Darja, streaming on aha, is a poorly made, old-fashioned revenge drama

Darja is an actioner featuring Pushpa The Rise actors Sunil and Anasuya Bharadwaj in key roles. The film directed by Saleem Malik was produced by Siva Sankar Paidipati under PSS Entertainments. With story by Nasser, the cast also comprises Aksa Khan, Sammu, Satyanarayana Raju, Shakalaka Shankar, Sudha, Surya. After its theatrical run, the film premiered on aha recently. We take a look if the film is worthy of your time.

Kanaka Mahalakshmi (Anasuya Bharadwaj) is a notorious criminal involved with the liquor business in Bandar. She keeps killing anyone whom she considers a threat. Meanwhile, two brothers Ganesh and Ranga fall in love with two sisters Pushpa and Geetha. Things take a drastic turn when Ganesh dies. Siva Shankar Paiditpati (Sunil) takes charge as the new ACP to control the situation. Why was Ganesh killed? What connects Kanaka, Geetha and Pushpa to the murder? Will Siva Shankar succeed in his quest?

Sunil is undoubtedly the biggest asset of the film. Even though he arrives late, he packs a punch with his performance as a ferocious cop and does a superb job in fight sequences. He carries the entire latter part on his shoulders. Anasuya Bharadwaj is perfect as a notorious criminal. Her body language and attitude work well for the role. She shines as an antagonist and her screen presence surprises you. The interval bang is decent. The second half offers a few interesting twists for the viewer.

The writing is the major drawback of Darja. The screenplay lacks fizz and is confusing in the initial hour with too many subplots. The director preserved his main story for the second half, but the damage is already done with the terrible star.The romance portions involving the love lives of the two brothers are yawnworthy at best and don't engage at all. Several songs in the film have no purpose in the narrative at all. The emotional scenes are unconvincing and lack novelty.

There are several unnecessary sequences in the film that test your patience by delaying the inevitable. The film is stretched beyond necessity and would've been more watchable if the runtime was reduced by 15 minutes. It's evident that the filmmaker was inspired by a wide range of films in several sequences. The comedy in the film looks so forced and doesn’t provide any respite to the viewer. There are a handful of newcomers in the movie but none of them makes a mark.

The music director Rap Rock Shakeel does an okayish job at best with the songs and the background score. While the cinematographer captures the scenic beauty across the coastal backdrop the film, the director Saleem Malik disappoints with his execution. His narration hardly grabs your eyeballs with several redundant sequences that don't contribute much to the story. In the first half, the screenplay goes for a toss and on the whole, his treatment is outdated too.

In a nutshell, Darja is a poorly made, old-fashioned revenge drama. The film has a terrible first hour and gets slightly better post intermission. Despite the good performances from Sunil and Anasuya, Darja remains a sinking ship. The writing and filmmaking leave a lot to be desired. Even on OTT, this doesn't merit your time.