Haseena Parkar

Haseena Parkar Story: This courtroom drama tries to decode the life and criminal activities of India’s most wanted fugitive – Dawood Ibrahim’s late sister Haseena Parkar, who allegedly headed her brother’s crime syndicate in Mumbai and ran proxy business for him.

Haseena Parkar Review: As the film shuttles between past and present, it passionately lists down the gang wars and events that led to Dawood’s rise as a crime lord-terrorist and its repercussions on his family, including his sister Haseena, who was summoned to the Court only once (2007), despite the many offences registered against her.

Incidentally, the recent arrest of Dawood’s brother Iqbal Kaskar (‘while he was having biryani’), from his Mumbai residence on charges of extortion, made one wonder why the bigger fish continues to roam scot free. While the siblings are obviously no saints, do they somewhere bear the brunt of belonging to the D family? This disappointingly shallow biopic tries to decipher this debatable thought.

However, given Apoorva Lakhia’s poor direction and penchant for making films on Mumbai’s underworld dons that ride on sensation over substance, all you get is a tanned Shraddha Kapoor who looks like she’s holding two kachoris in her mouth. The actress is ‘lucky’ to be getting biopics (she will essay the role of badminton ace Saina Nehwal next), given her limited acting skills. But let us clarify, Shraddha is not the weakest link here.

The treatment, jarring background score and setting, is equally sloppy as Dongri, Nagpada, Dubai, Mulund, Bhandup…all look the same. Also, the stereotypes are laughable. Siddhant Kapoor (badly dubbed) as Dawood, roams around aimlessly in Dubai, goes on candlelight dinners with random girls and chills in his bathtub as Mumbai burns (1993). The judge examining Haseena Parkar’s case, comes across as a nincompoop.

You walk into the film, hoping to understand the controversial journey of a woman, who became the aapa (elder sister) or the Godmother of Nagpada. But all you get is a silly costume drama that inadvertently victimises and thus justifies Haseena’s unlawful actions and warped sense of power under the pretext of ‘protecting her family’. While the intention is still subjective as it’s a filmmaker’s interpretation of a character, the film’s biggest drawback is its lack of depth.

The crime drama fails to offer an insight into Haseena’s life whatsoever as an individual, beyond her infamous identity as Dawood’s sister, who dropped her bhai’s name to settle property disputes, extort money from builders etc.