Haseen Dillruba Review: Illogical & Underwhelming!

Haseen Dillruba, the 2021 Bollywood romantic thriller starring Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey in the lead roles, kicks it up a notch when it comes to the theme, premise, dialogue and is very much unique from the stereotypical garbage we get from Bollywood. However, originality does not guarantee positive results, and this film never actually takes off despite a good foundation inside and out. So, let’s discuss.

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The storyline of Haseen Dillruba begins when Rani (Taapsee Pannu) and Rishu (Vikrant Massey) agree to arranged marriage despite their different personalities. However, their initial days as a married couple start off on a rocky road as Rishu expects Rani to be a traditional Indian housewife, and Rani anticipates Rishu to be more of an expressive and cheerful husband. As things start to go south, the addition of Neel (Harshavardhan Rane) further complicates the situation as the remainder of the plot showcases how Rani and Rishu navigate their problems for better family life.

Now, over the past few years, whodunnit thrillers became redundant, and you have to be extra smart while crafting an intriguing thriller that has the right amount of twists and turns. And as a result of the number of thrillers that Indian films are churning out these days, the audience are trained or are at least aware to expect a double bluff or locate a false lead because they are well aware of the fact that the movie isn’t going to have a straightforward ending.

Coming back to Haseen Dillruba, I will agree that the overall premise had some potential to produce a decently enjoyable thriller, and the theme of mad and eternal love seemed interesting to me, at least on the surface level. Moreover, Kanika Dhillon, the writer, managed to steer the ship with relative engagement, but once the second half of the movie commenced, things became very obvious and impacted the quality altogether.

Additionally, one of the main problems that I had with Haseen Dillruba is that it is so detached from reality. There is no proper logic implemented in multiple scenes, and there are quite a few loose ends that are left untied by the end of the film. Going by the reasoning applied in the narrative, this movie would’ve been a better fit in a fantasy world and not in a congested neighborhood of a small town in Uttarakhand.

However, as I mentioned earlier, there is some serious effort directed towards the theme, which was intense, and also the dialogues of the movie as Dhillon at the very least kept the interactions between the characters compelling for the most part. The production design and the camera work also blend well with the direction the movie is going with, and the performances from the complete cast were top-notch.

Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey worked well as a couple and also as individual performers. The characters, Rani and Rishu, that they portrayed respectively had substance and a ton of scope to perform and neither one of them did not disappoint through and through.

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Overall, in Haseen Dillruba, writer Kanika Dhillon tried to make me believe that one plus one equals three, and her logic did not make any sense after a certain tipping point. The movie some had scope to be a decent Netflix thriller, and the performers gave their best to make it all work, but, in the end, I should be honest to myself and mainly to you (whoever is reading this) and admit that it is underwhelming. Watch ‘Haseen Dillruba’ on Netflix here.

‘Haseen Dillruba’ Rating – 3/5

Images via Netflix India