Daayraa (translation: The Square Circle; sometimes spelled as Daayra) is a 1996 Bollywood film, directed by Amol Palekar, starring Nirmal Pandey and Sonali Kulkarni.

Anupama Chopra wrote, "The film challenges gender roles and traditional ideas of love through witty and moving performances."

On the eve of her marriage, a young woman is abducted by a brothel madam and escapes into the arms of an out of work male Diva.

Richard Corliss of the Time magazine wrote, "The first 20 minutes of this Hindi- language panegyric packs sufficient incident for a dozen Hollywood movies" and credited the screenplay for the film.

Writing for Time Out magazine, Trevor Johnston felt that it was the "film's thematic daring that's scintillating, though, as it explores the tension between sexual identity and social circumstance in a staunchly traditional society which offers little room for manoeuvre."

Forget your preconceptions about Hindi cinema; this takes us on a touching, witty, always surprising journey through terrain that's unfamiliar and human dilemmas that aren't.

The reviewer for the Observer felt the film could be "a blessing and a trap, and that relationships are often forged at the intersection of romance, duty and companionship."

Writing for the Financial Times, Nigel Andrews said that the "film puts the melos back into melodrama and the sense (and sensitivity) into sensationalism."

The reviewer for Asian Entertainment called the film "moving and meditative" while adding that it "plays quiet testimony to the talents of filmmakers on the fringes of commercial cinema."

The Independent commended Pandey for his portrayal of a transvestite in that "it takes an actor of considerable talent to elicit sympathy".