''Darbaan'' () is a 2020 Indian

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed and produced by Bipin Nadkarni under the banner of Opticus Picture Company with Yogesh Beldar as co-producer. This marks the debut of the director in Bollywood cinema. The film stars

Sharib Hashmi Sharib Hashmi (born 25 January 1976) is an Indian actor, writer, producer and director who works in the Hindi cinema. He is best known for portraying J.K. Talpade in the Amazon Prime Video series ''The Family Man'' (2019-2021) and Sunny in Film ...

Sharad Kelkar Sharad Kelkar (born 7 October 1976) is an Indian film actor and voice artist from Mumbai, Maharashtra. He works primarly in Hindi films, Marathi films. Kelkar has appeared as lead in television serials for brief period of time, now he do web se ...

Rasika Dugal Rasika Dugal (born 17 January 1985) is an Indian actress. She is known for her roles in several Indian movies and television shows. She made her screen debut with a small role, in the film '' Anwar'' (2007). And then she went onto star in many ...

and

Flora Saini Flora Saini, also known by her screen name Asha Saini, is an Indian actress and model. She predominantly works in Bollywood, and also appeared in a number of Kannada, Tamil and Telugu films. Since her debut in ''Prema Kosam'' (1999), she has a ...

. The film was to be theatrically released on 3 April 2020, but postponed later due to COVID. It premiered on

ZEE5 ZEE5 is an Indian subscription video on-demand and over-the-top streaming service, run by Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It was launched in India on 14 February 2018 with content in 12 languages. The ZEE5 mobile app is available on Web, Androi ...

on 4 December 2020.

Premise

''Darbaan'' is an adaption of a 1918 short story

Khokababur Pratyabartan ''Khokababur Pratyabartan'' (English: ''The Return of Little Master'') is a 1960 Indian Bengali-language social drama film directed by Agradoot based on the 1891 short story of the same name by Rabindranath Tagore. The film starring Uttam Ku ...

written by

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

winner

Rabindra Nath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resha ...

. The screenplay is about the friendship between a boy and his caretaker who come from different steps on the social and economic ladder.

Cast

as Raicharan (Raichu) aka Channa *

as Anukul Tripathi (Anu) *

as Bhuri, Raicharan’s wife *

as Charul Tripathi, Anukul's wife *

Harsh Chhaya Harsh Chhaya is an Indian actor. He debuted in a minor role as "Jijo" in the early 1990s Zee TV series '' Tara'', but first came into prominence in the role of Krishnakant Trivedi (KT) in mid 1990s TV series ''Hasratein'', where he portrayed t ...

as Naren Tripathi, Anukul’s father * Suneeta Sengupta as Sushma Tripathi, Anukul’s mother * Mukesh Ramani as Shiv Dayal, Anukul's driver *

Varun Sharma Varun is an Indian male given name. Notable people with the name include: People * Varun Aaron (born 1989), Indian cricketer * Varun Agarwal (born 1987), Indian entrepreneur * Varun Badola (born 1974), Indian actor * Varun Singh Bhati (born 1995), ...

as Siddhanth Tripathi aka Siddhu, Raicharan's adopted son; Anukul's biological son (Cameo) *

Annu Kapoor Annu Kapoor (born Anil Kapoor; 20 February 1956) is an Indian actor, singer, director, radio disc jockey, and television presenter who has appeared in over a hundred films, as well as television series. His career has spanned over 40 years as a ...

as Narrator * Dilavar makrani as Police Officer

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of the film is composed by

Amartya Bobo Rahut Amartya Bobo Rahut is an Indian singer-songwriter, music producer and an independent artist from Mumbai, India. Bobo has composed and produced music for films, albums and singles such as ''Shaam Simti'', ''Kaisi Ho ?'', ''Darbaan'', '' Tu Hai Me ...

and Raajeev V. Bhalla whereas lyrics are written by Manoj Yadav, Siddhant Kaushal and Akshay K. Saxena.

Reception

Anna M. M. Vetticad Anna Mercy Mathews Vetticad, commonly known as Anna M. M. Vetticad, is an Indian film critic and journalist. She has been in the field of journalism since 1994. Vetticad has also hosted her own interview show, ''Star Trek'', on Headlines Today ...

of ''

Firstpost ''Firstpost'' is an Indian online news and media website. The site is a part of the Network 18 media conglomerate owned by Reliance Industries, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC-TV18. The ''Network 18'' group was originally owned by Raghav ...

'' found the film 'bitter-sweet'. She praised the acting of Hashmi, Dugal and supporting cast and music of Amartya Bobo Rahut. She criticised the screenplay of Nadkarni co-written with Rakesh Jadhav for robbing the narrative of the film with 'substance and considerable sociological commentary'. Praising cinematographer Amalendu Chaudhary for 'striking shots across several locations', she rated it with two and half stars out of five. Vetticad concluded, "''Darbaan'' is nice enough, but it lacks depth and width." Pradeep Kumar reviewing for ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' called it "simplistic take on servitude that feels out of place". Agreeing with Vetticad, Kumar also criticised the screenplay because he felt, "...story remains under explored". He also found the soundtrack "endearing". He concluded, "However, beyond his ashmi'sclassy performance, ''Darbaan'' seems like a script better suited to the stage than the canvas of a cinema.".

References

External links

* {{Rabindranath Tagore 2020 films Indian drama films Films based on short fiction Films based on works by Rabindranath Tagore Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic Hindi-language drama films ZEE5 original films Films not released in theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic