Ek haseena thi, ek deewana tha--This iconic song from a now iconic film is used to pretty brilliant effect in Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba as it begins. The spectacular fall in coherence which follows however, will become iconic too. I am still reeling from the ludicrous storyline of this film which takes the words ‘artistic liberty’ to a new level. And that is not necessarily always a good thing. 

The plot

We meet Rani Saxena (Taapsee Pannu) again, a femme fatale who has men falling over her, and her husband, Rishabh Saxena (Vikrant Massey), who she is presumed to have murdered (we are shown a flashback of what happened in the first film, which is quite clever). But of course, there’s a police officer who won’t let the case close! How original. Full marks to writer Kanika Dhillon? You be the judge.

Rani, a widow now for the world, has another man entering her life, Abhimanyu (played by Sunny Kaushal), for whom it's love at first sight. He’s that guy next door who asks her out for a movie and books the entire theatre. And when she forgets her beauty parlour stuff at home, he runs all the way behind her rickshaw just to hand it to her. But everything isn’t as it seems.

Rishu and Rani are all set to run away to Thailand in one month as suspicion grows about what happened to the deceased Neel Tripathi, played by Harshvardhan Rane in the first film. But with the tough cop (played by Jimmy Sheirgill, Neel’s chacha) close on their heels, will they be able to escape? Is Rishu able to hide from the world?

Film is missing originality

Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba begins on a promising note, trying to be a commentary on women taking charge of their desires. Rani hints to Rishu (as they communicate via earphones in public) 'there’s no one at home today'. Another female character wants Rishu to fulfill her sexual desires atleast if he doesn’t want to love.

But all this gets lost amidst the fluff that follows. As it progresses, we are promised a satisfying conclusion- pun intended- but what’s missing is the big O, originality. There’s nothing in here we haven’t seen in the first film already. Characters communicate with each other through poetic scrawls on public walls, meet each other frequently even as the police are keeping a watch, and they still don’t get caught. The makers of Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba rely completely on the audience’s suspension of disbelief, and logic goes out of the window. The film dips in the second half, and by the time the reveal comes, you just don’t care. How can you make a suspense thriller and have such loose ends?

And let’s not even talk about the hurried 'anti-climax'. A climax is defined as the most exciting part of something, here it’s anything but that. Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba’s makers and writers seem to have thrown an open invitation to the makers of the Mission Impossible franchise--beat this.

Sunny, Taapsee, Vikrant performance report card

As for the performances, the only person with a decent character arc here is Sunny Kaushal as Abhimanyu. Taapsee Pannu, who is the titular haseena, has lost the spunk which fueled the first film, in this one. Vikrant Massey’s character has nothing else to do or say, than snarl when somebody dares question his love. Jimmy Sheirgill is utterly wasted.

The fictional Pandit Ji’s romantic thriller novels are Holy Bible for all characters in this, much like the first film. At one point, in the anti-climax, a character remarks, ‘Humne samajhdaari bauhaut peeche chhod di hai Pandit ji ke shagird ban ke.' After watching this misfire of a film, I couldn't agree more.

Read Also: Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba review: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey, Sunny Kaushal's pulpy thriller 'crocs' the boat and sinks in its own twists