Daera

Mukadam

“Daera” meaning (‘Circle’, literally) is a 1953 film written and directed by Kamal Amrohi, starring Meena Kumari, Nasir Khan and Nana Palsikar in lead roles. It released at Bombay’s Naaz cinema with much fanfare and, hailed by the discerning and disarming, knowledgeable critics of the time. It was ostensibly, or loosely based on Kamal Amrohi and Meena Kumari own love story described by many as elegiac.

Daera is a slight film that goes into profound areas of human relationship. Meena Kumari expressing the smothered sexuality of a lonely woman is the epitome of tragic dignity. Long before it became fashionable in cinema to borrow literary devices, Daera brought in a Shakespearean pathos to the story of a man’s inexpressible passion in a forbidden relationship. At a time when there were no zoom lenses or trolleys, Kamal Amrohi achieved spectacular effects without them. It was lauded in The Times of India, a major daily, as a ‘poem on celluloid’. The cinematographer of the film was Mukadam and The renowned kathak mastro, Lachhu Maharaj was the dance director.

A judge of Allahabad High Court wrote a letter to the daily, saying ‘I’m not upset that Daayera has flopped but that the man who made it will never make such a film again.’ Kamal Amrohi preserved that letter till the very end.

The narrative deals with the dreams and aspiration of a 16-old-girl, Sheetal (Meena Kumari) caught in the vortex of uncertainty and morality. Desperate for engagement with her neighbour, Shravan (Nasir Khan, late brother of Dilip Kumar) who is equally drawn towards her but she is forced into meaningless wedlock with a sick old man (Nana Palsikar) a man old enough to be her father.