Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey return in the first sequel to an Indian Netflix original movie that struggles to justify its existence.
Akhil Arora, a Film Critics Guild member and a Rotten Tomatoes-certified TV critic, who saw Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba in 4K Dolby Vision with Dolby Atmos. He has been reviewing movies and TV series since 2015 and has written for NDTV and SlashFilm.
Released a little over three years ago, the original Haseen Dillruba was tonally all over the place. It tried to take on at least three genres—crime noir, cringe comedy, and nineties Bollywood romance—and swung between them wildly. In the process, it made calamitous errors and ended up getting very little right. The sequel, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, seems to be aware of its predecessor’s mistakes. That likely explains why it sticks to one lane and doesn’t deviate too far from it. Alas, knowing why you have failed can only get you so far. You still need to know how to fix it. With Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba, the execution is as shoddy if not worse. The Netflix film seems to have zero understanding of cohesion and film structure.
Arranged in a highly confusing fashion
In a desire for after-the-fact reveals, the scenes are arranged in such an order that it becomes impossible to follow why something is happening, what it means, and where we are going. Each scene has at least two interpretations—the mechanic is overused. Revisiting the same moment and being given new information becomes tedious. Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba isn’t non-linear, but it’s edited in such a way that scenes and exposition feel out of order. It’s highly confusing. Owing to its preferred approach, at times you can’t tell who’s who and how they are relevant to the part they are in. I can’t believe I’m saying this, for I’m usually against their artificiality, but this is a movie that could’ve used more introductory scenes.
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Most of the fault lies with the writing by Kanika Dhillon (who also wrote the first film). Why are the revelations doled out in such a way that the movie frequently makes no sense? If you’re going to keep information from the audience, it’s your job to communicate things properly. It shouldn’t feel like scenes are missing from your movie, which happens on Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba more than once. It doesn’t help that the direction—by Jayprad Desai (Kaun Pravin Tambe?)—is uninspired. It struggles to hit the notes that could have helped communicate important nuances or get the best out of its three leads. The Netflix film is crying out for vigour and authenticity. What we’re left is an insipid and unmemorable experience.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba brings in Sunny Kaushal and Jimmy Shergill
Set at an undetermined time after the original, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba finds Rani Kashyap (Taapsee Pannu) working at a hair salon and living as a first-floor tenant with a family in Agra. Her one-armed husband, Rishabh “Rishu” Saxena (Vikrant Massey), is living separately disguised as Ravi, given he’s supposed to be dead to the world. It’s unclear how this fits in with the first film’s ending that moved the needle five years ahead. It’s all very deliberately vague. But what’s clear is that the Uttar Pradesh Police hasn’t given up on finding Rishu. Also complicating matters are two new interested parties: Rishu’s new landlady Poonam Prajapati (Bhumika Dube) who’s missing a leg and has a thing for him, and medical compounder Abhimanyu Bharadwaj (Sunny Kaushal) who fell in love with Rani the day she walked into his clinic.
When DSP Mrityunjay “Montu” Paswan (Jimmy Shergill)—who has a personal connection to the case—takes over the investigation, Rani is spooked. Inspector Kishore (Aditya Srivastava) has also followed Rani to Agra and somehow gotten a transfer to the city of Taj Mahal, but he’s not as central this time around. Weirdly, though, Montu also feels tangential to the story. He does act as the narrative’s catalyst. Montu is onto Rani because he doesn’t believe that she could possibly have left her family to be on her own in Agra. Cornered by police threats and seemingly out of options, Rani decides to use the smitten Abhimanyu as a puppet. She proposes marriage and he accepts. But Rani doesn’t know the full extent of what she’s signing up for.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba operates in a vacuum
The film is such a jumbled mess that it doesn’t know when to convey what it needs to convey. From that initial premise, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba moves in improbable directions and features inexplicable scenarios. Things just happen because the movie wants them to happen in that way. There’s no process, strategy, questioning or accountability. The Netflix movie exists in a vacuum—the actions of its four central characters triumph over everything because they are in a film. But even if you can stomach what the Netflix film throws up, it disappoints elsewhere. The dialogue is poor, the scenes are listless, and the characters aren’t worth investing in. Most importantly, what is the film trying to say beyond the leads’ survival struggles?
That is ultimately the problem with Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. There was no need for the first sequel to an Indian Netflix original movie. It only exists because the first one topped the charts—Haseen Dilruba was the most-watched Hindi-language film on the streaming service in 2021—and Netflix wanted another. As such, this is a movie that’s looking for a story but is unable to find one. Its basis is flimsy, its premise unconvincing. Even its characters are unable to justify why they believe something to be true. Their plans are needlessly elaborate, and their motivations are never fully justified. And in its constant desire to pull one on the audience, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba pushes itself into absurd corners with zero self-awareness. It’s a colossal waste.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba released on Friday, August 9 on Netflix worldwide.
- Every Indian Netflix original movie, ranked – September 13, 2024
- Sector 36 review: botched just like the real-life investigation – September 13, 2024
- The Penguin review: an absolute blast – September 12, 2024
What do you think?