Released in: 1953
Cast: Nasir Khan, Meena Kumari
Director: Kamal Amrohi
Music: Jamal Sen
Lyrics: Majrooh Sultanpuri, Kaif Bhopali
Kamal Amrohi’s Daera is a deeply experimental look at a young and frail woman’s mis-marriege with a man old enough to be her father and the suicidal fascination that her young neighbour (played by Dilip Kumar’s brother Nasir Khan) develops for this silently suffering woman.
The narrative constantly plays cruelly conflicting games with light and shade – deep shadows fall across the frames creating a harmony of hope and despair. 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.
