What Is the Story About?
Netflix Original film ‘Darlings‘ is centred on Badru, aka Badrunissa (Alia Bhatt), her protective mother Shamsu, aka Shamsunissa (Shefali Shah), and their struggle to get the better of Badru’s violently abusive husband Hamza (Vijay Varma). They are aided in their mission by a concerned neighbour, Zulfi (Roshan Mathew).
Darlings is written by Parveez Shaikh and Jasmeet K Reen. The latter has also directed the film. It is produced by Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment, and Alia Bhatt’s Eternal Sunshine Productions.
Performances?
Darlings is studded with excellent performances across the board. Alia Bhatt delivers a stand-out performance as the babe-in-the-woods victim of domestic violence. She’s even better when she does the hell-hath-no-fury-like-a-woman-scorned act. She’s good in every scene, be it when she has to convey love, sadness, fear, rage, hope, despair – all normal human emotions, rendered with flair. Shefali Shah is equally good as the bristling, no-nonsense Shamsu. She’s one actor who uses her expressive features and powerful delivery of dialogue to maximum, impactful effect.
Vijay Varma is memorably chilling as the abusive husband who resorts to bashing his wife after downing one too many. Roshan Mathew lends a calming presence to the violent chaos of the narrative. He’s assured and measured in his performance. Vijay Maurya, Rajesh Sharma and Puja Sarup give effective, efficient support to the storytelling.
Analysis
Darlings is a difficult watch. To anticipate the fragile, waif-like Badru receive a bashing from her heartless husband, and then to actually watch it happening barely a few seconds later is tough on the senses. It sends chilling shivers down one’s spine. Which means writer-director Jasmeet K Reen achieves exactly what she sets out to do.
She builds the lead-up to each instance of Hamza’s brutality so well that by the time it happens, it wrenches your gut in ways you didn’t think possible. After all, Darlings is not the first film to show domestic abuse and wife-bashing on screen. But it is definitely one of the few to deliver it to maximum effect with minimum effort. The scenes of domestic abuse are never too prolonged or too visual, with no overt display of violence. And yet, the effect they have on the viewer is compelling. The use of the frog-and-scorpion parable adds to the spine-chilling factor of the story.
The second half of the film, when Badru tries to turn the tables and get the upper hand in the fraught relationship, is vastly tamer as compared to its tensed first half. The storytelling — taut until then — loses its grip somewhat, and dissolves into a chaotic mish-mash of actions and reactions. The second half narrative does keep us engaged, but only just. The sharpness is lost somehow — maybe because the tension gives way to frivolity.
An intriguing thing about Darlings is its setting in the typical Muslim milieu. By placing the story bang in the centre of the Muslim community — complete with butcher neighbour and all — the film reinforces stereotypes associated with the community as a whole – regressive, patriarchal, wife-beating menfolk; submissive, semi-educated womenfolk, and the like. It is something one wouldn’t expect from the stakeholders associated with the film.
The good thing about Darlings and its storytelling is that it never turns preachy or moralistic. Throwaway one-liners, spouted randomly by the characters in the story lay emphasis on thought-provoking ideas – how men emotionally manipulate women like putty, gaslight them; how a woman enables domestic violence by accepting the first instance of aggression from her man, and more. Anubhav Sinha’s ‘Thappad’ emphasised the exact same point, though in different social strata.
More importantly, Darlings uses the adage of show, not tell, to make the viewer aware of crucial plot points in the narrative.
To sum it up, Darlings is an engaging watch overall, with minor flaws one wouldn’t mind overlooking in favour of the bigger picture.
Music and Other Departments?
Vishal Bhardwaj’s musical score is eclectic and catchy, perfectly offsetting Gulzar’s equally eclectic lyrics. Prashant Pillai’s background score takes the storytelling notches above. It precisely sets the tone for every nuance in the narrative. Nitin Baid’s editing is flawless. Anil Mehta’s cinematography captures the essence of the film’s milieu and flavour. Vijay Maurya, Parveez Shaikh and Jasmeet K Reen’s dialogues are interesting, and escape the clichéd tone of similar films of the past.
Highlights?
Performances, especially Alia Bhatt and Shefali Shah’s
Direction
Treatment of the story
Drawbacks?
Second half of the narrative loses the tautness of the first half
Tension gives way to frivolity in the second half
Did I Enjoy It?
Yes
Will You Recommend It?
Yes
Darlings Movie Review by Binged Bureau
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