Movie Review - Haseena Parkar by Suhel Johar

Based On A Wobbly Script Shraddha Kapoor Is Totally Miscast In And As Haseena Parkar. 

 

Haseena Parkar, the biopic of Dawood Ibrahim's sister Haseena Parkar, finally released this week after getting pushed week after week since July this year.

Directed by Apoorva Lakhia the film tells the tale of Haseena Parkar (Shraddha Kapoor), Dawood Ibrahim’s sister, who from a timid Konkani Muslim girl rose to became a feared lady don in Mumbai’s Nagpada area. It explores her relationship with her brother, husband and the world of crime. Haseena Parkar also aims showcase how the lady instilled the fear of her brother amongst the public and slowly built a clout of her own. And yes, it does not call Dawood by the name, it is just Bhai in this flick.

The first half is relatively decent. We are introduced to the Kaskar family, where the two eldest sons, Dawood  (Siddhant Kapoor) and Shabbir have embarked into the world of crime. Their sister, Haseena loves them dearly and enjoys the small spoils of their misdeeds like an imported watch and more pocket money. She gets married as her brother rises in the world of crime. The chemistry between Siddhant and Shraddha is natural. Also, the events are chronicled year-wise, so it is very easy to understand

Haseena Parkar has incidents like the encounter of Pathan gangster Samad Khan, the killing of Ibrahim Parkar and infamous JJ Hospital shootout in 1992. Unlike Daddy, the film hints that some members of Mumbai’s police supported the idea of fielding local goons against the reign of the Pathans.

The biggest problem is the story. Haseena Parkar is not a docu drama like Daddy nor is it a commercial gangster entertainer like Once Upon A Time In Mumbai. And it does not fare well as a biopic either. We don’t get an insight into the inner world of Dawood – Haseena nor is her journey to being an Aapa told in some detail. The film moves at break-neck speed leaving you with zero takeaways. The linear narrative gets boring after a point of time. In a film, that is supposed to trace a bro-sis story, there are no high-impact scenes between the two. We get exposed to their inner world at a very surface level.

The first half of Haseena Parkar makes you feel that no Bollywood movie has captured the ambiance and ethos of the Temkar street area as well as Haseena has done. By the interval, you feel Haseena is on the right path. It has all the ingredients of a good masala Bollywood film to make it a blockbuster. As you return to the theatre with this thought that post the interval and the film moves on, you start to wonder: Where is this story going?

The script wobbles so badly in the second half that any salvage seems impossible. The uneven pacing pumped up with a pounding background score clearly indicates the director’s massy intentions. And no harm in that if only Lakhia’s principal lead had insight into what she was supposed to do. Juvenile story-telling and melodrama  do not take Haseena Parkar to the level, it was expected to.  In fact you wonder why was this film ever made, what's the message?

Shraddha Kapoor slides cluelessly through the various lies and lives of Haseena Parkar with a complete absence of inner conviction. Moreover, Shraddha Kapoor regrets one thing about this film that she missed her meeting with the real Haseena Parkar whose role she has been playing. Maybe that could have helped her prepare for the role.

For better or for worse, Lakhia keeps the pacing frenzied, almost ruinously so. Barely are the characters given a chance to breathe their frustration and rage into a system that is so corrupt it fosters criminality. Suresh Nair  as the story and screenplay writer  scores on research but fares badly in putting it out as a workable script. Chinatn Gandhi’s dialogue for most part remains mundane. Cinematographer Fasahat Khan’s is not bad. Steven H. Bernard’s editing is okay. Music by Sachin-Jigar is listless. Amar Mohile’s background score is lot of din.  

Performancewise, Shraddha Kapoor’s performance is so surface-level, a sorry instance of miscasting in recent times. To make it worse for her the character of  Haseena is half baked. Siddhant Kapoor’s Dawood is better, more roundly shaped probably because the actor is required largely to speak on the phone to a sister whom he repeatedly extends a helping hand, and not in the way other siblings do.

Ankur Bhatia as Ibrahim Parkar is easy on the eye and performs effortlessly. Little known actress Priyanka Sethia is a scene stealer. Haseena’s lawyer, played by Rajesh Tailang, is good. The rest of the cast barely gets a chance to register in the blood splattered storytelling.

On the whole, Haseena Parkar is a disappointing fare.