Indian cinema (or Bollywood as it is popularly called) has come a long way from the olden days when films were mostly 3 hours long, full of songs and dances, action, comedy and tragedy all thrown in to please everyone. These days many Indian films are world class films which appeal to not only Indians living in India and abroad but also a wider public. One example is “DEVDAS” which was nominated for the Bafta (UK) Award for best film in 2004.
Last year a paticularly good film was released, called “Dor” or String which deals with issues of gender, ethnicity, friendship and injustice towards women. Dor has two principle characters that are from different walks of life but get bound together following certain occurrences. It’s the story about Zeenat (Gul Panag), an independent, self-assured, married muslim young woman, living in a remote Himachal Pradesh village and about Meera (Ayesha Takia), a Hindu, who lives in rural Rajashtan with her in-laws and comes from a conventional Rajput household. Both the husbands of these two women work in Dubai and are friends. A life-changing piece of news which happens to be of great interest to both these women reaches them and subsequent events lead both these women to meet, and their lives change forever in a wonderfully uplifting and dramatic way.
The story questions us on how far one can go to save her/his love, fighting all odds, perhaps even destiny, and how friendship can overcome the bounds of ethnic and religious differences.
A wonderful film. Highly recommended.
My sister Nargis and her husband Shiraz from Toronto were here last month, touring Australia. Their son Naheed, who works at a high school in Mombasa, Kenya, joined them too, for a few days. Having all our family members overseas (in Canada and the UK), it is always nice to have family visits. We hope this year will be a busy one with family members coming to visit us.
