More of Dor

Hyderabad Blues, Bollywood Calling, Teen Deewarein, Iqbal. All movies directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. But, if you didnt know that bit of trivia, guess that guessing that fact would be really an achievement. Coz none of his movies seem to repeat a storyline.... they are all radically different from each other as chalk and cheese. If Hyderabad Blues was a story of an NRI dealing with family pressure to marry, and Bollywood Calling was an attempted spoof on the working of Bollywood, Teen Deewarein was an unique twist-in-the-tale story of 3 men serving time for a murder, and Iqbal was a deaf-mute guy fight to win against the odds. However inspite of the difference in storylines, there are lot of similarities you could look out for.... for starters Nagesh kukunoor has acted in all of them in a small part or large in all of them (except Iqbal , me would think)... secondly,none of the character seem larger than life (except Bollywood calling, but the subjectline demanded it) , conversations are slow but measured and relevant (except Bollywood calling again), characters are well defined, and humour is mostly situational , rather than contrived.
Dor follows that pattern.... it is different from his other movies from a story point of view, yet the characters and story flow has been well etched out, like his previous films (and yes, Nagesh Kukunoor plays a small role here too). Dor symbolises a relationship (atleast thats what my intellect allowed me to interpret) , and its all about 2 women - in different parts of the country- in love with their husbands (respective husbands I must add - it pays to be specific in this kalyug), and how fate contrives one of the husbands to be held responsible for the other husbands death, and how the very fate makes 1 of the women to make an attempt to meet the other woman to help her save her husband from the gallows for the crime. Dor portrays Ayesha Takia as a Rajasthani young girl married into a typically conservative Rajasthani family. Gul panag plays the independent Himachal ki ladki. Both the girls, hardly know for their acting skills per se, have done a commendable job. Probably, Nagesh Kukunoor had a fair bit to extract good performances out of them.... Shreyash Talpade, who had his mouth shut throughtout Iqbal, has finally a chance to show his dialogue delivery skills. And to be frank, didnt expect him to come up with anything special...but he does a good job allright ....with surprisingly being the funny element in the movie. Humour, whenever it makes an appearance, is pretty subtle most of the times, and with Shreyas Talpade mimicking celebrities in the movie (duno whether thats him or a dubber for him) , the laughter aspect is well presented. However, the movie moves at a leisurely pace, and so dont expect a fast paced laugh riot neither expect an out and out tear jerker. Here's a movie that looks at a womans position in a conservative society, displays the emotional quotient of a wifes love for her husband, without being overtly emotional. This is not Karan Johar zone thankfully.
Background music, along with 1 song (I dont recollect the song name) is played repeatedly in the movie, and i liked it immensely. And watch out for the Kajra Re song ....in this movie...its gooood.
Overall opinion is thumbs up, even though its not quite in the league of Iqbal. But then if i compared most good movies to Iqbal, i might have so start using thumbs down too often. My say - go and watch it.

Lage Raho Mamu

The 1st chapter trailed a blaze in beginning 2004. I missed most of the blaze because I was not around in good old mumbai, when the movie started making its presence felt. I think I ended up watching the movie on my laptop, courtesy a rented DVD borrowed from a Pakistani store on a very gloomy Saturday afternoon in a very lazy city called Duesseldorf in Germany. The movie did well to lift my gloomy spirits, and I found it genuinely funny in patches thanks to Sanjay Dutt, Arshad Warsi and Boman Irani combo. But, overall the movie by itself, didnt appeal to me and it was still a 1 time watch for me.
This time around I am lucky enough to be around when the movie released...and I got to watch the movie in a theatre on the 2nd day 1st show. And this time around... i liked the package better, apart from the superb comic timings displayed by Warsi primarily and Sanjay Dutt. The movie simply rocks .. this is no sequel to Munnabhai MBBS. Only the characters of Murali Prasad Sharma (Munnabhai) and Sarkeshwar(aka circuit) are carried over, rest of the
characters are all new entities. Dr. Asthana is replaced by Lucky Singh, a sardar builder...thats Boman Irani for you. Also, the laughter therapy is gone out of the window....and he does not share that much screen footage as he did in the MBBS story. Vidya Balan plays the role of a RJ (radio jockeyfor those who share an intelligence level on par with me) and is pretty
comptetent in handling herself. Munnaabhai is the good hearted bhai who wants
to win over the lovely RJ , and the movie is all about his efforts to win her over with .. surprise, surprise.. Gandhiji's help. The gandhi idea is blended well into the movie, and at very little stages does it sound overly didactic or preachy. If the movie can make u pull ur stomach muscles while laughing, maybe it can also have an effect of touching an emotional chord here and there. Most of the stomach muscle pulling related injuries can be attributed to Warsi, and his excellent sense of timing in the comic department. And Sanjay dutt does well in both the comic and emotional content department.
Wouldnt really comment on the music since its hardly the focus of the movie.
Overall, Rajkumar Hirani and Vidhu Vinod Chopra have yet another winner that they have served out to the public.All I can say is.. lage raho Hirani and Chopra.
Watch it and chances are really good that u will like "Gandhigiri" served out to you.....