A 10-year-old boy and an eight year old girl are friends. They play games together, like each other and are the best of buddies. However one of the two families move to a different place and they get separated. Boy misses the girl. Girl misses the boy. After 12 years they meet again and then the friendship blossoms into love. After a couple of romantic duets, action sequences and sentimental scenes with their parents, they get married and live happily ever after.
Does this storyline seem familiar? The film Darling starring Prabhas and Kajal is a similar story. The movie opens with a few college friends celebrating their farewell party after their college. They keep having these celebrations once in a while before Nandini’s (Kajal) father (Ahuti Prasad) decides to move to Switzerland. His friend‘s (Prabhu) son is Prabhas (Prabhas) who is Kajal’s best friend.
After a few years, all the friends decide to meet again at Araku Valley. Prabhas can’t wait to catch a glimpse of his childhood friend Nandini and is all set to woo her. How Prabhas tries to impress her and how Nandini reacts to each of his steps forms the rest of the story.
Your browser may not support display of this image. Prabhas gives a decent performance in his new urbane avatar. However one can’t help feeling that he is more suited to the rebellious kind of action roles like in the movie Chatrapati.
Doing varied roles like the one in this movie might help him. Kajal is very cute especially in the first half of the movie where she has a bubbly role. This is another good role for her after last year’s mega hit Maghadheera. Shradha Das is wasted in an insignificant role. Prabhu who play’s Prabhas’ father perfectly fits the bill. The best part about the movie is the comedy and most of the credit for this goes to Srinivas Reddy who plays Prabhas’ friend.
There is nothing new about the story but director Karunakaran excels in certain parts of the movie. For example, the revelation at the end of first half of the movie is sure to surprise the audience. He also cleverly builds analogies between the first half in Switzerland and the second half in India. The locales in Switzerland are excellent and the cinematography is quite good. The scene where Charminar is shown to be covered with snow just like the Switzerland locales is amazing.
Music by GV Prakash is disappointing and none of the songs stick to your mind once you leave the cinema hall.
The climax is a big let down and one cannot understand the need for the villain and his goons rushing in Tata Sumos and the hero unnecessarily shedding blood trying to protect his lady love. This certainly could have been avoided in a love centric movie like Darling. The title Darling is also not apt for the movie. Perhaps it was chosen for the lack of any other name.
The movie has its plus points like the comedy bits, the lead pair and Karunakaran’s direction and screenplay. However one cannot helping feeling the movie is a bit too clichéd and has nothing new to offer. On the whole, Darling is a one time watch. Watch it for the comedy or if you are a Kajal fan.
Critic: Raghu Chaitanya
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