Haseena Parkar
- Director
- Apoorva Lakhia
- Studio
- Swiss Entertainment
- Release Date
- 21 September 2017
- Running Time
- 124 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹18.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹9.00 Cr
Review
Shraddha Kapoor carries what could have been a compelling underworld saga with considerable screen presence, yet the film squanders its genuinely intriguing premise—five identical burqa-clad women in a courtroom—through meandering narrative structure and shallow character exploration. Director Apoorva Lakhia, whose filmography averages 5.8/10, fails to generate the dramatic momentum needed for such a complex story. The transformation from victimized housewife to criminal kingpin "Aapa" feels rushed rather than earned, and the film never quite commits to examining either Haseena's moral descent or the systemic forces that pushed her there. The Bombay blasts backdrop offers historical weight, but it remains largely ornamental—a tragic event used for plot convenience rather than thematic resonance.
What the film does attempt with some success is positioning Haseena as a woman who weaponized herself in an exclusively male criminal ecosystem, a potentially groundbreaking angle for Hindi cinema. However, the execution relies on melodrama rather than nuance. Kapoor's performance wavers between vulnerability and fierceness without finding the psychological coherence that would make her character's journey believable. The supporting cast remains underutilized, and the courtroom framing device—promising a payoff worthy of the buildup—delivers hollow vindication rather than earned catharsis.
At ₹9 crores with a -50% ROI, this was a commercial disaster, and while box office performance
Storyline
So basically this movie opens up in a Mumbai courtroom in 2007, and there's this whole dramatic scene with five women in burqas showing up to a hearing. Turns out they're all the same person—Haseena—trying to prove her identity in court. It's actually a really intriguing setup that immediately makes you wonder what she's gotten herself into!
The story then flashes back to show how Haseena grew up in a cramped Mumbai house with tons of siblings. Her brother Dawood gets pulled into the criminal underworld, and she ends up marrying this nice guy named Ibrahim. But here's where things get messy—because of her brother's dangerous connections, her husband becomes a target and gets killed. On top of that, Dawood gets involved in the horrific 1993 Bombay bombings and bolts to Dubai, leaving Haseena to deal with all the fallout.
Tired of being pushed around and suffering because of her family's crimes, Haseena decides she's had enough and takes matters into her own hands. She transforms herself into a powerful figure called "Aapa" and becomes a serious player in Mumbai's underworld scene, which was basically a man's world back then. Now she's facing dozens of criminal charges connected to her brother's gang, and the movie follows her trying to clear her name while telling her side of the story.
