Darling Telugu movie Review

Cast: Prabhas, Kajal, Shradhdha Das, Prabhu, Kota Srinivas Rao, Chandra Mohan, Mukesh Rishi
Produced by: BVSN Prasad
Story, screenplay and directed by: Karunakar
Dialogues: Swami
Music Director: GV Prakash
Cinematography: Andrew
Editing: Kotagiri
Action: Peter Heins

Story:

Prabhas (Prabhas) modern pally would be waiting for his childhood sweetheart Nandini (Kajal) for a rejuvenated life. But when his friend (Shraddha Das) proposes her love, Prabhas rejects her and Shraddha Das tries to commit suicide.  Her gesture irate her father (Mukesh Rishi) and he kidnaps all Prabhas’ friends. To escape from the situation, Prabhas narrates a story of how he met Nandini, which turns out to be a real story.  How Prabhas met Nandini and what were twists and turns in their love forms the rest of the story.

Analysis:

Director Karunakaran carries a reputation of presenting feel-good movies, and ‘Darling’ is yet another feather in his cap. But the problem here is that Karunakaran still remains to be the same old director without any novelty in story. The film is an entertaining, but only in bits and pieces and lacks power in the story. Looks like Prabhas need to shoulder the entire responsibility of the audience expectations. Prabhas, who have done some action films in the recent past, tries to attempt something different with this film.

But the problem with feel good romantic movies is that they can easily become predictable and ‘Darling’ suffers from such a drawback, particularly in the second half where there’s fair bit of exaggeration. There’ some good post production works visible in the film, particularly the CG and DI job during a song. The script is not a masterpiece, but if you need such an ordinary script to work out, you need to use the star casting and technical aspects and Karunakaran did exactly that.

Performances:

Prabhas is improving with films. His performance is pretty good and his body language is great. His dashing looks once again makes him a heartthrob and he has managed to play the sheet anchor role to guide the film through.

Kajal looks good as well and her performance is pretty good as well. Shraddha Das plays another cameo and is alright. She is flamboyant and elegant in several scenes.

Tamil actor Prabhu has done a great job as a father. His character Hanmanthu brings color in several sequences with great humour.  Mukesh Rishi is at his usual best and effective. Ahuti Prasad, Dharmavarapu Subramaniam, M S Narayana, Srinivas Reddy are adequate.

Technical Department:

Full marks to Andrew. His camerawork and visuals are stunning. Kotagiri has done alright well in terms of editing, and Peter Heins once again steals the show with his strong action episodes.  The biggest setback for the movie is the songs, which are really poor, and so as background music.

On the whole, don’t presume the film to be on the lines of ‘Chatrapathi’ and ‘Tholi Prema’. Go with an open mind and it’s a time pass film.