The critic review of movie DARBAAN is here. The 2020 Indian Hindi, drama film directed and produced by Bipin Nadkarni stars Sharib Hashmi, Sharad Kelkar, Rasika Dugal, Flora Saini and Harsh Chhaya in pivotal roles. The film was to be theatrically released on 3 April 2020, but postponed later due to Covid-19 pandemic. DARBAAN will premiere on Zee5 on 4th December 2020. DARBAAN is produced by Opticus Picture Company with Yogesh Beldar as co-producer.
Watch a Zee5 original film Darbaan official trailer premiering on 4th Dec, 2020
DARBAAN movie review
Darbaan (Guard) the adaption of a 1918 short story ‘Khokababur Pratyabartan’ written by legendary Nobel Prize winner Rabindra Nath Tagore aka Gurudev. It’s a story of an inseparable bond between a master and his servant.
Master is Anukool (Sharad Kelkar) – son of Naren Tripathi (Harsh Chhaya) owner of a coal mine in Dhanbad and his most trusted / favourite servant Raicharan (Sharib Hashmi). The bond travels generations as both the master and the servant grow up together. One day an unfortunate incident changes the equation that sees Raicharan filled with guilt while Anukool and his wife Charul (Flora Saini) are soaked in grief as they lose their son.
Uttarayan (2005), Aevdhese Aabhal (2007), fame filmmaker Bipin Nadkarni’s debut in Hindi twins the heart of Tagore and the mind of Shakespeare and coins it with Franz Kafka’s understanding of guilt in this moving human saga of love, loss, suffering, pain, guilt, friendship and more.
Sharib Hashmi in one of his finest performances, moves you with its soul stirring humanity wrapped in a deeply melancholic sense of despair, agony, driven by guilt caused due to the bond with his chote sarkar aka Anukool that is almost like an obsession. The World of Raicharan begins and ends with Anukool that leaves his wife Bhuri (wonderfully played by Rasika Dugal) neglected for no fault of hers.
DARBAAN is a poignantly told family drama of a man trying to come to terms with a guilt / tragedy that looms and haunts the protagonist – Raicharan from time-to-time. The feel of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and Kafka’s philosophy of guilt haunting the prime character is felt.
Writer – Director Bipin Nadkarni along with his team of writers Radhika Anand and Rakesh Jadhav render humanity and its complex vulnerabilities tactfully without going overboard and add the needed hope in the end.
Sharad Kelkar is fantastic as usual but he gets scope. Good support comes from Harsh Chhaya, Flora Saini, Suneeta Sengupta and Yash Mistry.
Annu Kapoor’s voiceover adds value.
Music by Amartya Bobo Rahut and Raajeev V Bhalla is another plus. Rang Bhariya is a take home.
Final words
DARBAAN – the debut of Marathi filmmaker Bipin Nadkarni inspired from Gurudev Rabindra Nath Tagore’s short story is an inspirational one indeed. Powered by superlative performances and soulful human turns this haunting meditation on guilt, hope & redemption needs to be experienced on your screens.
pic/poster courtesy: Zee5
