RATING: 2 STARS
“Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba,” directed by Jayprad Desai, in its latest offering to Netflix, tries to dive deeper into the dark and twisted romance of Rani Kashyap and Rishu Saxena, played by Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey, respectively. However, despite those efforts, the sequel feels more like a rehash of familiar themes rather than a refreshing take on their sensational love story.
The movie picks up right from the ending, where Neil Tripathi is killed and Rishu has disappeared, leaving behind a shadow of suspicion on Rani. The over-passionate relationship between Rani and Rishu, supposed to be the of the film’s emotional core, gets ballooned and unconvincing.
A mystique wrapped around Rani, now a widow, while Rishu is hiding and trying to escape his past. Her unpredictable choices and their seemingly unbreakable bond seem more psychotic rather than normal. The film aims at exploring the depth of their love; it is hollow and feels very fabricated.
The investigation is initially handled by Inspector Kishore Rawat, played by Aditya Srivastava. However, the case is eventually passed to a determined cop known as Kathaphodava (Woodpecker), played by Jimmy Shergill. His character has a personal connection to the case through Rishu’s cousin, Neel Tripathi (Harshvardhan Rane). This automatically leads to him pursuing the case relentlessly and hence increases the pace and the personal stakes in the plot. But despite this, the film is a bit boring and loses a storyline.
Sunny Kaushal joins the cast as Abhimanyu, a seemingly harmless compounder whose character unfolds with each scene, revealing unexpected layers and dark secrets. His growing interest in Rani adds more intrigue to the plot, keeping the audience guessing about his true intentions. Kaushal’s performance is captivating and adds a great twist to the love story of Rani and Rishu. The trait of Abhimanyu throughout the movie alters and unfolds twists in the film one by one, surging the suspense through the climax. More than this mystery that the character holds, the more surprising connection to the novelist “Panditji” is like one frosting on top of this revelation. However, all the twists associated with his character do feel desperately tried to keep the audience interested rather than being a natural plot development.
It is the second time that the works of Dinesh Pandit come across as a big influence, the base of the movie involves the imaginary novelist Panditji and his novels, but the references are too quasi-literary and fatigued after a while. The scenic Agra backdrop does little to push up the hackneyed dialogues and an over-the-top climax reaching out to shock but ends up contrived. For 2 hours and 12 minutes, “Phir Aye Haseen Dilruba” feels over-stretched. The so-called stunning twist in the climax comes off more as a gimmick than a real revelation. It gets too confusing to be relatable when relying too much on Panditji’s novels and the supposed depth of Rani and Rishu’s love.
Even the powerful performances by Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey cannot rise to the occasion and save this poorly constructed thriller. What could have been an intense emotional drama has started resembling a tired soap opera, completely missing the punch of a gripping story. The dialogues were not really catchy and sounded very fabricated, more than mystery there was drama throughout the film which is not all relatable, and it didn’t offer much new for the audience to see.
“Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba” is an emotional rollercoaster that fails to deliver a satisfactory ride. The direction mixes tropes one has seen with some surprisingly new things, but the writing remains stuck in the clichés of the genre. Though everyone loves a good fictional story but it has lost its charm. The cinematography, trying to capture the dramatic tone, cannot mask the flaws of this film. The music is dramatic but often too much and out of place.
Where the original “Haseen Dillruba” had its moments of farfetchedness, this sequel escalates it to make for an exhausting watch. Streaming on Netflix, “Phir Aye Haseen Dilruba” invites one into a mystery/passion-laden realm but fails to leave anything, hence easily forgotten for the continuation of Rani and Rishu Saga.
