Movie Review: Haseena Parkar

A week after Kangana did Simran you come to realise the importance of casting. Simran was all about casting going right. Haseena is from the other end of the gamut. This is not placing the blame at the door step of Shradha Kapoor. It is about how filmmaker Apoorva Lakhia perceives the character. He is willing to wound, but afraid to strike . There surely is an attempt to eulogise the central character. Both as a film maker and even otherwise this he is surely entitled to. Where he fails is the unwillingness or the lack of enough gall to go the whole hog.

The story is known. It deals with the life of the sister of Dawood Ibrahim. Both and several siblings in the family are portrayed as victims of poverty and situational compulsions. Dawood is shown as a person who is compelled by the gang wars of Mumbai to become the king of the underworld and the finger pointing to his involvement in the bomb blasts is presented without the conviction that the allegations have a basis. The characters in the film are all brought in to shoot kill and intimidate.

The film revolves around the criminal case bricked around Haseena. This is very poorly presented. Both the characters _ the Public Prosecutor (Roshni Satham) and the defense counsel Keshwani (Rajesh Tailang) do not give the role enough. In fact even Haseena interprets her role with a very laboured attempt at slow dialogue delivery. She fails to gain empathy or anger. This becomes the main drawback of the film- a bizarre coincidence with the other film released on the same day.

The film stands out however for some amazing dialogues by Chintan Gandhi. It is his contribution as a crucial member of the crew that helps sustain the film which otherwise is lacking in punch purpose and entertainment.