My favorite scene from Darlings is the thirty-second scene that follows Badru’s realization that she had suffered a miscarriage due to her husband. Not only did he almost kill Badru but shattered everything that was important to her. Badru is pushed to the edge – literally – as she stands at the edge of the hospital window. In those brief thirty seconds, Alia Bhatt brilliantly portrays Badru’s dilemma: give up everything or stay back. She closes her eyes, about to jump off before taking a deep breath and gazing decisively into the camera. Badru’s piercing look is enough to communicate that her story was about to change.
The scene reminded me of Kate Chopin’s short story, Story of an Hour, where a woman trapped in a Victorian marriage tastes liberation for the first time through her husband’s death, as she stretches out into the open window, inhaling the nectar of life. In Badru’s narrative, the open window becomes the metaphor for a life that required action, a life where she would take charge of her own destiny.