M.K.Gandhi once famously quoted “My life is my philosophy”. Well, love him or hate him, there can be no denying that this is how our life should be, a reflection and instantiation of our faith, our belief. How many of us live our lives this way? If it feels like a tall order then, at least we can let our work bear the proof of our thinking. But it’s with even fewer people that their work and they themselves speak the same language.
For one, Nagesh KuKunoor is an exception to this near obvious rule.
I had seen his films before. I had liked Iqbal and Tin Deewarein. But the filmmaker in the man has never really stood upto the man in him. His life has been a realization of the words of Paulo Coelho. Like the protagonist in Coelho’s ‘The Alchemist’ Kukunoor leaves his job in the US, draws out all his money and returns to India to become a filmmaker. Very few in his shoes would have survived to do a ‘Hyderabad Blues’, but for the man possessed, it was just a precursor of the things to come.
While I have absolute happiness for the way he has led his life, for his previous films I didn’t feel an equivalent admiration. But as art imitates life, it was just a matter of time before Kukunoor produced his masterpiece. The signs were visible in Iqbal and as I saw the first promos of ‘Dor’ I knew that Kukunoor has finally made it.
I saw ‘Dor’, and with the movie, he has taken mainstream Hindi cinema where it has never been before. Watching ‘Dor’ is an exhilarating experience. It’s one movie that Hollywood can’t make. Like Roark’sbuildings in ‘The Fountainhead’ it doesn’t have one scene less or a single scene more. The movie is an absolute perfection, right from cinematography, to music, acting or direction. Cinematography, breathtakingly beautiful and colors in sync with the story. The music, so incalculably soulful, that the music alone can bring tears of happiness.
Ayesha Takya produces the best performance by a lead lady in Hindi cinema for a very long time. Gul Panag is so naturally convincing that I can’t believe she’s not the same way in her real life. The casting is irreplaceable and there’s not a single weak link in the whole movie.
Finally the story! What starts out to be a story in the lines of ‘The Alchemist’ and ‘The Zahir’ soon turns out to be a truly original and exulting story. The story is so bighearted and positive that even the most skeptic and discerning will end up in tears. The story is so engrossing that you forget that celluloid is a medium and you live the story to the full length and much beyond.
Dor is a movie of human relations; it’s a story of our heart. I do not want to write about any scene because I would much rather you unravel the peerless movie yourself but I must mention this that it’s end is the best ever that I have seen in Hollywood and Bollywood alike. And I would do grievous injustice to Shreyas Tapas who has beaten his own performance in his earlier movie Iqbal if I didn’t mention what an unbelievable performance he has put up in this movie.
Finally congratulations to Mr.Kukunoor, the narrative of the movie is simplicity exemplified. The one movie I unconditionally remembered after watching this movie was ‘Cast Away’. Kukunoor’s take on love as he portrays through Shreyas in the movie, though just a couple of liners, but says much more and for the first time expresses liberatingly love in it’s truest and rarest form. How I wonder, how even after four Karan Johar candy floss (or absolute mental torture in the name of love), I could still acknowledge this as I saw it.
So my parting remarks, book yourself a ticket for a movie of a life time.
Subhasish Chakraborty.
Blog : https://coldspark.blogspot.com/