Haseen Dillruba
A decent attempt that needs a little more focus.
Rishabh Saxena(Vikrant Massey) is killed in an explosion in his house. The police confirm his identity by looking at his forearm that is recovered from the site. The forearm has a tattoo of his wife’s name Rani(Taapsee Pannu) that he got when they were about to get married. The prime suspect of this incident is Rani as she’s accused of killing her husband with her lover Neel (Harshvardhan Rane) who’s Rishu’s cousin by relation.
Rani is a high-spirited girl who wants to live a rocking married life and falls in love with Neel when he comes to stay in their house for a few days. Initially, their romance blooms, but as she’s about to tell Rishu about what she actually wants, Neel ditches her.
This is where the story kicks off with Rishu turning into a sociopath due to Rani’s betrayal of his love. Rani who is insanely self-aware asks for his forgiveness and can go to any lengths to win his love back and Neel who’s the antagonist(sort of) of the story.
Unnecessary Background Music
Now, don’t get me wrong here. The music of this film is good and I’m not referring to that here.
What I found annoying or rather unnecessary was the addition of light-hearted background music in the first quarter of the film that’s used to make the funny sequences seem funnier. That wasn't required. The cast of the film does a superb job to get the point across and the scenes have some genuinely hilarious moments which are bogged down due to the music that plays in the background.
The screenplay of the film is written by Kanika Dhillion and from what I’ve seen of her work in the past with films like “Judgementall Hai Kya” & “Mannmarziyaan”, I was expecting a strong female lead.
The film takes 15–20 minutes to set up the story, their failing marriage, what Rani was actually looking for. Everything is laid out on the table, only for us to find out otherwise as the movie progresses, and the characters take a 180 degree turn in their personalities.
If the viewers are invested in the film and the characters, it can get away with most plotholes(I’ll address them wherever necessary). It’s not about the mathematics that matters but how naturally the characters behave in situations — their unpredictability & uncertainty without breaking the established rules makes for an engaging thriller. What I liked the most about this film is that it doesn’t stop you from making assumptions about the killer, but it questions your assumptions every step of the way.
Performances & Characterization
The characters develop as the story progresses, with their motivations and behaviors changing which keeps us from predicting what really happened. That was the good part about it, the bad part, however, was that their actions contradicted their own beliefs.
In the first quarter of the film, Rani tells Rishu that guys get really lucky in an arranged marriage as they expect the world for themselves without putting in any effort. However, when Neel enters the picture, this belief of hers goes out of the window. She’s instantly charmed by Neel’s mannerism, stalks him in the house, and even goes to the kitchen(which she has been refusing to since the beginning) for the first time upon his demand for a cup of tea.
All the characters in the film are shown with a shade of grey but it is Rani whose characteristics change the most throughout the film. The best explanation for her character would be that she’s really indecisive and extremely impulsive for the first half of the film.
The introduction of Neel was particularly good in the film. Rani tells Rishu what kind of guy she wants and then Neel shows up in the house, with all those qualities. It is a small detail but worth mentioning how Kanika decided to add it to the screenplay.
Rishu, played brilliantly by Vikrant Massey, is introduced as a nice guy who’s an electrical engineer by profession and doesn’t have high ambitions but just wants to live a content life with his family. When Rani tells him the truth as he sits down for dinner, he doesn’t react much and continues eating, giving us an idea of what’s coming. He turns into a sociopath who wants to punish people who wronged him, including his wife.
Vikrant Massey has done a really brilliant job portraying both sides of the character, even though this massive shift in character isn’t hinted upon much, one can get an idea of the lesser traits of Rishu by what happens earlier in the film. When Rishu overhears Rani talk about him with her mother and aunt, he gets really frustrated and doesn’t talk to her for a prolonged period of time. He has a high self of esteem or ego, which justifies his sudden shift in character to some extent.
Even though Harshvardhan Rane doesn’t have a lot of screen time, his portrayal of Neel is apt and leaves a lasting impression on-screen. Even though he knows he wronged his brother, doesn’t stop him from fighting back when the time comes. The supporting cast of the film is equally good including Aditya Srivastava as Officer Kishore, Daya Shankar Pandey as Brijraj, Ashish Verma as Afzar. Special props go to Yamini Das as Lata(Rishu’s mother) whom I found hilarious whenever she featured in the scene.
spoilers in the upcoming section.
The Underwhelming Aspects
Right off the bat, if the investigation was done properly, the story would fall apart. They have the burnt corpse of a man and the forearm of Rishu with Rani’s tattoo on it. The tattoo is the only proof they had to identify the corpse.
I can’t help but think there has to be a way to investigate the corpse further(the man worked in CID before, come on!). There’s a distinct difference in the stature of Rishu and Neel, the whole body is burnt but the hand seems to be alright. Instead of it looking like it blew right off his arms, it still has the sharp edge which comes from being cut with a knife. These things should have raised enough suspicion to get the identity tested of the corpse with the forearm found on the site.
I would let it go as plot convenience but the story establishes the point that Officer Kishore is obsessed with this case. Then why didn’t he send the corpse to forensics? When you think about it, it doesn’t make a lot of sense. Not to mention that the climax came out to be really amateur in its depiction.
The only way this loophole is justified is because of the character of the Officer. Argument’s can be made that he’s too blindsided by his desire to put Rani behind bars. He wants the corpse to be that of Rishu’s otherwise his crusade wouldn’t be justified. He assumes that someone like Rishu will never cut off his arm. This is what makes it seem like a perfect crime as the story ends.
Now, it’s out in the open that both Neel & Rishu are missing. One of them is dead and the other ran away. According to the Officer, Neel ran away, but no one from Neel’s family inquired about his whereabouts? Not that it's really important but just something to think about in my opinion.
I think this story needed a little more finishing with the whole investigation and climax part of it. There are a lot of loopholes in them. Even though the story is engaging regardless, it would have been better if everything was closely knit. It might have made certain changes in the storyline which would have added more substance in its runtime and left people thinking more about it.
Closing Statements
The final thing I want to address here is that Kabir Singh was highly criticized for its glorification of toxic love but I didn’t see the same type of uproar with this one. Maybe because it was an OTT release, I don’t know.
I feel stories are stories. I don’t protest against good stories if they go against my morals but during the whole Kabir Singh controversy, everyone ignored the performances, music and jumped their guns for that one slap. Many even said that there shouldn’t be any violence in a love story regardless the storyline. It’s not that no one talked about the toxicity in this film, but I’m talking about the difference in scale with which it was talked about in the respective cases.
