Review: Dora

Director: Doss Ramasamy
Cast: Nayanthara, Thambi Ramaiah, Harish Uthaman, Sulile Kumar, Shan, Vetri and others

Doss Ramasamy’s Dora is a heroine-centric horror film that is reasonably entertaining.

Vairakannu (Thambi Ramaiah) is a retired pensioner whose world revolves around his daughter Pavalakodi (Nayanthara).

The lady is assertive to the point of being dominating and although Vairakannu loves his daughter wholeheartedly, he is also, in a way, scared of her.

Vairakannu’s biggest concern is his daughter’s wedding. While he wants to see her married and settled happily, she is worried that her wedding will mean that she will have to leave him all alone. In the hope that his daughter will become open to considering wedding proposals if they visit the temple of the family deity, Vairakannu insists that Pavalakodi accompany him on a visit to the temple.

Finally, she agrees and Vairakannu is delighted. He visits his sister and brother-in-law who run a call taxi service in the hope that they will offer one of their cabs for the temple visit. Unfortunately, they insult Vairakannu. Pavalakodi, seeing her dad insulted, vows to start a call taxi business of their own.

The next day, the father -daughter duo go to buy their first car for the call taxi business. They consider several second hand cars and are on the verge of finalizing a relatively new model when  Pavalakodi experiences an affinity for a really old model and buys it based on a spur of the moment decision.

Having bought the car, the dad-daughter duo looks to start the call taxi business as planned. But to their dismay, they witness a series of strange developments and soon realise the presence of supernatural elements in the car.

They also get to know that it isn’t they who chose their car but the car which actually chose them.

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the city, a woman, who has only recently got married, is brutally  raped and murdered by three criminals who also loot her home before getting away. The cops begin their hunt for the criminals when they realise that the rapists they are looking for are being killed one by one.

Who is killing the rapists? Why did the car choose Pavalakodi and her dad to buy it? What is the supernatural element present inside the car? Answers to these questions and many more like them are presented in the film, which is enjoyable in parts.

The film has three really strong actors in Nayanthara, Thambi Ramaiah and Harish Uthaman.

Thambi Ramaiah comes up with a brilliant performance as an affectionate dad whose daughter’s welfare means the world to him. His character in this film is tricky as while on the one hand he needs to showcase himself as a doting dad, he also needs to come across as a funny man, with childlike behaviour. On the one hand, he needs to be authoritative and on the other he has to come across as being eager to please his daughter. The National Award winner shows why he is rated highly in the industry as a character artiste with this excellent performance.

As always, Nayanthara plays her part to perfection. The lady has been so consistent with delivering good performances that now one almost expects it of her.

Harish Uthaman as the cop investigating the crimes looks every bit the part.

Music by Vivek – Mervin is apt and a big plus for the film as are cinematographer Dinesh Krishnan’s visuals.

But not everything about the movie is great. The movie, which is funny in the first half, turns boring in the next with audiences being able to predict most sequences.

The story per se isn’t very convincing and the manner in which Pavalakodi overcomes certain problems comes across as being childish, if not comical.

Dora is supposed to be a horror film but for all practical reasons, there is not one sequence that even comes close to scaring you.

In all, Dora does leave one entertained, but only in parts.