Haseen Dillruba

About the film

Haseen Dillruba (transl. 'Beautiful Beloved') is a 2021 Indian Hindi-language romantic thriller film directed by Vinil Mathew and written by Kanika Dhillon. It stars Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey and Harshvardhan Rane.

The film premiered on 2 July 2021 on Netflix. It received mixed reviews from critics. Haseen Dilruba emerged as the most-watched Hindi film on Netflix of that year, reaching top 10 in 22 countries.

Plot

Rani Kashyap Saxena, a housewife, is outside her home, feeding dogs, when her house suddenly explodes, presumably killing her husband, Rishab "Rishu" Saxena. The police find a body charred-beyond-recognition, with a severed hand which Rani identifies as Rishu's. The movie alternates between the past (narrated in flashback) and the present; the reality of the explosion is interwoven with the police investigation going on in the present-day.

A flashback reveals the arranged marriage between the two, where Rishu fell for Rani instantly, while she married him only because her boyfriend had abandoned her. There remain tensions and awkwardness between her, Rishu, and his family after the marriage. To add to the tense atmosphere, a nervous Rishu fails to consummate. The next day, he overhears her telling her mother and aunt about his failure to have sex. Hurt, he stops acknowledging her completely and their relation deteriorates. His well-built and charming cousin Neel Tripathi comes over to visit, and Rani gets attracted to him. They subsequently begin a passionate affair. Rani falls in love and even learns how to cook mutton, despite being a vegetarian. Some time later, she tells Neel that she would like to marry him. Afraid of commitment, Neel panics and flees. Hurt, Rani blurts out the truth to Rishu. He develops a dislike of her but still protects her from others who chastise her actions.

Meanwhile, in present-day, the police, aware of the history between Rani and Rishu, are convinced that she and Neel planned and killed Rishu. They use polygraphs and various methods to find out her motive. They find footage where Neel is escaping from the house moments before the explosion. They also catch Rani cheating during one of the polygraph tests by manipulating her blood pressure.

Production

Screenwriter Kanika Dhillon approached director Vinil Mathew to make a film based on the script she had written. Vinil, whose last film, the romantic comedy Hasee Toh Phasee released in 2014, was eager to make a film based on a different genre. He agreed to direct the film due to the dark nature of human relationships explored in the script. Actress Taapsee Pannu agreed to the film as she liked the blend of the thriller and romance genres in the script.

Principal photography began on 18 January 2020 in Haridwar. In March 2020, the shooting was cancelled due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The shooting wrapped up on 29 October 2020 in Mumbai.

Soundtrack

The film score was composed by Amar Mangrulkar who previously composed the score for the director's feature debut Hasee Toh Phasee, besides having composed for most of his television commercials. Mangrulkar's score earned him a Filmfare nomination for best background score . The songs featured in the film were composed by Amit Trivedi with lyrics written by Varun Grover, Kshitij Patwardhan and Sidhant Mago. Trivedi also earned a Filmfare nomination for the songs.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 62% of 13 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5/10.

Ronak Kotecha of The Times of India gave it 3.5 stars out of 5 and called it "a delectably dark and defiant love story with a thrilling twist", while praising Pannu's "pitch-perfect expressions". Stutee Ghosh of The Quint awarded 3.5 stars out of 5 and praised and added that "the only way Haseen Dillruba truly works is if we unequivocally surrender to its pulpy universe". The Statesman review wrote that "it’s smart in the way it invests 135 minutes of storytelling to mix suspense and wry humour." Manisha Lakhe of Moneycontrol compared the film to the Billie Eilish song All the Good Girls Go to Hell and found it to be "delightful and different from the usual ‘Indian Originals’ fare we get to see on OTT platforms like Netflix". Devesh Sharma of Filmfare was pleased by the use of film noir tropes by Mathew and Dhillon and concluded, "Watch it for its dark take on love and for the brilliant performances by the entire ensemble cast."

In a mixed review, Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV called the film "sometimes good, sometimes not" like the relationship between the central characters, and considered Massey's performance to be the best in it. Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost gave a rating of 1/5 describing it as an "illogical crime saga wrapped in a clichéd ode to violent, frenzied love". She criticised the writing of the film, "the pallid writing explains Pannu’s deadpan performance in the film whereas Massey who has been consistently superb in his work so far is only marginally interesting" but praised Rane's performance and wrote, "Harshvardhan Rane plays the only attention-grabbing character in Haseen Dillruba". Shubhra Gupta from The Indian Express gave Haseen Dilruba a rating of 2/5 and wrote, "The film has sex, lies and a smutty video, but no frisson". She praised Massey's performance by stating, "Pannu’s delivery is exactly the same in all her films, only the costumes change; Rane is appropriately heavy-lidded; The only one who tries valiantly to rise, and succeeds in most places is Vikrant Massey". Tanul Thakur of The Wire called the film “is a collection of obvious tropes and recycled characters” adding that “ Haseen Dillruba is afflicted by familiar flaws tainting mainstream Bollywood. The film wants to reach a certain point, but its journey is devoid of convincing reasons or considered nuance.”

Key details