Tag Archives: Haseen Dillruba

Movie Review: Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba (2024)

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2.5 Stars (out of 4)

Watch Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba on Netflix

Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey reprise the chaotic lovers Rani and Rishu from 2021’s Haseen Dillruba in Netflix’s first Original movie sequel: Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba (“Beautiful Beloved is Back” — and yes, there’s now an extra ‘s’ in Hasseen).

Familiarity with the first film is essential to understanding the characters and why they are living the way they are in the sequel (which takes place several years after the original). Thankfully, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba offers a plot summary via a song montage within the first ten minutes. It’s a sufficient memory refresher for those who’ve watched the original.

As in Haseen Dillruba, the sequel begins with Rani (Pannu) in the middle of a crisis. She runs into a police station on a rainy night, claiming that her husband is trying to kill her. The action then flashes back to two months earlier. Rani lives in Agra and tells everyone she’s a widow, but the truth is her husband Rishu (Massey) is actually alive and living in town as well. They meet secretly in a park with a view of the Taj Mahal and plan their escape to Thailand, where they can finally be together again.

Of course things don’t go as planned. Inspector Kishore Jamwal (Aditya Srivastava, whose character was named Kishore Rawat in the original) still believes that Rani is a murderer, and he tracks her down in Agra. Worse, he’s brought along tenacious police officer Mritunjay Prasad (Jimmy Shergill), who happens to be the uncle of Rani’s affair partner Neel from the first movie. “Uncle Montu” won’t rest until he finds Rishu and makes him and Rani pay.

To confuse the cops, Rani proposes marriage to love-struck pharmacist Abhimanyu (Sunny Kaushal, who plays smitten beautifully). She warns him that her heart will always belong to Rishu, but Abhimanyu says he’s okay with that — until he finds out that Rishu is still alive.

Though Jayprad Desai directs Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba — and capably so — the franchise is the brainchild of screenwriter Kanika Dhillon. Mystery series are often centered around detectives, so there’s novelty in having the protagonists be criminals while still hitting all the necessary genre beats. The surprising character developments of the first film are largely absent since Rani and Rishu are known quantities, but that adds a pleasant feeling of familiarity.

In the best mysteries, there’s an element of “play along at home” that the viewer engages in, trying to figure out what’s going on before the writer reveals the solution. While there are some nice setups and payoffs, the ultimate revelations seem to come out of nowhere. More obvious possibilities are ignored in favor of answers that are totally unpredictable.

Part of why this happens is that Rani’s character is a fan of a fictitious mystery author Danish Pandit, and his works are continually referenced. Were Rani a fan of Agatha Christie, well-read viewers would be able to spot allusions to her books and guess where the story is going. But the Haseen Dillruba movies are tethered to the internal logic of an imaginary author’s bibliography, allowing Dhillon to explain everything away via a connection to Pandit. Everything makes sense if you’re a fan of Danish Pandit — but no one but Dhillon is, because Pandit isn’t real.

Nevertheless, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba is consistently entertaining, with interesting performances throughout. If there’s a way to keep this franchise going, I hope Dhillon comes back for a third round.

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Streaming Video News: August 8, 2024

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I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Amazon Prime with today’s streaming debut of the Kartik Aaryan sports drama Chandu Champion.

I also updated my list of Bollywood movies on Netflix with today’s addition of the Tamil theatrical release Indian 2. The Netflix Original film Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba premieres Friday. [Update: Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba is live now, and I liked it.] The sequel builds on the events of 2021’s Haseen Dillruba, so make sure to catch up on that before you watch the new movie (and check out my review of Haseen Dillruba, too!).

The charming Hindi film Dhanak is set to expire from Netflix on September 1. I really love Dhanak, so catch it while you can.

Finally, I updated my list of Bollywood movies on Hulu with today’s debut of the Hindi series Life Hill Gaye (also available in Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, and Telugu).

[Disclaimer: my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Best and Worst Bollywood Movies of 2021

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2021 was a rough year, and one of the things that had to take a backseat for me was movie reviews. After a few months of catching up on some of last year’s releases, I feel like I’ve finally seen enough to pick some titles for my annual Best of and Worst of lists.

Here are my best and worst Bollywood movies of 2021, starting with the best:

Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar is one of director Dibakar Banerjee’s finest films — which is saying a lot, considering his sterling body of work! Parineeti Chopra and Arjun Kapoor play a banker and her kidnapper on the run from assassins out to kill both of them. It’s a beautifully-paced thriller that allows enough time for substantial character development as well as an examination of the expectations and limitations placed on women by patriarchy and capitalism. It’s for sure my favorite film of 2021.

Bollywood has produced several successful horror comedies in recent years, and Bhoot Police is right on trend. Saif Ali Khan and Arjun Kapoor (again!) play brothers who conduct sham exorcisms, only to find out that ghosts might be real after all. Themes about sibling bonds and the unique relationship each child has with their parents are expertly woven into the story. I’m jealous of the terrific screenplay, written by the trio of director Pavan Kirpalani, editor Pooja Ladha Surti, and co-writer Sumit Batheja.

Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui is Bollywood’s first mainstream romantic comedy with a transgender lead. Though it might have benefited from more transgender representation in front of and behind the camera, it does demonstrate the commercial viability of stories about transgender people. Plus, it’s a very enjoyable movie with likeable, complex leading characters.

2021 also had a lot of good but not great titles that fell somewhere in between — movies like The White Tiger, Haseen Dillruba, Tribhanga: Tedhi Medhi Crazy, and The Girl on the Train. (Just gonna note here that all four of these titles are Netflix Original Films.)

Of course, 2021 also had its share of duds as well. Here are my worst movies of the year:

Dybbuk is a ghost story with nothing to say about anything. It’s not even fun in a stupid way.

Bhuj: The Pride of India chronicles an interesting part of India’s 1971 war with Pakistan, but the story as it’s told is truncated to fit into a single movie. This would have been better as a series.

The title of Worst Bollywood Movie of 2021 belongs to the dreadful Akshay Kumar action flick Sooryavanshi. Part of director Rohit Shetty’s “cop universe,” Sooryavanshi the character is annoying. Sooryavanshi the movie is lazily written and hateful toward Muslims. I’m not sure why Shetty felt like he had to expand his “universe” (just kidding, of course I know: $$$), but he’d have been better off just making Singham sequels until the end of time.

Kathy’s Best Bollywood Movies of 2021

  1. Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar — stream on Amazon Prime
  2. Bhoot Police — stream on Hulu
  3. Chandigarh Kare Aashiqui — stream on Netflix

Kathy’s Worst Bollywood Movies of 2021

  1. Sooryavanshi — stream on Netflix
  2. Bhuj: The Pride of India — stream on Hulu
  3. Dybbuk — stream on Amazon Prime

Previous Best Movies Lists

Previous Worst Movies Lists

[Disclaimer: my Amazon links include an affiliate tag, and I may earn a commission on purchases made via those links. Thanks for helping to support this website!]

Movie Review: Haseen Dillruba (2021)

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3 Stars (out of 4)

Watch Haseen Dillruba on Netflix

The appeal of many murder mysteries is the final revelation of how the crime was committed (especially if the killer gets away with it). Though Haseen Dillruba (“Beautiful Beloved“) has a fiery payoff, the question of why the deed was done is far more interesting.

The film opens with an explosion in a residential neighborhood in the small city of Jwalapur, north of Delhi. Rani (Taapsee Pannu) is outside her home when a gas cylinder in her kitchen ignites. She identifies her husband’s body by his wrist bearing a tattoo of her name — the only part of him that hasn’t been incinerated.

Police Inspector Rawat (Aditya Srivastava) is convinced that Rani murdered her husband Rishu (Vikrant Massey), though she protests her innocence. Rawat’s interrogation triggers flashbacks to various points in the couple’s relationship, which Rani describes as, “sometimes good, sometimes not so good.”

Rani and Rishu get together via an arranged marriage. Both of them seem to have gotten through life doing the bare minimum to make themselves desirable marriage candidates, but not doing much to make themselves complete people. Shy Rishu has a stable engineering job, and Rani is pretty and a capable cosmetologist. Neither has any experience in communicating with a romantic partner nor any instinct for nurturing intimacy. Living with Rishu’s parents only adds to the pressure on the new couple.

All of Rani’s ideas about romance come from books by her favorite author Dinesh Pandit, who writes pulp novels about small-town murder mysteries. Rani quotes Pandit so often that the fictitious author is almost a character in his own right.

When Rani blabs about her and Rishu’s non-existent sex life to her family, Rishu gives her the silent treatment. This leaves Rani lonely and vulnerable when Rishu’s beefcake cousin Neel (Harshvardhan Rane) comes to stay with the family. Neel is as exciting as Rishu is mild, and he’s more than happy to give Rani the attention that Rishu withholds from her.

It takes Rani’s affair with Neel for both Rani and Rishu to become interesting people. It strains credulity a bit that both members of the married couple are so bland beforehand, but the wild trajectories their personalities take from that point is what makes the movie really intriguing. Rishu develops a violent streak and Rani a corresponding capacity to endure punishment. It’s nuts, but it works.

It’s worth considering how problematic Rishi’s violence toward Rani is within the context of the film. For some, a blanket condemnation of all violence perpetrated by men against women will make Rishu’s actions untenable. Within the world created by director Vinil Mathew and screenwriter Kanika Dhillon, the sequence where Rishu repeatedly tries to injure Rani is less about his actions and more about Rani’s willingness (or desire, even) to endure any punishment to atone for her transgression.

The sequence also highlights how screwed up Rani and Rishu actually are when forced to reckon with intense emotions. It’s something that is hinted at early in the film via Amar Mangrulkar’s unusual score, which ping-pongs between somber and melodramatic to sitcom-esque wacky, depending on the scene. The musical choices are slightly off-putting but effective at establishing that this is not a movie about an ordinary couple.

All three leads are effective in their roles, with Rane embracing his eye-candy avatar. Pannu is competent as always. Massey stands out as an ordinary man with a dark edge he didn’t realize he possessed. Haseen Dillruba isn’t perfect, but it’s certainly entertaining.

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