डोर
As an engaging film about the bonds between in women in which the women
are sharply drawn and neither archtypical nor sterotypical, Dor (thread) reminds
me a little of some of Shyam Benegal's films. But it is sweeter and gentler than
Benegal's gritty tales, and that sweetness endures long after the film
is over.
Though Zeenat
(Gul Panag) and Meera (Ayesha Takia) live half a nation apart and have
never met, their lives are destined to intertwine. Zeenat's
husband Amir (Rushad Rana) and Meera's, Shankar (Anirudh Jaykar), both
join a crew of migrant workers in Saudi Arabia, leaving their wives behind. One night, in a
heated argument, Amir (perhaps accidentally) kills Shankar. Amir is
convicted of murder, and under Saudi law, will be executed unless
Shankar's widow Meera signs papers pardoning him. And so Zeenat,
desperate to save Amir, treks across hundreds of miles of Rajasthani desert to find Meera.
Spurned by Shankar's family, Zeenat befriends the melancholy Meera
directly. But the bond that forms between them is shattered when Meera
learns the true motive behind Zeenat's warmth.
Dor is a lovely, delicate, engaging film, and is most
unusual in its presentation of the transformative power of friendship
between women. Meera, prior to Shankar's death, is so young and full
of life that seeing her broken under the strictures of traditional
Rajasthani widowhood is heartbreaking; where before she sang and danced
to film songs, afterwards, wrapped in an unadorned cotton sari, she is
tentative, afraid to move or speak, even to voice her grief. Zeenat
prods Meera to take control of her own destiny (to a degree) and helps
reintroduce color into her life. Zeenat, in contrast, is strong and
practical almost to a fault - when we first meet her she is working on
a construction project, and when Amir distracts her from her work and
tries to kiss her she produces a nail from between her lips. Meera
teaches her an empathy for the emotions of others that she never had
previously.
There are men in Dor too but the story - refreshingly - is
not about them, though it does demonstrate the action-at-a-distance
force that the actions of men can have on the lives of women, as Meera
and Zeenat would not have been brought together at all but for Shankar
and Amir's cataclysmic burst of testosterone that fateful night in
Saudi Arabia. Some of the men in the film are piggish and cruel, like
Meera's father and his wealthy tenant, who attempt to arrange a
business transaction in which Meera is the barter. Others, though,
bolster the women's strength and spirit with their love and support,
like Amir and Shankar, each of whom loves his wife exactly for the
woman she is and would not dream of trying to mold her into something
else.
The standout among the film's men is Behroopiya (Shreyas
Tapalde), an actor and a trickster who first cons Zeenat, then
befriends her and helps her in her quest to find Meera, and finally
falls in love with her - though his love is not the demanding kind, and
he never intrudes on her marriage or her love for her husband.
Behroopiya's friendship is a kind of anchor for Zeenat's passion, and
the aid he provides is both practical and spiritual.
Dor
is well-wrought and memorable, delicate and sweet, and achieves that
rare feat of being both real and touching at the same time. It
achieves a very fine balance, making its bittersweet point
with a gentle touch.
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