''Darbaan'' () is a 2020 Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

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. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

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) for which he won ...

Sharad Kelkar Sharad Kelkar is an Indian actor and voice actor who works primarily in Marathi and Hindi films, television and web series. Early and personal life Kelkar was born and brought up in Gwalior, his father was a PWD engineer in Madhya Pradesh Gove ...

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

and

Flora Saini Flora Saini, also known by her screen name Asha Saini or Mayuri, is an Indian actress and model. She predominantly works in Telugu and Hindi films, and also appeared in a number of Kannada and Tamil films. She has done more than 80 projects a ...

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

ZEE5 ZEE5 or Z5 is an Indian subscription video on demand and over-the-top streaming service, owned 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 We ...

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, Bengali-language social drama film directed by Agradoot based on the 1891 short story of the same name by Rabindranath Tagore. The film ...

written by

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred N ...

winner

Rabindra Nath Tagore Rabindranath Thakur (; anglicised as Rabindranath Tagore ; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer, and painter of the Bengal Renaissance. He ...

. 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 (born 2 December 1966) 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'' ...

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 Sharma (born 4 February 1990) is an Indian actor and comedian. Best known for playing "Choocha" in the ''Fukrey'' film series, he is known for his comic as well as supporting roles in various Hindi and Punjabi films. Education Sharma ...

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 45 years as ...

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 M ...

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

Reception

Anna M. M. Vetticad Anna Marie Mathew Vetticad is an Indian journalist, film critic, and cultural commentator. She has been in the field of journalism since 1994. Vetticad is known for her political critiques of Indian cinema and the Indian film industry. She is a ...

of ''

Firstpost Firstpost is an Indian news website owned by Network18 Group, which also runs CNN-News18 and CNBC TV18. It has posted misinformation on multiple occasions. The Network 18 group was originally owned by Raghav Bahl. In January 2012, the gro ...

'' 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 was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' 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