Way to One's Hurt

Darlings, a breezy comedy, captures the raw realities of domestic violence

-  Jai Arjun Singh

The first spoken or sung-words that we hear in Jasmeet K. Reen's entertaining debut film are in the voice of an entitled man. "Hey darlings!" begins the song, "I loves you. You mad you. Please!" (Or "Pleej", if you're going for accuracy.) These disjointed pronouncements set up the somewhat caricatured nature of this story, where ungrammatical plurals stand for the way English is spoken in a particular milieu. But what is also evident at this early stage is that the male voice throughout the song is shifting registers: from cajoling and crooning like a regular Romeo laying on the treacle, to whimpering like a petulant boy who expects to get his way. In a black comedy made by women-Reen and writer Parveez Shaikhabout two women dealing with domestic abuse, there is something very believable about those changing tones, and how we experience them through the filter of the female gaze. This is a film where exaggeration and caricature will be put to the service of a very real social issue.