Darling Movie review

Telugu360 Rating 1.5/5

Young comedian Priyadarshi has done several impressive films as a lead actor and his next film Darling is a comic entertainer. Aswin Ram is the director and Nabha Natesh is the leading lady. Hanuman makers Niranjan Reddy and Chaitanya Reddy backed this film. Between good expectations, Darling released today and here is review of Darling:

Story:

Raghava (Priyadarshi) has a dream of settling well in life, marry a beautiful girl and fly to Paris for his honeymoon. He settles well in life after completing his graduation and then comes a twist at his wedding. The girl elopes on the big day and Raghava decides to commit suicide. It is then he meets Anandhi (Nabha Natesh). Influenced by her words, he changes his plans and he falls in love with her. The duo get married soon and Raghava gets a shock on his first night. He comes to know that there is Aadhi, one more girl in Anandhi. She suffers from split personality disorder. The rest of Darling is all about what happens next and how Raghava handles Anandhi.

Analysis:

The audience are well aware of split personality disorder and they have seen it in Chandramukhi and Aparichitudu. It is like an outdated formula for now. Darling is a comic entertainer and the director banked on entertainment taking split personality disorder as the base point. But Darling suffers badly because of the bland writing and an outdated execution throughout. Priyadarshi tries hard to save the film with his comic timing. The first half of Darling is passable with some good and interesting episodes at times. The second half of Darling is unbearable and even Priyadarshi could not save it.

The film starts with a montage song shot on Nabha Natesh and the song defines her character in the film. Then comes Priyadarshi’s suicide episode and it is followed by the flashback of the hero. The real story unfolds after their wedding. The team of Darling revealed that the lead actress suffers from split personality disorder in the trailer and the audience are well aware of it. But it unfolded right at the interval episode. Darling is the story of Anandhi but the director wasted time narrating about the backstory of Raghava. Apart from Aadhi, there are other characters in Anandhi and this is revealed with the interval episode.

The director failed to handle the multiple personality disorder concept in the second half. Some of the episodes will leave the audience irritated. The shopping mall episode is the best example. The five-minute episode will force the audience to walk out from the theatres. Several episodes in the second half miss the logic and are poorly written. The director also did not explain about the inside characters of Anandhi and the real reasons why she behaves so. The last 20 minutes misses the needed emotional connect and the film ends up on a bad note. Even the Raghu Babu episode fails to impress the audience before the climax. Priyadarshi explains how much he loves Anandhi during the climax and the episode too will not connect with the audience.

Performances:

Priyadarshi had to carry the entire film on his shoulders because of the bad writing. He managed to impress in the first half but Priyadarshi also could not save the second half of Darling. Nabha Natesh fails badly in the role of Anandhi. She could not handle playing the role of a girl suffering with multiple personality disorder. Suhas and Niharika played guest roles but they could not make any difference. All the other characters had no scope on screen.

Darling is a film made with great production values and they are visible on screen. The songs are ok and the first song was well shot. Kasarla Shyam’s lyrics worked well for this number. Darling is a lengthy film and the editing work is quite poor. Darling is a boring attempt because of the poor writing. The director failed to handle the film.

Final Word:Darling is a film with outdated writing and poor quality of entertainment. Even, Priyadarshi cannot save this bland attempt.

Telugu360 Rating 1.5/5