Film Review: Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba [Beloved Beauty Returns]

Starring: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Sunny Kaushal, Jimmy Shergill, Bhumika Dube, Aditya Srivastava, Monty

Director: Jayprad Desai

This sequel to the 2021 Netflix streaming hit brings with it a familiar canvas of mystery and intrigue, with some new characters thrown into the mix.

Rani (Pannu) is running a beauty salon not far from the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra and, at first glance, seems to fit the bill of a grieving young widow. Dr Abhimanyu Pandit (Kaushal) is a local physician besotted with this beautiful and withdrawn young beautician, who is aware of his adoration but seems too detached from romance to care.

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It soon becomes clear that her detachment is less to do with widowhood and more to the fact that her husband Rishabh “Rishu” (Massey) is very much alive and living a clandestine life in the same city. With a murder charge hanging over his head from the first outing of ‘Haseen Dillruba’, the star-crossed lovers have no choice but to meet surreptitiously – often just to exchange longing looks across a busy railway bridge. They communicate through a shared grasp of writer Dinesh Pandit’s many cheesy romantic quotations, thus giving the author’s fictitious love stories flight in reality.

However, the lovers’ quest to save enough money to escape the law to Thailand and build a new life together is scuppered by the hard-nosed police officer Monty (Shergill), hot on their heels to nail his cousin’s murderer. Rani decides her only chance to throw Monty off their scent is to marry the infatuated Abhimanyu. This would help convince the police that Rishu never did survive the crocodile-infested waters into which he had jumped to escape the murder charge. Will this dubious marriage help the lovelorn couple overcome their hurdles or will it create its own set of complications when Abhimanyu inevitably discovers the truth?

A quick recap of the first film at the start of this sequel is done with great deftness and sets a steady pace for what should have been a tried and tested thriller. However, unlike the first instalment, the plot this time tends to meander towards the second half and loses the audience attention somewhat.

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While the polished performances and romantic touches are just as effective the second time around, this script suffers from a slackness that creates a less than gripping thriller than intended. However, most fans of ‘Haseen Dillruba’ will not want to miss out on this second take, which ends on a rather predictable yet fulfilling note.