Darling

Director: Ram Gopal Varma
Producer: Bhushan Kumar, Kishan Kumar
Starring: Fardeen Khan, Esha Deol, Isha Koppikar, Zakir Hussain
Music: Himesh Reshammiya, Pritam Chakraborty, Prasana Shekhar

Hallucination or ghost love stories and dark comedies have never been the flavor of this month but still they prop up as a surprise package in Ram Gopal Verma's 'Darling'. Ramu finds his form and he has regained his lost form with this innovatively scripted ghostly vendetta.
It may be quizzical to understand the premise of 'Darling', but it's clear that the filmmaker has infused the ghostly drama of 'Bhoot' and haunting impact of 'Company' to make things work properly in it. 'Darling' brings a different and unpredictable love relationship of a man and a ghost through this humorously penned scripting and impressive on and off screen performances.
Ramu's infatuation with 'Sholay' may be his career's biggest nightmare, but 'Darling' brings him back as a competent player in the marquee. It would have been better for him to have restricted himself to his style of filmmaking rather than trying to plagiarize old-age formulae. Secondly, 'Darling' proves better than his earlier works and the credit goes to crisp writing and ethical filmmaking techniques.
After 'Rangeela', 'Satya' and 'Company', chartbusting music has again played a pivotal role in lifting the spirits of his films. All the musical soundtracks had given enough publicity and promotion that guarantee a promising box office opening for the film.
It's indeed a sigh of relief to have revisited the RGV style of cinematic work after couple of misdirected impractical endeavors from him in the past few years. Ironically, RGV has preferred a humorously penned narration and execution in developing plots and structure of this differently fictionalized love story.
Besides its hilarious comical punches, the film haunts and thrills viewers in almost all its frames. If there are unpredicted spine-chilling tremors in the first half, then there are unexpected hilarious moments that cheer up audiences in the second half. RGV plants engrossing twists and turns lead the film to a promising dark thriller.
'Darling' opens up with Aditya (Fardeen Khan), a suave socialite who has two different lives to live. His married life flourishes with his wife Ashwini (Isha Koppikar) and seven-year old kid. On the contrary, he has inhibited love life and relationship with his office colleague, Gita (Esha Deol). Initially, he was in trouble for being in love with two women.
And, his worries grew bigger when he was loved and targeted by a ghost who was once the woman in his life! It all started when the verbal confrontation between Aditya and Gita turned ugly and resulted in Gita's untimely demise.
The reason for confrontation was Gita's pregnancy and her demand that Aditya dissociate with his wife and kid for her. The story triggers off with her death as now it's all between flirtatious Aditya and avenging ghost Gita.
Fardeen observes the first arrival of Esha Deol as ghost during sleep. He has some hilarious moments that are well executed and enacted. The voluptuous beloved-turned- ghost (Esha Deol) enters into Fardeen's office and makes hoodlum.
This is a fine aspects of taut screenplay. The scene where Esha beats Fardeen while he is making love to his wife (Isha Koppikar) is high on hilarious quotient. All such crispy and cheap comical gags show fine execution from the filmmaker's point of view and indeed a great style of a dark comedy.
'Darling's second major aspect is highly volatile and spine-chilling moment that sets the pace of this dark thriller. The hot-blooded verbal confrontation followed by Esha Deol's death delivers grim and dark moments. Esha Deol's turning into a fiery "ghost" to seek revenge through various expressions, moods and sentiments, is another highlight of the film.
The third and final major aspect lies in the brilliant on and off screen performances from Ramu's cast. Esha Deol proves to be the biggest winner and all the credit goes to her performance. The role of a grief-stricken beloved turning an avenging ghost is finely scripted and the actress matures with this role.
After the smash-hit 'Dhoom', it is another big occasion where she has shed inhibitions in getting into the soul of the character. Himesh Reshammiya's crooned and composed "Tadap" has already created buzz for the film and it's sultry on-screen display will further attract the audiences.
All the scenes where she confronts Fardeen scornfully are high points of her short lived film career. The devilish grimaces, roguish behavior and hot-headed love relationship brings her in the driver's seat of the show.
Fardeen Khan's improvised Hindi diction and refined acting skills are well coordinated with his impressive looks. His good fortune continues with this film after the stupendous success of 'Heyy Babyy'. His fearfully tormented expressions and sullen body languages are finely executed in the film. Isha Koppikar has second lead to play but still proves a better choice in the attire of a bhartiya nari (Indian woman) with her submissive looks and dress-up.
The climax of the film completely belongs to her where the reality of Fardeen-Esha relationship is unveiled. It's pity that the "Saathiya" song comes in the end titles as it could easily have materialized in the midst of the film.
If 'RGV ki Aag' has proved ineffective in its big acting departments then this time it's his protégé that delivers big surprises. Believe it or not, but the entire brigade of second lead actors delivers a commendable performance. Zakir Hussain, RGV favorite, has some hilariously punched one-liners that enthrall and deliver light moments in the film.
Upendra Limaye, villain of RGV's 'Shiva', surprises with good comical timing and is well suited in the attire of an investigation police officer. Even lesser known actor like Kota Srinivasa Rao, second lead villain in 'Sarkar', has some hilarious moments as psychiatrist.
'Darling's strongest point lies in its scripting and screenplay department (Prawal Raman and Kusum Punjabi) and it clearly indicates that a well scripted work can do wonders. The crispy one-liners, well coordinated events and unpredictability in its twists and turns, make things work for the film.
Cinematography (Amit Roy) delivers different camera angles to depict the grim and bright situations. RGV's films have always been high on technicalities and 'Darling' is one such example. Background scores (Prasanna Shekhar) and sound (Kunal Mehta) creates tremors. Himesh Reshammiya and Pritam's music is excellent in almost every track. Songs like "Aa Khushi Se" and "Saathiya" have slick choreography while "Tadap" has the desired sensuality.
'Darling' will probably be a big surprise for all those who have ripped off 'RGV ki Aag' and it's indeed a big comeback by the filmmaker in such a short span. The slick publicity and impressive promos will give it a promising opening and thereafter it will prosper after good mouth of publicity by media and public.
The predictable success of 'Darling' will eventually rinse away all the dirt of unwanted 'RGV Ki Aag'. In nutshell, Ramu's 'Darling' will deliver better results and a possible recovery from the aftermath of worthless and insignificant 'RGV Ki Aag'.