Darlings Movie review: Alia Bhatt’s Dark comedy; new released film
Darlings Movie review : A dark comedy about a women finding her agency
Dark comedy can be a difficult genre to navigate. While it gives a filmmaker the creative freedom they need to let their ideas flourish, it also allows them to experiment with character motivations. Allowing their dark and grey nature to weave into the tapestry they have created. Darlings (2022), directed by Jasmeet K Reen and co-written by Parveez Sheikh. Transforms a Mumbai crawl into a place that operates entirely within our realities but is heightened by a sense of extremism.
Badru (Alia Bhatt) and Humza (Vijay Varma) have been married for three years, and it appears that not all is well in paradise.
Humza, a drunk, beats her for a minor mistake, but because she loves him. She forgives him and feeds him her ‘world’s best omelet’ the next day.
Now, Badru appears to be a reasonable woman who would not take anyone’s crap. But when it comes to having her agency in front of her star-crossed lover, she lacks it. Unlike her mother (Shefali Shah), the single woman who lives just outside Badru’s window. Constantly urging her daughter to either leave the man, kill him. Or move in with her, Badru is continually looking for reasons for Humza’s behavior.
She blames the alcohol for his abusive behavior. And because she is someone who likes to plan everything in life, she plots to mix a healthy dose of anti-abuse in his food on her mother’s insistence. Unfortunately, something do not go as planned, and she is beaten once more. However, the process of forgiving him continues. So, this time, she intends to have a child in the hopes that he will give up alcohol for good once the baby arrives. Oblivious to the fact that the man also has selfish motives.
Darling is an ambitious production that asks the right questions and shows the right ways to deal with men who appear to be “good people” on the surface but are demons hiding in plain sight. However, I’m not sure if it has the necessary tools.
