Movie Review: Haseena Parkar

Lakhia suggests similarities in the modus operandi of Dawood and Haseena. They both create a network that promotes a certain kind of brand value. Both, Haseena and Dawood flaunt their love for Mumbai and their people. Both dive into the world of crime to protect their family interests.

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.

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. The only thing that works for the film, to some extent, is the chemistry between Shraddha and Siddhant Kapoor, real life siblings. But in absence of a coherent screenplay, they also become unbearable after a while. Haseena Parkar can’t boast of even one performance that’s not over the top.