Haseen Dilruba
Year: 2021
Director: Vinil Mathew
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Harshvardhan Rane, Aditya Srivastav

What is the plot?

A city-girl dreaming of finding a hot hunk hubby, getting married to a small-town simpleton, falling out with him, and then, spicing up her crumbling marriage with an extra-marital fling to make the matters worse! Shouldn’t she be the prime suspect when her husband’s charred body is found after a domestic gas cylinder blast? As the cop, determined to put this sinful lady behind bars, investigates, a different picture emerges. Is she really innocent, as she claims?

Verdict

Kanika Dhillon’s story and Vinil Mathew’s direction try everything to make it an interesting affair. Told in the flashback mode, the movie begins with the murder investigation, tracing a marriage gone wrong, which turned into a toxic love triangle. The mix of lighter moments with the racy, saucy, and intriguing ones keeps the plot chugging along, even though the pace slackens at times.

Vikrant Massey playing the wounded husband (Metaphorically!), and the CID-fame Aditya Srivastav playing the suspicious investigating cop leave their mark, while Harshvardhan Rane playing the role of the paramour acts more like a filler. Yamini Das and Dayashankar Pandey as the quirky in-laws are a riot.

Taapsee Pannu is handed the pivotal central character of the murder suspect, a married woman with unfulfilled desires, and a questionable moral compass. It is a role, which has many shades, and Pannu does full justice. Sometimes it almost feels like an extension of her Manmarzian character, a wife is caught up between a husband and a lover.

In spite of some rather far-fetched twists and turns, Haseen Dilruba ends up as quite a watchable thriller with dollops of drama and humor.

Rating

2.5 stars