Darbar- My bounded Review

Darbar, completely and unapologetically, rides on the enormous success of Petta. The film opens in a way that it naturally assumes that we are supposed to buy in the concept of Aaditya Arunasalam, bashing several Mumbaiwalas, whose job is to save Mumbai from drug dealers and human traffickers.

Lazily slapping the tag on the audience, “you are here for a Rajini film,” we are told, for decades; to feel the experience of a mass and class hero just doing his thing. Yes, I do know that, that is what I booked the tickets for. But my expectations were already set lower than my year-end bonus. When Rajini’s remuneration is a sky-rocketing 100 crores and a bounded-script obsessed Murugadoss has been paid an unbelievably huge amount (30crores), the least we expect is some form of entertainment, but we are always expected to leave our brains at home. Nice.

Despite many cringe-worthy moments and a burning desire to “chumma oodidu” from the theatre half-way into the film (for Sarkar, I did so), there are one or two instances where Nivetha Thomas saves the 8.30pm show. There is a beautiful daughter-father relationship that oozes lots of fun elements, a delight to watch indeed. She brings to the screen, a much-needed positivity and the way both father and daughter interact, could have been the celebrated story of Darbar. 

Once again, I would like to say Rajini emotes very well in such scenes. We have seen in it Kabali. We have seen it in Petta. We would like to see more of it! Rajini instead of unnecessarily saving Dharavi, Malaysia or Mumbai, should just move towards more family-oriented films where he along with his co-actors shine like their bank balance.  Then, flaws in characterisation and inconsistencies in the plot strike. 

Rajini who is unanimously supported by his fellow cops to ‘clean’ the city, but he is also an old-fashioned patriarch who chooses to get a boy for his daughter through matrimonial sites, which are known to brew every unethical aspect of love and companionship. Just like how Annamalai Rajini hates his 18-year-old daughter’s decision in choosing a boy that she likes, here in Darbar, we see similar shade of how he treats his daughter when it comes to major decision making.  

Blatantly disrespecting the fundamental art of storytelling, I am not just bored, I am paralyzed with boredom. The protagonist of the story, a larger-than-life hero like Rajini, finds out who Hari Chopra (Sunil Shetty) is, when the suspense is already revealed to the audience much earlier. A passionless execution from the director trying a cop Alex Pandian here, didn’t come to fruition. Not every cop story is going to entertain us like Theeran Adhigaram Ondru, but is a little quality control too much to expect? How do you even expect us to get terrified with a villain who wears Batik or leopard print shirts most of the time? And Sunil Shetty- according to Tamil-speaking audience, is a guy whom we know from the colgate advertisement. You wanna get frighten by him, oh come man!

Nayanthara.

It took me 3.6 seconds to type that name. Her screen time in Darbar was much less than that. Recent Tamil cinema directors haven’t mastered the skill of showing matured and young lovers on screen, what more could they do with old-age love? The only shot that I like between Rajini and Nayanthara, is when the former asks the latter to share the bill for the coffee date. That is what, atleast I would like to see in love scenes. Something progressive, something sensible. Something, as real as that. This is the only rose petal among all the thorns, in the .name of love a.k.a stalking a girl.

Yes, Nayanthara lodges a police complaint after realizing Rajini follows her. But it all seems comical. For the umpteen times, we are telling you Tamil cinema directors, to be stalked is not love even if it is Rajini or any other creepy old man. Yogi Babu, including Nivetha Thomas, uses the phrase ‘to correct a girl’; I don’t know what is more menacing- the German knife that Sunil Shetty flaunts or the usage of this phrase again and again in Tamil cinema for decades.

Being unoriginal is one thing, but being unoriginal and uninspired is another. Everything about Darbar is designed to demand the fan’s loyalty and reflect past glories. It is the same stylish punch dialogues that Rajini repeats, it is the same bgm with digital tones attached to it, it is the same used template story that has almost nothing to offer, surprise or shock us. What phenomenally works in Petta, fails miserably here. Right from the setting of the story to the cast, other than Nivetha Thomas, falls on every layer of disappointment.

I respect his age and the level of energy he has. But merely singing praises about a 70-year-old dancing, fighting, doing comedy and exercising- isn’t going to impress the audience. I could jolly well, walk to the nearby community centre to watch Uncle Tan do Tai chi and walk backwards with a 1kg dumbbell in his hands. If I need to justify my entertainment budget of $17, I need a reason more than that.