Darling (2010 film)

Darling
Directed by	A. Karunakaran
Produced by	B. V. S. N. Prasad
Written by	A. Karunakaran
Starring	Prabhas Raju Uppalapati Kajal Aggarwal srinivas irlapati
Music by	G. V. Prakash Kumar
Cinematography	Andrew
Editing by	Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao
Distributed by	Sri Venkateshwara Creations Reliance Movies
Release date(s)	April 23, 2010 (2010-04-23)
Country	India
Language	Telugu
Budget	18 crore[1][2]
Box office	39 crore[3]

Darling (Telugu: డార్లింగ్) is an Indian, Telugu-language film, directed by A. Karunakaran. The film stars Prabhas(as Prabha) and Kajal Aggarwal in the lead roles while tamil actor Prabhu plays a key role. The music is composed by GV Prakash Kumar. The film was released on April 23, 2010 and has received positive reviews from both critics and the audience. The film was a commercial success at the box office.^[4]

Story

The movie starts in the late 1980s when a group of friends celebrate their farewell party. They promise each other to keep in touch. Among them are Hanumantha Rao (Tamil actor Prabhu Ganesan) who has a son named Prabha, and Vishwanath (Ahuthi Prasad) who has daughter Nandini. To reach their professional goals Vishwanath and his daughter travel to Switzerland, while Hanumantha Rao becomes a criminal lawyer and settles in India. Thus, Prabha and Nandini gets separated in their childhood.

Years later, these old friends call for a reunion where a grown-up Prabha (Prabhas) is eager to see his love Nandini (Kajal Agarwal). But, another girl Nisha (Shraddha Das) daughter of local don (Mukesh Rishi) attempts suicide when Prabha doesn’t accept her love. Her father tries to kill Prabha but is convinced by a fake story narrated by Prabha that his one and only love is Nandini.

During the reunion at the farm house of Buchchaiah (Chandra Mohan), Prabha happens to see Nandini. We are introduced to Rishi (Santhosh) as Appala Raju's (M. S. Narayana) son. As usual competition arises between Rishi and Prabha for Nandini. During this time Rishi's friends try to remove Prabha out of the picture by misconnecting the iron wire where unfortunately Hanumantha Rao gets shocked leading Prabha to beat Rishi and his friends. The fight results in Hanumantha Rao kicking Prabha out the house. Later Prabha finds out who Rishi really is. After hearing this Prabha decides to sacrifice his everlasting love towards Nandini. As Prabha leaves, Nandini reveals that she too loves him and the only reason she came to India was to see him but had only acted like she didn't like to see if Prabha also loved her, but remebering what his father had said Prabha leaves and Nandhini is heartbroken, meanwhile Rishi and Nandini's engagement is waiting to take place. Nisha's father finds out the truth that the story that Prabha had said was a lie, forcing him to come look for Prabha.

Who is this Rishi? What is his relation with Vishwanath? How did Hanumantha Rao help Vishwanath in his love marriage(flash back)? Will Prabha win his darling Nandini? What does Nisha’s father finally decide? These are the questions the film answers in the end.

Cast

• Prabhas as Prabhas(Nickname:Prabha)
• Kajal Aggarwal as Nandini
• Shraddha Das as Nisha
• Prabhu as Prabhas Dad
• M. S. Narayana
• Mukesh Rishi

Reception

Professional Reviews
The Times of India link
GreatAndhra link
Idlebrain link
Rediff link

The film opened to positive reviews. The Times Of India gave a two and half star rating explaining "Director Karunakaran extracts good performances from his actors, but can't come up with a refreshing plot. It looks like the director hasn't really come out of his "Tholiprema" hangover as he dishes out yet another one-sided love saga but fails to come up with a valid and logical reason to make a Gen Z lad to hold back his feelings for his lover until the last moment. However, he compensates it all, by adding loads of fun moments in the film and the screenplay does have its share of some touching moments".^[5] Sify noted "Prabhas looked very handsome and his performance is can be termed as the major highlight of the film".^[6] Local review site GreatAndhra and Idlebrain both gave a three star rating and praised the actors performance and technical works of the film.^[7][8]

Rediff movies gave a two and half star rating says "Darling is a family entertainer. Prabhas is refreshingly different in this film. No flexing of muscles and no heavy dialogues. He appears down to earth and is quite endearing too".^[9]

Soundtrack

Darling
Soundtrack album by G. V. Prakash Kumar
Genre	Feature film soundtrack
G. V. Prakash Kumar chronology
Madrasapattinam (2010) Darling (2010 film) (2010) Va (2010)

Music composed by G. V. Prakash Kumarwith lyrics by Anantha Sreeram

Song	Singer
"Hey Bulle"	Mallikarjun, Priya Himesh
"Pranama Pranama"	Rahul Nambiar
"Inka Yedo"	Suraj, Prashanthini
"Neeve Neeve"	G. V. Prakash Kumar
"Hoshahore"	KK, Leslie Lewis
"Gumm Gum Yeyo"	Benny Dayal, Chorus

References

1. ^ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/an-average-fare/645827/4
2. ^ http://www.screenindia.com/news/an-average-fare/645827/
3. ^ http://www.sify.com/movies/Top-Ten-Telugu-Films-of-the-year-imagegallery-tollywood-kmvrrBcdbgb.html?html=5
4. ^ http://www.indianexpress.com/news/an-average-fare/645827/4
5. ^ "Darling Review". Times of india. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/movie-reviews/telugu/Darling/moviereview/5853020.cms. Retrieved april 24 2010. 
6. ^ "Darling review". Sify. http://www.sify.com/movies/telugu/review.php?id=14939452&ctid=5&cid=2430. Retrieved april 24 2010. 
7. ^ "'Darling' Review: Watch It For Prabhas!!!!". greatandhra. http://www.greatandhra.com/viewnews.php?id=20607&cat=1&scat=12. Retrieved april 22 2010. 
8. ^ "Telugu movie review-Darling". http://www.idlebrain.com/movie/archive/mr-darling.html. Retrieved april 22 2010. 
9. ^ "Darling is entertaining". Rediff. http://movies.rediff.com/review/2010/apr/23/south-telugu-movie-review-darling.htm. Retrieved april 23 2010.