rishu, Abhimanyu, and add to it Officer Montu.
One of major writing successes of Hasseen Dillruba is its inclusiveness of multiple characters and their believable motives. The sequel lacks the former and the latter gets hampered by the same. Some of the plot twists swing between unintentionally outdated and deliberately lazy.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba relies heavily on expository dialogues to match the atmospherics of dramatic thriller novels. While this tactic worked for the first film, it dilutes the efficacy of the sequel’s climax. Despite poorly fleshed-out characters, actors and dialogues heavy-lift an otherwise convenient and low-effort writing.
To conclude, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba is an overlong, outdated and strictly average affair that exists as a sequel for the sake of it. Fans of the first film can give it a watch for its actors and continnum of the story in case if there’s a third film planned.
Music and Other Departments?
Sachet-Parampara and Anurag Saikia’s music for Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba retains the pulpiness of the genre particularly with the ‘Ek Haseena Thi’ rendition. But quite misses the mark set by Amit Trivedi in Hasseen Dillruba. Vishal Sinha’s cinematography captures the genre’s fable-like strengths with finesse but the writing arguably fails to free the camera from cliches and genre-tappings.
Highlights?
– Main Cast & performances
– Dialogues
Drawbacks?
– Weak Production values
– Weakly written characters
– Duration
– Predictable twists and turns
– Outdated story telling
Did I Enjoy It?
Not really.
Will You Recommend It?
Fans of the first film can give this a watch.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba Review by Binged Bureau
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