Darling

After flexing his muscles in kick butt roles, action hero Prabhas unveils his lighter side in his pursuit to win his ladylove. He does strike a chord as a happy-go-lucky guy who likes to fool around and tries all the tricks in the book to woo his childhood love. It seems that Kaajal has become a specialist for chirpy lover girl roles in T-town and once again she puts in a decent performance. 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. The angle of old college-mates (Prabhas’s father and his friends) meeting up often is quite memorable and enchanting. Young composer GV Prakash, belts out two enchanting numbers, but disappoints with a sloppy background score. Cinematographer Andrew does a fine job of capturing the picture-perfect visuals of Switzerland. 

The storyline is simple: Prabhas finishes his post-graduation and spends times with his friends. When his father’s (Tamil actor Prabhu) friends plan a get-together, Prabhas is ecstatic since he can meet his childhood friend (Kaajal). Unfortunately, things don’t go the way he’d like them to . 

Prabhas looks good in a lean mean look and does some intricate dancing moves besides tickling the funny bone. Pretty Kaajal does her part convincingly, while Prabhu shines through. But, director Karunkaran need to break free from his ‘one-sided love story’ themes and should explore new genres. 

By B V S Prakash