Darlings (film)

Hamza Shaikh is an alcoholic who regularly abuses his wife, Badrunissa "Badru" Shaikh (née Ansari). Hoping to reform him, Badru tries various methods to make him stop drinking, including urging him to start a family. Hamza is also embroiled in disputes with other residents over the renovation of their chawl. When Badru attends a residents’ meeting against his wishes, he assaults her again. Zulfi, a handyman in the chawl and a frequent visitor to Badru and her mother Shamshunissa "Shamshu" Ansari, witnesses the abuse and files a police complaint against Hamza. Although Hamza is arrested, he promises Badru he will stop drinking once they have a child, leading her to secure his release. However, the abuse continues.

Hamza later learns that his liver is severely damaged and that continued drinking could kill him. The same evening, Badru tells him she is pregnant, and he pretends to give up alcohol. At the same time, he becomes determined to discover who reported him to the police. When he learns that Zulfi filed the complaint and that Badru knew about it, he accuses them of having an affair. Despite Badru’s pregnancy, Hamza violently attacks her and pushes her down a staircase, causing a miscarriage. Because he is sober at the time, Badru finally accepts that his cruelty is not caused solely by alcohol.

After recovering in hospital, Badru decides to treat Hamza as he treated her. She drugs him with sleeping pills, restrains him, and begins torturing him. When Hamza’s employer visits to enquire about his absence, Badru and Shamshu initially claim he has gone to his village after his father’s death before changing their story and saying he is ill. With help from Kasim, Shamshu obtains injections that Badru administers to Hamza.

While the women are out filing a false missing-person report, Hamza escapes by deceiving Zulfi. Soon afterwards, the police arrive to investigate the complaint and suspect Zulfi and Badru are involved romantically. To avoid Zulfi’s arrest, he claims to love Shamshu, who confirms this by kissing him at the police station. Hamza also arrives there and accuses Badru and Shamshu of torturing him, but the police dismiss his claims. Badru, Shamshu, and Zulfi take him back home.

Shamshu and Zulfi then suggest killing Hamza by tying him to a railway track. Although they carry out the plan, Badru realises she is becoming like Hamza and frees him moments before a train passes. Furious, Hamza vows revenge, but is immediately struck and killed by the train.

On the journey home, Shamshu reveals that Badru’s father had also abused her for years. With Kasim’s help, she killed him, disposed of the body, and filed a missing-person report that was never solved. Shamshu reassures Badru that leaving Hamza was the right decision, as both men deserved punishment. Days later, Hamza’s funeral is held, and Badru begins exploring the city independently, finally free and hopeful for a better future.

Pre-production started by early January 2021 and the film was planned for 2021 release,^[16] it was announced on behalf of Red Chillies Entertainment through a motion poster by Shah Rukh Khan on March 1, 2021.^[17] Set in Mumbai against the backdrop of a conservative lower-middle-class neighborhood, the film was hinted as a story of a quirky mother-daughter duo, sailing through circumstances with courage and love. Also, the motion poster, as a statutory warning translated to: "Offending women can be very injurious to your health".^[17] The film marks Alia Bhatt's first production, under the banner Eternal Sunshine Productions'.^[18] Apart from Bhatt playing the lead, Shefali Shah was roped in to play the parallel lead,^[2] followed by Roshan Mathew and Vijay Varma. Producer Gaurav Verma (Red Chillies Entertainment) mentioned: "Darlings is a move forward in a direction where they would want to collaborate with fresh talent and nurture their perspective." Talking about the casting, the debutante director Jasmeet K. Reen was quoted: "...we have a dream cast and the perfect ‘partners in crime’ if I can call them that. We couldn't have asked for anything more and now I can't wait to get on the floor!"^[19] Bhatt added that the film was a powerful story with a lot of humor and doses of dark comedy.^[19]

On her character preparation as 'Badru', Bhatt stated, it was picking up authentic sort of lingo of the area in Byculla, Mumbai which was a mixture of Urdu, English, Hindi and Marathi and heard in film dialogues.^[20] When she heard the script, she realised it was the time to produce films where she is a pivotal character and with this film, the genre shifted very quickly.^[20] Bhatt's character also had an essence from the fable The Scorpion and The Frog, where she added: "...little ambiguous for you to decide that who is the bicchu (scorpion) in the story", and she wanted the audience to actually play with and understand.^[20]

In an interview with Outlook Magazine, Mathew stated that the treatment for this role was a trial-and-error attempt, comfortable with his diction in Hindi, where he was clear with expectations of the role in few days of filming.^[21] Further interviews by Outlook Magazine wherein Varma hinted on the film story: "It will question what you like and don't like. It's just going to be a roller coaster. Relationships are shown in such a way that you won't know whose side you are going to be after 10 minutes."^[22]

In March 2021, Vishal Bhardwaj and Gulzar were onboarded to compose the original songs for the film^[23] By June, Bhatt announced she was preparing for the film and shared a photograph on Instagram to acknowledge the script reading.^[24]

In March 2021, a promotional video and motion logo of the film were released.^[29][30][31] A teaser poster featuring the official logo of the film was released as well.^[32][17]

In May 2022, Netflix India released a promotional announcement video for the film, featuring the cast.^[33][34] An announcement video revealing the release date for the teaser trailer was released in July 2022.^[35] On 5 July 2022, the film's official teaser^[36] and two posters were released.^[37][38][39] On 25 July 2022, the film's official trailer was released; a launch event was held in support of it.^[40][41]

The film score is composed and produced by Prashant Pillai, while the soundtrack is written by Vishal Bhardwaj and Mellow D with lyrics by Gulzar and the latter.^[44][45]

Zee Music Company released the film's official three-track soundtrack album on 2 August 2022; the lead single "La Ilaaj", sung by Arijit Singh, Vishal Bhardwaj, and Debarpito Saha, was released some hours prior to it.^[46][47][48]

Darlings was released on 5 August 2022 on Netflix.^[37][49][50]

Following the acquisition of the film's rights by Netflix in February 2022, Red Chillies Entertainment announced that the film skipped theatrical release, and will digitally premiere as an original on the streaming platform.^[33][34][51] In July 2022, the film's release date was announced as 5 August 2022.^[52][53]