Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba Review: A fun sequel that's too messy

Starring: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Sunny Kaushal, Jimmey Shergill

Directed by: Jayprasad Desai

Rating: 3 stars

Kanika Dhillon is a Bollywood screenwriter (and co-producer of this film) whose career trajectory has been rather interesting. The way she writes her female leads needs particular mention. Some of her better works, including Manmarziyaan, Kedarnath and Haseen Dillruba, feature strong women who are unapologetic about their desires, selfish in their actions and atypical in their morality. While such portrayals may polarise viewers, they make her characters messy, albeit unpredictable and layered.

This is precisely why Haseen Dillruba, released on Netflix in 2021, made for such a compelling viewing. It was not a great movie but for a change, we saw an Indian small town where a married woman in a loveless marriage makes no bones about her infatuation for a hottie, has an affair with him only to get embroiled in big trouble resulting in a murder. The plot was deranged and crazy, with the leads being guided by pulp fiction writer Dinesh Pandit’s campy novels. The fun fact: the star-crossed murderers and lovers actually get away with it!

In the sequel that has just dropped on Netflix, Dhillon and director Jayprad Desai amp up the ‘pulp’ element to give us a movie that is twisted, complex and fun, yet ultimately underwhelming.

Taking off from where the previous one ended, Phir Aayi Haseen Dillruba has Rani Kashyap (Taapsee Pannu) living in Agra after the horrible incident in which her husband Rishu (Vikrant Massey) kills her lover-turned-blackmailer (played by Harshvardhan Rane) and goes into hiding. Rishu and Rani are madly in love and meet clandestinely, hatching a plan to escape India forever. The best laid plans, of course, go awry since the police are still hot on their heels.

The suspicions of a strict cop who is, incidentally, Rishu’s relative (Jimmy Shergill) complicates matters further. Enter a moony-eyed simpleton compounder Abhimanyu (Sunny Kaushal) who falls hook, line and sinker for Rani the moment he sees her. Rani does not reciprocate but decides to use him for her needs – to reunite and run away with Rishu. What follows is a diabolical plan that doesn’t quite go the way it’s supposed to.

Phir Aayi... has all the elements of a twisted thriller. Love, lies, betrayals, murders, cops and er… crocodiles (watch the movie to know what role these creatures have to play). However, the film’s failing is that these ingredients don’t come together as a whole. There is enough to keep you amused but not enough to keep you engrossed.

In thrillers, writers often feel they need to add a twist at every turn when that’s really not the case. A few surprises and red herrings make for great viewing but when the twists become too twisted, the fun gets killed. This is what happens in Phir Aayi… What starts off as entertaining and unhinged soon becomes unbelievable and unintentionally funny. Also, a lot of the plot points are just plain convenient and stretch incredulity.