Since the time I watched a classic like "Chak de...India", no other movie has been able to interest me. I was thoroughly disappointed to watch the successful "Hey baby" and even a Steven Spielberg-produced movie like "Transformers". Talking about the two releases last week ("Ramgopal Varma ki Aag" and "Dhokha", which have been declared as disasters), I thought of giving them a miss (thank god I did). I was quite keen to watch RGV’s latest horror flick - "Darling" as I am crazy about movies of this genre. However, I wasn’t expecting it to be scary because the promos did not hint us that it would scare us. Let me begin by saying that RGV is back in form after a long time.
"Darling" is about a playboy, his wife and his girl-friend and ofcourse there is the supernatural stuff, which surprisingly makes you laugh more than send shivers down your spine and yet, you will enjoy it. Aditya (Fardeen Khan) is married to a traditional typical wife (Isha Koppikar) and they also have a son. Men are dogs and the hero here is also one. He is having an affair with his secretary (Esha Deol). Fardeen makes false promises to her that he will be marrying her but when he learns that she is pregnant, he tells her that he can’t leave his wife and son. They have a quarrel and Fardeen kills her by mistake. His "darling" comes back as a ghost to take revenge. What follows is utter chaos, which is funny at times and scary to some extent.
Fardeen has improved a lot as an actor. His performance in this movie will prove it to you. It can’t be called good but it is definitely above average. He does well in most of the scenes and shows us that he can take up challenging roles like this. Esha is good but she was better in "Ankahee". She looks seductive and pretty (even as the ghost) and acts equally well. It could have been beter. Isha Koppikar makes her presence felt in the second half. She is okay. The supporting cast is fine. The police officer and his assistant stand out. Music by Himesh Reshammiya (Tadap tadap) is fabulous. The song is picturised very well too. The other tracks, composed by Pritam are not upto the mark. RGV, the director is back. He received a lot of flak for his version of "Sholay" last week. He should receive above average to good reviews for "Darling" this week. The pace of the movie is slow sometimes and the climax is stretched a bit but the pros are more than the cons this time. It is not RGV’s best movie but it is good. I’d like to mention here that I believe two of his movies - "Raat" (which was a flop) and "Bhoot" are the finest horror movies made in India. This one is nothing compared to those two but better than "Vaastu Shastra" (which was produced by RGV himself) and as good as Vikram Bhatt’s "Raaz" (which would have been more engrossing if it had no songs, even if the music was good).
At the box-office, this one is for the multiplex audience. It should do well because it is one of its kind - a scary comedy! Recommended!