What’s it about?
Raghav (Priyadarshi), who works at a travel agency, has one goal in mind: marry and take his wife on a honeymoon to Paris. However, after some occurrences and in an inebriated state, he resolves to end his life by falling from a mound. Fortunately, Anandhi (Nabha Natesh), who claims to be a travel vlogger, saves him and delivers motivational quotes.
Within five hours of meeting her, Raghav proposes and they marry.
Raghav discovers on the first night that Anandhi has a split personality. A psychologist (Ananya Nagalla), who was actually the reason for his suicide attempt, steps in to aid and diagnoses Anandhi with multiple personality disorder, with her now envisioning five different personalities.
How can Raghav get to know his wife away from her several personas, and what is Anandhi’s true story that led her to develop so many personalities?
Analysis
“Darling,” helmed by newbie Ashwin Raam, a Chennai-based Tamil filmmaker, has a plot that appears intriguing on paper. However, his narration is really disorganized. Either he forgot what his initial plans were for the ‘conflict’ and ‘resolution’ in this story, or he added extra threads to make it more interesting.
An interesting ‘idea’ is not enough to make a movie fascinating. The engaging narrative is what captivates the viewer. This is another example of a novice director’s inability to develop a story idea into an engaging two-hour picture. Ashwin Raam sets the beginning neatly. Some comedy portions work here. The scenes before the intermission, despite note entirely captivating, make it a worthwhile watch. But the film becomes completely chaotic in its second half.
When the reason behind the heroine’s so-called five separate personalities and disorder is disclosed, everything that has been built before is entirely undone. The explanation appears superficial.
The film fails on both the comedic and emotional fronts. Only sporadic sections work. In the second half many episodes look quite silly.
As we have seen, Priyadarshi is adept at playing these kind of roles. He pulls off another convincing performance. Nabha Natesh is just okay. In a supporting part, Ananya Nagalla delivers a neat performance. Niharika Konidela makes a cameo appearance as well.
The music of Vivek Sagar is unremarkable. The production design and cinematography are lavish. Editing is big problem.
Bottom line: “Darling” generates a few laughs. That is it. This intriguing concept falls flat due to a rambling narrative and an overabundance of happenings in the last hour.
Rating: 2.5/5
Film: Darling
Cast: Priyadarshi, Nabha Natesh, Ananya Nagalla, Brahmanandham, Moin, Shiva Reddy, Muralidhar Goud, Krishna Teja, Vishnu, and others
Dialogue: Sai Hemanth
Music: Vivek Sagar
DOP: Naresh Ramadurai
Editor: Pradeep E Raghav
Production Designer: Gandhi Nadikudikar
Producer: K Niranjan Reddy and Chaitanya Reddy
Written and Directed by: Aswin Raam
Release Date: July 19, 2024
