Darlings: A refreshing plot, but not without Bollywood trappings

You don't often come across movies by Bollywood A-listers on evergreen and omnipresent issues such as domestic violence and alcoholism. So Darlings, starring Alia Bhatt (Badru), Vijay Varma (Hamza) and Shefali Shah (Shamshu) is a change in the Karan-Johar-infested mainstream Bollywood movie tempo. 

Hamza does a small time government job, loves his homemaker wife Badru, and drinks to numb his raging male ego with alcohol. So much so, that he keeps mistaking his wife's body for a canvas to paint it black, blue and red. But repeated bruises and a cycle of trauma has no impact on Badru, who continues to daydream about one day finding that perfect remedy to Hamza's abusive ways. 

Hamza and Badru live in a low-income colony. And across their small window, lives Shamshu, Badru's mother, the voice of reason and antithesis of the docile, loving, Badru. Time and again, she tries to convince her daughter to walk out of the abusive marriage and cut out spousal toxicity from her life.  

But Badru is determined to stay. 

At one time, the mother and daughter duo make it as far as the police station to file a domestic violence complaint, only for Badru to change her mind at the last minute. And consequently, gives Shamshu a bleeding nose in a cab ride home. You see, to Badru, alcohol is the evil, not the husband. 

It takes a tragic turn of events to alter Badru, finally get on the same page as her mother and make changes in her life. Overnight, Badru dramatically transforms. This is the point in the plot when Alia's cringe overacting takes over in several instances. Grit your teeth and brace for impact. But luckily the brief moments will pass before you know it. 

Vijay Varma (Hamza), on the other hand, gave a fantastic, raw, gruelling performance. Contrary to popular opinion, he owned the screen, even more than the consistently good Shefali. And the chemistry between the mother-daughter duo was impeccable. 

On a side note, however, was it just me or was Shefali put on a darker complexion? It is one of the several distasteful practices that Bollywood actors are known to partake in when they play poor or low-income characters. 

The scenes were shot primarily within the four-walled home or colony. It seemed apt to restrict the audience in a limited space, just like how Badru's mind and life was confined in her small abusive world. 

However, the film fell short in several instances. The plot, direction and execution looked weightless when it failed to strike a balance between dark comedy and a Bollywood script. It did not have to surrender to Bollywood's theatrics as much as it did. Badru's transition was rushed and unrealistic, which was immersion breaking. 

You will be probably pleased to see the film successfully weave in serious issues like domestic violence, alcoholism and how young women continue to stay in abusive marriages. While, in reality, many women do not get the support from their own family to walk out of spousal trauma, Darlings is an outlier because, to reiterate, Badru has a mother who wants her to end the marriage. And along the ride, there are small windows for laughs, which mostly seemed forced and not as convincing. 

The colony life is another noteworthy actor, collectively. You know the saying: it takes a village to raise a child, well, it also takes a village to silently allow domestic violence. Because of the cramped apartments, Hamza's abusive nights are loud enough and Badru's colourful canvas of a wonderland body is visible enough to have the whole colony in the know. But not all is lost, this colony actor also has some surprises up its sleeves. 

Overall, the film has a lot of room for improvement, but it offers a refreshing plot, and that too with a Bollywood A-lister.