Darlings is a comedy drama thriller film directed by jasmeet k reen.
Oh, where do i start now. First the performances. This film boasts of a stupendous trio at the helms of affair and boy they do justics to it. Alia bhatt is a bonafide performer. She has nailed her performance. She will get the baseless nepo blames throughout her life but nobody can question her acting credentials. She has given an absolute peach performance. Shefali shah is an ageless charisma. Her screen presence is so strong that she literally outclasses everyone in the frames. Even her comic punches are really good here. And the star of this film, hands down vijay varma. He is an absolute majesty. What a performance, he deserves awards for this tbh. The shades that he has portrayed. He had the most interesting character and someone of his calibre only could have pulled it off. You have gained a fan, vijay!! Roshan mathew and rajesh sharma do their bits, they are superb actors but they had less screen time. The rest of the cast is very good.
The cinematography is very good. The claustrophobia that this film manages to bring through the portrayal of the dingy chawls and houses in close proximity is amazing. The colour grading is superb too. There is a top angle shot at the end where two trains pass along each other with four characters between them which reflects their inner proximity to death and self-destruction. And this film has an impressive sound design. In one scene, hamza is having biryani and he crushes a stone between his teeth. The way the sound goes off just at that moment is brilliant. In another scene, zulfi and hamza get off the bike and a truck passes reflecting hamza's inner anger during that moment. This is an example of impressive sound design. And the music, vishal bharadwaj's music is never bad. He has given us gems like khul kabhi toh, do jahaan and many more. Add to that gulzar saab's lyrics. He wrote the lyrics in accordance to the way badru talks. The song 'lailaaj' too encapsulates the state of hamza and badru through the lyrics.
The way in which this film shows the narrative of domestic violence is brilliant. This is a deep film. Not all men are bad as reiterated by shamsu as well in the film. The poke at the twitter peeps is also brilliant. Hamza is a bad man but also this film shows zulfi as compassionate and loving. So the boycott brain**** gang, do take note of this fact as well.
However, it has some flaws too. The screenplay in the first half stretches a bit i would say. It could have been made more compact. But the writing is fabulous. The character writing especially is superb. The way the three leads have been fleshed out is so so good.
This film is a must watch. You just cannot miss this. I rate it 9.5 out of 10.
Oh, where do i start now. First the performances. This film boasts of a stupendous trio at the helms of affair and boy they do justics to it. Alia bhatt is a bonafide performer. She has nailed her performance. She will get the baseless nepo blames throughout her life but nobody can question her acting credentials. She has given an absolute peach performance. Shefali shah is an ageless charisma. Her screen presence is so strong that she literally outclasses everyone in the frames. Even her comic punches are really good here. And the star of this film, hands down vijay varma. He is an absolute majesty. What a performance, he deserves awards for this tbh. The shades that he has portrayed. He had the most interesting character and someone of his calibre only could have pulled it off. You have gained a fan, vijay!! Roshan mathew and rajesh sharma do their bits, they are superb actors but they had less screen time. The rest of the cast is very good.
The cinematography is very good. The claustrophobia that this film manages to bring through the portrayal of the dingy chawls and houses in close proximity is amazing. The colour grading is superb too. There is a top angle shot at the end where two trains pass along each other with four characters between them which reflects their inner proximity to death and self-destruction. And this film has an impressive sound design. In one scene, hamza is having biryani and he crushes a stone between his teeth. The way the sound goes off just at that moment is brilliant. In another scene, zulfi and hamza get off the bike and a truck passes reflecting hamza's inner anger during that moment. This is an example of impressive sound design. And the music, vishal bharadwaj's music is never bad. He has given us gems like khul kabhi toh, do jahaan and many more. Add to that gulzar saab's lyrics. He wrote the lyrics in accordance to the way badru talks. The song 'lailaaj' too encapsulates the state of hamza and badru through the lyrics.
The way in which this film shows the narrative of domestic violence is brilliant. This is a deep film. Not all men are bad as reiterated by shamsu as well in the film. The poke at the twitter peeps is also brilliant. Hamza is a bad man but also this film shows zulfi as compassionate and loving. So the boycott brain**** gang, do take note of this fact as well.
However, it has some flaws too. The screenplay in the first half stretches a bit i would say. It could have been made more compact. But the writing is fabulous. The character writing especially is superb. The way the three leads have been fleshed out is so so good.
This film is a must watch. You just cannot miss this. I rate it 9.5 out of 10.