Darlings is a huge stride in the depiction of women’s issues and rights as director Jasmeet K. Reen takes a bold move of experimenting with the dark comedy genre whilst dealing with a sensitive topic like domestic violence. The film depicts the story of Badru played by Alia Bhatt who is trapped in an abusive marriage with her boyfriend-turned-husband Hamza played by Vijay Verma. Badru’s character is supported by her single mother, Shamshu played by Shefali Shah, who lives opposite Badru in the same chawl. The story shows how Badru and Shamshu after being oppressed by Hamza for a long time, avenge their oppression.
Rather than following the tropes of ‘abalaa naari’ who needs to be protected by another man or the strong female lead who takes the path of non-violence, Darlings has carved its own path where Badru and Shamshu become active agents in their fight against Hamza, not dependent of any third-party to gain justice or as Badru calls it to get her ‘respects’ back. The story is narrated from the point of view of the victim as Badru leads the entire story without the help of any catalysts.
Before watching this film, many people told me that the film makes you uncomfortable. After watching the film, I realised that the film does make the audience uncomfortable in the right places and that this ‘discomfort’ is what makes the film a success.
The film’s ‘discomfort’ reminded me of the concept of ‘dramaturgy’ given by sociologist Erving Goffman. It truly is the answer to how and why the film uses ‘discomfort’ as a tool to make the desired impact on the audience. Goffman compared social life with a drama as for him, just like a play or a drama, humans play certain roles in their lives. They abide by certain scripts which change according to the settings or the backdrop of the scene or a situation in real life.
They wear costumes that are in tune with their roles, settings and script. To give a simple example, a person’s behaviour or script, as Goffman would call it, changes when they are with their family v/s friends; our costumes change according to the backdrops of the office v/s a party.
Darlings uses the antithesis of dramaturgy whereby characters go out of their roles and scripts and even change their costumes which go against their roles to create the ‘discomfort’ required in this film. In the first half of the film, the concept of dramaturgy is working as every character is in the correct role as dictated by society. Badru is a female victim of domestic violence. Hamza is the male husband who is perpetrating the violence. Badru sticks to her social script of silently tolerating the violence and being a ‘good wife’. Shamshu is a single, old mother who cannot actively help Badru get out of the marriage except for warning Badru multiple times.
However, in the second half of the film, there is a reversal of roles whereby all characters go out of their assigned role giving rise to discomfort on screen and amongst the audience. Badru and Shamshu take the role of strong women who kidnap Hamza, leading to a major role reversal as they take control of him and treat him exactly the way he treats them.
The man being a perpetrator of violence aligns with society’s expectations of gendered behaviour. Still, when a woman uses physical force to avenge that oppression, it creates discomfort as it does not align with society’s gendered expectations from a woman who is considered an idol of ‘non-violence’ and always a ‘helpless victim’.
Also, the reversal of ‘ownership of bodies’ is quite significant. In mainstream discourse, men assume the right to ownership of women’s bodies whether it is through what clothes women should or should not wear or through imposing physical violence on women’s bodies. Darlings reverses this discourse as Badru not only takes ownership of her body back from Hamza but also takes ownership of his body which is depicted through the act of tying him up to a chair.
Darlings and its many symbolisms
The director has used symbolism very well in various situations in the film. The most striking one is the movie theatre or the act of watching a movie at the film’s beginning and end. The film’s opening scene shows Badru waiting for Hamza outside a movie theatre. This scene is the starting point of Badru’s marriage to Hamza, and it represents Badru’s entry into a bad marriage. The film ends with Badru going to movies by herself and enjoying her long-awaited freedom hence movie-going becomes a symbol of her emancipation here.
Yet another symbolism that stands out in the film is of ‘andaa bread’ i.e eggs and bread. Badru makes eggs and bread for Hamza every morning, irrespective of the violence perpetrated by Hamza the night before. Every morning scene in which Badru is cooking eggs and bread is accompanied by Hamza gaslighting Badru. Instead of accepting his mistakes, he makes Badru believe he is the real victim of his inner demons. The act of cooking and serving him eggs and bread becomes a symbol of that gaslighting. It also represents the return to normalcy or the ‘mundane’ after the violence and continuation of gender roles.
The third and very significant symbolism is of the colour red, which represents Badru’s power and freedom. It begins with Badru’s first dream sequence, wherein she is relaxing by the pool in a red swimsuit. It represents her character’s dream of having a luxurious house restricted due to Hamza’s reluctance.
The second time the colour red plays an important role is Badru’s iconic look in the red dress and the red sandals, which is accompanied by her being in the position of power and taking back her body autonomy from her husband. The scene with Badru using her iconic red sandals to hit Hamza’s hands creates a great impact due to the role reversal in the same action.
The third time, red becomes a symbol of Badru’s freedom in her final dream sequence, in which she is wearing a red dress and red lipstick as she is freed from the clutches of Hamza.
This brings me to the storytelling in the film as Shamshu’s fable of the frog and the scorpion is repeated through Badru’s perspective in the ‘railway track’ scene. Badru’s voiceover narration of the fable, in which Badru is the frog and Hamza is the scorpion, makes the scene very powerful and thrilling in many ways. As the scene progresses, the fable keeps the audience on their toes, wondering if the frog will die or not. Will the scorpion hurt the frog? Will the scorpion die? Or will the frog become the scorpion and vice versa? The narration makes it thrilling as there is no way to know what is going to happen and how this story will end. The use of a story within the story is very impactful.
Darlings will leave you with a lot of thoughts, making you uncomfortable in all the right ways. With power-packed performances and excellent direction, Darlings will definitely make you say ‘I loves you’.