Haseen Dillruba, Netflix – A Hot Mess Of Love, Sex And Madness

Written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Vinil Mathew, Haseen Dillruba is a spunky montage of love, mystery, sex, snarky humour, crime and a lot more. Starring Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Harshvardhan Rane and Aditya Srivastava in prime roles, the movie delivers on its promise of being a racy crime thriller. 

At the heart of it is Rani; the haseen dillruba who has sass and cheekiness dancing on her fingertips. Shemarries the straight-forward and modest Rishu (Vikrant Massey) while believing that she is quite a catch for a simpleton like him. Harshvardhan Rane plays Neel, Rishu’s cousin & Rani’s hunky lover who matches her spunk & desires step by step. 

The movie brings together a talented team of artists. However, unlike Taapsee’s previous films, she isn’t the one to steal the show here. While she is wonderful, it is Vikrant Massey who stands in glory with his exquisite and layered portrayal of the repressed Rishu who takes a dark turn into passion and madness. Harshvardhan Rane is quite apt in his role as a stud and a bodacious lover and his shirtless scenes only make it more convincing. Aditya Srivastava is always a treat to watch but is quite under-used in the movie as a doubtful cop who suspects Rani of murdering her husband 

Haseen Dillruba is vivacious with fervent romance weaved together with a murder mystery, sadistic humour & drama. The movie has a marvellous idea at its heart but often fails to execute it as flamboyantly. However if watched with less expectations, it is quite an entertainer even though it lacks logic in some places. 

The movie begins with an explosion that kills Rani’s husband and lands her as a prime suspect of the murder investigation that only has a hand with Rani’s name tattooed on it as the last remanent of the corpse. The film then goes into a flashback to answer the questions that Inspector Rawat is asking. It is during the investigation that you will find several loopholes, the major being why does Rawat have such a strong suspicion on Rani. Questions like these aren’t answered, instead Haseen Dillruba serves a meaty, gritty and spunky story on a platter that is dressed in sex, romance and drama along with strong moral & ethical dilemmas which the audience will have to solve for themselves. Despite its messiness, the film does shed light on gender politics and relationship dynamics with beautiful nuance. 

All in all, while Haseen Dillruba is a mix of good and bad, it is worth a watch!