User Reviews

It is a huge responsibility for a director who touches upon a story based on real-life incidents against the backdrop of underworld and especially when the crime thriller genre has been extensively explored in Bollywood. After films like Once Upon A Time In Mumbaai, Black Friday and Company, to name a few, which showed underworld through a vivid filter, Apoorva Lakhia's latest offering Haseena Parkar fails to impress. It is surely not on the list of recommended gangster films.

Haseena Parkar (Shraddha Kapoor) lives with her family and is very close to her elder brother Dawood Ibrahim (Siddhanth Kapoor). Dawood always puts his father in a spot by doing petty illegal things around the vicinity. In the meantime, Haseena gets married to Ibrahim Parkar (Ankur Bhatia). She lives a happy life until Ibrahim gets murdered by the rivals of Dawood.

Soon after, Dawood shifts to Dubai and Haseena emerges as a lady don of Dongri. Bombay police fails to trace Dawood and hence summons Haseena in the session court for further investigations including Bombay bomb blasts held in 1993. Will Haseena come out clean or be accused of her brother's crime? Rest of the film unfolds this question.

Director Apoorva Lakhia has not tried his hand directing a gangster film for the first time. Earlier, his Shootout At Lokhandwala, which highlighted the real-life gunbattle of Maya Dolas in 1991, that released in 2007, was a good attempt by the director, but this time, he totally goes haywire with Haseena's life. Seems he aimed to make a gripping biopic, but it turned out to be boring and meaningless. One gets confused whether to sympathise with Haseena or hate her. The film is a complete a mouthpiece of Dawood's sister. Precisely, there is no reason to make a life on his sister's life when there is nothing extraordinary about it. It is highly peachy, at the same time, has a very diplomatic approach towards Dawood and his crimes. Still wondering how many filters it passed through on its scripting stage, censor or maybe Dawood's family. Was it important for the makers to make a film on Haseena or does India lack enough noted people on which biopics can be made? Apoorva also fails to create the era of 1970's and the misfit cast spoiled the rest of it. Few shots where the action sequences just freezes on screen are awful. The background score is a lot similar to Sarkar franchise, but it is surely horrifying than Conjuring series (laughs). The biggest flaw of the film is its shoddy execution. Dawood, who influenced her sister's life, should have been shown in a proper way and not superficially. With an open-ended climax, Apoorva has no conclusion to it especially when it is based on real-life incidents. A little more research would have saved this sinking ship or does he purposely leave his film on such a note to play safe? This is for you to guess! Shraddha Kapoor, who is touted as a non-actor has surely acted in this one outside her comfort zone, but she is not satisfying. On the contrary, the makers and the actress herself took this chance to play the role of Haseena to prove that a non actor can pull this off with ease, but it is disappointing to see Shraddha who doesn't look apt for this role. Maybe Tabu or Vidya Balan would have done justice to Haseena. From her physicality to dialogue deliveries, Shraddha does a poor job. She is too unprepared to play such a mature role. Siddhanth Kapoor is surely an end to the era of playing Dawood in our Bollywood films. He is a tiny-looking don wandering everywhere, which is laughable. Dawood surely must be cursing the makers for giving his role to him. His style and mannerisms are way too dramatic. The saving grace of the film is Ankur Bhatia who looks amazing in his short role. He is hot as Ibrahim Parkar and does his role with conviction. He might not have a commercial value today, but definitely has a promising future here.

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!

The weak screenplay together with a fragile plot that lacks interesting twists, is the undoing of the film. It fails to engage you from scene one. The courtroom too lacks drama and appears a tad amateurish and staged. Even glimpses of Dawood Ibrahim and Haseena's early life fail to keep you hooked or offer anything interesting. Be it the riots, shootouts, emotional scenes, everything seems forced and tackily handled. The use of 3D animation in the scene of the Mumbai bomb blasts of 1993, for example.The characters are one- dimensional and the plot is wafer-thin. The dialogues are steeped in mediocrity and in fact in some serious scenes, they were not executed very well.

Shraddha Kapoor makes a bad attempt in trying to portray the journey of Haseena from a young girl to a married woman and ultimately a widow who is geared to shoulder the responsibility of her family and neighbour hood. It is also the script which fails her and in several scenes makes her appear theatrical and unreal. Her get up too is not entirely convincing. Siddhanth Kapoor as Dawood Ibrahim on the other hand fails to make an impact. He appears a misfit in a powerful character like this and perhaps again, the script limits him.

On the production front, the film is poorly mounted and fails to recreate the 1980s and 1990s to perfection. Montages with newspaper clippings, stock shots lend a hurriedly and carelessly feel to the entire film. Even the actions sequences lack finesse. The music by Sachin-Jigar, is nothing to write home about and does not in any way contribute to elevating the flavour or the context of the narrative.

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. Shraddha Kapoor is just not menacing as Haseena Parker and I can't stand her face throughout the movie, it's like there are Gulab Jamuns inside her mouth which she is not trying to eat until the guests leave lol. Avoid this movie at any cost, folks or you can watch Haseena, if you want paseena.

Haseena Parker, a film by Apoorva Lakhia, is a biopic on Mumbai's Lady Don, the Godmother of Nagapada – Haseena Aapa, younger sister of Dawood Ibrahim. It was believed that Haseena took up the control of operations of Dawood's business in India. She was notorious for running an extortion racket in Mumbai and also allegedly involved in hawala rackets in sending money from India to Middle East and vice versa. It is said that Arun Gawli Gang murdered her husband Ismail Parkar in 1991. Soon after that she entered into the crime world. Dawood had retaliated to his brother-in-law's death by a shootout at JJ Hospital and killing innocents as well in the process. Haseena shifted to the Gordon Hall Apartments in Nagpada from where she headed the crime syndicate. She dies of heart attack in 2014. The film takes us through the journey of Haseena from a meek, 7th standard pass out daughter of an honest police constable Ibrahim Kaskar to wife of an hotel owner / actor Ismail Parker to the Lady Don's status. But the challenge with the film is it does not really let us know who Haseena is, it is just a chronological journey of Haseena's life. But what sort of person she was, what did she feel, and how that inner transformation from a powerless girl to powerful don happened – all these are superficially dealt with, rather what we have read in newspapers. But, the film will definitely is intriguing as far as one needs to understand the flow of events in her life.

The film begins with the dramatic entry of Haseena Parker and a few other ladied in Burqa. . Journalists and people outside the court are having doubt whether Haseena Aapa would come for the court proceedings. And finally when she comes, people were not able to figure out who the original Haseena Parker was. Further the film unravels through court proceedings where Haseena Parker (Shraddha Kapoor) is questioned in an extortion case against a builder. Haseena, who was one amongst the 12 children (probably 7th) of Ibrahim Kaskar and Amina Bi. They used to live in a very small house. The questions by the lady Public Prosecutor (Priyanka Sethia) is arranged by the director in such a manner that its answers takes us to the flask back to Haseena's life. Haseena was extremely attached to her brother Dawood Ibrahim (Siddhant Kapoor, Shraddha's real brother). Her father Ibrahim Kaskar was an honest constable, who did not even shy away from making his sons Dawood and Sabir surrender before the police for their robberies. But Dawood was unstoppable, he grew to be the king of underworld very soon. Haseena is shown to have shared a special bond with Dawood. She gets married to Ismail Parker (Ankur Bhatia), owner of a small restaurant as well as an actor. When asked by Dawood that how she was after the marriage, she expressed that she could experience freedom of choice, freedom of living life after marriage. This is beautifully captured, where one gets to understand the real pain of Haseena, wherein the male fraternity have always decided for her but she was happy after marriage since she could breathe freely. Stories move further to the instances where Dawood had to flee abroad, Mumbai bomb blasts, JJ Hospital Shootouts, Haseena being mentally tortured by the police officials for her fault of being Dawood's brother, murder of her husband Ismail Parker and then how she grew to be the Haseena Aapa.

Shraddha looks good till she transforms into Haseena Aapa. Probably her make-up is not good, especially her cheeks look strange and also her frame looks different than the original Haseena Aapa. She does deglamorize herself for the role, but looks did not appear convincing. If we ignore her looks, she has certainly given her best possible shot to the role. Siddhant Kapoor has portrayed the role of Dawood Ibrahim well, although in the second half, his character is reduced to be the one living in posh White House in Dubai. Post intermission, he either appears in TV as a terrorist in news or else talking to Haseena over phone. One gets to miss the Ajay Devgan's touch to Sultan Mirza and Imraan Hashmi's Shoaib Khan in Once Upon a Time in Mumbai. Ankur Bhatia as Ismail Parker is good. Priyanka Sethia is a surprise package in the film, she is good while provoking, questioning Haseena Parker in the court and also in her verbal spats with the defense lawyer.

Haseena Parker aka Haseena Aapa's story unravels during courtroom drama. It is about her transformation from an innocent and meek sibling of Dawood Ibrahim to powerful lady don – Godmother of Nagapada. Apoorva Lakhia takes us through her journey chronologically but it turns out to be a collection of reports which we already have read in newspapers. The 'real Haseena' does not come out on screen except in one or two instances.

Worst movie I have ever seen, I wonder how I tolerated this movie for 20 minutes.

In the time of "CORONAVIRUS WORLD WAR - 3" in 2020 when your own life is at the hands of a invisible pandemic it's cinema that breaks all barriers and provides solace and entertainment in the confines of home.Have been binge watching various genres of movies and came across this biographical movie of Mumbai's Queen Godmother. Haseena.Parker. Entertaining movie that exposes the dark underbelly of Mumbai's crime World from the 1970's to the present day where the search for India's No 1 criminal Dawood Ibrahim continues and "FAKE NEWS MEDIA" minting money on his locations and present status as he seems to have disappeared from the face of the Earth, a eternal mystery. Ahoy !

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. 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. 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.