Haseen Dilruba: Reminded me how I felt about that second-last episode of Game of Thrones
Yes, I know I'm a little late to this party but things have been a bit crazy on my end and I hadn't gotten the opportunity to write about this. So I'm not like a 'reviewer', I'm not going to be giving you a star rating or 'synopsis' and 'analysis' sections. I'm just a free-lance writer that had opinions on this movie that I wanted to share.
Honestly, the title of my post basically covers how I 'felt' after watching this movie (you can find out exactly how I felt by clicking this link: https://www.indeepconversation.com/single-post/game-of-thrones-season-8-episode-5-an-episode-full-of-destruction-and-disappointment) but there were other things that were worth mentioning so here I am writing this post while the third episode of the second season of 'The Mandalorian' is paused on my monitor screen. I'm a huuuuge Star Wars fan, so anyone who knows me knows that I definitely felt strongly about this movie to pause 'The Mandalorian' and write.
I'm going to try very hard not to put in any proper spoilers because what's the fun in that, neither am I going to tell you whether you should watch this movie or not, that's completely up to you. Everyone in the film business works very hard so telling people not to watch a movie (unless it's sooooooo bad) is something I don't do. But I'll try my best to discuss some great and some not-so-great things without giving many spoilers. Let's get started!
Firstly, the trailer of this movie. I don't know how it was because I didn't watch it. :P So, I generally don't watch trailers because I feel they give a lot of the movie away. I like teasers a lot! They're short and, if done right, generate a lot of curiosity in the audience's mind. I didn't watch the trailer of Andhadun either, I literally went into the theatre blind, not expecting anything, and I was on the edge of my seat the whole time! That's how amazing that thriller was. Haseen Dilruba, on the other hand, not so much. I knew that this movie had Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey and, truthfully, I didn't need to watch the movie trailer or teaser, I was like let's do this! I wanted to watch this movie because I know that these two actors are gold, and that was one thing I was absolutely right about! But more on that later, if you haven't seen the movie or the trailer and want a little gist of it, here's the teaser below:
So let me just give you a really short description of what this movie is about. The movie starts with Taapsee's character, Rani, being questioned in the police station about the alleged murder of her husband Rishu, played by Vikrant Massey. She basically narrates her whole life story, why she wanted an arranged marriage, how she met Rishu, their marriage problems, other people who entered her life, etc. etc., to this cop, Inspector Kishore Rawat (played by Aditya Srivastava), who has already decided that she is the culprit. Seems interesting enough. In fact the first half was pretty interesting. I wanted to know what happened, why was she being questioned, why was everyone in the police station so invested in her story. Like what the fuck happened. I was hooked. When she started telling her story, you realize that Rani was a forward thinker and pretty open with her feelings while Rishu was this shy, introverted, hard-working type of a guy. They obviously had their ups and downs in the beginning and that was very endearing to watch. They were soo different, of course it was going to take a while for them to understand each other. This part was handled by Kanika Dhillon (the writer of the screenplay) really well. There were ego clashes and misunderstandings and I thought that this movie will talk about how these two great characters will find a way to work it all out. I mean the title of this movie is 'Haseen Dilruba' which translates to 'Beautiful Lover'. But slowly as the movie progresses, their 'issues' which could have been solved by just talking to each other holding back any judgement, turn into rage, which leads to an affair, and then murderous vengeance. Yes, sorry, I sort of gave some stuff away but you had to know this. I mean I don't mind these twists and turns. Honestly, it could have been great as a 4 or 6 part limited series. That would have at least made it more believable! And that is how this reminded me of that Game of Thrones episode. If you haven't guessed already (or read my post from that link I provided above), I'm talking about that episode where Daenerys goes crazy and ends up burning all of King's Landing. Inevitable, but not delivered properly. The same way that I knew that Daenerys was going to turn into the Mad Queen, I knew that Rishu, the generally really sweet guy with a pure heart, was going to flip out but he would flip out in the way shown in the movie was what I had trouble believing in. I just felt it wasn't authentic enough.
I mean how do you go from wanting to not be your father to burning the city you want to rule to the ground? Probably the same way Rishu went from cute but dorky husband to full on killer mode. (Pictures courtesy HBO and Netflix India).
Also, I'm not a fan of the climax of the movie, it felt silly. Sometimes I feel that writers go a little overboard and make everything more dramatic then it needs to be, so definitely not a fan of the ending. I felt the same way after watching the climax of 'Judgemental Hai Kya' (also written by Kanika Dhillon). And if anyone thinks it's because I don't like gory stuff, that's not true. I'm a fan of shows like Fringe, GOT, and Handmaid's Tale. So gory and dark is not a problem for me. It just, again, didn't feel believable. I genuinely think the ending could have been better thought out.
So what was great about this movie:
The movie wasn't afraid to talk about sex and that it's important for women too. Thank god people are paying attention to this now! There's also a scene where Taapsee rants at her husband, and that was comedy gold! Also, the honest conversations that Rani and Rishu had in the beginning were endearing and necessary.
The first 30-40 minutes of the movie are comedy gold! Whether it was the ways that Rani tries to seduce her husband, the fact that Rishu had to practice how to talk to his wife, or the rants that the saas-bahu jodi had. It was an honest portrayal of middle-class arranged marriage situations.
The acting of Vikrant Massey! Taapsee is great, we've seen her act in multiple thrillers before but this was new territory for Vikrant Massey and he was brilliant! Every emotion showcased by him was spot on! Whether it was the cute chocolate boy looks, the embarrassed looks, the coy looks, the 'I love homeopathy' looks, or the 'I hate you and will make you suffer' looks, every expression was brilliant. Not to overlook him, but Harshvardhan Rane was superb too.
I enjoyed the conversations between the cops and Rani, and even the discussions that the cops had behind Rani's back. The general portrayal of how a fall out of an extra-marital affair can become vicious when in a small town, or just the fact that women are not allowed to make mistakes is shown very honestly in this movie. It also reminded me that people can be very judgmental and are ready to assume the worst. Though I do have to say that I didn't see these cops do any investigative work apart from going to the crime scene and talking to people where people are just gossiping half of the time. I guess that's how people behave generally, so that wasn't a shock. But before telling everyone ki 'yehi hai killer bas ek lead ki zaroorat hai', maybe do some work and then get to that result.
So in conclusion, the film doesn't really get off the ground. I mean I just wanted the movie to be over after a point. By the end I was just watching to find out who actually killed her husband, though I was able to predict that part as well. I'm not even going to talk about the romanticizing of physical aggression, that's another topic for another day. But watch this movie for the actors, Vikrant Massey, Harshvardhan Rane, and Taapsee. All are mind-blowing and deserve praise for their performances. The screenplay fell short in my opinion, but the first part and certain other parts of the movie are entertaining enough. I have also read other reviews in which people have talked about how they loved the movie, so who knows, maybe you will enjoy it more than I did!
Also, here's a picture of me writing this post while 'The Mandalorian' was paused, you know in case some of you didn't believe me. ;)
Anyways, I love watching all sorts of movies and TV, so follow my page on Instagram, @indeepconversation, for more! I talk about reviews, recommendations, and some general fun stuff like how to make Butterbeer (from Harry Potter).
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