Dor (a brief film review)

Renting a movie is fine but sometimes you need to have your own copy. And not very often do I order my own DVD copy of a movie. But that was the case with Nagesh Kukunoor's Dor. I ordered the movie online within an hour of having completed watching the rental copy...a first. I had thought that I might need to wait five years to see another excellent movie after Parineeta (see Archives below) but I was wrong. Oh, I am quite sure that there are other good movies out there but I am not attracted to movies with high profile stars like Amitabh Bachan, Aishwarya Rai and so on. Frankly they are over-hyped and each star usually comes with his or her own baggage. I could never quite shake off the impression that these high profile movies market the actors more so than a story.


Shreyas Talpade, who was immensely likeable in the sporty Iqbal (also directed by Kukunoor), has a breezy supporting role in Dor. I have never seen an Ayesha Takia movie before but she fits her character like a glove. That subtle dance move by her in an empty street was so nice. But it was really Gul Panag who affected me the most. Unconventionally beautiful and with great screen presence, it is hard to believe that she was once just another Miss India.

When the climax of the movie began, I was pretty sure that I knew exactly how the climax would play out. The way it actually happened left me overwhelmed. But even without that final touch in the climax, Dor would still have been a great piece of moviemaking. The background score is at times hummable. Of the songs, Imaan Ka Asar and Yeh Honsla are the pick of the lot.

Another thing that this movie made me realize (or re-realize) was the grandeur of India's terrain. I had always thought of Himachal Pradesh, where the independent Zeenat (Gul Panag) lives, as just another Indian state. But the movie does a great job of capturing the cool, lush bliss of the state's valleys and mountains before making the trek to the land of the Rajputs (where the docile Meera, played by Ayesha Takia, lives). I can't help but wonder how this movie would have appeared on the big screen.

I hesitate to put Kukunoor in the same league as a Maniratnam (it might be too early) but Dor definitely has opened a door somewhere within me.