Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba review: Romance without chemistry, mystery without thrill; Taapsee, Vikrant serve a damp squib

Director: Jayprasad Desai

Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Sunny Kaushal, Jimmy Sheirgill, Aditya Srivastava

Where to watch: Netflix

Rating: 2 stars

There is a scene in Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba where Jimmy Sheirgill’s zealous cop asks his subordinates to put the entire force of Agra Police in a two-kilometre radius trailing one woman to catch her. He is presented as smart, savvy, some sort of an unstoppable force. The very next montage shows the said woman meeting her supposedly dead husband under the eyes of the said force repeatedly. And nobody bats an eyelid. That is Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba’s problem. It builds up characters as passionate, dangerous, compassionate, and lots of other adjectives. But it does so with dialogue and never manages to justify it with action. It comes across as a hollow tale, devoid of logic, emotion, thrill, or any passion.

The Jayprasad Desai film continues the story of Rishu and Rani from Haseen Dilruba. Having killed Neil, they are now on the run, except that the world believes Rishu is dead and Rani is a widow. Both live in Agra, planning to elope. But their plans go haywhire when a cop – Montu (Jimmy Sheirgill) – comes hot on their heels. He is Neil’s uncle and hence, out to get Rani with a vengeance. With nowhere else to go, Rani seeks help from a simple compounder Abhimanyu (Sunny Kaushal) and married him to throw the cops off. But that’s where everything goes from bad to worse.

At the base of Phir Aayi Haseen Dilruba is an assertion that nobody has loved like Rishu and Rani. They are the epitome of romance, as passionate as they are crazy. The trouble is that the leads have no chemistry to speak of. Vikrant and Taapsee come across as two awkward teenagers crushing on each other with very little spark that made the first film so delightful. All the dialogue about their supposed passion for each other ends up being more comical than impactful as a result. In fact Taapsee’s Rani has more chemistry with Sunny Kaushal’s Abhimanyu, which makes the plot quite convoluted.

Taapsee Pannu’s sarees had made quite a splash in Haseen Dillruba, and her desi sultry looks are back in this film too. But here, Desai overdoes it while selling Rani’s glamour. The film, for a while, descends into an almost voyeuristic display of Rani. It starts as sensuous but ends up being too in-your-face. The art of subtlety is not something the film takes seriously at all.

But beyond that is the criminal depiction of Agra Police that the film does (pun intended). While building them up as smart relentless investigators, Phir Aayi Haseen Dilruba portrays them as bumbling fools who do not follow procedure, don’t know where to look for leads, and take weeks to even look for CCTV footage. Allowing wanted fugitives to run about the city undetected for so long should be an indictment and not a plot point.

The film is as much a love story as it is a thriller. Haseen Dilruba worked because it brought the lowbrow murder mystery vibes of desi pulp fiction to Hindi cinema, including the twists and turns. But the sequel is too predictable in comparison. Every twist can be seen from a mile away and every turn is so long-winded that you get bored by the time you reach it.

Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba wasted its actors. Taapsee Pannu here isn’t the one we saw in Pink or Rashmi Rocket for that matter. Some of her scenes are hard to watch. To get an actress of her calibre seem clueless in scenes takes special talent. Vikrant Massey is criminally underutilised, with the script relegating him to being an afterthought in this love story. Sunny Kaushal does his best to light up the screen and he actually does his best to keep the film alive. Jimmy Sheirgill is the saving grace of a lacklustre acting outing for the team. His panache and style elevate the film, but can’t save it.

Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba gets lost in its own ambitions. It tries to do too much while not executing any of it on screen. The stories are ambitious but the premise is sloppy. And on top of it, it just goes on far too long than anyone would have liked.

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