Stardust Stars: *** 3 stars
That’s right, darlings! Despite mixed reviews, we found ‘Darlings’ quite interesting and a good one-time watch. A black comedy with an underlying social message, this is Alia Bhatt’s first production along with Red Chillies, and we do think she did a good job. ‘Darlings’ is about domestic violence… and how women especially in India keep making excuses despite being beaten black and blue by their ‘madly in love’ husbands until they reach their boiling point and then there is havoc to pay. But the entire tale is told in a flippant way that is quite enthralling. Agreed, the plot goes ‘round and ‘round in circles and at times, you do get the feeling that the scriptwriter was at the end of his tether and just didn’t know what to do next or the director Jasmeet K Reen was horribly lost especially in the middle. But Alia Bhatt’s amazing performance and Shefali Shah’s fabulous screen presence saved the wafer thin plot from floundering into obscurity. The surprise packet was Vijay Verma who played the abusive drunk husband who would beat up his wife in the night and then be all lovey dovey in the morning. He was absolutely impressive and mark our words, that guy is some day going to be in the same elite crowd as Irrfan Khan, Nawazuddin and all the other greats. All in all, ‘Darlings’ was pretty watchable, and yeah… we enjoyed the underlying black humour too, perhaps because of Alia’s finely nuanced natural performance. So Kangana, next time you accuse Alia of being a product of nepotism, watch this film and know what a natural actor she is.
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