Trimurti Films Pvt. Ltd.’s Zora (UA) is a whodunit. Ranjit Singh (Ravinder Kuhar) is a sub-inspector in the police force. He is troubled by the fact that his father, a principled police officer of repute, had been murdered and to add insult to injury, had been stripped of all his medals and glory after his demise, which was made to look like a suicide to atone for his alleged crimes. Ranjit Singh knows that his father did not take away his own life and that he had committed no crime, that one Zora had murdered him. While he remembers seeing Zora on the day of the murder, she is untraceable now. Many years later, Ranjit Singh uses his position in the police force to unravel Zora’s identity.
Rajiv Rai’s story is not half as exciting as it ought to have been. The screenplay, also written by Rajiv Rai, is crisp and, therefore, quite fast-paced but it still fails to involve the audience in the guessing game. A murder mystery, in which the viewers do not participate in trying to mentally solve the mystery, doesn’t really succeed in engaging them — and that’s what happens in this drama. Besides, there are a lot of characters and since most of them are played by new/unknown faces, the involvement of the audience reduces even more. The final revelation of the suspense is so tame that the viewers don’t experience any thrill whatsoever. All in all, the drama turns out to be unexciting. Raashid Rangrez’s dialogues are routine.
Ravinder Kuhar is ordinary in his debut role as Ranjit Singh. Karan Vir is average as Iqbal. Nikhil Dewan fails to impress in the role of Kamal Nath. Altaf Hussain hardly makes any impression as Kishori Lal. Sofia Parveen hardly passes muster as Bindu Solanki. Dilraj Kaur is ordinary as Kaur. Meena Vaibhav doesn’t quite impress in the role of Seema. Leena Sharma is okay as Dr. Vandana. Neetu Bhatt is passable as Freida Lobo. Sohani Kumari lends average support as Deepa. Gajendra Rathi is barely so-so as Narayan Solanki. Tarun Kumar Chauhan is unimpressive as the commissioner of police. Nishant Verma is okay as Gullu Gujjar. Sharad Sharma is weak as Dhannu Gujjar. Vikram Singh (as Khabri), Manish Vashishth (as Badru), Niloy Banerjee (as John Lobo), Vikas Goswami (as Viraat Singh), Santosh Kumar Saini (as Bhupa), George Grover (as the mantri), Jai Kishan Mangwani (as young Ranjit Singh), Sujal Maharshi (as young Gullu Gujjar), Rajat Mahajan (as Dadua), Rony Kaula (as Luka), J.K. Pawar (as the judge), Rajesh Bhargav (as S.S.P. Malik), Ruslana (as the woman in the Luka gang), Ayaan (as the man in the Luka gang), John (as the man in the Luka gang), Dharam Raj (as Devli Pandit) and Bittu Karan Singh (as the Luka informer) lend routine support. Usha Shree is ordinary as the grandmother. Others hardly deserve mention.
Rajiv Rai’s direction is not of the kind which can keep today’s audience engaged and entertained. Although he has command over the craft, his handling of the subject belongs to an era gone by. Viju Shah’s music is alright. Lyrics (Raashid Rangrez) are okay. Longinus’ choreography is quite nice. Viju Shah’s background music is not up to the mark. Lalit Sahoo’s cinematography is fair. Kinder W. Singh’s action and stunt scenes are not very thrilling. Raashid Rangrez’s production designing, and Shabana Khanam’s art direction are average. Rajiv Rai’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Zora lacks the excitement and thrill of a whodunit and, therefore, it will go largely unnoticed.
Released on 8-8-’25 at Maratha Mandir (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru August Entertainment. Publicity & opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.