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Kanika Dhillon: Violence In The Pulpy World Of ‘Haseen Dillruba’

Set in the world of a racy pulp thriller, romance in the Netflix release Haseen Dillruba has a twisted heart just like in the plotlines of the unseen pulp writer Dinesh Pandit whose Kasauli Ka Kahar is the mood that the movie embraces.

Author and Bollywood screenwriter Kanika Dhillon delves into the messy world of Haseen Dillruba, directed by Vinil Mathew. This is the world of a flawed female protagonist, the irreverent sexual rebel, Rani.

Through a series of mishaps, love turns toxic as the movie progresses, but as Kanika Dhillon reminds, is this toxicity set in a realist or make-believe world? In this video, Kanika Dhillon explains why the saga of Rani and Rishu, played by Taapsee Pannu and Vikrant Massey, respectively, should be seen through pulp-tinted glasses where the tone of the movie is already pitched at an improbable arc and where even in that make-believe world she has invested her female character with agency.

(Interviewed by Sanhati Banerjee; produced and video edited by Nang Tanvi)