Gul Panag

Hello (DVD) 2008
$19.99
This is the story of 6 people who work together at a call centre and the various challenges in their lives. One night on duty, things start to unravel in their personal and work lives. When out of the building God calls on a mobile and gives them some words of wisdom to refocus their lives. As a background to this story we have a few brief interludes where Salman Khan, as a rock star, is having the story told to him by Katrina Kaif (after he does quite a good dance number - with the gratuitous shirt removal as usual!)

Now pretty much all the actors did a good job with the material. Sharman Joshi, Amrita Arora, Sohail Khan, Isha Koppikar, Gul Kirat Panag and Sharat Saxena are all very good. Even Salman Khan was a lot more considered and reflective than usual and delivered his performance more maturely that usual even though it was more a cameo.

The movie has a more real feel to it generally. It is more a play in the way something like Metro or Salaam-E-Ishq with a few dance numbers thrown in context (like a concert or on a dance floor). The music was catchy and westernised but there wasn't a lot of it featured. The stories of their lives went well if a little slow, flat and unremarkable.

It just seemed to die somewhere towards the end. It isn't a long movie and God calls late. There is then a last minute resolution that is meant to redeem India's respect and reputation in the international community in the call centre. However it's all done by manipulation, lies and dishonesty. There is some pretty negative and contemptuous lines about 'whites' and the West that would be regarded as racist if the situation were reversed. It wasn't that I was offended but it marred the direction the movie could have gone in. As a play it is well acted though and your interest is kept hanging with the early teaser that God would make a entrance as this could have been an interesting device (if it had been used better.

So it's a disappointment I won't be keeping though I may chase a few songs as downloads. Pity for Salman too as (despite the shirt removal cliche) he did quite a good job with his little bit. Elsewhere on the Net it is lucky to make average though women seem to like it more than men.

Jurm
$7.99

Dor
$14.95
Dor is the Hindi word for "string". And, paraphrasing James Hanley's tuneful composition, as one views&listens to this film: zing go the strings of one's heart.
Written and directed by Nagesh Kukunoor and featuring Ayesha Takia, Gul Panag and Shreyas Talpade Dor is more, much more. Cinematographer Sudeep Chatterjee's eye for the pictorial image brings the screen to life with colorful scenery - moreover, every frame taken as individual stills would make for beautiful individual works of art ready to be framed and hung on a wall of an art museum or photography studio. "He composes and constructs stylised but simple images which don't scream for attention, but unassumingly add up to create the film's striking overall visual design."
Dor is about two women who come from diverse backgrounds and how fate brings them together. Quoting The Times of India: "Dor makes a strong feminist statement without being strident or shouting slogans. And all along, the riveting friendship between the two polarized women and the events that bring them together, keep tugging at your heart." In addition to encouraging women to follow their own desires, this film, in its low-key presentation, matter-of-fact juxtapositions Hindu and Muslim cultures without overtly making a fuss about it.
Ayesha Takia has extraordinary resonance in a quiet, realistic performance that goes deep into the complex character of newly- widowed Hindu Meera, continuing to show new facets of herself in a climactic confrontation scene when she reveals her true feelings to Gul Panag's Zeenat, a newly-recent Muslim bride. As her bold counterpart, Panag presents a strong female role model easy for Westerners to identify with.

Although critically well reviewed and winner of a number of prestigious awards, this film was a commercial failure in India. It is not your typical Bollywood film. It is a quiet, affective & effective motion picture. Its musical score is also more of an elitist one and for niche audiences.
Dor, as its title literally implies, is about a series of events tied or threaded together--or more precisely, the commonality of Indian women in pursuing their own desires and independence.
Do not miss it!