Mona_Darling review – Just ignore this friend request

First-time director Shashi Sudigala’s Mona_Darling is being promoted as India’s first social media thriller. Of course, there is a lot of social media in the film. But by the time it ends, you realize two things. First, social media has hardly anything to do with the main plot. Second, and more importantly, this is yet another lacklustre whodunit with lots of style and no substance.

Mona_Darling is about a group of students from a college situated in a hill station in India. Four male students are brutally murdered while a female student, Mona (Suzanna Mukherjee), goes missing. A year earlier, Mona had broken up with one of the four victims after the latter had tried to film their intimate moments.

To teach her a lesson, the guy with the help of three friends had started a fake social media profile with the name Mona Darling and posted Mona’s pictures and videos with lewd messages. Obviously, Mona was embarrassed and became depressed. She slowly recuperated after the guy was suspended and the fake profile deleted by her classmate, Wiki (Anshuman Jha). 

However, going by the current situation, it is believed that Mona killed the four guys to take revenge. Mona’s best friend Sarah (Divya Menon) and Wiki try to find the truth. They soon discover that the victims had accepted friend requests from the Mona Darling profile which has suddenly resurfaced. But Sarah believes Mona isn’t the culprit and is actually in trouble. The college dean (Sanjay Suri) too lends help and support in solving the case. 

Mona_Darling scores highly in two technical aspects. Sapan Narula’s camerawork is brilliant! There are various moments when you can’t help but notice his skills. For example, a shot where the camera moves around a classroom in one take. The editor needs to be lauded too for providing just the kind of packaging that is necessary for films of this genre. 

But such technical brilliance does not hold much effect if the film lags behind in content. The aforementioned story is established quickly in the first 40 minutes or so. But following this, there is hardly any story to tell till the ending moments. Maybe to fill up the duration, the film has lengthy scenes of students refusing a friend request.

There are glaring logical errors too. The most crucial area in a suspense thriller of this kind is the culmination and this is where the film falters big time. The main motive of the culprit takes you by surprise. But such surprise is of no use if there is no conviction, which, unfortunately, is the case here. In fact, it is plain silly.

Also, the makers have fallen prey to the old technique of using loud sounds to add thrills when there aren't any.

The film has only one song, ‘Ek Talaash’. It tries to be a youthful, foot-tapping number but doesn’t succeed. 

Anshuman Jha fits the character of a computer geek. But the role doesn’t offer him much scope. Suzanna Mukherjee is average. She struggles to emote. Divya Menon shows some maturity when it comes to acting skills. She is the best of the young cast. Sanjay Suri is a sensible actor. He shows some glimpses of his talent. The actor playing Mona’s ex-boyfriend is believable as a spoilt brat. 

Overall, Mona_Darling is a spam friend request that you would be best advised to reject.

Reviewed by Keyur Seta