Darbaan Movie Review: This Rabindranath Tagore Drama Adaptation is an Insipid Affair
Darbaan
Director: Bipin Nadkarni
Cast: Sharib Hashmi, Rasika Dugal, Flora Saini, Harsh Chhaya, Suneeta Sengupta, Varun Sharma
Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s stories are universal and have an essential timelessness about them – 0ne of which is Khokababur Pratyabartan (The Return of Little Master). Penned in 1891, this tale was adapted in a 1960 Bengali language movie with the evergreen matinee idol, Uttam Kumar, essaying a loyal servant in a sprawling zamindari haveli in the coal-mining town of Jharia. I have not seen the film, but Zee5 has just begun streaming a Hindi adaptation of the Tagore story, and co-scripted and directed by Bipin Nadkarni, Darbaan (Guard) – that is the title – begins in the early years of the 1970s when the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, nationalised dozens of coal mines, a move that ruined several wealthy private owners.
Nadkarni’s Darbaan begins on a happy note in Jharia with coal-mine owner Naren Tripathi’s (Harsh Chhaya) baby son, Ankul, sharing a warm and affectionate relationship with their darbaan, Raicharan (Sharib Hashmi). But when the mines are taken over by the Government, Tripathi sells his haveli and moves out. Raicharan returns to his wife, Bhuri (Rasika Duggal), and farming in village.
