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Taapsee, Vikrant, Sunny are a fine fit on their own as well as around each other and prove themselves to be well equipped to survive the air of double dealing. What's missing is sizzle, observes Sukanya Verma.
Three years ago when Haseen Dillruba came out, it attempted many things at once as a small-town tale of female empowerment in the body of a thriller fuelled by crime of passion and pulp fiction novels.
Despite its wild tonal inconsistencies, Director Vinil Mathew's treatment of Kanika Dhillon's story, screenplay and dialogues, revolving around a volatile marriage navigating a fatal attraction, delivered moments of mystery and magnetism.
The directorial baton has now passed on to Jayprad Desai (of Kaun Pravin Tambe?, Mukhbir: The Story of a Spy fame) for its sequel titled, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba. Only this time, Kanika's story, screenplay and dialogues are sorely lacking in bite and motive.
Recycling the original's 'jo pagalpan se na guzre woh pyaar kya, hosh mein rishte nibhaye jaate hain' sentiments to stretch out a plot that has outlived its welcome, Hasseen Dillruba's progress is limited to the extras and l's in its title. With scarcely anything new to offer, the bland follow-up goes around in circles in search of deception and devilry.
Concerning itself with the aftermath of Rishu (Vikrant Massey) and Rani's (Taapsee Pannu) unattainable happily-ever-after, Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba does away with the original's quaint setting, domestic nok-jhonks and teasing temper to escalate its sinister mood.
Building on the meta tone of fictional author Dinesh Pandit's campy bestsellers Rani voraciously reads, the movie opens with her storming through a midnight downpour crying for dear life, draped in a chiffon sari, drenched from head to toe.
Where there is chiffon, can crocodiles be far behind?
A peculiar reptile problem plagues Agra amidst broken barrages and overflowing rivers giving the makers a perfect excuse to create an air of foreshadowing. That the creature touch is more comical than lethal is another story.
Here's what I can tell you:
Between the hustle bustle of Rani's parlour job and Rishu juggling his prosthetic arm between physics tuitions and pizza delivery, the twain lead separate lives yet meet on the sly planning their escape from the city of love and crocodiles.
It's a wild, wild world yet everybody speaks like a character from a 1960s drama.
'Intezar se darr nahi lagta kyonki akele kar sakte hain darr toh mulaqat se lagta hai uske liye aapka hona zaroori hai' would be an easy fit on Raaj Kumar but props to Sunny Kaushal for doing his best.
He's equally valiant in pulling off 'Pyaar do logon mein hota hai. Teen logon mein toh sirf saanp seedi kheli jaati hai.'
Sunny's Abhimanyu, the earnestly smiling compounder in 9-to-5 attire has the hots for Rani.
On the other hand, Rishu's anxious landlord (Bhumika Dube) has her own axe to grind.
In the absence of clever challenges to advance the narrative, Kanika relies on cliches and confusions for the sake of twists foreseeable 20 minutes into the movie.
Of its two-something hours running time, the first 30 are spent in providing a summary of Haseen Dillruba while the rest capture a pair of admirers wanting Rishu and Rani's respective attention by hook or crook.
There's Jimmy Shergill's disgruntled cop, likened to a tenacious woodpecker, hijacking Aditya Srivastava's case over reasons so disappointingly unimaginative they really reflect the simple-minded tone of Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba's lacklustre writing.
A movie about incessant outwitting made with bare minimum smarts and tons of conceit, I found myself more confounded than curious by the whole deal.
High profile cases won't receive as much law and order attention as Rishu and Rani do, drawing the entire Agra police force in their pursuit.
CCTV cameras capture incriminating evidence more accurately than high resolution ones in reality shows.
But the real treat is how some invisible media pressure weighs heavily on cops to shut the case for reasons nobody knows.
Taapsee, Vikrant, Sunny are a fine fit on their own as well as around each other and prove themselves to be well equipped to survive the air of double dealing.
What's missing is sizzle.
Neither the seduction of a mysterious paramour nor the desperation of star-crossed lovers has an ounce of steam to it.
This is a genre that relies on wits, wickedness and uncertainty to work, but the insipid tone and amateurish creativity of Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba suggests the makers exhausted all their inspiration in rustling up trippy titles like Cobra Ka Intaquam and Kasauli Ka Qahar.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba streams on Netflix.
