WATCH OUT! THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS.
Steamy romance movies don't often leave me with a sense of dread and confusion, but Netflix's Indian romantic thriller, Haseen Dillruba, has successfully left me in love with a whole new genre of romance movies. The Bollywood film, directed by Vinil Mathew, opens with a charismatic woman named Rani Kashyap (Taapsee Pannu) running into a burning building immediately after an explosion, only to find that her husband Rishabh "Rishu" Saxena's (Vikrant Massey) severed arm is lying in tatters on the floor. Throughout the rest of the movie, Rani recounts the story of their marriage — with a few carefully altered details — as she's interrogated by police officers who highly suspect that she murdered her husband because of her affair with Rishu's cousin Neel (Harshvardhan Rane).
Image Source: Netflix
The majority of the film is told in flashbacks from Rani's perspective, beginning with her arranged marriage to Rishu. Within a day of being married, the couple realize they significantly lack chemistry, building a tension between them that slowly evolves into a terrifying resentment. Shortly after the wedding, Rishu overhears Rani complaining to her family on the phone about his inability to perform in bed. As a result, he starts to distance himself from her, leaving for work before she wakes up and taking night classes to avoid her.
Feeling lonely, Rani starts a steamy affair with Neel, a bad boy whose hobbies include smoking and showing off his arms in sexy muscle tees. So the romance aspect of the movie is already off to a rocky start from the very beginning, but the overwhelming drama makes a sharp left at the intersection of thrilling and deadly in the second half of the movie. While it seems Rani is the top suspect in Rishu's murder case, her motive remains unclear — that is, until she reveals some deeply dark secrets about Rishu and Neel that shake up the entire investigation. Ahead, read more about the events leading up to the murder and what makes this love triangle toxic from every corner.

