DOR DARSHAN

Nagesh Kukunoor, take a bow...

Firstly, thanks for those lines of Hrishikesh Mukherjee in the beginning

"Zindagi badi honi chahiye.... Lambi nahi"

You have yet again shown that to make good cinema one doesnt have to resort to extremes, and go radical. That at times the act of combining common sense with the established does take you places, letting you live your dream, whatever that dream be.

Your Dor, at the outset, was not real. I shall make no bones about it, the theme is not real. For all those who harp on realistic cinema and the goodness in it, your creation might be a shocker. What then sets apart your cinema is the execution and treatment. What is real is the treatment and the handling. The tale that you have woven is pure fantasy, and you have effectively shown that fantasies can be lapped up if the only the way you go about is convincing.

The effort that you have put in expanding your cinematic spectrum is laudable and the result is there for me to see. In all the glory and glam of Dor, I shall not forget your utterly delicious VHS-friendly Hyderabad Blues.

I know what it takes and how it feels to make the audience chortle by feeding them subtle naunces in an extremely appetising fare. Those moments of poignance, those shades of love, those outbursts of joy no matter how naive, those vents to the inner long suppressed feelings shall stay for long.

In Ayesha Takia and Gul Panag you have found two of the more fabulously eye pleasing and natural actors of recent times. Going by Ayesha's choice of films in the past, mea culpa, I have been a little uncharitable about the histrionics capability of this petite beauty. She proves me wrong. I havent seen an actor who has displayed such a gamut of emotions in a single film in a long long time. Kindly do not shed a tear if she doesnt get to lay her hands on the "Black Beauty," for they are reserved for our ladies who are bold with their infidel thoughts, and who are cash counter friendly. The amazon-beating smile on her face in the railway station when she gets to hand over the signed mercy petition to Zeenat is marvellous and I cant describe that effect enough.

Gul Panag was class apart; typified a bold, confident woman torn inside by her own insecurities and desires. That she was eye candy in a matte way enhanced the effect. She oozes that class wherein she doesnt have to thump her breast to declare her feminity or desire for respect.

You along with Sudeep Chatterjee are forgiven for getting overzealous in your attempt to be bombastic in your visual grammar. Yes the subject lent itself to some great frames which demanded some effective lighting to highlight those subtle moments and this delivered what a hundred words couldn't. The geographical demands in Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan may have warranted some great visuals, and thanks for not going overboard.

Thank you for not giving Rajasthan a cottage industry look set in Film City Mumbai, or Ramoji Rao Hyderabad. I know Rajasthan with all its dryness, barren landscape and scorching sun doesnt have anything more to offer than has been beaten to death by your ancestors. It can be stiffling at times when it come to Rajasthan. Thanks for enduring so much pain in your realistic and commendable effort.

Thank you for not resorting to some farcical cliches when it came to depicting Jodhpur where most of the story unfolds. Thank you for employing a few classy cliches when required. Thanks for showing yet again that cinema, for all the realism required, cant do without some cliches.

Thank you for getting the basics right. Thank you for your honest approach.

The movie as I said was full of drama and by reining yourself at the right time, you didnt let it slip into melodrama, and in it Mr.Kukunoor, lies your success. It is this precisely this balance of yours that makes you one of those marvellous little magicians around. Thank you for dishing out such fantastic fare so pregnant with rich symbolisms, and for not insulting our intelligence.

Kudos to you and Elahe Hiptoola for constantly churning out good cinema, and I hope we dont get to see something from you that we end up getting SIC of.

and finally, thank you for Shreyas Talpade. Holy Christ! he in a magical way endears himself with nothing but sheer rawness and simplicity. My experience would have been nothing without his element to Dor. Yes I know the movie is about Meera and Zeenat, and their quest for their lost love, but pardon me if I have to select one clincher of a scene in the entire movie, it will be the bahroopiya masquerading as the police wallah. The expression on his face when he shoos away the eve teasers is worth watching, and all this is made great by the fact we know he is a rascal and truly I was left in splits. He brings in those light moments which has him cheating people and us, making merry all the time, sombre most of the time in this otherwise story of grace, dignity and selfrespect of woman.

You make him speak out and how!

There is something about his performance in the film, and I shouldnt try rationalising it.

It's beyond that.