Watched Dor last night on Netflix.

Dor is a movie by Nagesh Kukunoor, who is well known for his movies which have interesting twists and are a class of its own. Ayesha Takia and Gul Panag play the key roles in this movie.

The movie starts with two stories – one in the cold mountains of Himachal Pradesh and the other in the hot sandy region of Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
Gul Panag plays the role of Zeenat Fatima who is a firm believer in the fact that she should be the only one who decides her fate and lives the same way. Her belief is that each person should take their own decisions and be ready to face the consequences for those decisions.

Ayesha Takia plays the role of Meera who is a timid girl who values her family traditions much more than anything else. Her belief is that each person should do their best for the family and is ready to sacrifice everything to keep up the family values.

While their husbands are room mates in Saudi, Meera’s husband dies in an accident and Zeenat’s husband is arrested and given capital punishment for the same. Zeenat then goes out in search of the widow, Meera to get her ‘pardon letter’ which is the only way in which her husband can be saved.

Nagesh Kukunoor leads the audience well in showing how both these women think. The way in which Meera’s thought process goes through a transition from being a submissive to one who stands up for her rights and does it well.

Shreyas Talpade comes in this movie as a conman, who actually ends up helping Gul Panag in her efforts to rescue her husband. (On a side note, there is a rumour that Shreyas Talpade is going around with Genelia De’Souza now a days 🙂 ).

Girish Karnad comes as Ayesha Takia’s father in law, who is in huge debt with his mansion and even goes to the extent of cutting a deal with a building contractor to have a good time with his daughter-in-law.

The movie keeps the audience at the feet until the end with the suspense about the decision Meera will take in helping Zeenat save her husband.

Dor is a urdu word which means ‘string’. This movie explains the string of relationships handled by the two leading characters.

Overall, it is a good movie that can be watched if you have about two hours or so and you are ready to spend it watching a serious movie.