What’s it about!

Prabhas (Prabhas) is a happy-go-lucky youth and adores his father (Prabhu) who dotes on him. One day, a girl (Sraddha Das), proposes to him and when he rejects her she tries to commit suicide. Her father (Mukesh Rishi), a dada, kidnaps his friends and demands Prabhas to get married to his daughter. Then, Prabhas narrates a story that he is in love with a girl Nandini (Kajal) in Switzerland and she is now in coma as she met with an accident. With this tragic story, the dada excuses him. Later, it is revealed that it is just an imaginative story created by Prabhas to escape the situation but suddenly in his real life too, a Nandini (Kajal), his child hood friend, enters into his life. Then his life changed forever.

Analysis

Director Karunakaran is known for presenting feel-good films with wafer-thin storyline. He does the same again with this Darling. Nothing new in the script but the film’s second half evokes some interest among the viewers thanks to some sentiment scenes. Prabhas’s dashing looks, Andrew’s eye catching visuals and second half scenes are the only praiseworthy. The film also lacks entertainment and songs are another big drawback. Don’t expect too much. Pretty ordinary flick, solely relying on star factors. The director has been stuck in Toliprema days (his debut film), so you hardly see any novel thing in presentation except the marvelous CG song of snow drenched Hyderabad ala Switzerland.
Performances

Dashing Prabhas looks handsome. His costumes are trendy and his look appeals to the youth. He has shouldered the film with his sincere performance and some entertaining antics. Young boys surely fall in love with Kajal’s great looks in this film. She looks gorgeous. In the role of Hanmanthu, a jolly modern father, Tamil actor Prabhu’s performance is exhilarating. He brings charm to several scenes. Sraddha Das appears in another miniscule character. Rest of the cast is okay.

Among the technicians, all the credit should go to Andrew. He has already proved his mettle in Karunkaran’s earlier film, Ullasanga Utsahanga and his work in the film a notch above. Eye-catching visuals and perfect D.I are what make the film pleasant in otherwise dull movie. G.V.Prakash’s music is neither good to ears nor carries the mood on screen. His work is drawback. Editing is fine. So is Peter Hiens’s work. Producer BVSN Prasad who gave Chatrapathi to Prabhas seems to have provided the sky to the director to make the film look grandeur. As a director Karunakran has not proved anything.

Bottom-line!

Darling is plain simple movie with no big twists and turns. Although the film’s central idea of ‘imagined’ character appearing in real life might seem novel but the same idea came in one of Rajashekar’s early movies. On the whole, the film is just time pass flick.

Rating: 3/5