Haseen Dilruba is a romantic mystery thriller film directed by Vinil Mathew. Kanika Dhillon has written the film. And, it also takes inspiration from Roald Dahl’s infamous short story, Lamb to the Slaughter. The film premiered on 2nd July 2021, and it is available on Netflix for streaming.
The film starts with Rishu Saxena (Vikrant Massey), a simple and marriage-material guy. He is looking for a girl for an arranged marriage, and his search leads him to Rani Kashyap (Taapsee Pannu), a beautiful, bold, and outgoing girl. Both get married, but nervous Rishu fails to consummate the marriage. Not so long into the film, Rishu’s dashing and well-built cousin Neel (Harshvardhan Rane) comes to stay with the Saxena’s. Rani, already disappointed in her marriage, instantly gets charmed by Neel. After the series of striking events, the death of one of the central characters triggers the police investigation. What follows next tells the bloody tale of love and deception.
The storytelling of the film is not new but it is interesting. It starts with an incident of death in the film, and from there story jumps back and forth of that incident completing the whole picture. The plot is cliched and seems convoluted at first, but actually, it is simple and kind of predictable. The plot had the potential to become an intriguing crime thriller but it failed to do so due to flaws in the writing. All the main characters are grey, and that’s where our mind stumbles whether to root for them or not. Taapsee is looking beautiful and glamorous. The character arcs of Vikrant Massey and Tapsee Pannu give a real roller-coaster ride. And, both along with Harshvardhan Rane have given justice to their respective characters. The film also casts Aditya Srivastava as investigating inspector Kishore Rawat, he plays it well but his character has nothing much to offer.
Verdict : It is definitely not a nail-biting thriller, but for the performances of the leads, it’s a one-time watch.
Rating : 3.3/5
Check the trailer here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_bDfnXKGM&ab_channel=NetflixIndia