Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba sees the return of the wicked married couple from Haseen Dillruba (2021). In the first movie, written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Vinil Mathew, Rani (Taapse Pannu) and Rishu (Vikrant Massey) killed Rani’s lover, pretended that Rishu was the one who had died, and fled the fictitious north Indian town Jwalapur. Rather than moving far away – Kanyakumari, perhaps, or even Kathmandu – the sequel sees the couple hiding out in Agra.
Here, Rani runs a beauty parlour and frequently meets Rishu on the sly, but always in the open. Rishu’s idea of a disguise is a cap. All that was needed for police officer Kishore (Aditya Srivastava) to close his open investigation was a 24-hour tail on Rani.
Instead, Kishore bumbles on, sharing his hopeless mission with Montu (Jimmy Shergill). Self-described as possessing the persistence of a woodpecker, Montu vows to chip away at the couple’s deceit. Muddling matters for all parties is the compounder Abhimanyu, who has fallen for Rani as unerringly as a buzzy movie gets a second outing.
Sunny Kaushal in Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba (2024). Courtesy Colour Yellow Productions/ T-Series Films/Netflix. Kanika Dhillon’s screenplay for Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba attempts to channel the spirit of amoral hardboiled noir as well as the pulp fiction of the fictitious writer Dinesh Pandit.
Had the cops bought out the entire Dinesh Pandit catalogue to figure out the modus operandi at work, nobody need have bothered. Phir .