Perumazhakkalam (When it rains hard)

This is the Malayalam movie from where Nagesh Kuknoor borrowed the story for Dor. He did officially buy the story from the writer and gives the writer due credit in the credits section of Dor. The Indo-German film festival screened this movie and all that this movie shares with Dor is the overall plot. The filming and handling of the two movies are totally different and both are originals in their own rights.

The story here is the same, in a fight between two Indian roommates in the Saudi, one guy “accidentally” kills the other. And the wife of murderer takes a journey to seek a signature from the wife of the murdered guy to pardon her husband. This movie is much more grounded and closer to real life. If such a thing actually happened then the story in real life will closely resemble this movie rather than Dor.

In this movie the wife doesn’t take a daring independent journey not knowing where to find the other lady. She knows exactly where the other lady lives and she sets out with her father accompanying her. Upon reaching the village, right from the first meeting she sees the other lady and begs her to sign the papers but the family members intrude and throw her and her father out. This repeats every time she makes an effort to convince her to sign. The wife of the murdered man is aptly shown, right from the beginning, lost in what to do. Finally on the last day despite knowing the consequences from her family will be dire she takes a priest’s help and makes the reverse journey to go and sign the papers. Then she returns to her house to face the brunt of the family...

The big downside of this movie is the songs. They are totally misplaced and useless. Also in the first half an hour the director seems confused as to what kind of a movie he is making, a commercial movie or an off-beat movie. The director isn't able to bring out the significance of the title in a very powerful way. For the first half the cinematography actually is very confused (other than the opening scene) but things settle down and the rest of the movie is well directed and shot. Overall if you, as I have, manage to blank out the songs then it is a really good movie, in fact better than Dor at certain places.