Darlings follows Badru who kidnaps her alcoholic husband when she gets tired of his abusive behaviour. It is a dark comedy film.
Darlings Story and Summary
Long-time lovers, Badru (Alia Bhatt) and Hamza (Vijay Varma) married each other after Hamza was able to secure a government job as a Ticket Collector and convince Badru’s mother, Shamshu. Shamshu is a single mother who’s in a relationship with the local butcher, Kasim (Rajesh Sharma).
While Badru and Hamza share a loving bond otherwise, it is understood that Hamza often physically beats Badru for things such as finding a piece of stone in the food.
After beating Badru in the night under the influence of alcohol, Hamza tries to make up to Badru the next morning. Badru attempts to convince Hamza to meet a builder. She has been also planning to have a baby, but Hamza has been putting it off for three years.
When Badru visits her mother, Shamshu tries to get Badru to leave Hamza, but Badru tries to ignore it and comes up with another plan.
As Hamza drinks alcohol incessantly to cope with the menial nature of his job, Badru plans to feed Hamza anti-alcohol abuse pills to stop his addiction. But Hamza comes to know about his wife’s plan from the chemist, who sold the pills to Badru and beats her again that night.
Next, Badru plans to get pregnant in the hope of pacifying Hamza’s addiction. On the night she plans to make her next move, Hamza beats her again for meeting a builder in the locality who’s vying for the land in the location to build an apartment complex.
The following morning, Zulfi (Roshan Mathew), Shamshu’s helper in her business, finds Badru hurt when he’s sent by Shamshu to check on Badru. Behind Badru and Shamshu’s back, Zulfi files a complaint at the local police station.
When the police call Badru and Shamshu to the police station, momentarily Badru agrees to file a complaint against her husband.
Upon being convinced by Hamza about having a baby, she retracts her complaint. But on the way back home, Hamza loses his temper and hurts Shamshu. Badru’s mother asks Badru to choose between him and her.
A few days later, while working, Hamza suffers liver pain. The doctor tells him to leave alcohol if he wants to live. On reaching his house, he finds an elated Badru who tells him that he is going to be a father soon. Hamza promises to leave alcohol.
As Badru prepares to welcome the baby, Hamza finds out that it was Zulfi who complained to the police against him. Understanding that Badru knew about Zulfi’s role but chose not to reveal it, he suspects that Zulfi’s having an affair with Badru.
Hamza again beats Badru and in the altercation, Badru gets hurt badly, losing her child in a miscarriage. For a brief moment, Badru contemplates committing suicide. She, instead, asks the doctor for sleeping pills to help her sleep.
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Darlings Ending Explained
The next morning, she asks Shamshu to come to her house. When Shamshu reaches Badru’s place, she finds Hamza tied up in an unconscious state. Badru decides to teach Hamza a lesson for all his doings.
Zulfi also comes to know about Badru’s plan incidentally when he comes to deliver an oven to Badru’s house. Later, in a tied state, Badru gets Hamza’s signature on the property papers to give it to the builder. Despite Hamza’s attempts, Badru does not budge this time.
When Hamza’s boss, Damle, visits to check on Hamza, the mother-daughter duo lies to him about his alcohol addiction and gets away.
The mother and daughter then go to the police station to file a missing complaint for Hamza. The police suspect an affair between Zulfi and Hamza and head to her home to investigate more.
Meanwhile, Hamza manages to manipulate Zulfi, and Zulfi releases him onto the streets in a seduced state.
When the police reach Badru’s house, they do not find him there. An exchange of words happens between Badru, Shamshu, and Zulfi who try to blame each other. However, the officer gets a call from the police station, conveying that Hamza has been found.
It’s also revealed that Zulfi has an affection for Badru’s mother, Shamshu.
Hamza reaches the police station to file a complaint against Badru although he fails because his words come out unclear as he’s still half-awake, thanks to the medicine he was being injected with by Badru.
With their antics, Badru convinces the police and takes Badru back to her house. Convinced that Hamza will never reform, Badru decides to kill Hamza with the help of Shamshu and Zulfi. They make Hamza record a video in which he confesses to his crimes and says that he will be going away.
They take Hamza to the railway tracks to murder him and make it look like a suicide. Hamza’s hands are tied to the tracks.
Why did Badru let Hamza go?
However, at the last moment, Badru steps back from her plan after realising that her sense of revenge has been turning him into an evil person just like Hamza. Even against her mother’s wish to get rid of Hamza for once and all, Badru releases him to save herself from the guilt of murdering Hamza.
Immediately after, Hamza tries to convince Badru, but she refuses to accept him back. Hamza quickly changes his tone and starts threatening her. But before he can do something, he gets hit by a train as he accidentally steps on the nearby train track.
On the way back home, Shamshu tells Badru that she made the right decision as she understands the burden of someone’s killing at her own hands.
Badru realises that her father, who passed away when she was a child, was killed by her mother because of the same kind of treatment Badru received from Hamza. Kasim had helped Shamshu back then to cover up the crime.
Badru manages to convince the police and the rest of the world that Hamza killed himself using the edited video, which she shot just before his death, that shows Hamza agreeing to “go away”.
In the end, Badru returns to her normal life in a new form as she becomes an independent woman who enjoys her life without depending on anybody.
Darlings is now streaming on Netflix.
Watch the trailer of Wedding Season here:
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