Vikrant Massey, Taapsee Pannu, Harshvardhan Rane on why one can't pick sides in their bloody love story Hassen Dillruba

Hassen Dillruba, written by Kanika Dhillon and directed by Vinil Mathew, opens to Vikrant Massey's Rishu out on road, to meet an arranged marriage prospect. With tucked-in shirt, slicked oiled hair, specs, and slightly downward shoulders, Rishu is painted as an ordinary, 'homely' guy. However, his meet-up with Rani (Taapsee Pannu) and subsequent marriage is nothing sort of ordinary.

Burdened with performance anxiety, and feeling overpowered by Rani's zealous nature, Rishu initially falls short of winning his wife's heart. However, when a tragedy strikes and Rishu is killed in a blast, Rani, who had fallen in love with Rishu's cousin Neel (Harshvardhan Rane), is put on a pedestal as a primary murder suspect. But there is more to what meets the eye, for we discover each character is flawed and layered in shades of grey.

Pannu, in an interview with Firstpost, proclaims how one cannot pick sides in this film. "We never said the film is made of idealistic characters, each one of them is wrong and flawed. All of these characters feed off each other’s wrongs, and often one excites the other one to showcase their flawed side."

Pannu, who had worked on Dhillon's Manmarziyaan, is yet again caught up in a love triangle, but the complications involved here are a whole different from the former. Haseen Dillruba is messy. There is lust, love, murder, poetry, thrill, and a blame game. Pannu claims it was a challenge to get into the skin of Rani, for she felt relatively closer to Rumi's (her character in Manmarziyaan) personality. "This was way out of my comfort zone.

I don’t use the sensuality or sexuality of my character to gain something. I don’t really know how to, but Rani does and with so much plump.

This was a challenge because I haven’t discovered that side of me, never seen it in real life, forget about onscreen. So whenever you take this kind of risk, where you are unaware about this side of yours, you discover something new and probably something fresh comes out of it in comparison to those who are known for their sensuousness, and would have done it in a different way. Also, it would have been easier for the audience to anticipate it but for me, I have never done it, and hence I am sure it will be a refreshing angle for my viewers," the actor adds.

Flaw, as a trait for the characters, is something carefully woven in the film. Rishu, who we meet as a devoted husband, goes under massive transformation after discovering his wife's infidelity. He ignores her apologies, picks on her, and to a great extent, even attempts to kill her. It gets unsettling for an outsider, but Massey believes humans possess certain tendencies within, which they probably will not recognise on their own, let alone others or even their loved ones view it.

He says, "If I have to encompass human possibilities in a shell, I think we are the most unpredictable machinery on eart. We do not know what brings out in us. In this case, Rishu had a different idea of life, but the circumstances became so hard that it brought out varied emotions within him. Probably that is why he started seeing the world in a different manner than what he was used to. I think certain situations, incidents in our life tend to alter our being, and often the degree varies from incident to incident. But we are constantly evolving organisms, and cannot afford to remain unaffected or stagnant. Rishu is on a journey and yes, he has some motives. While some might to them, some might not. But I think that is the beauty of interpersonal relationships. When Pannu’s Rani is asked, “Aapke Rishu ke saath kaise rishte the?” and she replies this twice, “Kuchh acche, kuchh bure.” And I think that is how life is."

Rane as Neel is charming and athletic, but one cannot ignore his problematic behaviour towards Rani. Rane admits he had certain inhibitions to take on the role but was also ready to put in the trust in his director to showcase him in a better light.

"As an actor, when you are lost and clueless, it is the director who puts you in the right perspective, and that is what Vinil sir did. With the gamut of work he’s done even in the advertising industry, it should be easy to understand that he grasps human emotions very well. And he is the last person who will treat anything on a shallow level. That’s the kind of trust, as an actor, I relied upon. And thankfully, he showed me the right side. And as you rightly mentioned, all three characters have grey sides for it was the theme of the film, and one cannot go against that. So I had to play the part, and I am so happy that I could practice this actor-director dynamic with this film."

While the film comes off as a murder mystery, it carries within itself various sub-plots, including a madcap love story. However, Massey assures it is nowhere attempting to relay any kind of message and is an out-and-out entertainer.

"Not all films necessarily carry a message within themselves. We need to primarily understand that this is an entertainment industry, and unfortunately, it is lately being expected out of movies to take up the role of a PSA, but this is not the case. Haseen Dillruba is a film that speaks of love, and we have been romanticising the idea of love for generations, be it Romeo-Juliet, Heer-Ranjha. So I think we really need to disconnect our sense of moralities when it comes to watching something onscreen, especially cinema with all kinds of genres, sub-plots. I really don’t think our film is attempting even a bit to go out and send a message, and it is a commercial Hindi film with songs and a love story. Hence, we don’t need to have the same kind of barometer for everything. You know, one size doesn’t fit all."

When I point out the atrocities conducted by Rishu in the second half of the film, Pannu is quick to point out how she agrees they were wrong, but that does not wipe out Rani's faults. "We cannot ignore the wrongs done by Rani while she was in a relationship with Rishu. Hence, we can’t say one is getting oppressed by the other because in this case, both Rishu and Rani are wrong."

Mathew, who had previously helmed the sparkling romantic drama Hasee Toh Phasee, feels Hassen Dillruba will provide a refreshing angle to the genre of love stories. "I am happy that I took up the challenge of making this film that is so different from what the previous was. It would be too boring to repeat the genre. I have also been excited and interested in dealing with stories that have complicated human relationship dynamics. I think it will also be a nice surprise to the audience who come up with the expectation of Hasee Toh Phasee, and find something so unlike to it. One doesn’t want anything repetitive. Nor want to be boxed into one category of the films, and that is what we went on with this film"

Hassen Dillruba is streaming on Netflix India.

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