Dus Kahaniyaan

I and my friend Pratibha went to watch the first day first show of the much advertised movie wondering what surprise the 10-in-1 package would have in store for us. Yes...contrary to what you may expect, its 10 short films-the title's a dead giveaway! The six vidz worth watching are Matrimony, Lovedale, Gubbare (Balloons), Puranmashi (Full Moon), Zahir and Rice Plate...its a veritable mix with humor thrown in...the directors have endeavored to impress the audience with a "snap effect" - the last minute startling or unexpected twist to each of the movies. They have succeeded to some extent but failed in the entirety.

Three movies, viz. Zahir, Rice Plate and Strangers in the Night try to convey a social message. Lovedale is pleasant whereas Sex on the Beach leans towards spookiness. Sanjay Dutt starrer Rise and Fall is rather ill conceived...they could have done with lesser rainfall to hide the gory scenes! Gubbare, Pooranmashi and Matrimony portray love and debauchery marvelously. Zahir amuses.

The much advertised title song plays out during the closing credits.

Verdict - A One Time Watch!

Sanjeev Logani

Well, taking cue from RGV's "Darna...." series (and Tarantino/ Rodriguez), Dutt Baba conceives Dus Kahaniyaan on similar lines. At the very outset, it seems all the segments are crammed thereby leaving with ""Bang-Bang Thank You Ma'am" feeling. Perhaps more time was warranted for the characters to take shape and the plot to sink in.

Matrimony:: The plot is a straight lift from one of the email forwards. Arbaaz looks suave and Mandira quite convincing.

High on the Highway:: Very contrived of the entire lot. Jimmy's performance is at its worst and somebody please give him a truth serum of his awful hair color.

Puranmaashi:: Probably owing to time constraint the plot seems extremely lame. Coming from Meghna, my expectations were riding high owing to Gulzar genes.

Stranger in the night:: Again, not one of the brightest crayons in the box. In short the plot is "Looking London - Going Tokyo", if you know what I mean.

Zahir:: Again a downer plot, topped up with great performance by the two. Also perhaps Dia would have been a ideal choice in High on the High on the Highway segment.

Lovedale:: Seemed straight out of Yashraj camp - too coincidental.

Sex on the beach:: Plot is copied from Darna series. No great shakes in there.

Gubbare:: My vote for the Number One segment. Short, crisp and effective. The conversation of Nana to his wife should have been edited for creative impact.

Rice Plate:: Number Two vote. Thought the plot seems to be copied from one of the email forwards, its the Shabana and Naseer who make up with the top-notch performance.

Rise and Fall:: The plot needed more space. Also the non-linear format confuses. The background score is loud. Otherwise a meaty plot.

Watch it if you have nothing to do on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

"Dus Kahaniyaan" comes from the stable of Sanjay Gupta's production house-WHITE FEATHER FILMS. In the past they have come out with "Musafir", "Kaante", "Zinda" & "Shootout At Lokhandwala". Two things that one can be certain of in the movies from this production house are Sanjay Dutt and lots and lots of style! In "Dus Kahaniyaan" you find both, but in parts! "Dus Kahaniyaan" can be described best as like a book of short stories covering different genres or spectrum. It has , like the title says, 10 stories. Each one of them is a separate story and therefore what makes this movie different from the likes of "Darna Mana Hai" etc. is that the stories are not connected by any common thread! Each story exists in a different world, completely independent of each other just like the different stories in a book.

Now, coming to the important part-are the stories good enough to grip you? Well, personally I feel that there are at least 4 stories that are a notch above the other 6. That's my personal opinion though some viewers might take a liking to a few of the other stories as well. The best of the lot are (not necessarily in that order): MATRIMONY-Features Mandira Bedi, Arbaaz Khan and Sudhanshu Pandey. It's about marriage and infidelity. Good acting from all three and the twist in the tale is awesome-my favourite of the ten stories! RICE PLATE-Shabana Azmi and Naseruddin Shah. You expect the best from them and are not disappointed. The story is about religious belief's-two contrasting views! A subtext of communal harmony.

ZAHIR-Another story with a twist! Features Manoj Bajpai and Dia Mirza. Good narration though acting was just about passable! It's about a writer (Manoj Bajpai) who has failed in love but see a ray of hope (yet again) in Dia Mirza. But is She ready? Has an underlying social message too! POORNAMASI-A tale of honour. Revolves around a mother-daughter played by Amrita Singh and Minnisha Lamba respectively. A decent story (that's the least you can expect from it's writer-Meghna Gulzar).

The other 6 stories that I haven't mentioned didn't really grip me! There's SEX ON THE BEACH (Dino Moreo, Tareena Patel) that has some good visuals, sound effects and tilts towards the spooks but just doesn't do it. GOOBARE (Nana Patekar, Rohit Roy, Hansika Mansandani) is predictable and so is the one that has Aftab Shivdasani and Neha Uberoi! RISE AND FALL involving Sanjay Dutt and Suniel Shetty is confusing (due to the way it's narrated) and is only high on style. STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (Neha Dhupia, Mahesh Manjrekar) is below average too. And the weakest is HIGH ON THE HIGHWAY (Jimmy Shergill).

The advantage for the viewer when you are watching a movie like this is that the movie literally moves on! If you don't like a story, it wouldn't tax you for long-that's the best part. Some stories, like I said, could have been better. Sometimes, like in their earlier movies, the stress is put too much on Style and Gloss rather than the fundamental part-the script. The point is then missed! So an overall rating of 5.5/10. 4 for the four good stories and 1.5 for genuine innovation-something different. A sequel-why not. Can get 6 or 7 right next time!

You can blame Sanjay Gupta for making violent movies, based on the underworld or the bizarre. But one needs to give him credit for doing stuff thats not too run-of-the-mill.

Having gathered a young crew of directors, mostly novice, comprising of Meghna Gulzar (Just Married), Apoorva Lakhia (Shootout at L'wala/Ek Ajnabee), Rohit Roy amongst others, Gupta gives them less than 15 minutes time to showcase his own concepts.

The collection opens with MATRIMONY (4/10). Mandira Bedi is surprisingly good.

Next up is HIGH ON THE HIGHWAY (1/10). Jimmy Shergil gets irritating.

POORANMASHI (3/10) brings Meghna on who gets a good job from Amrita Singh. Lamba is wasted. Nice rural touches.

STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (4/10) gets one added star for its narrative style. It is made to deceive. But unbelievable. Manjrekar disappoints as the husband.

The last pre-intermission segment is ZAHIR (4/10) and this one disappoints. Crudely shot by Gupta. Manoj Vajpayee is uninterested & way below-par.

LOVEDALE (4/10) is a slow tale and you can smell the super-natural halfway through the story. Anupam Kher is wasted.

Apoorva Lakhia's SEX ON THE BEACH (1/10 is the worst of the lot. Poor performances. Crudely presented.

RICE PLATE (9/10) by debutante Rohit Roy is a pleasant surprise. Roy infuses immediate charm and is considerably helped by Shabana Azmi's brilliant portrayal of an orthodox religious Southie. Azmi takes just a few frames to warm up but ends up in control. Naseer Shah is understated. (This, in fact, is 'borrowed' from a Jeffrey Archer short story).

GUBBARE (3/10) is passable only because of Patekar. Gulzar's script doesn't really shine. Nana is a natural.

RISE & FALL (5/10) has two stories intertwined (gets very confusing too). Lots of style. I personally found Suniel Shetty a notch above than Dutt. The two teenage taporis are really good.

Overall worth a look. Technical values are pretty good. Some segments have good editing but sound designing is improper for this genre.

It's a new format of a bollywood movie. I expected 10 stories to run parallel but turned out they run separately one after another!!! And all the more they have been directed by 6 different directors. This movie reminded me of Shakespeare's book - 16 short stories which I read in school! Some stories are well done, most of them ending with a message. Lot of diverse topics were covered in different short stories which seem to work well.

Although some of the stories were boring but they only last 10 mins, so tolerable! Stories in the second half are better and more interesting.

I wouldn't pin-point any performance as outstanding, there was too less time for anyone to prove anything but generally the experienced actors/actresses seemed to be doing better.

I won't be a spoiler by describing the scenes, but a good movie with a different style and good time pass!