INDIA: Alia Bhatt’s directorial debut “Darlings” is currently reigning on the OTT platform, just after its release. The movie once again brought the almost forgotten issue of Domestic Violence to the front, with a nip of humour added to it.
The movie starts by pulling itself to be a social thriller and but with the change of plots it becomes a complete social service film that has a message for the audience.
The movie pinched some dark subject matters of Indian households and showcased the predominant patriarchy. Comprehensively, the struck pragmatic movie gives a worthwhile experience. The entire narrative of the film revolves around the life of a housewife ‘Badru’ (Alia Bhatt) and her abusive husband ‘Hamza’ (Vijay Verma).
Whereas, Shefali Shah plays the character of Badhu’s mother, ‘Shamsu’. Shamsu is in a pivotal role and is the exact opposite of Badru. She is a feisty single woman, who has many admirers which she uses in her favour whenever needed.
The movie perfectly emphasises the life of a common Indian girl, who falls in love with a guy and ends up marrying him without making any future predictions. Later the marriage turns out to be a nightmare. Badru, a dutiful wife, is a domestic violence victim and like every such woman thinks that things would change someday and it’s just because of the alcohol.
Hamza is a ticket collector in the Indian Railways. Surprisingly, he doesn’t lose his cool when his boss bullies him and makes him do things that are well below his dignity. Supposedly he drags his unfulfilled sense of being at home and turns into a beast.
Badru on the other hand desires her life to be customary, despite having all the marital badness. The dark comedy movie raised unseen combat against family bloodshed. The storyline would encourage many women like Badru, to not be like her.
The film not only upholds the hard-nosed side of patriarchy but exhibits how a simple homemaker turns out assertive, which comes to her life and her unborn child.
Badru repeatedly forgives her husband after tolerating rigorous smacks and transgressions by him. But her patience lay off the day she faced abortion due to intensive belabours from Hamza. The injured Badru stood up for herself, got help from her mother and partner and planned revenge against his husband.
However, she could never turn as ruthless as Hamza, but destiny planned her emancipation from the toxic association. The climax of the movie was spine-chilling at the same time prudent from every angle. Thus, the movie stands out differently, smashing all the patriarchal norms of society.
The brainwave movie is overflooded with appreciation by netizens over social media. Everyone is praising the movie whereas some tend to boycott it, because of the high impacting ferocity.
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