''Darling'' is a 2007 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 ...

-language horror

romantic drama Romance films or movies involve romantic love stories recorded in visual media for broadcast in theatres or on television that focus on passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. Typically their journey ...

film released on 7 September 2007. The film, which stars

Esha Deol Esha Deol Takhtani (born 2 November 1981) is an Indian actress and model who predominantly appears in Hindi films. The daughter of actor-politicians Dharmendra and Hema Malini, Deol made her debut in '' Koi Mere Dil Se Poochhe'' (2002), which ...

Fardeen Khan Fardeen Khan (; born 8 March 1974) is an Indian actor. He is the recipient of a Filmfare Award (1999) and is the son of the actor, director, and film producer Feroz Khan. Early life and education Fardeen Khan was born on 8 March 1974 in Mumbai ...

and

Isha Koppikar Isha Koppikar (born 19 September 1976) is an Indian actress, model and politician who has mostly appeared in Hindi cinema. She has also acted in several Telugu, Tamil, Kannada and Marathi films. Background Koppikar was born in Mahim, Bombay (n ...

in the lead roles, was directed by

Ram Gopal Varma Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, known for his works in Telugu cinema in addition to Hindi, Kannada language films, and television.** * ...

. It was shot in

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. The soundtrack was composed by Himesh Reshammiya and

Pritam Pritam Chakraborty (born 14 June 1971), also known mononymously as Pritam, is an Indian composer, instrumentalist, guitarist, and singer. After working as an ad jingles composer, he debuted as a co-composer in the 2001 Hindi film Tere Liye. ...

. The film was average grosser grossed Rs. 22 million in the first week.

Synopsis

Aditya is married to a traditional wife, Ashwini, and has a young boy. But he is having an affair with his secretary, Geeta Menon who has a wild personality. He manages to balance the women with clever lies. He promises Geeta he will marry her, after divorcing Ashwini. He seems to display fetish behaviours with the two women. On one of their romantic excursions, Aditya takes Geeta to his friend's bungalow at

Madh Island Madh Island (Marathi pronunciation: əɖʱ is a group of several quaint fishing villages and farmlands in northern Mumbai. Geography The area is bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west, and the Malad creek on the east. There are few beaches li ...

. All seems fine until Geeta shocks Aditya with news that she is pregnant. Worried, he insists that they cannot have a child together and suggests an

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

. This attitude enrages Geeta and they engage in a fight in which he pushes her. She accidentally hits her head against a hard object, the force of which kills her instantly. He disposes of her body and returns home, behaving as if everything is normal. His former lover returns as a

vengeful ghost In mythology and folklore, a vengeful ghost or vengeful spirit is said to be the spirit of a dead person who returns from the afterlife to seek revenge for a cruel, unnatural or unjust death. In certain cultures where funeral and burial or crem ...

who will stop at nothing till she gets her revenge. She appears often to frighten Aditya. Ashwini notices her husband's fear of a ghost whom she cannot see. To relieve his guilt, Aditya admits his affair with Geeta and her death to Ashwini. His wife's reaction is to leave but she is then admitted to hospital due to a major accident. Geeta returns to the frame and gives her forgiveness to Aditya. Ashwini recovers but Geeta's revengeful soul has transferred into her body.

Cast

as Aditya "Adit" Soman *

as Geeta Menon *

Zakir Hussain Zakir Hussain ( ur, , link=no) is the name of: * Zakir Husain (politician), an Indian politician and former president of India * Zakir Hussain (actor), Bollywood actor * Zakir Hussain (field hockey) (1934–2019), Pakistani field hockey player * ...

as Sameer Naghani, Aditya's friend *

as Ashwini A. Soman *

Upendra Limaye Upendra Limaye (born 8 November 1969) is an Indian actor, who won the National Film Award for his role in the Marathi film ''Jogwa''. On the centenary of Indian cinema in April 2013, '' Forbes'' included Limaye's performance in the film ''Jogwa ...

as Inspector Bhaskar Reddy *

Kota Srinivasa Rao Kota Srinivasa Rao (born 10 July 1942) is an Indian character actor known for his work primarily in Telugu cinema and Telugu theatre. He has also starred in a few films in Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and Malayalam. As a former politician, Rao has ...

as Psychiatrist *

Nisha Kothari Priyanka Kothari, often credited as Nisha Kothari or Amoha, is an actress and model. She has appeared in Bollywood, Telugu, Tamil and Kannada films. She has frequently appeared in Ram Gopal Varma films. Early life Priyanka Kothari was born in ...

in a special appearance in the song "Aa Khushi Se Khudkushi" *

Shishir Sharma Shishir Sharma (born 10 January 1955) is an Indian film and television actor. He appeared in Zee TV's ''Ghar Ki Lakshmi Betiyann'', and is known for playing the role of Jagmohan Prasad in ''Yahaaan Main Ghar Ghar Kheli''. Currently, he can be s ...

as Anjan Menon, Geeta's father *

Kiku Sharda Kiku Sharda (born Raghavendra Sharda; 14 February 1976) is an Indian comedian as well as film and television actor. He was born on 14 February 1976 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Kiku completed his schooling in Mumbai where he also completed his post-g ...

as Doctor *

Rasika Joshi Rasika Joshi (12 September 1972 – 7 July 2011) was a Marathi and Hindi film actress. A Marathi theatre and Indian television actress, she was known for '' Maharashtrian'' roleplays in Bollywood films. Personal life Rasika was born in a Mara ...

as Mrs. Shah Rukh Khan, psychiatric patient

Music

The soundtrack was released on 1 August 2007 in many formats including

music cassette The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Otten ...

MP3 files MP3 (formally MPEG-1 Audio Layer III or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III) is a coding format for digital audio developed largely by the Fraunhofer Society in Germany, with support from other digital scientists in the United States and elsewhere. Orig ...

audio CD Compact Disc Digital Audio (CDDA or CD-DA), also known as Digital Audio Compact Disc or simply as Audio CD, is the standard format for audio compact discs. The standard is defined in the ''Red Book'', one of a series of Rainbow Books (named ...

, and

DVD-Audio DVD-Audio (commonly abbreviated as DVD-A) is a digital format for delivering high-fidelity audio content on a DVD. DVD-Audio uses most of the storage on the disc for high-quality audio and is not intended to be a video delivery format. The st ...

. The music was composed by

and Himesh Reshammiya in a guest song. The first reviews of the soundtrack have been positive with indiafm.com rating the music at 3.5 out of 5. Joginder Tuteja of indiafm.com said "''Darling'' is a good album that thoroughly entertains while it is on." SmasHits.com said "Darling is the biggest musical bonanza from Ramu's factory after series of miserable musical releases from bunch of his reliable protégés in last few years." On 10 September 2007 the film was at number 5 on the charts. The song "Aa Khushi Se Khudkushi" from this film is a cover of

Namie Amuro Namie Amuro ( ; ja, 安室奈美恵, Amuro Namie, label=none; born September 20, 1977) is a Japanese former recording artist, producer, songwriter, dancer, model, actress and entrepreneur who was active between 1992 and 2018. A leading figure of ...

's song "

Want Me, Want Me "Want Me, Want Me" is Namie Amuro's 28th solo single under the Avex Trax label. It was released in two formats CD and CD&DVD on April 6, 2005. The CD format contained a B-side track and its instrumental while the CD&DVD format had no B-side but ...

", which was released on 6 April 2005.

References

External links

*
Official movie site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Darling 2007 horror films 2000s romantic thriller films Indian romantic thriller films 2000s Hindi-language films Indian avant-garde and experimental films 2000s horror thriller films Indian horror thriller films Films directed by Ram Gopal Varma 2007 films Hindi films remade in other languages Films scored by Himesh Reshammiya Films featuring songs by Pritam Indian romantic horror films 2000s avant-garde and experimental films