Global human rights organisation Breakthrough brought the Bell Bajao (Ring the bell) campaign to India in 2008. The aim was to encourage intervention from neighbours to end domestic abuse in a country where intimate partner violence is often dismissed as a private family matter. This campaign was innovative yet simple but ultimately ineffective in bringing about any real change.
Directed by Jasmeet K. Reen and starring Alia Bhatt, Netflix’s Darlings (a term her abusive husband refers to her character by) draws on the reluctance and inaction of individuals the Bell Bajao campaign had tried to appeal to for nearly two decades. Society may have failed its women time and again, but Reen’s Darlings does not. The film’s refusal to victim shame at any point or glamourise violence and vengeance make this a rare gem. This dark comedy is relevant to the ongoing discourse surrounding domestic violence, “the perfect victim,” and toxic masculinity.
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The fact that this revenge drama led by women is also directed, produced (by Gauri Khan and Alia Bhatt herself in her debut production), and co-written (by Reen along with Parveez Sheikh) by women is another commendable feat.
The Prescient Mother Who Knows Better
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In Darlings, the mother figure is constructed almost as a prescient being, full of ancient wisdom yet audaciously toeing the line of modernity. Shefali Shah’s Shamsunnisa, aka Shamshu, is the perfect foil to her daughter, Alia Bhatt’s Badrunissa, aka Badru. While Badru lives in hope, Shamshu sees things as they are. She has experienced enough in life to not care about what the world thinks of women who dare to defy expectations and live on their own terms.
From launching her own business to taking on a younger lover, there is resilience. Behind her terrific sense of humour (that often emerges from insurmountable trauma), there is a glimpse of raw strength of a survivor who has beaten inconceivable odds in her time.
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Shamshu often encourages Badru to end her abusive marriage with Hamza (Vijay Varma); sometimes, she even half-jokes about ending Hamza altogether. She pushes Badru to file a police complaint against him, but Badru, like most survivors of abusive relationships, cannot go through with it. It is a fact that one in three women in India is likely to have experienced intimate partner violence. Yet, only one of 10 such women would consider making an official complaint to the police.
Power imbalances in toxic relationships never go away. Shamshu knows this and tries to course-correct her daughter. But what makes Shamshu an oddity as an Indian parent is visible in her efforts to allow her daughter to make her own mistakes. She neither tries to exert control nor force Badru. She gives her daughter the time and space to hope, learn, and make difficult decisions. She leads by example, even if sometimes it takes a bit longer for Badru to catch up.
#NotAllMen Is Represented
The #NotAllMen rhetoric that emerged out of the #MeToo movement was nothing but a smokescreen because it was never about all men, just enough. The #NotAllMen narrative was never of any appeal to the good men who know the difference between being decent human beings and abusers. In Darlings, Vijay Maurya’s Inspector Rajaram Tawde and Roshan Mathew’s Zulfi fall into this category of men.
Even though Tawde’s character is mostly there for comic relief, his frustration when women refuse to file complaints against their abusers resonates with the viewer. Even though Zulfi mostly hangs in the background, he is the perfect antidote to men like Hamza. Zulfi may do odd jobs by the day, but he dreams of being a playwright. Unlike Hamza, he is neither humiliated by life’s circumstances nor does he vent his exasperations on those weaker than him. It is Zulfi who ends up making a police complaint against Hamza anonymously.
These men quietly perform the role of allies without the need for adulation.
Relevance Of Darlings In A Post #MeToo World
We are not only living in a post #MeToo world, but we are also navigating the discourse surrounding domestic violence in the aftermath of the infamous Johnny Depp-Amber Heard trial. The trial has raised debates over “mutual abuse” and “reactive abuse.” Abusers often use these arguments to dismiss the inherent power imbalances present in most toxic relationships and absolve the perpetrator of accountability.
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When the trailer of Darlings was released, there were calls for boycotting the film because Badru was shown abusing Hamza in what would be termed “reactive violence.” Even though the film’s premise was clear from the trailer, those calling for the boycott conveniently ignored that this is a film about a survivor of abuse trying to avenge herself and simply fighting back. There were prompt comparisons between Alia Bhatt and Amber Heard, who has been vilified beyond reason (proportionally more so than male perpetrators like Harvey Weinstein and Kevin Spacey) in the court of public opinion.
Darlings tries to navigate this murkiness as ethically as possible. Even when the story in Darlings takes recourse to the revenge drama narrative, it doesn’t follow its conventional tropes too diligently. At one point, Shamshu narrates the fable of The Scorpion And The Frog to Badru to convince her to walk away from her hopeless marriage. But the lesson Badru gets out of this is not that evil people will always do evil because it is in their nature. Darlings and Badru take a rather spiritual trajectory by letting karma take its course instead.
Despite being rooted in reality, Darlings eventually gives us a (vengeful) fantasy ending. It is a revenge drama where the higher powers that be intervene and deliver justice. That is one sneaky way to ensure the frog doesn’t ultimately end up just as jaded as the scorpion, doomed to repeat the same mistakes even when it is not in its own interest.
