By Alia Bhatt chose sensitive topics such as domestic violence as a debut project for her production house. Instead of making a hard film on it, the story has been wrapped in black comedy clothes. But the hope of character, dream, and despair will remain with you until the end, after the credit is rolling.
Badrunissa (Alia Bhatt) fell in love and married Hamza (Vijay Varma) who turned out to be an alcohol addict who defeated his wife. His mother Shamshunnisa (Shefali Shah) lives in the same chawl in Byculla and encourages her daughter every day to get rid of her rough husband. But Alia, like many women, still hasn’t lost hope. She wants to have a baby with her husband, fulfill the dream she has seen with this man and keep looking for ways to reform her.
This film might trigger many of us independent women who will not stand with rough behavior even for a day. Unfortunately it will make you angry, make you angry, especially after we have films like Thappad. But you have to put aside your ideas about right and wrong and try to understand the despair of Badru to keep the relationship alive, and wait patiently the limits of patience.
Questions about true and wrong appear many times in the film, especially in the climax when Badru must make decisions that will change their lives forever. Throughout the film, there is a struggle that is played between mothers who support more drastic steps, while her daughter follows her heart, until her last hopes are also killed, changing the core of her beliefs.
Alia Bhatt played his role brilliantly as an easily fooled wife who believed she could change her husband. He carried the film as an actor as well, as expected from someone who had given birth to Udta Punjab, Gully Boy and Gangubai Kathiawadi. There are times when Badru reminds you of Safeena from Gully Boy.
Unfortunately reminded me of Gangubai Kathiawadi at the time of the vulnerability of Badru -victims of the situation but tried to use it as well as possible. When he broke the plate after the episode of harassment and Zulfi (Roshan Matthew) came to examine it, it reminded me of Afsaan’s love for the Gangu. But there is a twist in the story here too.
Vijay Varma seems to have become the ruler of the characters who are blown as gray, shed tears of crocodiles to get his way, switch from a loving husband to a cruel devil in a blink of an eye.
Shefali plays a practical mother who tries to show her daughter’s reality of her marriage. He did a unique role easily, and was the main source of comic assistance in many scenes. Alia and Shefali are really entertaining as mothers and children on the screen.
The appearance of Alia Bhatt, Shefali Shah and Vijay Varma is the brightest part of the reality represented by this film.
Despite being a black comedy, this film does not have a complicated or funny comic scene, and most remain an emotional matter. The design of production and attention to details should be praised, such as editing speed. Director Jasmeet K Reen has done a good job to tell the story without experiencing too many complications, while also maintaining fear through narration. Some well directed scenes are building episodes of violence between Hamza and Badru. Darlings have good situational songs like La Ilaaj, Bhasad, and Pleaj, who capture the mood quite well.
Darlings may not be the best black comedy out there, but it must be worth watching, especially if you are looking for stories about strong women who take over their own lives.