Darbaan

Darbaan is a 2020 Indian Hindi drama film 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, Sharad Kelkar, Rasika Dugal and Flora Saini.

The film was to be theatrically released on 3 April 2020, but postponed later due to COVID. It premiered on ZEE5 on 4 December 2020.

Premise
Darbaan is an adaption of a 1918 short story Khokababur Pratyabartan written by Nobel Prize winner Rabindra Nath Tagore. The screenplay is about the friendship between a boy and his caretaker who come from different steps on the social and economic ladder.

Cast

 * Sharib Hashmi as Raicharan (Raichu) aka Channa
 * Sharad Kelkar as Anukul Tripathi (Anu)
 * Rasika Dugal as Bhuri, Raicharan's wife
 * Flora Saini as Charul Tripathi, Anukul's wife
 * Harsh Chhaya as Naren Tripathi, Anukul's father
 * Suneeta Sengupta as Sushma Tripathi, Anukul's mother
 * Mukesh Ramani as Shiv Dayal, Anukul's driver
 * Varun Sharma as Siddhanth Tripathi aka Siddhu, Raicharan's adopted son; Anukul's biological son (Cameo)
 * Annu Kapoor as Narrator
 * Dilavar makrani as Police Officer

Soundtrack
The soundtrack of the film is composed by Amartya Bobo Rahut and Raajeev V. Bhalla whereas lyrics are written by Manoj Yadav, Siddhant Kaushal and Akshay K. Saxena.

Reception
Anna M. M. Vetticad of Firstpost 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 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 [Hashmi's] classy performance, Darbaan seems like a script better suited to the stage than the canvas of a cinema.".