Haseena Parkar Movie Review Rating: 2.5/5 Stars (Two and half stars)

Star Cast: Shraddha Kapoor, Siddhanth Kapoor, Ankur Bhatia, Rajesh Tailang

Director: Apoorva Lakhia

What’s Good: The research and Shraddha Kapoor

What’s Bad: The ‘one-sided’ courtroom drama, which, eventually become monotonous

Loo Break: Lots of them

Watch or Not?: Can be watched just once, if you have nothing else to do.

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The film starts off with introduction of Haseena Parkar (Shraddha Kapoor), who crushes everyone’s doubts and appears in the court in connection of an extortion case, based on a complaint filed by a builder. The moment Haseena Parkar steps inside the court by fooling everyone (it’s a must watch scene), what ensues after that are allegations galore by the opposition lawyer (who is only second to Shraddha Kapoor in terms of screen presence). When the opposition lawyer starts levying the allegations, Haseena Parkar tries to prove her innocence by explaining her stand with a series of flashback events, starting with her childhood that oscillated between an extremely righteous policeman as her father and an extremely notorious bother Dawood (Siddhanth Kapoor) as her brother.

This is followed by events like her marriage to a simple man (Ankur Bhatia) who loved her unconditionally, the untimely death of her first brother Sabir in a shootout, the infamous Hindu-Muslim riots, the series of bomb blasts that shook Mumbai city, the fleeing away of her brother Dawood from Mumbai to Dubai and Haseena Parkar being repeatedly and mercilessly questioned by the Mumbai Crime Branch because she happens to be Dawood’s sister. Does Haseena Parkar confess to her brother’s heinous crimes, is she able to manage her family after her husband’s untimely death and what ultimately happens of Haseena Parkar, is what forms the rest of the film.

Haseena Parkar Movie Review: Script Analysis

Even though we all know about the dreaded Dawood Ibrahim in reality, it is really a very unique and innovative effort to make a film that’s dedicated to his sister Haseena ‘Aapa’ Parkar. Full marks to the film’s writer Suresh Nair for having come up with such a distinctive script for the film.

There have been many films which have got made on the underworld. But, what makes Haseena Parkar different from all others is that, this film gives an insight into the life of Haseena Parkar. And full marks to Shraddha Kapoor for having done total justice to the role. The place where the film falters is in its screenplay, which seems to be way too monotonous and one sided.

Haseena Parkar Movie Review: Star Performance

Absolutely no prizes for guessing that the film totally rides on the shoulders of Shraddha Kapoor, who does a damn good job in the titular role of Haseena Parkar. Even though the painstaking efforts which Shraddha Kapoor has taken in order to get into the skin of the character are very clearly visible, what acts as a roadblock to her character is the film’s screenplay, which looks and behaves very amateurish and half baked. One has to give it to Shraddha Kapoor for having portrayed the emotions of helplessness, love, fright and authority with utmost sincerity and dedication.

Besides Shraddha Kapoor, there’s her real life brother Siddhanth Kapoor who plays the role of her brother Dawood. It seems that, assuming that he had an extremely strong role in the film; Siddhanth Kapoor got carried away a bit. This starts showing in his performance, which is much below everyone’s expectations. The debutante actor Ankur Bhatia, despite his less screen time, looks sincere and holds promise. Rajesh Tailang is decent.

Lastly, strange it may sound, but the fact remains that, besides Shraddha Kapoor, if there was anyone whom the camera simply loved, then, it has to be the lady who played the opposition lawyer. She played her role with the right amount of conviction, confidence and sarcasm, which was required for her character. Rest of the actors help in forwarding the film’s narrative.

Haseena Parkar Movie Review: Direction, Music

‘Total disappointment’. These two words simply sum up the expectations which everyone had from a seasoned film maker like Apoorva Lakhia, who is a veteran of sorts when it comes to films of such genre. Even though Apoorva Lakhia had a well-researched script in the form of Haseena Parkar, which no one has ever attempted to make, still, he failed to do justice to the script. One does get a feeling that, maybe he was a bit over confident about the script that he failed to look into many places. Had he done so, it could have saved the film in a big way.

As a director and a story teller, he seems to have assumed the viewers to overlook or ignore the loopholes in the story, which, sadly is not the case. An example being, Haseena Parkar lands up in the court because of a complaint lodged by a builder, whereas there was no sight of any builder in the courtroom! Even all the allegations levied by the opposition lawyer against Haseena Parkar were purely on the basis of hearsay and without any solid proof. Despite all this, the judge seems to be speaking to her in a polite tone and even appreciates her guts. All of these only evoke a huge amount of disbelief amongst the viewers.

Music hardly has any role to play in the film. Even the songs which are present in the film cannot save the film. One of the film’s saving graces is its background music.

Haseena Parkar Movie Review: The Last Word

For all those who savour and relish gangster dramas, Haseena Parkar can be seen just once, even though it does not qualify to be a ‘must watch’. Secondly, those who idolise Shraddha Kapoor as an actress and worship Apoorva Lakhia as a film maker, you can also watch this film, despite the jarring screenplay.

Haseena Parkar Trailer

Haseena Parkar releases on 22nd September, 2017.

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