Darling review: Long and tiresome film that cannot seem to make up its mind

After roaming around for three hours from Dadar, Mahim and Matunga to Sion in central Mumbai, when you finally find a theatre which has not cancelled a scheduled show of Darling (2021) for lack of an audience, you feel relieved. But that relief is short-lived, because 20 minutes into the film you start wondering if it was worth all the trouble.

Darling by Sameer Asha Patil is a confusing film. Even after the film ends, you are not sure what it wanted to convey. Is it a comedy? But it doesn't make you laugh. Is it a drama? But it doesn't tug at your heartstrings. Is it a love story? But there isn't any romance. Is it a light-hearted social drama? But there is no social message. It's like the film just could not make up its mind what it wants to be.

Darling is about Babli (Ritika Shrotri), who is notorious in her village for her pranks. Daughter of an aspiring politician (Mangesh Kadam), she is in love with engineering dropout Tushar (Prathamesh Parab) and wants to get married immediately, but Tushar always brushes her plans aside as a joke.

Frustrated, Babli asks her parents to find her a suitable groom, and they do. Elsewhere, there is a guy Rajabhau (Nikhil Chavan), who is madly in love with Babli and thinks she reciprocates his feelings. Now, whom will Babli choose as her Mr Perfect?

The film's plot begins with one misunderstanding that leads to much confusion and this forms the rest of the story. There are plenty of characters who just appear and disappear or stand in the background of our three protagonists. We don't know them and the film also doesn't care to give us any details about them.

It would have been tolerable if the mystery had been limited to these meaningless minor characters. But Patil, who also wrote the screenplay, does the same with the protagonists as well. Even when the film ends, we remain just as ignorant of the three main characters and their relationships as we were before it began.

The film begins with a drunk Babli creating a scene in front of Tushar's house and giving him a 'last opportunity' to marry her. But the film never cares to show us how their relationship reached this stage. We never find out how they fell in love, or why she is so eager to get married immediately. Their entire thing remains a puzzle. So, when Tushar decides to make amends and win his love back, we couldn't care less.

Tushar is also a poorly written and unlikeable character which makes it hard for us to root for him. I mean, he never takes his girlfriend seriously, has no job, and is a complete idiot. Who would root for such a character?

Parab is one of those actors who always confuses me with his choice of films, because I believe he has a lot of potential and should be doing different and better films, but for some reason he always ends up choosing such atrocious scripts and languishes in mediocre projects. Here, too, the actor has nothing to offer that we haven't seen before. In fact, sometimes I feel filmmakers can simply use his clips and expressions from previous films and people wouldn't even notice.

Nikhil Chavan gives of his best in some comical scenes, but his role doesn't offer him much. Throughout the film, he just comes across as a stranger, because we don't know anything about him. Apart from the fact that he is madly in love with Babli, the film offers no other facet to his character.

Shrotri is quite convincing as a young woman who is confused about what she wants. I wish the filmmaker had given Babli more character depth to make us actually care for her. But no such luck here.

The supporting characters are like the clichéd friends and parents we have seen in many films before and the artistes who are essaying these roles have also put in minimal effort, except for Mangesh Kadam. He has given an earnest performance as a father who is worried sick about his daughter's future.

This is Sameer Patil's fourth film and he does a decent job as director, but the problem lies with his writing. The characters are so poorly written and one-dimensional that not even the best director could save the film.

At 140 minutes, Darling is too long and tiresome. None of the conversations makes us feel anything for any of the characters. There is a big revelation at the climax, followed by an unnecessary exposition, but by then, it's too late.

Special thanks to a couple who appeared out of nowhere at the last moment like angels and bought two tickets to make sure this show was not cancelled. Just as they appeared, they also vanished suddenly before the interval.