Why ‘Darlings’ Feels Like A Fable Written By One Of Its Characters

Why ‘Darlings’ Feels Like A Fable Written By One Of Its Characters

I had a feelings about Darlings. And it strengthened the more I saw those ridiculous boycott trends around it. Because anything that ruffles men’s feathers so much, you know it’s aiming for the jugular with some harsh, difficult-to-digest truths about women. And God knows, we need that. But it was the treatment of this subject, otherwise meant for the sombre, that caught my fancy. What an inspired choice by director Jasmeet K. Reen, and writers Vijay Maurya and Parveez Sheikh, to go with a twisted, dark comedy. Humour is a coping mechanism that most women use to survive this world that has never taken them seriously. Or quite the contrary, where it takes them and their accusations way too seriously and turns the very movement fighting for their equality into a foul word. Say “feminism”, and you’ll see some uncomfortable shifting. The finishing touches of conviction were added by the cast: first-time producer Alia Bhatt along with Shefali Shah, Vijay Varma, Roshan Mathew, Kiran Karmarkar, Rajesh Sharma, and Maurya himself.

The original score is by Prashant Pillai, cinematography by Anil Mehta, and editing by Nitin Baid. The final garnish was the definitive duo of Gulzar and Vishal Bhardwaj doing the music and lyrics.

Darlings began by instantly letting you know through its visuals that this was a fairytale world, full of whimsy, and that the people here were a little… different. Badrunissa and her Senior Ticket Collector husband, Hamza, have a love marriage. They live right across from Badru’s mother, Shamsunissa’s house, in a chawl in Mumbai’s Byculla. Their tiny world comprises few others: The silent neighbourhood kasaai, whom everyone thinks Shamsu is having an affair with. The all-hearing Gujarati beauty parlour lady downstairs from Badru’s home. Hamza’s bully of a boss. And Zulfi, the ladies’ personal errand boy, friend, confidante, and a failed writer.  

All of them are aware that Hamza physically abuses Badru. The screams in their home at night are loud. The bruises on Badru’s face and body speak louder. And yet, it’s a miyaan-biwi ka mamla. Moreover, their’s is a love marriage, and Hamza ‘loves’ Badru, pleaj. And Badru tolerates it because she loves him too, and as per the twisted logic, ‘lets’ him. Or at least that’s what they tell themselves. Shamsu, with her own failed marriage story, beseeches her daughter to leave her abuser. But leaves the choice to her. Nonetheless, the disappointment on her face is evident; she thinks she raised her daughter empowered enough to not get caught in the same vicious circle Shamsu had to escape from.

The abuse continues until one day, as Badru says in a scene, she begins feeling the wounds inflicted by Hamza on her psyche and not just her body. A final act pushes her off the edge. And we meet a new Badru, one who hatches a twisted plot to right the wrong….

Also Read: Exclusive: Shefali Shah On Her Whacky ‘Darlings’ Character, Chemistry With Alia Bhatt, And Not Undermining The Indian Audience

But Could Darlings Have Been A Story Written By Zulfi?

One of my first thoughts while watching Darlings was that it’s such a fantastic layer job. Every element in the film is telling a story, if you’re paying attention. Right off the bat, you know these characters are all slightly off their rocker. Or at least, that there’s a certain touch of the whimsical as if they were characters in a fable, or in the story of a writer who based exaggerated versions of them off real people he knew. Could Zulfi, the failed writer, have written this fable? Badru is the epitome of goodness, kindness, and optimism, and all-giving in her love to Hamza. Shamsu is wounded but of indomitable spirit who now wears humour as a shield. Hamza is every bit a sinister villain, almost like a serial killer stalking his prey, his whiplash-y behavioural changes shifting seamlessly between Badru’s nightmare and daydream. But even Hamza is often looked at from a perspective of understanding what turned him into this monster, instead of making him a downright evil character. He is a scorpion who can’t help but sting because it is in his nature. “Can’t help.”

Despite the whimsy, these characters’ every experience, struggle, and aspiration are rooted in the real and hard-hitting. There’s a near-constant urge to ascend the class ladder for all our protagonists, which they see as a magic solution to all their problems. A redeveloped home, a flourishing tiffin business, a better job that pays in respect. Sadly, they’re each other’s hurdles too. Badru’s situation keeps reminding Shamsu that the world is rigged against women. Hamza stands between both Badru and Shamsu’s and their entire colony’s dream of a better home. And the need to provide for his family made Hamza take up a stable government job in the first place, which landed him in the service of a boss who mistreats him. 

Also Read: Shah Rukh Khan Gives An Adorable Reply To “L’il One” Alia Bhatt’s About ‘Darlings’. So Sweet Yaa, SRK!

I read a lot of critiques that condemned the setting of the story in a Muslim community because it propagates the narrative that the community is prone to violence and mistreatment of their women. It is imperative that their perspectives should in no way be negated. As an outsider, my understanding was that the setting added another layer of social context. We see the very stereotypical pre-conceived judgement towards the community reflected in the behaviour of others, such as the parlour lady or the police inspector. The male cop thinks women ‘let’ men abuse them. His junior scans Zulfi suspiciously every time he sees him. There’s never overt addressing of the characters’ religious identity and how being a minority shapes their world. But it’s still there in subtlety.

Another reason why I think Darlings is set in the world of a writer’s imagination, much like Zulfi would’ve had? The Engliss.

The English in Darlings feels symbolic in several ways. For one, it signifies the characters’ efforts to transcend their social status and their personal limitations. As Hamza tells Badru in one scene, they’re a modern couple. We see Shamsu try the modern route by advertising her tiffin service on social media like the upper-class ladies do. And yet, they’re stuck in the same, age-old cycle of misogyny, class divide, and violence, almost generational in nature. The transcending only happens at the end, when an old fable’s ending is rewritten by Badru’s decision. 

And once you settle in with this thought, the jarring Kama Ayurveda product placement or Shamsu’s out-of-place remark about the world having changed only for people on Twitter suddenly doesn’t feel so starkly misplaced. Badru aspired to a better life and was quick to order an Amazon delivery of a new red dress and stilettos. Maybe she aspired to fancier beauty products and spent her money on whatever she could afford. And maybe Shamsu, always one with a plan and a way out, promoting her business on Facebook indicated that she was much more active on social media and aware of its uses than you’d give her credit for. Maybe she sought all social media platforms because these days, revolution whether it is for freedom or women’s rights, happens online. And she is one wary woman.

All in all, Darlings, with all its nuances and darkness but never losing its sense of whimsy and goodness, feels a lot like a fable about changing the ending of a fable. And that’s quite a lovely way of telling a story that could otherwise go a different way.

Darlings is currently streaming on Netflix.

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Jinal Bhatt

A Barbie girl with Oppenheimer humour. Sharp-tongue feminist and pop culture nerd with opinions on movies, shows, books, patriarchy, your boyfriend, everything.

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