Shraddha Kapoor manages the young wife-and-mother part well enough, but her transition to the other side is never fully realized: she appears to be speaking her lines to order and the cheek-pads to add flesh to her jowls, and the deliberately heavier voice, is all put on.

Despite its 124-minute length, Haseena Parkar is a tedious watch. We already know whatever is shown there.

Haseena Parkar is a superficial drama with no grit. The film has only glorified dialogues that has no real meaning to it. It’s better to enjoy your weekend with other gangster flicks over pizza! 

Shraddha tries hard to rescue the film, but the script totters so badly in the second half that any salvage seems impossible

The only actor who stands out a tad amid the ruins is Rajesh Tailang in the role of Haseena’s defence lawyer Shyam Keswani although he, like everybody else in the cast, is hopelessly trapped in a stilted script. Nothing, therefore, can salvage this insipid biopic from the morass of mediocrity.

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.

The dialogues are cheesy and are borderline juvenile at times. Shraddha’s makeup is patchy and inconsistent. Blatant brand placement, especially of a jewellery and water brand that probably didn’t exist in that era, is an eyesore. All this ends up making Haseena Parkar one of the weakest gangster movies to hit the screens.

For all those who savour and relish gangster dramas, Haseena Parkar can be seen just once, even though it does not qualify to be a ‘must watch’. Secondly, those who idolise Shraddha Kapoor as an actress and worship Apoorva Lakhia as a film maker, you can also watch this film, despite the jarring screenplay.

Siddhanth Kapoor gives Farhan Akhtar stiff competition in being the dullest Dawood Ibrahim on screen this year. 

So much liberty was taken, Shraddha could have easily chewed a pan and that would have been better. Even in such a film, Shraddha managed to get a scene in rain. Batao…

At over 2 hours, it’s an overwrought saga which aimlessly beats around the bush but gives us no real insight. Amidst the clutter of lawyers barking at each other at unusually high decibels and Shraddha’s swollen face (to emphasise her age), there’s little to appreciate in this one. I will go with what one of the lawyers rightly pointed out – “This is frivolous!” He was warning us about the film. Get the hint!

It’s brave of a really young actor Shraddha Kapoor to want to play Marlon Brando in The Godfather. And full marks for effort. But Haseena Parkar is a poorly researched film, which just makes you laugh at the end of it all.

Juvenile story-telling, melodrama and an shaky lead actor does not take Haseena Parkar to the level, it was expected to. And what is the point of revisiting a female don’s life if the story fails to thrill. Sorry Shraddha, Arjun’s Daddy left its mark better…

Overall, what could have been a strong film, well-researched, stimulating and perhaps hard-hitting film, ends up as a poorly executed court room spectacle sans any drama.

Ditch Haseena Parkar without any guilt. You won’t be missing much. Save that money, order a pizza and cola and watch Once Upon A Time In Mumbaii, Shootout At Lokhandwala or Company instead.

With films like ‘Shootout at Lokhandwala’ and ‘Ek Ajnabee’ Apoorva Lakhia fails to deliver a convincing plot due to a controversial subject that could not brainwash audiences perception towards the most wanted criminal in the world. 

Too Much Glorification of the Negative…