Darlings HD Released

 

Darlings Review {3.5/5} & Review Rating

DARLINGS is a hilarious entertainer and at the same time, it is also replete with some hard-hitting moments

DARLINGS is the story of a woman trapped in a violent marriage. Badrunissa aka Badru (Alia Bhatt) is the daughter of Shamshunissa Ansari aka Shamshu (Shefali Shah). Her father passed away many years ago. Badru and Hamza Sheikh (Vijay Varma) are in love with each other. After Hamza lands a job in the Railways, he proposes marriage. Both marry and shift to a flat in Barha Chawl, Mumbai. Shamshu also resides in the same chawl, that too on the same floor.

Three years pass, and Hamza is revealed to be an alcoholic and a wife beater. He would assault Badru over trivial matters at night. In the morning, he would apologize or express regret over the violence. Badru would then forgive him. Shamshu hates seeing her daughter being beaten up by Hamza. She suggests to her to get rid of him, and even kill him if possible! Badru, however, feels that he’ll change one day and that might happen once they have a baby. She tells him to quit alcohol but he fails to do so.

One day, he finds out that he has liver cirrhosis. The doctor warns him that if he drinks, he might die. Hamza hides this information from her and pretends to have quit alcohol on his own for good. Their life gets better and Badru is on cloud nine. She gets pregnant. All is going well until Hamza once again gets violent, this time without drinking, and attacks Badru so violently that she miscarries. She’s taken to the hospital. Here, she decides to take revenge and not suffer anymore. She asks the doctor for sleeping pills as she complains of sleeplessness. She lies about it and gives the pills to Hamza, without his knowledge. Once he goes to sleep, she ties him. Shamshu becomes her partner-in-crime although she fails to understand what her daughter is planning to do with Hamza. What happens next forms the rest of the film.

Jasmeet K Reen and Parveez Shaikh's story is impressive. Jasmeet K Reen and Parveez Shaikh's screenplay is highly entertaining and effective. It raises laughs and at the same time, makes an important comment on domestic violence. The characters are very fleshed out too by the writers. Vijay Maurya, Jasmeet K Reen and Parveez Shaikh's dialogues bring the house down

Jasmeet K Reen's direction is excellent and it is difficult to imagine that this is her feature film debut since she has handled the subject so well. The topic chosen is correct as several may relate to it; and it’ll be cathartic for them to see how Badru and Shamshu teach Hamza a lesson. Also, the film doesn’t get complicated and is narrated so simply that it can appeal to a large section of the audiences. Yet, a few aspects and nuances are creative and enhance the impact. For instance, the way the mother and daughter communicate through the window is lovely. Moreover, Badru dressing up in the hot one-shoulder red dress but making sure to not hide her scars is memorable. On the flipside, a few developments are very convenient. It is also bewildering why Hamza doesn’t scream for help when he is kidnapped, especially when it's established that what happens in their house is heard by other residents around. Lastly, the redevelopment angle and Shamshu's cooking business track don’t somehow gel well with the principal narrative after a point.